There is something undeniably electric about catching a band right as momentum turns into movement, and that is exactly where Bloodywood stands today. On May 2nd, their performance at House of Blues Chicago felt like more than just a tour stop, it felt like a clear signal that this Indian-metal group is stepping into a much bigger spotlight.

Hailing from New Delhi, Bloodywood has carved out a distinct identity by blending traditional Indian elements with modern metal. Vocalist Jayant Bhadula delivers powerful melodic lines that contrast sharply with the aggressive rap of Raoul Kerr, while guitarist Karan Katiyar drives the band’s sound with tight, heavy riffs. Live, that fusion is truly unreal and hits even harder, shifting between crushing intensity and rhythmic, folk inspired passages that feel both rooted and forward looking.

The energy in the sold-out House of Blues built quickly and never let up. The crowd responded to every shift in tempo and tone, from explosive mosh moments to more unified, chant like sections. With Katiyar anchoring the instrumentation and Bhadula and Kerr feeding off each other’s energy, the performance felt dynamic and intentional. Bloodywood’s stage presence carries both confidence and hunger, a combination that keeps their set engaging from start to finish.

As metal continues to evolve, Bloodywood stands out as part of its next wave. Their rise is not just about novelty, it is about delivering a sound that resonates across cultures while staying true to their roots. By the end of the night in Chicago, it was clear they are not just an up and coming act, they are a band with real staying power.

Bloodywood – OFFICIAL WEBSITE
House of Blues (Chicago) – OFFICIAL WEBSITE

In the ’90s, singer-songwriters Lisa Loeb and Joan Osborne crossed paths living and performing in NYC and on the concert circuit on such era-defining stages as Lilith Fair.

Now, the two are touring together for the first time, marking the 30th anniversary of their first studio albums: Lisa Loebs’ “Tails” and Joan Osborne’s “Relish, both released in 1995.

This tour isn’t like the last time Lisa and Joan were on the same ticket, in August of 1998 on Lilith Fair stops at stadiums and arenas. It’s a much more intimate affair, at performing arts centers on college campuses and smaller music halls in largely secondary cities, with dedicated fans who shout out requests for the lesser-known songs and casual fans who can still sing along to the hits.

These settings, like at The University of Akron’s EJ Thomas Hall, the third stop on this tour, lend a cozy, conversational atmosphere to the performances, which are presented more as a two-act play with a brief intermission than a typical opener-headline format.

Act one features Loeb with her signature cat-eye glasses, youthful charm, and an acoustic guitar.
Loeb, who DJs on SiriusXM station 90s on 9, interspersed song selections from “Tails” and others across her 15 studio albums since 1995 with storytelling and cute quips about fashion and tech mostly left in the past: Cassettes and VHS and brads (the pointy brass fasteners that used to bind movie scripts).

For its storytelling and intimacy, the show feels a lot like another staple of the 1990s: “VH1 Storytellers.”

Loeb’s “behind the music” stories included a roller-coaster of an experience writing a song for the 1996 movie “One Fine Day,” starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, which (spoiler alert) ultimately didn’t get into the movie – though director Michael Hoffman years later told her that song, “Truthfully,” was his favorite of hers. The song did make Loeb’s second studio album, “Firecracker,” released in 1997, and she performed it for a crowd who, she said, could imagine it’s about anyone—not just Clooney or Pfeiffer—who fell in love “accidentally.”

Of course, she also performed her breakout hit, “Stay,” released on “Tails” as well as the soundtrack for the 1994 movie “Reality Bites,” which starred her NYC neighbor Ethan Hawke, who directed the music video for the song. She spoke with gratitude and a bit of incredulity about the staying power of “Stay,” including a tongue-in-cheek interpretation by comedian Craig Robinson in “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” in which she herself makes a cameo.

Opening her set to audience requests, Loeb also performed the hit single “I Do” and the lesser-known “Jake,” off the “Firecracker” record, as well as a song off one of her six children’s albums, “The Disappointing Pancake” (“Camp Lisa,” 2008).

For act two, Osborne, dressed all in white, is backed up by Will Bryant on keys and Jack Petruzzelli on guitar, while playing her own acoustic guitar and even percussion on some songs.

Bringing her soulful blues and folk style of rock, Osborne stunned with her powerful vocals, sometimes deliberately strained for effect, such as on “Help Me,” a true blue cover of Sonny Boy Williamson.

She told stories of smoky blues joints like BB Kings’ in NYC, where she absorbed by osmosis the style of the greats. She talked about how she came to collaborate, literally face to face on a shared microphone, with Bob Dylan after he heard her interpretation of “Man in the Long Black Coat” on her first album. She has since recorded a full album, “Songs of Bob Dylan,” and toured with a show called “Dylanology” that is also a live album out this year, on which she collaborated with artists Amy Helm, Jackie Greene and Robert Randolph.

One of the most intimate parts of her set was her song “Nobody Owns You,” which she wrote for her daughter and is the title track on a 2023 album.

