Fela! Returns to Chicago TONIGHT 2/19 at Arie Crown 5 Nights Only #originallivephotos

ChiIL Live Shows Photos--The Fela Band and Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra with cast members from the Broadway touring production of Fela! play Lincoln Hall in Chicago, April 2012.                                           In Chicago Feb 19-23:  Afrobeat Maverick Comes to Life in Striking Multimedia Performance FELA! We caught FELA! last year through Broadway in Chicago and highly recommend it.   We also had the great pleasure of catching the band from the show in a concert at Lincoln Hall during the run.    Our original LIVE show shots from LH are above.    Click here for our review of the show from last year. FELA! 02/20/2013 - 02/23/2013 Wed. Feb. 20 at 7:30 pm Thur. Feb. 21 at 7:30 pm Fri. Feb. 22 at 8:00 pm Sat. Feb 23 at 2:00 & 8:00 pm FELA! Five Performances only! Tickets range $85.00 to $20.00 Order Tickets Now!  If a song by the maverick founder of Afrobeat, Nigeria’s firebrand and musical revolutionary Fela Kuti, came to life, it would look like Fela!, on tour in the U.S. January through May 2013. A multifaceted performance rich with grooves, history, and visual intensity, Fela! chronicles the sonic evolution and politically defiant journey of one of Africa’s towering figures, from his musical beginnings to his unflinching opposition to government pressure and oppression.  To capture Kuti’s unorthodox, action-packed life, Fela!’s creators shied away from traditional clichés and approaches, creating a painting; an ode to determination and truth to power by concentrating on one short, highly-charged period during the late seventies, This vibrant snapshot—powered by the unflagging energy of an on-stage band (with members of Antibalas) and performers like Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child) and –is the perfect vehicle to present Fela’s commitment and courage, and to show how art can become a stunning expression of human dignity.                     Production Photos Credit:    Rameen Gasery Return of the Warrior: Fela! Channels Afrobeat Founder’s Uncompromising Complexity into a Music-Powered Show Every Tuesday, Fela Kuti would go to his Lagos club and main base of musical operations, The Shrine. There, before a core group of supporters and fans, the musical revolutionary and gifted composer would take questions and answer them, often using his radical responses and the crowd’s ideas as the seed of his next song. This passionate immediacy and heated dialogue—all seamlessly supported by Fela’s unmistakable sound, soulfully executed—pervades Fela!, on tour across the U.S. in the first half of 2013. Cities include DC, Chicago, LA, Miami, Seattle, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, Tucson, Cleveland, Charlotte NC, Tempe AZ, and Schenectady. Fela! is a vibrant embodiment of Kuti’s music, using sound and lyrics as a way to capture his wild, complex, no-compromise life. The show echoes the many sonic layers, visual elements, and personal dimensions of Fela’s work. Guided by the music and bursting with dynamic, visually engaging action, the show takes Afrobeat classics like “Zombie” and “Water No Get Enemy” and brings them to colorful, intense life. “I think of Fela as a returning warrior, somebody who has made his mark in another time, and now returned to our era, to us,” reflects director Bill T. Jones. “We are bringing him back to fresh eyes, as well as to eyes that are hungry to see him again, and hope that people will get truly excited about the music he made.” The show’s excitement flows from years of painstaking work and dedication to interpreting Fela’s ambitious art and complicated character. Instead of flashy biography, Fela! is a snapshot of a period in the 1970s when the musician faced some of his most trying hours. Spearheaded by a fan-turned-producer, Stephen Hendel, Fela! brought together diverse crew drawn from America’s burgeoning Afrobeat scene (members of Antibalas), from the American stage’s most respected names (Jones, for one), and from pop stardom (Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child so loved the show, she joined the cast). "He was James Brown, Bob Marley, and Malcolm X in one person. It single-handedly changed my life," explains ?uestlove, Fela! associate producer. “The trials and tribulations he went through socially, politically, creatively: It’s the story of making something into nothing. It’s a story that resonates with American hip hop.” Born into an elite family of Nigerian intellectuals and professionals, Fela