PHOTOS: Warm Love Cool Dreams 2026
Warm Love Cool Dreams Festival returned over Memorial Day weekend at The Salt Shed. Check out photos from Day 2 of the fest, featuring Tobacco City, Being Dead, Moin, Toro Y Moi, Whitney and Courtney Barnett below.
Filtering by Category: Festival
Riot Fest 2026 Lineup Announced
Riot Fest announced their lineup today, including headliners of Tool, Twenty One Pilots, Pierce the Veil, and Alanis Morissette. Aside from the headliners, we’re looking forward to catching many more of these bands including The Format, Twin Peak, Pup, The Beths, The Chats.
See the full lineup below, and be sure to snag your tickets here. Riot Fest takes place in Douglass Park from September 18-20th.
PHOTOS: Junior Varsity and Foster The People at Metro
Junior Varsity and Foster The People performed to a sold out Metro on Saturday, August 2nd, as part of an official Lollapalooza aftershow. Check out photos of the late-night gig below, and see where you can catch Foster The People on tour next here.
PHOTOS: Post Animal and Djo at Salt Shed
Post Animal and Djo hit the stage at Salt Shed ahead of their respective Lollapalooza festival sets over the weekend, performing to a sold-out crowd on Thursday, July 31st.
Check out photos of the show below, and see where you can catch the bands back on the road this fall here.
Live Recap: Out of Space Festival 2025
Out of Space Festival returned to Skokie for another year, featuring four nights of diverse musical acts at North Field at Illinois Science & Technology Park. I was able to catch the opening and closing nights on Thursday, July 24th and Sunday, July 27th.
Mid-afternoon on Thursday we were hit with a gloomy but quick thunderstorm in the area that pushed back the time of doors, but the music still started on time with Case Oats. Bully hit the stage next, with lead vocalist and songwriter for the project, Alicia Bognanno, accompanied by her two bandmates. The majority of Bully’s performance saw Bognanno center-stage playing guitar for songs like “All I Do” and “Milkman,” but towards the end of her set, Bognanno moved over to the keyboard onstage to perform the melancholic and mesmerizing single “Atom Bomb.” Bully’s set wrapped up with the upbeat and anthemic “Days Move Slow” from the 2023 record Lucky For You.
Thursday’s headliners Sylvan Esso, the duo of singer Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn, kept the upbeat energy going as they began their set during a cotton candy sunset. Meath took the stage donning a fluffy red jacket that she discarded after the first song, thanks to the mugginess that still clung to the summer air. Despite the hot night, as I looked around my fellow audience members, I saw people of all ages grooving along to the hypnotic beats of songs like “Hey Mami” and “Die Young.” The crowd kept the party vibes high as they bounced around beach balls and swayed atop shoulders in time to the music.
Sunday night’s performances kept the same positive energy, but the tone of the music took a turn towards “Pacific Northwest Hiking Vibes” with a lineup of Craig Finn, Kevin Morby, and The Decemberists.
I arrived back at the Skokie park as Kevin Morby and his bandmates hit the stage. Morby’s set featured an array of songs from his recent albums, like the title track “This Is A Photograph” from his 2022 album and "I Have Been to the Mountain” from 2016’s Singing Saw. Morby and his bandmates incorporated accompanying instruments like the saxophone and (more) cowbell to enrich the texture of their live performance.
Last but not least, The Decemberists took the stage to another beautiful sunset, wrapping up the entire weekend and festival. The band fittingly kicked off their set with “July, July” (how often do you get to a hear a song performed live during the month it was named after?!) and fans at the barricade began belting along to the music. The full-crowd singalong continued throughout the show, as The Decemberists played favorites like “Severed,” “Oceanside” and “Down by the Water.”
Check out photos from the two nights below, and keep an eye on upcoming SPACE shows here.
Photos of Bully and Sylvan Esso
Kevin Morby and The Decemberists
Live Recap: Winnetka Festival 2025
Winnetka Festival returned to downtown Winnetka on Friday, June 20th and Saturday, June 21st, featuring a jam-packed lineup of more than 20 artists across the two days and two stages.
I got the chance to catch the last part of Saturday’s festivities, arriving shortly before sunset to see Kam Franklin and her band at the Lincoln Stage. Franklin’s soulful powerhouse vocals captured the audience’s attention, and her raw, compassionate storytelling in songs like “Byrd And Shepard” pulled at our heartstrings. Before performing the song, Franklin told the crowd “It’s about James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard. James Byrd Jr. was killed in 1998 in a dragging death in Jasper, Texas for being black and Matthew Shepard was killed in October 1998 for being gay.” In the song, she sings “Fact checker, fact fact checker/They’re trying to ban the books/But we won't forget ya” in homage to the men who suffered these hate crimes and a stark reminder that we can’t forget the tragedies of history.
