With their fourth studio album firmly entrenched on the charts, Coldplay easily filled the United Center with fans for their two-night concert stand this week, a far cry from their last relatively intimate appearance at The Metro. The enthusiasm we saw from the Chicago stop on their worldwide Viva la Vida tour is arguably a testament to Coldplay’s longevity: ponder all you want about the quality of the music, but a whole lot of people......

Oh, Coldplay. Look, we're not buying that whole "Coldplay is the last chance at a savior for EMI" conversation that's been ricocheting around the interwebs for, oh, the past six months. But if we were buying that argument, we'd probably tell EMI that they're in safe hands with the groups latest, the Brian Eno produced and cumbersomely titled Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends. We hear more than a smidgen of......

Friday, April 25: Aggrolites at Beat Kitchen Cloud Cult w/ Mason Proper at Schubas - Eco warriors fight the good fight through haunting orchestration and deceptively simple songwriting. MP3: Cloud Cult - The Ghost Inside Our House The Acorn at the Empty Bottle - Sunshine + Earth + water = acorns. Throw a few tight harmonies into that recipe and you'll end up this namesake group. MP3: The Acorn - Blankets Ted Ansani Project w/......

More fascinated by Kelis' milkshake than Daniel Plainview's? Is the only Oscar you'll watch living in a garbage can? Then this Sunday probably means nothing to you. You're burnt out on the "glitz" and "glamor" of the night, not to mention the drama surrounding that writers strike. Of course, it's never too early to make alternative plans! While all your friends and compulsive gamblers are setting up their Oscar pools and getting ready to check......

The Spice Girls are in town tonight at the United Center for the Chicago stop of their reunion tour. Originally Chicago tour dates were scheduled for both the February 15 and the 16, but management moved Saturday’s show over to Detroit. Tickets are still available for tonight’s show. The tour schedule is already relentless, with the Spice Girls also hitting New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. this week. The demanding schedule and personal......

It seems like it was just a few weeks ago we informed you Radiohead was coming to town. Now another alt-rock behemoth has announced they'll be making their way to our little hamlet this summer. Just today, R.E.M. announced dates for their upcoming tour in support of their new record, Accelerate, due out on Warner Bros. Records on April 1. We've always been big fans of the boys from Athens, GA. At the same time......

The Tribune's "Clout Street" blog is reporting that Governor Blagojevich, whose probably still feeling like the most badass father on the planet after scoring free Hannah Montana tickets for his daughters, will not call lawmakers back to Springfield until January 2nd, effectively putting to rest any speculation that a transit funding deal will get hammered out by year's end. When the legislature returns, they'll only have 18 days to find a solution to the transit......

Mark Cuban was in town on Monday when his Dallas Mavericks faced off against the Bulls at the United Center. Of course the local media's questions directed at him regarded another pro sport team. When asked about his pursuit of the Cubs, he reiterated his interest in buying the team and that he wasn't interested in owning any other baseball team. He has not filed his official paperwork, however — Cuban said he was "waiting......

The Blackhawks benefited from the return of Martin Havlat on Wednesday night. Havlat, who had missed 22 games due to a shoulder injury, scored Jjust 43 seconds into his return to action on a backhander to the upper-left corner of the net to give the Hawks a 1-0 edge on the Tampa Bay Lightning. He would go on to score again in just 12 seconds into the second period, scoring off a shot from the......

An armed suspect ran into an elementary school this afternoon in an attempt to evade the police. It didn't work. The police caught him, and luckily no one was injured. Women of Chicago, we're "73 percent more likely than average to contract a sexually transmitted disease" according to Self Magazine. Aaaah, time to go boil our vaginas. The Beachwood Reporter has some good ideas for the Blackhawks marketing department. Our favorite: "George Ryan will......

Here's hoping everyone's having a happy Thanksgiving. And here's some more things we're giving thanks for today: I am thankful for Chicago sports fans, that they sell out the United Center even when the Bulls suck, that they were still wearing Grossman's jersey when Griese was starting. -- Elizabeth Hyde Park in the snow when it's silent outside at night, Seminary Co-Op bookstore, Margarita special night[s] at Tecalitlan, the elimination of the Blue Line......

In a surprising move, John McDonough resigned as Cubs president on Tuesday to become president for the Blackhawks. Isn't that like if Da Mere were to resign so that he could fill a vacancy on the water reclamation district board of trustees? McDonough had spent nearly 25 years with the Cubs organization, working his way up the marketing org chart before landing atop the front office when Andy MacPhail resigned following the 2006 season. McDonough's......

For the first time in a long while, Chicago is seeing success from both the Chicago Blackhawks (NHL) and the Chicago Wolves (AHL). The Wolves are off to a 13-1-1 start, giving them the best winning percentage in the league--which should come as no surprise to their faithful fans. On the other hand, it is a surprise that after a quarter of the season, the Blackhawks aren't breaking their fans' hearts. The Hawks have skated......

The Chicago Blackhawks have released a schedule for home televised games for the 2007-2008 season that includes seven dates starting with Sunday's 6pm game against the Detroit Red Wings. All the games will air on Comcast SportsNet and will be available in high-definition. Rocky Wirtz, chairman of the franchise, commented, "It is one of the few sports that it is better live then on television." He plans to use television to help rebuild a fan......

What's coming up? Let's see. 2007 has been quite a year for the Cold War Kids, whose twangy indie rock has worked its way into the hearts of festival attendees across the world, playing everywhere from Lollapallooza to the Glastonbury Festival. If you’d rather see them up close and personal instead of surrounded by shirtless dudes holding plastic cups of beer, now’s your chance. Metro, Dec. 7, 6:30 p.m., $15, all ages. On sale at......

