Music Venue

Chicago rockers Champions answered our Chi-Tunes questionnaire . Do the same and your band could appear in RedEye! What makes your live show great? Our live show is where everything "comes to life. " We think we are one of those bands that are better live than on record. It proves that we are to true to what we do, we really care and are not in it just for grins. A computer didn't make our record, and the auto-tune robot didn't provide the vocals. Five humans with instruments did, and the same goes for the live shows!

Chicago rockers I Love Rich answered our Chi-Tunes questionnaire . Do the same and your band could appear in RedEye! What makes your live show great? We have great tunes, we dress up, we have fun and I have been told that I am a good (and funny) front man. We even have our own sign that lights up and a fog machine! I have a shirt with my own face on it. I get that our music is maybe too aggressive for some, and not aggressive enough for others. And some people just think we're just stupid.

Willis Earl Beal has a biography that sounds as if Charles Bukowski could have penned it. Beal's lived, at times, a harsh life, drifting between countless miserable part-time jobs, the military (he enrolled in the Army for a short time) and homelessness. Over the last few months, however, the 28-year-old singer's once-bleak prospects have improved dramatically. He just released his debut album, "Acousmatic Sorcery" (Hot Charity/XL), a lo-fi effort that veers between beat-poet blues, bruised soul and art-rock weirdness, and his name and story have appeared in outlets as diverse as Pitchfork and GQ. In a recent interview, the former Englewood resident, who now makes his home largely on the road ("I don't really live anywhere these days," he said)

Band Name: K. Flay Sound/sounds like: On her self-titled debut EP, the young MC, born Kristine Flaherty, flashed an elastic flow and a quick wit, rhyming atop beats that rumbled like traffic on crowded city streets and throbbed like packed discos. More recently the rapper, who spins engaging tales about the mundanity of day-to-day life, has gravitated towards airy, electro-spiked beats that leave more room for her dense wordplay. Claim to fame/need to know: The Wilmette-born Flay, who relocated to Brooklyn in August following eight years in San Francisco, has opened shows for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Passion Pit. She's also responsible for a fully sanctioned remix of the Beastie Boys track "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win. " Look for Flay to release new music by the end of the year ("I know that's vague," she says)

Band name: Santah Sound: On its debut effort, "White Noise Bed," the local quintet flirts with the same exploratory Americana championed by bands like Whiskeytown and Wilco. Fitting, since the album was recorded at the late (former Wilco member) Jay Bennett's Pieholden Studios. Claim to fame/need to know: The bandmates, who met in college at the University of Illinois, have shared the stage with everyone from Surfer Blood to Cults to Company of Thieves. Currently, the group is working on a still-untitled EP, which it hopes to release sometime this spring.

The West Loop has long been considered a dining and nightlife destination - hello, Randolph Street Restaurant Row! - but next year, even more big-name chefs are due to fill in the neighborhood's vacant storefronts. "[Randolph Street is] easily the coolest restaurant street in the country, not just Chicago," said Graham Elliot , who is opening a restaurant this spring at 841 W. Randolph St. "And then one street over is Lake, with Vera and other restaurants, and then you've got Fulton Market with Next and Moto and the Publican, so it's a killer little area and I'm a huge advocate of the free market.

Band name: Brighton, MA Sound: On its just-released "Billboard Sun" EP, the indie-rock quintet channels the ragged glory of the Walkmen, veering between loosely anthemic rockers ("New Underground") and more introspective turns like the bruised "V-Day. " Need to know: The band has opened for Spoon, the Arcade Fire and the Walkmen, and its music has been featured on a diverse array of television programs, including "Community" and "Gossip Girl. " In Dec. 2011, Brighton's song "Good Kind of Crazy" appeared in a holiday advertisement for Jack Daniels.

Ask Shawn Rosenblatt where he's living these days and the sole creative voice behind shape-shifting indie-pop crew Netherfriends might simply say, "Nowhere. " He's not exaggerating either. The singer-songwriter, who last kept a full-time residence in Bucktown in early 2010, has now spent almost two years living on the road. The endless tour started when Rosenblatt drew up plans to write and record a new, original song in each of the 50 states over the course of a single year.

I wouldn't call Lincoln Park diverse. Chances are if you live in Lincoln Park you are a yuppie, a well-to-do married couple, a college student, a baby or a fancy dog. I live in Lincoln Park, and I'm not a baby. On the contrary, my yuppie status has allowed me to get into community issues, and I've taken the following stances: pro-nightlife, pro-shopping and pro-puppies. OK, so maybe I haven't gotten into the issues as much as the next gal with Tory Burch flats, but one issue has recently come to my attention, thanks to the middle-aged friends I found hanging around outside my apartment trying to give me fliers.