Closing with a reflectively soulful and almost somber rendition of “One of Us,” her breakthrough radio hit off “Relish,” she expressed gratitude for the faithful fans who have allowed her to make music a career and a life for 30 years.
We can only hope that both of these incredible singer-songwriters continue to make music for another 30 years.

Rob McCune is Every_Thing_After_Photo on Instagram, where he shares his concert photography and reviews, as well as clips from his “Every.Thing.After” podcast, with interviews with musicians and bands.

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First, there was Willie Watson, a 45-year-old folksinger out of Watkins Glen, New York, who has been making music for two decades that sounds like it genuinely could have come out of a true cowboy, strumming a guitar astride a noble steed, with dusty boots and a well-worn saddle, more than 10 decades ago.
I can’t imagine anyone more authentically folk than Watson, who in addition to three studio albums played a cowboy (or just himself) in the Western comedy anthology “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”
With Sami Braman on violin, the duo sang, strummed, sawed and plucked to tunes to make you want to slap a knee, about love and the devil and how things used to be.

Then Alison Krauss and her band Union Station took over the Arcadia, which is also the name of Krauss’s 15th studio album (her seventh with Union Station), and first since 2011’s chart-topping “Paper Airplane.”
Featuring Krauss on fiddle and lead vocals, Jerry Douglas (Dobro, lap steel, vocals), Ron Block (banjo, guitar, vocals) and Barry Bales (bass, vocals), the band played a stirring mix of old and new songs in a masterclass of bluegrass music.
Krauss and Union Station, between them, have 27 Grammys, and with this new album and tour have made it clear as melted snow that they are far from done.
Rob McCune is Every_Thing_After_Photo on Instagram, where he shares his concert photography and reviews, as well as clips from his “Every.Thing.After” podcast, with interviews with musicians and bands.

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– Auditorium Theatre

Chicago, IL

by Mahrou Senobar

In an era of viral hits and disposable anthems, The Swell Season showed Chicago what timeless music sounds like. On a humid July night at the historic Auditorium Theatre, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová—better known together as The Swell Season—reunited onstage in support of their first new album in over 15 years. The result was a devastatingly beautiful performance that reminded longtime fans—and maybe even the artists themselves—why their music continues to resonate across generations. Their return was more than just a tour stop; it was a moment of emotional reconnection. Fans, many of whom first fell in love with their sound through the 2007 indie film Once, came ready to relive the heartbreak, the harmonies, and the haunting simplicity that made “Falling Slowly” an Academy Award-winning anthem—and a permanent fixture on playlists around the world.

A Reunion Rooted in Growth It’s been over a decade since the Irish-Czech duo last released music together, and even longer since their real-life romance quietly faded. But onstage in 2025, the chemistry remains electric—not romantic, perhaps, but rooted in mutual respect, shared history, and deep musical connection. Their new album, Forward, dropped in June 2025 to critical acclaim. With stripped-back arrangements, introspective lyrics, and a sense of quiet maturity, the project feels like the spiritual sequel to their earlier work—older, wiser, but no less emotionally potent. Songs like “Stuck in Reverse” and “People We Used to Be” carried the weight of time and distance. Yet, in the lush acoustics of the Auditorium Theatre, they felt immediate and raw—proving that the duo’s signature sound still has something powerful to say in today’s musical landscape.

A Setlist Built to Break and Heal The concert’s opening notes were met with a hush from the crowd—a reverent silence, as if everyone instinctively knew they were witnessing something rare. Hansard, with his rugged vocals and fiery guitar strums, set the tone early, while Irglová balanced the set with her soft-spoken elegance and soaring harmonies. They wove classic tracks like “If You Want Me,” “Gold,” and “When Your Mind’s Made Up” into a set that also spotlighted their new material. The transitions were seamless; the old and new speaking to one another like journal entries across time. Hansard’s stage presence remains magnetic—part troubadour, part preacher—while Irglová, seated behind the keys, brought a quiet gravitas that grounded the entire evening. The audience, a cross-generational mix of original fans and newcomers drawn in by social media buzz and playlist algorithms, hung on every note. Backing the duo was longtime Swell Season bassist Joe Doyle and new drummer Piero Perelli, whose sensitive touch on percussion elevated the songs without overpowering them. The result was a fuller sound that still felt intimately handmade.

Music That Lives in the Quiet Places There’s something singular about watching Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová share a stage. They don’t banter much. There’s no flash, no ego, no spectacle. Just two artists meeting one another again in a musical space that seems almost sacred. They may have gone their separate ways personally, but in performance, their connection is palpable—rooted in art, not artifice. Even after all these years, their music still whispers truths that most of us are too afraid to say out loud. That love is complicated. That time can both heal and haunt. That even if you move on, you don’t forget.

