Feature Mon Jun 06 2011

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.