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Feature Mon Jun 06 2011
Digging Through the Digital Bins: Chicago in the Live Music Archive
In 2003, I saw Andrew Bird debut his latest album, Weather Systems, at the Old Town School of Folk Music. It was an incredible show, and afterward I wished I'd had a recording of it. A couple years later, I was searching for something on the Internet Archive when I stumbled into its Live Music Archive, a vast collection of recording of concerts from all over the place, much of it downloadable in multiple formats. I did a quick search, and there was my coveted concert, free for the taking.
As I revisited Andrew Bird's listing on the LMA to see if his Gezelligheid show was available (it's not), I got to thinking recently about how much local music there is available in the archive, and how hard it is to sort through. One of the easiest ways to approach it, in my mind, was to break it down by venue. So that's what I did. Here's an exhaustive list of links to recordings made at bars, concert halls, theaters and pavilions in Chicago and the suburbs. I've also included the few music festival recordings I could find. There are a handful of stragglers and outliers that I didn't include here, mostly single shows at marginal venues; search Chicago for an unfiltered list.
Venues:
Abbey Pub
Alive One
Allstate Arena
Aragon Ballroom
Auditorium Theater (and Theater)
Avalon
Beat Kitchen
Biddy Mulligan's
Black Orchid
Bottom Lounge
Boulevard Cafe
Cal's
Charter One Pavilion
Chicago Theatre (and Theater)
Congress Theater
Crow's Nest
Cubby Bear
Double Door
Durty Nellie's (and Nellies)
Elbo Room
Empty Bottle
Exit
A Finkl & Sons
Fireside Bowl
Fitzgerald's
Goose Island
Grant Park
Green Mill
Gunther Murphy's
Heartland Cafe
Hi-Tops
The Hideout
HotHouse (and Hot House)
Hotti Biscotti
House of Blues Chicago (and HOB Chicago)
Joe's on Weed (and just
Joe's)
Kinetic Playground
Lakeshore Theater
Lincoln Hall
Lincoln Park Zoo
Logan Square Auditorium
Lounge Ax
Loyola University
Lyons Den
Martyrs' (and Martyr's)
McDunna's
Navy Pier
New City YMCA
The Note
Old Town School of Folk Music
Park West
Petrillo Band Shell
Phyllis' Musical Inn
The Pontiac
Pritzker Pavilion
Quenchers
Ravinia
Reckless Records
Red Line Tap
Reggie's Rock Club
The Riviera
Rosemont Horizon
Schubas (and Schuba's)
Soldier Field
Sonotheque
Subterranean
Tower Records (Lincoln Park and Downtown)
Toyota Park
Uncommon Ground (both locations)
UIC Pavilion
Union Park
United Center
University of Chicago
The Vic
Wise Fools Pub (and Wise Fool's)
Wild Hare
Wrigley Field
Festivals:
Bash on Wabash
Chicago Blues Festival
Hideout Block Party
Intonation Festival
Lollapalooza
Pitchfork Music Festival
Retro on Roscoe
Ribfest
Belmont-Sheffield Music Festival
Taste of Chicago
Taste of Randolph
Grateful Dead fans might also be interested in the Archive's collection of downloadable and streamable shows; here's a list of just the ones in Chicago.