A Comeback That’s More Than Nostalgia While many reunion tours trade on sentimentality, The Swell Season’s 2025 comeback feels refreshingly forward-looking. The new album isn’t just a throwback—it’s a musical evolution, and their live performance reflects that. They’re not trying to be who they were in 2007. They’re embracing who they are now—seasoned, scarred, but still singing. And clearly, the world is listening. Their 2025 U.S. tour is generating buzz across streaming platforms, fan forums, and even TikTok, where younger audiences are discovering the power of acoustic storytelling all over again. If you get the chance to see The Swell Season live this year—don’t miss it. You may come for the nostalgia. But you’ll stay for the music that still cuts to the bone.

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Minutes before Goose was set to take the stage at Cleveland’s Jacobs Pavilion, an outdoor concert venue on the bank of the Cuyahoga River, under a canopy of stretched canvas, the sky opened up and a downpour commenced. For the faithful fans safe under cover, it felt a little like being inside a waterfall. As crews scurried to safeguard the stage from seepage, the start of the set slipped past the scheduled 7:30. Luckily, the rain drained out as the sun went down, the Goose was loosed, and the fans and the fun weathered the storm.

The American jam band, in the camp of The Grateful Dead and Phish, were true troopers. They could have called it off. They might have done so legitimately considering some of that stage equipment definitely got wet, and that could be dangerous. This was the second of a two-night gig in Cleveland, so it could even be said that not all of the fans would be left empty-handed without it. Undoubtedly many of the fans in the crowd on the second night were also there the first night.
But Goose never gave up the goose.

In fact, they emerged triumphant, with the perfect trumpet to herald their sticktoitiveness: A cover of Blind Melon’s “No Rain.” I have to think that this song was added to the set, as the opener, in response to the weather. I’d like to think the audible was called in those very rainy minutes before the show was set to start. Even if it was made on the bus on the way to Cleveland, when someone smart and forward-thinking thought to look at the weather forecast.

It’s just more rock-n-roll that way. Even if it didn’t happen that way, it will happen that way in the movie version.

As with just about every song on the set list, Goose sparked lightning with a 15-minute jam on “No Rain” that had the antennaed and tie-died crowd swaying. As amazing to behold as these seasoned and studied musicians are on stage, so are the fans themselves, who are colorfully costumed to show their unbridledly goofy devotion to this band. Many squeezed into the front of the standing-floor section had traveled with the band, and no doubt would have been disappointed to miss even one of two in the same city. There’s a real community around Goose, and it’s vibrant, considerate, large and in charge.

It’s also a good thing that there were no opening acts for these shows. Goose jammed for 2-and-a-half hours, after a 20-minute-later start, on 13 songs including the encore. (That’s an average of 11-and-a-half minutes per song.) After doing essentially the same thing, with a totally different setlist, the night before. Five hours of music on 25 songs. That doesn’t leave much room for an opener.

For night two in Cleveland, the setlist included four cover songs, including “No Rain,” though the Blind Melon one is the only one I was familiar with. The others – “Fish in the Sea” by Fat Freddy’s Drop, “Amongster” by Polica and “Pancakes” by Great Blue – came in what essentially was the second set of the second night of this gig, which included an intermission halfway through each show. That Goose devotes so much of their stage time to the music of others are signs of maturity, confidence and good nature.

The set also included songs from three of the band’s seven studio albums – including the beautiful, bittersweet “How It Ends” and the heartfelt harmony of “Red Bird” from their new 2025 release “Everything Must Go.” The band turned up the energy with party anthem “Flodown,” off the 2021 record “Shenanigans Nite Club,” and leaned into the groove with “Tumble” from 2022’s “Undecided” LP.

An encore of “So Ready” left the crowd still wanting more, after two nights in Cleveland that proved both Goose and their fans are so ready for anything.

Rob McCune is Every_Thing_After_Photo on Instagram, where he posts his concert photography and reviews, as well as clips from the latest Every.Thing.After podcast, which is available to download on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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Charming Disaster, the goth-folk duo comprised of Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris, has released five studio albums since coming together as a band in 2012, including “The Double,” released this year which appropriately is a double album, paired with “Time Ghost,” a collection of singles dropped in 2024. On a recent tour, and before a show at Cleveland’s The Foundry Concert Club, the pair sat down for an interview for the Every.Thing.After (ETA) podcast and UnRated Magazine, when they talked about their fascination with the macabre and love for telling dark tales in a vaudevillian style.

ETA: You’ve cited writer and costume artist Edward Gorey, as well as filmmaker Tim Burton as inspirations for your flair. The animated music video for your latest release looks like it was directed by Tim Burton himself. You’ve performed with circuses and in cemeteries, with storytellers and comedians and puppets. My first question is multi-part: When do you expect the team behind the Netflix series “Wednesday” to call about getting you on the soundtrack? Why are you not only on the soundtrack but in the movie “Sinners,” which features a vampire folk band, and are you in fact vampires? Because I think you have to tell me if you are. Then again, I’ve already invited you in, haven’t I?