No, the Bulls aren't looking to flee Chicago, or even the United Center for that matter. But they might be hunting for a new radio station to broadcast their games. After their previous radio deal with WMVP (1000 AM) ran out, they were unable to sell the rights for anything close to the $3 million annually the long-term deal had paid. Guess they just weren't as hot without MJ. The Bulls chose to self-produce their......

Conventional wisdom says that we should not speak ill of the deceased, but that's a tall endeavor if we're to take the pundits' criticisms of William Wirtz as law, although one has surprised us with his restraint. The longtime Blackhawks owner and liquor magnate passed away early this morning at the age of 77 from cancer. It's easy to say that Mr. Wirtz was stuck in a bygone era, treating his beloved hockey franchise as......

It's still sunny and warm outside, so it's hard to believe the NHL has taken the ice again in preparation for a new season. Last year, Chicagoist made our yearly mistake of getting excited about the offseason moves and preseason successes of the Blackhawks, only to be let down once again. So this year we have vowed not to analyze the preseason too carefully and instead to wait to see how the Blackhawks look when......

Live Nation has put the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park up for sale after an evaluation on their real estate holdings by CB Richard Ellis. If the venue is sold, it does not mean that concerts won’t be held there anymore, but it sounds pretty likely that this single-use venue could become a warehouse. With rezoning of the 110-acre property, we can imagine condos, condos, town homes, and more condos filling up the......

We have a huge case of the giggles today. It all started when we tried to type “jagoff” and it came out “jagoof” and we could not stop laughing at ourselves for five minutes. Then we decided to be productive and write up this edition of EOYW, which only proved that the Ticketmaster gods were laughing along with us with their offerings for this week’s ticket sales. Come on…sisters who call themselves the only twins......

Well, the Bulls certainly didn't go down without a fight — not even after falling into a 3-0 series hole. But down they ultimately did go, losing to the Detroit Pistons 95-85 in Game 6 on Thursday night at the United Center. For a half, actually forcing Game 7 seemed like a realistic possibility as the Bulls took a 48-43 lead into the locker room. P.J. Brown had the playoff game of his long career,......

We really thought that Tuesday night would be the end of the Bulls' season after the way that the Pistons demolished them in games one and two in Detroit. In those two games, the Bulls looked like some middle school team playing an NBA team. Sure, the Bulls looked pretty good in game four, at home and with Detroit sitting pretty with a 3-0 series lead. But Detroit couldn't possibly get caught sleeping again, could......

It really looked like the Bulls were going to get themselves back into this series against the Detroit Pistons ... for a half anyway. In the second half, Detroit stormed back to beat the Bulls 81-74. Up by 16 at halftime, the Bulls led by as many as 19 points shortly into the third quarter. The Bulls looked like the were on the way to dismantling the Pistons at the United Center the same way......

Chicagoist is known to throw things when calls don't go our team's way, too, but it's a little harder to get away with when actually playing in the game. Kirk Hinrich learned that lesson in a course taught by NBA VP of basketball operations, Stu Jackson, who fined the Bulls' guard $25,000 for tossing his mouth guard into the stands during Saturday's playoff game agains the Miami Heat. Hinrich's action came after getting called for......

One night, one game, but three seeds lost on the final night of the NBA's regular season for the Bulls. Heading into the final game, the Bulls had the upper hand in winning the second seed in the Eastern Conference. All they had to do was win. Or Cleveland had to lose. But neither came to fruition. The Bulls lost to the Nets 106-97, which combined with Cleveland's win against Milwaukee, dropped the Bulls down......

Remember when the Bulls-Knicks rivalry meant tough, nail-biting games with playoff ramifications? Games with Jordan and Pippen, Ewing and Starks? Seemed as if every one of those games were decided in the final two minutes of the game. But when the Bulls and Knicks squared off at the United Center Tuesday evening, the game was pretty much over by the end of the first quarter, with the Bulls leading 23-10. They proceeded to extend that......

The NCAA started a practice a few year back that, each year, screws over one unfortunate college basketball team. This year's victims are the Florida A&M Rattlers. While the Niagara Purple Eagles will be in Chicago this week to take on the Kansas Jayhawks at the United Center, FAMU goes home without actually getting to take in the same experiences the remaining 64 schools do — in spite of winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament.......

Chicagoist had the pleasure of attending the Big Ten conference at United Center yesterday, an activity in which we normally don't get to take part. Amongst our colleagues, much was made of the fact that no alcohol is served during the events, not even in a Budweiser-sponsored skybox. We believe one such word to describe the practice was coined as "bullshit." However, the American Medical Association couldn't disagree more. They're sending out a newspaper ad......

This week when emptying our wallet, it’s either the old guys getting back together or the new guys still climbing their way to the top. This is probably scarier visually than it used to be: Heaven and Hell Live with Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Machine Head. We say scarier because we just saw Ronnie James Dio in Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, and we’re not sure we’d want to be in the front......

The Big Ten Men's Basketball Conference Tournament rolls into town on Thursday for what will be the last one hosted in Chicago until at least 2012. On Thursday, the tournament will kick off its seventh run at the United Center. Our friends in Indianapolis, not satisfied with their Super Bowl trophy earned by beating the Chicago Bears, have also outbid Chicago to host the annual Big Ten tournament from 2008 through 2012. The tournament kicks......