Hot Mulligan (Riot Fest Aftershow) @ Metro - Chicago
September 21st, 2024: Hot Mulligan @ Metro - Chicago, IL
Hot Mulligan | Photos Courtesy of: Allie Loven
Hot Mulligan visited Chicago, Illinois for Riot Fest weekend 2024. The Lansing-based band started their weekend by playing on the Cabaret Metro Stage on Friday evening. It finished off with a bang Saturday night, September 21, 2024, with a sold-out after-show held at Metro Chicago supported by fellow Midwest locals, New Age Thief. Pulling up to the venue, there was a line full of fans, waiting in suspense for the doors to open, wrapping around the building into the alley. Hot Mulligan has remained a Chicago pop-punk favorite over the past decade, so this was no surprise.
Up-and-coming opening pop-punk band, New Age Thief, definitely brought the surprise factor though. The duo Gino Savarino and Brady Corcoran are well-known in the Midwest as well from former music, but New Age Thief is the most recent and growing project he has been a part of. These members had the perfect way of setting the tone for Hot Mulligan’s performance. It is safe to say New Age Thief is already established in Chicago and seemingly more growth is coming each day, especially after their opening set on Saturday. By the end of New Age Thief, the crowd was non-stop moving and ready for Hot Mulligan.
Once Hot Mulligan was ready to take the stage, the room quickly started to pack in even tighter. Some fans travelled over 1,000 miles for this show specifically. For a band who has been non-stop touring and doing festivals, there was impressively no lack of energy to be found. From the front of the barricade to the balcony viewing, fans filled the room screaming along to a variety of Hot Mulligan songs. The band started with three of their songs from their 2016 Album Opportunities and continued on the night with 16 more of their top hits including: “Digging In,” “SPS,” “ *Equip Sunglasses*,” and many more. Hot Mulligan never fails to provide their following with lively, upbeat performances every time they touch the stage.
New Age Thief
Del Water Gap @ Metro - Chicago
October 31st, 2023: Del Water Gap, Kristiane @ Metro - Chicago, IL
Del Water Gap - Photos Courtesy of: Emily Nava
On Tuesday, October 31st, 2023, Del Water Gap brought his I Miss You Already Tour to a sold-out Metro Chicago with opening act Kristiane. This tour follows the recent release of Del Water Gap's second album I Miss You Already + I Haven't Left Yet. Del Water Gap is the solo project of New York City-based songwriter S. Holden Jaffe.
Kristiane opened the show with a set full of soft folky pop songs and won over the crowd with a Lana Del Rey cover, followed by an unreleased song about getting older.
With an apron and chef hat on, as well as a pizza box in hand, Del Water Gap took the stage and drew the crowd in with energetic rock/pop songs and a presence to match. The audience sang along all night to songs like "All We Ever Do Is Talk" from the new album, as well as ones like "Sorry I Am" from self-titled and old favorites like "High Tops," from his first EP.
Although the night was bursting with energy and entertainment, Del Water Gap made space for more vulnerable moments. Towards the end of the set, DWG touched on his connection with fans over time and shared an anecdote about growing up with them. Throughout the night, DWG engaged with fans while on stage and even got into the crowd during his song "Perfume."
Del Water Gap's concert may have been sold out in Chicago and many other cities, but some tickets still remain at https://delwatergap.net/Tour
Kristiane
La Dispute @ Metro, Chicago, IL
Photos & review courtesy of Micki Harris | November 18 2019
Last weekend, La Dispute embarked on their fall tour with long time friends and creative collaborators, Touche Amore, as well as Philadelphia native noise punk band, Empath. The tour is promoting Panorama, La Dispute’s fourth studio album which was released in March of this year. As Panorama would be their first new album since Rooms of the House in 2014, the anticipation and the release brought a wave of pent enthusiasm.
Though the new record is brassier than any of their previous works, La Dispute has stayed consistent in what makes them them. After 15 years of making music, listeners can still turn to La Dispute for intense, dark, poetic storytelling accompanied by intricate compositions, often with atypical time signatures. They speak of grief and agony, as they’ve been doing all these years, making their live shows a space for release.
As usual, their set ignited an emotional fire in the crowd, in a room packed from wall to wall. The majority of their setlist were songs from Panorama but made sure to throw in some deep cuts, like “How I Feel” and “Why it Scares Me” from their 2010 split with Touche Amore, joined onstage by Jeremy Bolm, Touche’s vocalist. For their encore, they came back onstage with “The Last Lost Continent,” a 10 minute song off their earliest record, Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair. It then became clear how dedicated the room full of fans were and how long they’d all been a part of La Dispute’s journey.
The tour will be travelling across the US through mid-December and I highly recommend trying to make it out to the show nearest you. Check out photos from the Metro show below:
Hippo Campus // Chicago, IL
Hippo Campus -- Metro | Chicago, IL | 21 May 2017
Photos Courtesy of: Jennifer Machuca