Ellia: Those are excellent questions to start with. In reverse order, we cannot disclose our vampire status. That is confidential, but we will tell you that we are 400 years old, so you can do the math.
Jeff: I’m 430.
Ellia: And I’ve seen “Sinners,” Jeff hasn’t yet, but I’m willing to go see it again just so he can. … That’s a great gig, being in the vampire folk band.
Jeff: I think we could fit in a lot of shows; we have a lot of songs. … We are influenced by the vaudeville aspect of musical performance, and that’s very important to us–the dramatic flair. Since there’s only two of us, we try to as much as we can with what we have, and putting on a theatrical-type show is part of it.

ETA: How did you get started as a band, and what are your musical influences?

Jeff: My earlier band called Kotorino was playing in a bar. I was the leader of that band and had six to nine people in the band at any given time. That was my main musical project. And I had just finished a set and someone came up to me and started talking to me about music.
Ellia: Oh yea, that was me. At the time, this was 13 years ago now, I also had a large band of which I was the band leader, songwriter, front-person. My band was called Sweet Soubrette. When I caught Kotorino at the bar that night, sort of by happenstance, I really dug the music. I really dug the songwriting. And I felt a kind of kinship because my band’s composition was kind of similar in that there were strings and horns and keys and drums and bass. It was a kind of parlor rock musical aesthetic with very dark cabaret-ish, lush arrangements. I really felt just a sense that Jeff and I had a lot in common musically so I struck up a conversation.
Jeff: And I thought, great, here’s another band we can share the stage with.

Ellia: Jeff had some crazy idea to try to do a show where all of our band members were on stage at the same time. And the thing about having a large band is it’s a nightmare to herd all the cats; it’s just so much wrangling of people. And I was like, “yea, that’s fine, but what if we started a two-person thing, just the two of us? We could rehearse as much as we want.” And I said, “we should try writing songs together,” which was not a thing that had ever occurred to me to suggest to anybody else ever. It just popped out of my mouth. It possessed me.
Jeff: And I was like, “Wow, I’ve never written a song with anyone before.” So we had a meet, and I got to see her band the following week.
Ellia: Then we had our first band meeting and started writing our first song that very night. That was “Ghost Story,” and we’ve been off and running ever since. This band subsequently eclipsed the other bands because it turned out having a two-person project was so nimble. We were writing a lot of songs and when you are prolific, it’s really hard. It’s very frustrating when you can’t get your band together very much because you have new material, but it takes a while to get good enough to play it out. We were able to just get together all the time and work on stuff, write, practice. Now, 13 years later, Charming Disaster kind of ate the other bands.
Jeff: And two people can fit into a car easily and play a variet of venues.
Ellia: We do still rope those other musicans into our recording sessions, so you will still hear Kotorino and Sweet Soubrette on the Charming Disaster albums here and there.

ETA: Did the two of you feel this connection right away?

Ellia: It was really easy. The night Jeff came and saw my band after I’d seen his band, we had this really long conversation at the bar about dead cats, like our own departed pets. When you can have a dead cat conversation with someone right away, you really know you’re on the same page. And in fact, it’s sort of a funny thing to say, but that conversation touched on a lot of the stuff that is part of our songwriting and our whole aesthetic, meaning mortality and a kind of dark humor, like gallows humor. It was very apparent from the start that we shared a certain sensiblity.
Jeff: After our first meeting, Ellia sent me an email with the first verse of the first song we wrote together. I was immediately like, “oh, she’s serious.”
Ellia: Yea, that’s my signature move. Somebody’s like, “oh it would be so funny to write a song about that time, blah, blah, blah.” And I’m like, “here it is.”
Jeff: She really made me up my game a lot. And I’m still running to catch up.

ETA: That first song wasn’t about your dead cats, was it? Did you ever write a song about your dead cats?

Ellia: We never did write a song about our dead cats. The first song was “Ghost Story,” which is about a living woman who is in love with a ghost, which was the first thing we wrote down on the list of things it would be cool to write a song about for this new project. Because we had this idea that it would be neat to really lean into the two voices thing, both as a musical device and as a narrative device. If you have two characters who have different sides of a story to tell, what are some scenarios that would be fun to explore? Living woman in love with a ghost. Two people have killed someone and they don’t know what to do. Road trip in a stolen car. That kind of stuff, just like regular stuff. It’s funny because our other bands were not so macabre, but it’s such a natural place for me to be in that zone.
Jeff: We wanted to tell stories where there was trouble going on, some sort of trouble, and it’s usually dark. … And we’re both band leaders, so there’s no way that one person is going to take a backseat and just sing backups or do handclaps in the back. We both wanted to be active in pretty much all the songs. So there’s a lot of back and forth and harmonies because that’s really fun. There are so many things you can do with two main vocalists.

ETA: It seems like folk music is really having another moment right now. Between the Bob Dylan movie and now “Sinners,” there’s a lot of stuff coming out that’s really folk-forward. Are you getting any of that buzz translating to you?