Kuti went from mild-mannered music student to radical firebrand, melding edgy politics with deep grooves inspired by the likes of James Brown. Unafraid to butt heads with the government or face beatings, imprisonment, and persecutions, Fela relentlessly and courageously criticized the hypocrisy, corruption, and spiritual bankruptcy he saw around him in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, calling for black power and African pride, political accountability, and justice for the downtrodden. All while creating a musical sound so unique, it became a genre unto itself: Afrobeat. Citing composers like George Friedrich Handel as well as funk idols and African jazz greats as his biggest inspirations, Fela was an exacting composer and performer. “People don’t always remember that he spent five years at music school in London,” recounts Fela’s long-time friend and manager Rikki Stein. “He had a real grounding in classical music,, composition, and harmony, and he was so totally involved in every part of music making. When we had a sound check before a show, he’d tune every instrument himself. It was a four-hour job. He really cared about what was happening.” The creators and performers of Fela! strive to follow Fela’s challenging, demanding lead. The bandleader and composer never settled for anything less than total musical precision and on-stage perfection, from dancers to horn section. Fela cared because music, according to Fela, was the weapon. It is also the foundation of Fela!. By breaking down and transcribing dozens of songs from Fela’s 50-album repertoire, Fela! Musical Director and Antibalas trombonist Aaron Johnson found a musical thread that united Fela’s diverse tracks. “This is clave music,” explains Johnson, noting the persistent pulse that runs throughout Fela’s songs. “The music is structured, with all its layers and complex rhythmic language, on the clave line that runs throughout. The patterns may vary from song to song, but that basis lets you jump into another song relatively easily.” Eschewing more traditional musical theater sounds, the team kept Fela’s red-hot, urgent vocal delivery and striking female call-and-reponse choruses, while supporting the emerging narrative of Fela’s inner life by finding a broad range of emotional expression and new instrumentation for Fela’s distinctive melodies. (A haunting vocal line sung by Fela’s mother originated in a sax line from one of his songs.) “To support the story, we really played with instrumentation. It took a lot of trial and error to get it right. We had to drop the drums here, the guitars there, to vary it and create some peaks and valleys.”    Production Photo Credit:    Bernard Matussiere Fela’s life was rife with peaks, valleys, and paradoxes, moments captured dynamically in Fela!. Adored by fans, Fela was persecuted by the authorities. Authoritarian to his band, he called for liberty and freedom of thought. Known for his sexual forthrightness and dozens of wives, his lifestyle seemingly overshadowed his intellectual prowess and true commitment to improving people’s lives. “Fela always said his real inspiration for music came from sex,” Stein recalls. “But he read a lot. He had a huge library and really knew his stuff. Those ideas would then develop into a song.” A million mourners attended his funeral in Lagos when he passed in the late 1997, However, though widely respected worldwide by the musical elite and though his records sold in the millions throughout Africa, Fela’s work remained relatively obscure, never achieving the impact that should have put him in the global ranks of icons like Bob Marley or Malcolm X. Fela!,by keeping to its subject’s high standards and musical grit, has helped ease the Afrobeat master’s return to his rightful place as internationally respected musical trailblazer and composer. Johnson and the Fela! crew's painstaking work has paid off, and their creative input in the show maintained its subject’s exacting standards. Fela! has been seen by millions on three continents, attaining public accolades and critical acclaim from both theater circles and die-hard Afrobeat fans.  “Afrobeat is really the only genre you can trace back to one artist,” Johnson notes. “The most important thing for me in this whole process was it had to feel real, legit. I want the Afrobeat audience to say, ‘Yes, this holds water.’ To know that the music worked. That’s why we went to the source.” Production Photo Credit:    Bernard Matussiere Click here for show dates, times and info or to order your tickets in advance.

