Jim DeRogatis

Joliet to host massive three-day rave

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 24, 2013

Jan. 24, 2013

The Electric Daisy Carnival—one of the biggest electronic dance music festivals in the U.S., or “raves” as they were called back in the day—is coming to the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, usually the home of NASCAR, on Memorial Day Weekend, May 24-26.

Promoted by Los Angeles-based Insomniac Events, best known for drawing as many as 300,000 dancers to the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, tickets for the first Chicago-area shindig went on sale Wednesday at prices ranging from $204.13 for three-day general admission to $461.55 for “three-day VIP” with camping privileges.

No acts have yet been announced.

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Linksomania: Rock docs of note

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 23, 2013

Jan. 23, 2013

A couple of news items of note about some recent rock documentaries that are well worth your time, starting with Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, a fascinating account of the legendary power-pop cult band, which this blog reviewed when it was screened at the South by Southwest Music Festival last year.

The film by Drew DeNicola and Oliva Mori now has been picked up by the respected indie distributor Magnolia Pictures. The directors and producers “have done a terrific job capturing the amazing story of one of the greatest bands of the 1970s, recreating a truly special time and place in music history,” Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles said in a release. “Big Star fans will rejoice.”

Indeed. A theatrical release is planned for later this year.

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Lollapalooza’s Lance connection

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 18, 2013

Jan. 18, 2013

With Lance Armstrong in the news so much these days, confessing to doping during his days as a cyclist and lying through his teeth about it for years, his connection to the Texas company that brings us Lollapalooza is worth noting.

Throughout his career, Armstrong has been managed by Austin-based Capital Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of concert promoters C3 Presents. More than any other client, he was the star who helped longtime friend Bill Stapleton establish the firm. From Stapleton’s official bio:

“Bill founded CSE in 1998 and has represented Lance Armstrong in all commercial matters since 1995. Beyond Armstrong, CSE has launched successful enterprises such as the Austin City Limits Music Festival, Lollapalooza, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, C3 Presents, and C3 Management. C3 Presents now manages the ACL Festival and Lollapalooza with Bill and CSE remaining as founding partners in that business.”

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Congress Theater liquor hearings begin with cop testimony

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 16, 2013

Jan. 16, 2013

Separate from the much-publicized Deleterious Impact/Public Nuisance proceedings against the Congress Theater, the Chicago Liquor Control Commission began its own disciplinary hearings Tuesday afternoon, and controversial venue owner Erineo “Eddie” Carranza could lose his liquor license depending on the outcome.

The first day of the proceedings in the Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection hearing room on the eighth floor of City Hall included riveting testimony from an undercover police officer with the Chicago vice squad who was investigating complaints that theater security guards seize drugs from concertgoers and then resell them. His investigation was cut short before he bought any drugs, the officer said, because he found himself in the middle of a major fight involving more than 15 rival gang members at a Chief Keef show.

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Best Picture breakdowns: ‘Silver Linings Playbook’

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 10, 2013

Jan. 10, 2013
Brain-cell-slaughtering though these pursuits may have been, I am not too much of a movie snob to admit that I have taken some pleasure from the mindless Bradley Cooper farces The Hangover and The Hangover Part II, and more than once, albeit on evenings when there just wasn’t anything else on cable. What’s more, I’ll not only confess to getting sucked in to the occasional Lifetime movie—who doesn’t enjoy a good tale of a spouse done wrong seeking bloody revenge or a crippled skier struggling to come back to the land of the living?—but to actually looking forward to Rob Lowe starring in Prosecuting Casey Anthony, which premieres on that channel on Jan. 19.

Keep that in mind when I ask: Silver Linings Playbook as the Best Picture of 2012? And the only film among this year’s nominees to additionally garner nods for best actor (Cooper), best actress (Jennifer Lawrence), best supporting actor (Robert De Niro), best supporting actress (Jacki Weaver) and best director (David O. Russell)?

Really?

By no means is Russell’s adaptation of Matthew Quick’s 2008 debut novel a bad film.

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Linksomania: Goodbye Poison Dwarf, hello Chris Connelly as Bowie & more

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 9, 2013

Jan. 9, 2013

Time to clear out the inbox and share some links of note I’ve been meaning to post in this space. First up: Farewell to Irving Azoff, a.k.a. “the Poison Dwarf,” as the head of the concert world’s evil empire, Ticketmaster/Live Nation.

On New Year’s Eve, when nobody was looking, the music industry veteran, who cut his teeth booking concerts downstate but who’s better known for leading the charge toward astronomical ticket prices as the cash-grabbing manager of the Eagles, stepped down from his chairman’s mission to make Live Nation the dominant concert promoter in the U.S. (and ideally, in his view, the only one, though he somehow successfully convinced the Obama Justice Department that the company is not a monopoly).

“Life at a public company ain’t for me,” Azoff  told The Wrap, which got the scoop. “The board pays you what you're worth, then you get reamed for your compensation.” Oh, pity the beleaguered dwarf.

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David Chase wallows in rock nostalgia and clichés

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 6, 2013

Jan. 6, 2013

As someone well-versed in the lore and culture of the mob, New Jersey and dysfunctional Italian-American families, the most extraordinary thing about the six seasons of The Sopranos wasn’t the sharp writing, the powerful acting or the taut direction. What impressed me most was the HBO series’ adamant refusal to pander to cliché—or, when the beyond-familiar did make an appearance, to treat it with a knowing wink, not only to the audience, but from the characters.

One thinks, for example, of the many occasions when Tony’s crew would self-consciously quote from or reference The Godfather because, well, that’s the manual for how gangsters are supposed to behave. We knew it, they knew it, everyone knew it.

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'Magical Mystery Tour' movie is a mess

By: Jim DeRogatis | Jan. 2, 2013

Jan. 2, 2013

Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour, step right this way… just be forewarned. If you’ve never seen the Beatles’ notorious road movie—first screened by the BBC over the Christmas holidays in 1967, never televised in the U.S. but now available in a restored version on a spiffy new deluxe DVD—you’re in for a bumpy ride that might make you lose your lunch, or at least leave you with a sick headache.

Nearly half a century on, the fascinating thing about Magical Mystery Tour the film is the rare glimpse it offers into one of the best rock bands of all time at its unadulterated worst. And make no mistake: a spectacular, disastrous, largely incomprehensible and nearly unwatchable mess it was and remains.

The PBS series Great Performances finally aired the 52-minute film on American television for the first time a few weeks ago, preceded by a new hour-long documentary about its making. The documentary is featured on the new DVD, though it inexplicably is shortened to 19 minutes.

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