Ellia: It’s hard to say. We really occupy a niche, and that niche has been pretty consistent for a long time. If that niche starts to extend more into the mainstream culture, we’re not necessarily aware of it, until (“Sinners” director) Ryan Coogler’s people call us.

ETA: Are there any artists out currently that you would cite as really influential and who you would want to share the stage with sometime?

Ellia: There’s some folks that we have shared a stage with, like Rasputina, Melora Creager’s project. We opened for them back in 2019 on a tour of the Midwest, including in Cleveland at the Beachland Ballroom. And that was great. Melora’s historical storytelling narratives are very much up our alley. PJ Harvey is a big influence.
Jeff: Led Zeppelin is a big influence. The Decembrists and their kind of baroque storytelling style is something that we can jive with pretty well.
Ellia: And there’s also peer bands, other folks we play with and are friends with who really do interesting stuff, like the band Lung, who are another duo. They’re musically quite different from us, but they also are really interested in exploring how much you can do with just two people. We’re fans of the Dust Bowl Fairies, who we’ll be playing with up in Kingston, New York, who also do spooky folk music. There’s lots of people making great music all over, and we feel very lucky to get to play with a lot of those folks.

ETA: Do you think the duo aspect of your band opens up a lot of opportunities for you in terms of booking tours and tour dates?

Ellia: 100,000 percent. We can take advantage of opportunities more easily because there are only two of us, and can clear our schedule if something amaazing comes up. We can play a variety of venues, whether it’s a cult bookshop, a taxidermy store …
Jeff: or a mausoleum, or the Beachland Ballroom. We can fit into a lot of spaces.
Ellia: Even on this tour, we’ve played some more intimate spaces, and we’ve played some bigger concert halls. In St. Paul, we played a place called the Amsterdam Barn Hall, which was a pretty big room, and we can fill it. Our music is big enough to fill it, but we have a small footprint physically, which means our setup and breakdown is pretty straightforward. We don’t have a drum kit so we make a great opener if you have a complex setup as a larger band. All our stuff fits in an SUV. That’s the other thing, financially it’s a struggle to be an independent artist, especially right now. Ticket prices go up a little bit, but there are venues where tickets have always been $10, for the last 30 years. And then, if you’re not spending a lot of money on the tickets, it’s polite to buy a lot of merch. But it means, as a duo, our overhead is low. There’s not a lot of mouths to feed. There are shows we can’t afford to do because of the travel costs, and that’s become a realer thing as we’ve gone along. We understand better what it costs for us to get to a place and do a thing, so we have to say no to some stuff. But when we’re touring, we try to book stuff really back to back so there are efficiencies and we can say yes to smaller shows. Because if you have 10 smaller shows in a row, it actually works.
Jeff: And we’ve seen a lot of other duos who have been doing this for a while.
Ellia: It indicates a certain longevity.
Jeff: Exactly. They’ve figured out how to make a lot of sound with two people and that enables them to continue.
Ellia: There’s a duo called Frenchie and the Punk based in the Northeast in the Hudson Valley, and they do a lot with two people. We just played at the Chicago Steampunk Expo with a duo called Bellhead out of Chicago who also do a lot with just two people.

ETA: Can you share a story about one of your favorite, most-interesting and unique venues that you were able to play?

Jeff: Here’s a tip: It’s really tricky to sell merch at the fetish club because people aren’t wearing pants …
Ellia: and they don’t have any pockets.
Jeff: And they can’t carry their merch around usually. So that’s one thing.
Ellia: And another tip is if you’re playing a former cement mine, it’s gonna be really wet in there because it’s limestone and the water is just always trickling through the rock above you, which means that it’s always basically raining, so you might wanna bring a pop-up tent or something to protect your gear. An umbrella or big hat or just play unplugged because you might electrocute yourself. That’s a pro tip. We’ve played this mine twice, mind you. The fun thing about the mine is also … when they were taking limestone out to turn into cement, they would pump the water out, but since they’re not using it for that anymore, it’s filled back in with water, which means that the place where you perform, right behind the platform, is this vast subterranean lake, which is terrifying to stand in front of because in your mind the whole time, there’s a giant tentacle that emerges from the mysterious depths and just pulls us in.

ETA: You’ve shared a stage with fire-eaters and circus performers. Have you ever singed an eyebrow or gotten too close to the flames?

Ellia: It was a real highlight of that year when we get to MC a fire show at Coney Island. We were like, “guys, you know that we’re not fire performers, right?” But we did come up with some fire bits so that we could kind of participate a little bit.
Jeff: To stall for time as they’re getting their kerosene ready or whatever.
Ellia: We had a creme brulee torch on stage, and we roasted a marshmallow live. It was very exciting. And we did a dance with sparklers, that kind of stuff. There are all these people doing actual real crazy death-defying stunts — eating fire, they’re all aflame — and we’ve got sparklers.

ETA: Do you have any favorite tracks off of this new album, “The Double,” and what is the inspiration behind it?