TONIGHT: The Steak House Mints Album Release Party at Martyrs'

ChiIL Live Shows will be there...will YOU?!    Chicago’s The Steak House Mints will celebrate the release of their new album, Love Songs for Prostitutes, with a show at Martyrs’ on Friday, Feb. 15: http://www.martyrslive.com/fri-feb-15-830pm-8
We'll be there shooting stills & we'll have a full review of their new album for you here soon as well.

21+
Only $8
Check 'em out!

Here's their main web site for more info.

LIVE Streaming FREE Tributosaurus Becomes The Band & The Beatles

Hey Everybody,

Here at ChiIL Live Shows/ ChiIL Mama, we dig Tributosaurus.   They rock!   These wacky musicians play out as different, excellent bands all the time....constantly morphing and changing.   They also do one of our favorite things...play kids show by day and adult shows by night!    Check 'em out.

Tributosaurus is trying something brand new-- streaming the show tonight on the web, for free, as a little experiment.  There's no substitute for seeing a live band in a live venue, but for those of you who cannot make it out tonight but would like to see a little of the show, you can use the links below. 

The first is for tonight at 9PM-Tributosaurus Becomes The Band, the other is for the Kid's Beatles show tomorrow at noon.  

The Band Show : http://tributosaurus.com/l/3oc9nb/10111269;http://gigity.tv/event/935/

9PM tonight

Kids Show : http://tributosaurus.com/l/b0j79s/10111269;http://gigity.tv/event/936/

Noon tomorrow

Let us know how it goes!

TONIGHT-Emilie Autumn at Metro (all ages) #originalshowshots

ChiIL Live Shows original shots-Emilie Autumn at House of Blues, Chicago.   Click here for our full review of that show.

There are still a few tickets left for 
An Evening with...

EMILIE AUTUMN

BUY TIX

Friday February 15

Rescheduled (All Tickets for 10/31 Will Be Honored)

• $18 adv - $21 day of
• Doors: 7PM / Show: 8PM-10PM
• All Ages 

We've been promoting Emilie Autumn's Metro appearance for months, before and after her Halloween show was postponed.   But today is finally the day!  Click here for some of our past coverage.

World-class violinist. Fashion icon. Famously bipolar. The list goes on, but one thing is certain: We're talking about Emilie Autumn. With world tours, glossy magazine covers, and guest spots on the albums of such artists as Courtney Love (with whom she performed on Leno and Letterman), Otep, Billy Corgan, and TV's 'Metalocalypse' under her corset strings, Emilie Autumn's devilishly dark lyrics, metal-shredding violin solos, 





pink-glittered pasties, and industrial-strength voice reinvent "gothic" for the masses, and goths have never had so much fun.






More akin to a Broadway musical than a standard rock performance, the Los Angeles-born starlet's highly theatrical stage show is a sexy circus of glam-rock burlesque, backed by a scantily-clad girl band known to EA's devoted fans as the Bloody Crumpets.





 

Featuring EA's signature electric violin pyrotechnics, heartbreakingly lush orchestrations, hard-core beats, and menacing lyrics growled with enough intensity to make your hair stand on end, the resulting noise is a harpsichord-heavy romp through Victorian asylums where screaming is allowed and girls always get revenge.    

Nick Waterhouse Photo Recap #originalshowshots #R&B

ChiIL Live Shows caught Nick Waterhouse LIVE at Lincoln Hall 10/10/12 above and again at Metro on Valentine's Day 2013.

Nick Waterhouse is old school R & B with a modern twist, and he puts on an excellent, memorable live show.  We especially dug the dual saxaphones with the keyboard player doubling on the 2nd sax.   The whole band knows how to bring it.  

We bought tickets to the Metro show instead of working Valentine's Day, so I didn't shoot last night.   But we have our 10/10 shots from Lincoln Hall for you.

 

Both shows were too sweet to ignore, and we highly recommend you keep an ear out for their next swing through town.





His debut is my husband's absolute favorite 2012 release and pretty high on my own list as well, despite the wide variety of genres we review and enjoy personally.   Nick Waterhouse is truly one to watch.

Check out his main site here.

Everything about Nick Waterhouse started with a single 45. Nick Waterhouse, who signs his own name across a righteous and exhilarating part of American music with this debut LP, snapped together from sessions traded for rent money and desperate favors and succeeding through strange luck, particular personality and a vision that would not crack. 



When he made that first 45 by himself, he was hoping less to launch a musical career than to bury the possibility with dignity. In his suburban hometown, there’d never been music like this, and when he moved to the big city for school, no one could be bothered to care about music like this, so he recorded his song simply to prove that he could record his song. 

That “Some Place” 45 on his own label Pres—put together with something barely more than a pick-up band of 20-something kids sold half its press in a single night in the winter of 2010, and so made itself known to the people who needed to know, in that quiet nighttime way certain records have done for decades.

By mid-2011, he was signed to a label and after three more swoops through engineer Mike McHugh’s studio the Distillery, where of course powerful spirits are made, he’d found Time’s All Gone.

Amazon says:   Nick Waterhouse is the New Breed - An R&B fanatic who combines an uncanny old-school sensibility and with a charged, contemporary style. Having just turned 25, he joins the ranks of similar acts and producers of recent times - Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones, Mayer Hawthorne, Aloe Blacc et al -- that are all moving forward into the past, yet all quite different. 