Kam Franklin performing
Next up, Pete Yorn and his bandmates took the Main Stage on the other end of the festival grounds. Yorn opened up his set with a cover of “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)” by The Buzzcocks, which he introduced as a song from the movie Shrek. The band also sprinkled in a couple of other covers later on in the show, sharing their own version of “Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order and “Atlantic City” by The Boss. In between the covers, Yorn also made sure to play a few newer tracks from his 2024 album The Hard Way, including the titular track, “Different Roads,” and “Real Good Love.” Long-time fans were also ecstatic to hear some of his earlier material like “Life On a Chain” and “Murray” from his 2001 debut album musicforthemorningafter.
Pete Yorn and his band performing
While Yorn wrapped up his set, Eggy began their show that closed out the Lincoln Stage for the festival. The quartet provided the jam band vibes of the evening, performing an eclectic mix of their expansive discography. Their setlist surprisingly didn’t include much from their most recent album, 20204’s Waiting Game, but like Pete Yorn, they also threw some covers into the mix. Fans got to travel back to the 60’s and 70’s and experience Eggy’s versions of “Skin It Back” by Little Feat and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, Stills & Nash while the sun went down.
Fans enjoying Eggy’s set
Last but not least, Cold War Kids wrapped up Winnetka Fest 2025 at the Main Stage. While night had fallen at last, the air was still muggy and thick with the heat of the day, but that didn’t stop fans from singing and dancing along to the hit-heavy setlist that the band delivered. Opening with the 2017 single “Love Is Mystical” from their LA Divine album, Cold War Kids then ventured through their winding discography that spans over 20 years. The band reciprocated the energy that the fans brought to the performance by jumping and moving across the stage, and the lead singer Nathan Willett made sure to express his gratitude saying, “We were at The Salt Shed last year around this time. We love Chicago, and now we love Winnetka.” After playing for a little over an hour, Cold War Kids ironically wrapped up their set by playing their song called “First” as the last and final tune of the evening and festival.
Cold War Kids closing out the night
Check out more photos of the festival below, and be sure to check out the lineups for Out Of Space and Evanston Folk Festival coming up later this Summer to continue the festivities.
Photos: The Last Dinner Party with King Isis
The Last Dinner Party and King Isis closed out the third day of Lolla with a sold out aftershow at Thalia Hall. Check out photos from the evening below and see where you can catch them on tour next here.
Photos: Ethel Cain and Slow Pulp at Thalia Hall
Ethel Cain and Slow Pulp closed out the second day of Lolla with a sold out aftershow at Thalia Hall. Check out photos from the evening below and see where you can catch Ethel Cain on tour next here.
Live Recap: Faye Webster and Benét at The Vic
Following the first day of Lollapalooza 2024, Faye Webster performed an intimate aftershow at The Vic Theatre, with support from Benét.
After Benét and their band got the crowd warmed up with a mix of songs that had the audience both in their feels and dancing, the stage was set for Faye Webster and her band to close out the first day of the fest.
Faye’s appearance at Lolla took place in the midst of her “Underdressed at the Symphony” tour, aptly named after the title of Webster’s 2024 album. Right off the bat, I was impressed by the immersive stage production and design for this tour—lighting rigs in the form of washer and dryers illuminated the back of the stage and racks of clothing hung behind them. The real star of the stage design, however, was the giant t-shirt-shaped screen that projected different graphics and videos to accompany each song throughout the set. But wait, there’s more! During the fourth song of the night, “The Right Side of My Neck,” a bubble machine filled the venue with bubbles to give a fully immersive experience of being in a laundromat.
Webster occasionally addressed the audience between songs, taking time to say thank you for being there and sharing that her entire family was in attendance that night, but for the most part she and her band kept the show moving to deliver a polished and seamless musical performance. As the band performed many of the songs like “Thinking About You” and “Lego Rings” from the aforementioned Underdressed at the Symphony record alongside fan favorites from her previous albums, her band sometimes incorporated in a violin or saxophone, which gave a rich texture to the live versions of these songs. It also fit in with the “symphony” part of the tour!
Towards the end of the set, Faye also shared with the audience that it was her drummer Charles’ birthday and the audience chimed in to sing “Happy Birthday.” The show began to wind down with “He Loves Me Yeah!” before the band returned for a two-song encore. As we approached the wee hours of Friday morning, Webster’s show concluded with her dreamy single “Kingston.”
There are few things nowadays that will keep me out past midnight, but Faye Webster’s aftershow was most definitely worth it! Check out photos of the magical evening below and see where you can catch her on tour next here.