Ellia: It’s hard to have a favorite track, but there are some that are especially fun to play live. We’ve been really getting to explore that because some of the tracks on the album are songs that we’ve been playing live for a while and others really not until this tour have we been playing them out. I would say “Trick of the Light,” which we’ve been playing out for six months, more or less. That one’s really fun, and is in fact a Dracula-inspired song. “New Moon” has also been really fun to start playing live.
Jeff: “Gang of Two,” which is about two criminals, cons, winding up in jail over and over again. It’s got a lot of time signature changes, which is fun. “Time Machine,” speaking of time, is fun.

ETA: Who did the animation for the music video for “Time Machine”?

Ellia: Summer Purks directed that video and came up with the visual concepts for it as well. She is a recent graduate of Florida State University’s film program and a rising-star animator who may well be the next Tim Burton.

ETA: Can you tell me a little bit about your instruments?

Jeff: This is a 1949 Gibson ES-150, which I use. It works really well. I don’t have to worry about keeping it pristine or anything. I got it pretty beat up and that was a big plus. I love it.
Ellia: My ukulele is a custom build by a maker named Peter Hurney, who’s based on the West Coast. His company is called Pohaku. It says Pohaku on the inside and there’s a lot of other pretty stuff inside where nobody can see except for me. I love that gratuitous detail. It has my portrait inlay on the fretboard, which is the most over-the-top. And it’s my most-precious possession if the house catches on fire — this and the cats.

Watch the full video interview on the Every.Thing.After channel on YouTube or listen to Apple Podcasts. 

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June 5, 2025

The Foundry, Cleveland

Openers: Cowboy Princess Brigade and Super Secret Cult Band

By Rob McCune

CLEVELAND — It wasn’t just a concert. It was a séance disguised as a sideshow under the flickering lights of The Foundry Concert Club. Goth-folk tricksters Charming Disaster descended on the Lakewood haunt June 5, dragging with them two circus acts of glorious oddity — Super Secret Cult Band and Cowboy Princess Brigade — and left behind a trail of swooning devotees and psychic glitter.

YOU’VE BEEN CULT-IFIED Opening rites were handled with tongue firmly planted in cheek by Michigan’s Super Secret Cult Band, whose apocalyptic doo-wop and conspiracy crooning whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Donning robes that screamed “doomsday chic,” the trio sang of necronomicons, lizard overlords, and the kind of dread that dances. Broadway-meets-B-movie energy? Check. Spiritual awakening via satire? Absolutely.

PRINCESS BRIGADE RIDES INTO GLORY Hometown heroes Cowboy Princess Brigade followed with a genre mashup so bold it might’ve been summoned by a spell cast with a banjo. Picture Dolly Parton jamming with the B-52’s after watching too many Food Network mystery basket challenges. With twang, trombone, and a ukulele that refused to be typecast, CPB served up heartbreak ballads and empowerment bangers that had the crowd two-stepping and testifying.

THE DEVIL’S DUO DELIVERS And then came Charming Disaster. Dressed like ghostly prom dates who ran off with the tarot reader, the Brooklyn-based pair turned the joint into a gothic cabaret where every strum, stomp, and stare felt enchanted. With a Gibson from the grave and a deck of cards from the occult, they let fate pick the playlist — a high-stakes game of cabaret roulette featuring “Showgirl,” “Baba Yaga,” and balloon-assisted jailhouse jigs (“Gang of Two”).

Their latest double album The Double (packaged with 2024’s Time Ghost) got serious play, including the Burton-esque “Time Machine” and haunting standouts “Vitriol” and “Haunted Lighthouse.” The whole thing? Mesmerizing, madcap, and maybe a little cursed — in the best possible way.

BOTTOM LINE: This wasn’t just a gig — it was an exorcism with punchlines. Miss it, and your dreams might haunt you.

Robert McCune is a full-time journalist, a part-time photojournalist and an aspiring rock journalist. Follow his journey at every_thing_after_photo on Instagram, and look for the “Every_Thing_After” podcast on Apple and Spotify.

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🎤 Catch more from Charming Disaster on the Every.Thing.After podcast or summon the footage on YouTube. But be warned: once you watch, there’s no unseeing.

Forget your grandpappy’s folk revival. At the Mercury Music Lounge in Lakewood, Ohio, on May 9th, the acoustic guitars weren’t just strumming sweet melodies; they were practically spitting fire. While none bore Woody Guthrie’s legendary “This Machine Kills Fascists” scrawl, you could feel that defiant spirit thrumming in the hands of Frank Turner, Dave Hause, and Katacombs. This wasn’t a gentle singalong; it was a defiant roar, a cathartic release, and a stark reminder that even unplugged, music can still pack a revolutionary punch.

Katacombs, aka Katerina Kiranos, kicked off the night with a sound as unique as her bone-and-wood sculptures. Imagine Tori Amos jamming with Joan Baez after a particularly inspiring trip through different cultures and emotional landscapes. Her debut, You Will Not, is a genre-bending journey, effortlessly shifting from English to Spanish, from quiet introspection to soaring defiance. When she pulled that “magic trick” — a cloud of vape smoke dissolving into a guitar switch from keys — you knew this was no ordinary opening act. Katacombs isn’t just playing songs; she’s building worlds.