For Waterhouse, his muse is the over-modulated sound of vintage '50s R&B and Rebel Rock n' Roll. His take on such a time-honored tradition evokes the back-alley thrill of New Orleans, Detroit and Memphis in their heyday. He combines an astute attention to detail recording on all vintage equipment with an honest desire to match the emotional impact of the music that inspires him.              

Escape From Planet Earth Opens 2/15! #review #giveaway

Family movie night can be a great escape.   And we just saw one that's out of this world!    With major name power on the voices, a witty script, and sweet visuals, Escape from Planet Earth is just the ticket to beat the winter blahs and have some family fun.

ChiIL Mama caught a sneak peek at Escape from Planet Earth, the Weinstein Company's latest animated 3D feature, opening nationwide on February 15th.  I took a set of reviewers with me who are 9, 10 & 11 respectively and included boys and girls.   They all thought the movie was hilarious and they had a blast!   It's action packed, has character and characters, and has a great overall message.

It's refreshing when the smart and peaceful prevail over megalomaniacs with revenge fantasies.  I though the social media quips, and creative black and white retro clips were fresh and fun.  And the insinuation that search engines, social networks, cell phones, and more were alien technology we stole, is an amusing premise.

We love that the stay at home mom IS a rocket scientist, and kicks some serious booty, the nerd has the girl, and kids are not underestimated.   Sometimes even superheroes need to be team players.   Brains can trump arms.   And the scrawny can rescue the brawny.  Check it out yourself.

ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama--WIN a rockin' Movie-Goers goodie bag

which includes popcorn, candy and a $25 gift card for our winner to use towards a movie night out at Escape from Planet Earth!  

Goody bag sweet treats

Thanks to The Weinstein Co, for providing this sweet giveaway to our readers and for comping us press tickets to review an advanced screening.

Click Rafflecopter below to enter to win:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Escape From Planet Earth

The 3D animated family comedy catapults moviegoers to planet Baab where admired astronaut Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser) is a national hero to the blue alien population.  A master of daring rescues, Scorch pulls off astonishing feats with the quiet aid of his nerdy, by-the-rules brother, Gary (Rob Corddry), head of mission control at BASA.  When BASA’s no-nonsense chief Lena (Jessica Alba) informs the brothers of an SOS from a notoriously dangerous planet, Scorch rejects Gary’s warnings and bounds off for yet another exciting mission.  But when Scorch finds himself caught in a fiendish trap set by the evil Shanker (William Shatner) it’s up to scrawny, risk-averse Gary to do the real rescuing.  As the interplanetary stakes rise to new heights, Gary is left to save his brother, his planet, his beloved wife Kira (Sarah Jessica Parker) and their adventure-hungry son Kip (Jonathan Morgan Heit).

To learn more, please visit Escape Earth Movie here for free games, video clips, photos and more.

To elevate the viewing experience, you can also download the free “Escape From Planet Earth” Movie App that is available for iOS and for Android here.

Valentine Fun:

You can print these free downloadable valentines from your home computer.  ChiIL Mama's stoked to premiere these funny valentines.

Educational Fun:

Click here for spacey fun facts that'll have your interplanetary IQ soaring

  

Disclosure:   This is a sponsored post.   Big thanks to The Weinstein Co. for providing us with review tickets for our family and the giveaway items mentioned above!  