Then came Dave Hause, a Philadelphia son who cranked the energy up to eleven. This was punk-folk-rock Americana with a capital “A,” a fist-pumping, heart-on-your-sleeve explosion of sound. “Look Alive” and “Hazard Lights” from his latest, Drive It Like It’s Stolen, resonated with the raw grit of Bryan Adams and the storytelling prowess of Jason Isbell. But Hause isn’t afraid to bleed on stage, either. “Gary,” his raw apology for past bullying, was a gut-punch of vulnerability, a powerful testament to the idea that “hurt people hurt people.” And when his anti-fascist anthem “Dirty Fucker” erupted into a shout-along, the collective anger and frustration in the room was palpable. The subsequent flashlight-waving calm of “Fireflies” was a necessary respite, a communal breath before the storm.

Both Hause and Turner paid heartfelt tribute to their fallen comrade, Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit. Hause wove “The Woodpile” into his own “Low,” while Turner delivered a poignant “The Modern Leper,” a poignant echo of his own tribute to Hutchison, “A Wave Across a Bay.” These moments weren’t just covers; they were acts of communion, a shared grief that bound performers and audience together.

When Frank Turner burst onto the stage in a Black Guy Fawkes tee, anarchy symbols blazing, he wryly quipped, “And you thought you were at a folk concert.” Oh, how wrong they were. Turner, a road-tested veteran with over 3,000 shows under his belt, unleashed a torrent of tracks from his decade-plus discography. From the peppy punk of “Girl From the Record Shop” to the triumphant middle-finger-to-the-haters “Do One” (with a Van Morrison-esque chorus, no less), Turner proved why he’s a master of controlled chaos. His latest, Undefeated, shows he’s still as vital and relevant as ever. And yes, “1933,” his blistering 2018 anti-fascist rallying cry, still carries the same urgent weight: “Don’t go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn.”

No one commands a singalong quite like Frank Turner. It’s not just about the music; it’s about the connection, the collective voice rising in defiance and joy. From the raucous “If Ever I Stray” to the beloved “Ballad of Me and My Friends” and the life-affirming “I Still Believe,” every song was an invitation to participate. Turner’s “fragile ego” may feed on the shouts and hollers, but the audience is more than happy to oblige, knowing they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

The night culminated with “Polaroid Picture,” a stirring call to arms for memory and connection. As Hause and Katacombs rejoined Turner on stage, leading the crowd in a two-part harmony, the message was clear: “Let go of the little distractions, hold close to the ones that you love, cause we won’t all be here this time next year, so while you can take a picture of us.” And in that moment, under the dimmed lights of the Mercury Music Lounge, we did exactly that. We held onto a fleeting, defiant night where the guitars weren’t just killing fascists, they were building bridges, forging connections, and reminding us all that even in the darkest times, rock and roll can still save us all.

Robert McCune is a full-time journalist, a part-time photojournalist and an aspiring rock journalist. Follow his journey at every_thing_after_photo on Instagram, and look for the “Every_Thing_After” podcast on Apple and Spotify.

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Posted: May 08, 2025

MILWAUKEE, WI (May 8, 2025) – Summerfest presented by American Family Insurance has added additional artists to the lineup, since the festival’s initial release in mid-February. Summerfest 2025 takes place over three weekends, June 19-21, June 26-28, and July 3-5.

New additions to the 2025 Summerfest lineup include:

Third Eye Blind, The Mavericks, Malcolm Todd, LANCO, Mike Posner, Hoodie Allen, 311, Badflower, Dorothy, John Oates, John Waite, GROOVY, The Strike, People R Ugly, Sophie Hunter, Cil, Diany Dior, Rachel Bochner,  Landon Smith, Georgie Najar, The Crombies, Cordell Winter, Walt Disco, Local H, Haley Johnson, The Romantics ft. Mike Skill, Tierra Kennedy, Chicken P, Certified Trapper, Immortal Girlfriend, Steve Da Stoner, 414 Big Frank, Caley Conway, and many other national, regional, and local artists. 

Third Eye Blind and The Gufs have been announced for July 5 at BMO Pavilion, the festival’s final day. Reserved tickets go on sale Tuesday, May 13 at 10:00 a.m. at Summerfest.com and Ticketmaster.com(opens in new tab at www.ticketmaster.com) or in person at the Summerfest Box Office. All reserved seat tickets include same-day Summerfest admission.  At the BMO Pavilion, fans can choose between reserved seating (available for purchase) or free general admission on a first-come, first-served basis for all evening headlining shows during Summerfest.

Fans can also experience an elevated concert experience at the Level Up Deck located at the Miller Lite Oasis, overlooking the stage for artists such as The Mavericks, Gary Clark Jr., Mayday Parade, Billy Corgan and the Machines of God, Dispatch, and others. Tickets for Level Up are available now and include admission to Summerfest the day of the show, two complimentary beverages, and access to a private bar, restrooms, and more.