INCOMING: My Gold Mask Playing Schubas 3/9

New LP 'Leave Me Midnight' Is Released February 19th!!  Tour Dates: March 2nd -  Milwaukee, WI - Mad Planet March 9th -  Chicago, IL - Schubas March 16th - Austin, TX -  SXSW (Hickory Street) March 19th -  Hot Springs, AR - Low Key Arts April 13th -  Cincinnati, OH -  MOTR April 26th -  Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews Praise For My Gold Mask "My Gold Mask gets mega sounds and emotion out of two instruments, their tense guitar whorls and crackling warbles perfect for this rainy morning" - Fader "...the Chicago duo's ominous brand of rock 'n' roll...concentrates heavily on drummer Gretta Rochelle's smoky, tribal howl and Jack Armondo's guttery electric guitar." - Magnet "...two of the most talented individuals we've discovered in the past year" - Sheena Beaston "Gretta Rochelle's soaring vocals bring a refreshing grunge sound ala Courtney Love to a very current sound.  Jack Armondo, brings an element to each song with great guitars to match her roaring vocals." - Off the Radar "Like a perfect steak dinner, your favorite jeans, or an old flame's kiss, My Gold Mask infuses some heart into the mundane, and makes it beautiful." - Pretty Much Amazing  Links Artist Website Artist Facebook Artist Twitter Check Out 'Burn Like The Sun' At Bullett!!! What began as a collaboration between longtime musical partners Gretta Rochelle and Jack Armondo (guitar), became less a means to an end, than the end itself. A deep wellspring of personal and musical experiences shaped their direction, and Chicago's My Gold Mask is a culmination, a fulfillment, of a long artistic road, that has lead them to their newest effort, Leave Me Midnight. Their new LP will be released February 19th, while the vinyl version is out March 12th on Highweel Records.  Informed by cinema (particularly Italian Giallo) and galvanized by the dimly-lit warehouse district where their rehearsal space lies, the two thrive in a radiant wash of reverb with a metallic-like symphony mainly comprised of just a nylon string guitar and drums. Tinged with thunderous melodies, theirs is a sound of vision – a recondite vision to be sure, but such is the essence of My Gold Mask. My Gold Mask began in 2009 with a well received self-titled nine-song debut. While still a band finding itself through experimentation, tracks like “Bitches” and “Your Coo Ka Choo” brought about comparisons to Siouxsie And The Banshees and inspired Big Stereo to say My Gold Mask “create songs that are a delicate balance between 90′s alternative rock gestures and futuristic gypsy tribe shit. But the real magic happens with the versatility of Gretta Rochelle’s vocals...” In 2010 the band saw the release of two intriguing EPs: A Thousand Voices and A Million Miles (From Where We Were Last) on their own Goldy Tapes label. Lush, aphotic songs like “Violet Eyes” and “Ghost In Your Bed” quickly made their way around the blogosphere leading Pitchfork to pronounce that "...the bottled lightning of ‘Violet Eyes’ makes My Gold Mask a band to watch." Pretty Much Amazing noted that the band "infuses some heart into the mundane, and makes it beautiful" and The Fader called their unique sound "goth-garage." Fashion designer Phillip Lim used music from both EPs in his 2010 Fashion Week fashion show and hosted an in-store performance by the band at his Phillip Lim 3.1 SoHo location for his Fashion’s Night Out event. Vogue dubbed it one of “The Ten Best Music Shows on Fashion’s Night Out.” In late 2011/early 2012 "Violet Eyes," "Ghost In Your Bed," and “All Up In The Air,” were all separately featured in episodes of the CW network’s uber-popular series, Gossip Girl.  2012 has been spent writing, recording and mixing Leave Me Midnight. Taking a "wall of sound" approach to recording, longtime collaborator and engineer Balthazar de Ley manned the board while My Gold Mask experimented with electronic drums and new sounds, creating a dense, exciting, and occasionally spooky place for their songs to live. They invited well-seasoned producer and engineer Sanford Parker (Nachtmystium, Pelican) to mix the record. This past season also brought to light a new live show lineup for the band. Gretta has stepped out from her full-time duties behind the drumkit to enjoy the role of front woman, making room for dynamic drummer, James Andrew, to take the stage with My Gold Mask. Andrew also played drums on four of the new album’s tracks. Meanwhile Jack continues to explore new ways of making guitars sound otherworldly: “Guitar is usually associated with rock music, but in writing this album I thought a lot about synth-based sounds, like on Black Celebration by Depeche Mode. I’m not really concerned with my guitar sounding like a guitar, per se. I’m constantly tweaking its sound,” says Armondo. This type of sonic experimentation gives My Gold Mask a unique approach to pop music that can be hard to pin down, but this adaptability came in handy when asked to collaborate with The Hood Internet on "Do You Give Up Now?" a track featured on their latest album FEAT released in 2012. With a sound that has crossed so many musical spectrums and their ability to deliver a powerful and engaging live show, My Gold Mask have shared the stage with such varied acts as Twin Shadow, Wavves, The New Pornographers, Japandroids, The Rapture, Blonde Redhead and Zambri, to name a few. Eager to continue the artistic evolution of the band; Jack and Gretta are back to writing before they head out on tour in support of Leave Me Midnight. Copyright © 2011 Tell All Your Friends.