Summerfest pit wristbands are on sale now, online only at Summerfest.com and allow standing-room access to the Generac Power Stage and Miller Lite Oasis. Fans who purchase wristbands will be able to enter the designated pit area starting at 6:00 p.m. Each wristband includes admission to Summerfest and access to the stage pit area for the selected date, for an up-close concert experience with artists including Jack’s Mannequin, Bossman DLow, The Head and the Heart, Gary Clark Jr., Mayday Parade, Whiskey Myers, and many more.

To purchase tickets and view the full lineup, visit Summerfest.com(opens in new tab at summerfest.com). 

(All performances, dates, and times are subject to change)

About Summerfest presented by American Family Insurance
Summerfest presented by American Family Insurance is one of the most iconic celebrations of music in America, hosting the industry’s biggest acts for an unforgettable live music experience.  Since its inception in 1968, Summerfest continues to distinguish itself as a premier independent national music festival and has developed an unrivaled reputation, consistently featuring hundreds of performances across 12 stages, throughout the permanent 75-acre festival grounds along Lake Michigan. Summerfest will take place over three weekends – June 19-21, June 26-28, July 3-5, 2025.   For the latest information, visit Summerfest.com, or Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok: @Summerfest. 

Milwaukee World Festival, Inc., producer of Summerfest, continues to fulfill its nonprofit mission of bringing the community together and providing a showcase for performing arts, activities, and recreation to the public, through music and special events.

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Judah & The Lion

4/6/25

House of Blues, Cleveland

Opener: Ethan Regan

by Robert McCune

I never gave much thought to what it would mean to be in a lion’s den. The biblical story of Daniel never resonated with me, nor did I ever consider the coziness implied by the word “den” juxtaposed with the fierce majesty of lions. But as I stood amidst the “pride” of Judah & The Lion fans at Cleveland’s House of Blues on a Sunday night, the phrase took on new meaning. This wasn’t a den to cower in fear but one to revel in—a sanctuary of sound and community where danger was traded for exhilarating energy and heartfelt storytelling.

Judah & The Lion, the genre-blurring Nashville band, brought their infectious folk-hop fusion to an adoring audience that felt more like family than fans. Opening with a bang, frontman Judah Akers and Brian Macdonald broke convention by performing in the crowd itself—an electric stampede through a sea of hands, cheers, and unity. This unorthodox start embodied what Judah & The Lion is all about: breaking barriers, both figurative and literal, to create music that connects deeply.

The setlist was a sonic safari, leaping from the raw emotion of tracks like “As the Crow Flies,” inspired by personal loss, to the anthemic sing-alongs of “Suit and Jacket” and “Take It All Back 2.0.” But Judah & The Lion isn’t just a band you sing along to; they’re a band that insists you become part of the show. Whether you were shouting along to the crowd-rehearsed “Maybe the Best” or witnessing Judah Akers literally gift a fan the shirt off his back during the encore, it was clear: this band doesn’t perform at its fans—it performs with them.

Adding to the evening’s magic was opener Ethan Regan, who, with his folk-rock twang and masterful banjoist Samantha McKaige, set the tone for what would be a transcendental night. Regan’s sound was reminiscent of Noah Kahan, giving the audience a delightful taste of what lies ahead for the promising musician.

This wasn’t just a concert—it was a communal experience, blending high-energy stadium-worthy moments with intimate, prayer-circle-like reflections. Akers’ poignant storytelling, paired with the band’s unique genre-spanning sound, proved Judah & The Lion’s mastery of making music that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.

Judah & The Lion’s live performance doesn’t just showcase their talent—it magnifies it in a way recordings can’t. If you’ve only heard them on Spotify or the radio, you’ve yet to truly hear them. Their energy, passion, and connection with fans are impossible to replicate outside the live setting, making every concert a must-see event.

As the Lion left the stage with wisdom to carry into everyday life—eat more chocolate, be kind to others, and listen to more Judah & The Lion—you couldn’t help but feel a part of something larger. This wasn’t just a show—it was a roaring celebration of what it means to feel alive.

Setlist
Spirit
Heartbreak Syndrome
Quarter-Life Crisis
Anger
Floating in the Night
scream!
Over My Head
Rich Kids
Suit and Jacket
Is What it Is
My Own Worst Enemy(Lit cover)
Snap Yo Fingers(Lil Jon cover)
As the Crow Flies
Only Want the Best
Revival
Long Dark Night
Alright (frick it!)
Going to Mars / Help Me To Feel Again(Snippets)
Take It All Back

Encore:
Maybe the Best Is Now
Maybe the Best Is Now (Played a second time to record)
sportz

Robert McCune is a full-time journalist, part-time photojournalist and aspiring rock journalist and podcaster. Follow his journey on Instagram at every_thing_after_photo

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