Here’s another show for which we recently gave away some free tickets! Keep listening for more chances to win more tickets! If you didn’t catch indie rapper Sage Francis last Wednesday at Bottom Lounge, here’s some of what you missed:

We caught B. Dolan opening up for Sage Francis:

Really great stuff. He’s on Strange Famous and a bit like Sage but a lot more aggressive. After performing his first song, Dolan acknowledged that both him and Sage Francis were big white guys with bald heads, but assured the audience that there was a difference between the two, explaining that his job was to “shower you with negativity” before Sage came on.

Here’s a provocative track that Dolan performed on Wednesday, explaining that in this post-racial world, he no longer refers to white people and the people in charge as “white people”, but now calls them “Earthmovers”:

But Dolan wasn’t all negativity. Despite his angsty delivery and subject matter, he was actually a lot of fun, and maintained a very fun, high energy atmosphere for his entire set. So uhh…here’s when he stripped off his clothes and got dressed up as Evel Knievel and proceeded to jump over an audience member:

Very Dramatic.

Next up was Sage Francis and he came on in this wig:

Don’t ask why. But heres just another image displaying how the Strange Famous folks, while often talking about really serious shit, still know how to maintain some levity and bring a fun exciting show to their audience. Is this how you get important message out to the masses? Maybe. Another theory is that these dudes are just off their rockers and like to wear wigs and mix political and social commentary in with the occasional absurd Natalie Portman obsession.

You’re probably more familiar with Sage Francis so we won’t throw a video at you here, but he did put on a really good performance. Sage played a lot of new stuff, but also some crowd favorites including high energy versions of Broken Wings, Specialist, Sea Lion, and Crack Pipes all complimented/backed by the really tight, full live band, Free Moral Agents (featuring Ikey Owens of Mars Volta) instead of yer average backing track, DJ, or drum kit.

Thanks for czechin’ in and make sure to find us on facebook and listen at 88.3 FM so you can stay updated on more free tickets to come! (Like the pair we’ll be giving away for Evelyn Evelyn at Park West, June 2nd!)

Peace, Love, and Freeform!

Last month we had the pleasure of giving away a few free pair of tickets to see Devotchka and Gogol Bordello at the Congress Theater, and checking out the show ourselves. Devotchka put on a beautiful and electrifying show with their freeform menagerie of Romani, Slavic, Greek, Bolero, Mariachi, Folk, and Punk sounds. Here’s what our lucky ticket winners got to experience:

Vocalist Nick Urata

Jeanie Schroder on sousaphone

The aerialist alone made for an amazing show. High up, between only two curtains(?), dancing her way through Devotchka’s set. Those guys really know how to create an atmosphere.

Can you spot the theramin? Yes, he did play an awesome theramin solo.

Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello!

Violinist Sergey Ryabtsev = awesome.

Cheers!

Although Gogol Bordello has gotten a fair amount of mainstream attention lately, they’re still a favorite of at least a few WZRD staffers for their commitment to eclectic sounds, their amazing live show, and the diverse crowd they always draw, full of hardcore Slavs, punks, and “regular folk”, who, in the end, all find themselves united- dancing, soaking in unbelievably energetic encores, sweat-drenched, happily falling into one another after moshing, dancing…hora-ing all night.

Oh by the way:

Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello) -  WZRD Station ID

———

Keep on listening to 88.3 WZRD Chicago and make sure to follow us on Facebook for updates on free tickets and promotions!

Coming up we’ll be giving away tickets to:

• Tim Fite at Schuba’s - May 23rd
• Evelyn Evelyn (Jason Webley, and Amanda Palmer as conjoined twins!) at Park West - June 2nd
• Brazillian Girls, Rye Rye, Designer Drugs and Deadmau5 at Soldier Field - July 2nd

WZRD out!

So it’s been a couple weeks since C2E2 and we figured we should finally post some of our experience.

This was C2E2’s first year and we’d say it was a big success. C2E2 offers everything “from a show floor packed with hundreds of exhibitors, to panels and autograph sessions giving fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators, to screening rooms featuring sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either the big or small screen”.

We got to meet some of our favorite artists and writers and they did us the favor of drawin’ us some pictures! Check ‘em out! (Click images for full size/more detail)

Comic book writer and filmmaker Greg Pak is the writer for Incredible Hulk and Incredible Hercules, among many other contemporary classics,  but did us the favor of drawing a WZRD Wizard for us anyway! He was such an overwhelmingly nice dude!

Jon Alderink was in the Artist’s Alley offering free headshots so a wizard asked him to draw “Daredevil in anguish” (as if there was any other sort of Daredevil), for WZRD.  Oh man we love Daredevil— and this sketch! Him and his wife were really fun folks and were nothing but helpful showing us into the world of comics. Can’t wait to read more books drawn by Alderink! Checked into some of his other stuff, and his style is very flexible and exciting- we like!

Writer and artist David Mack made this beautiful thing for us. Mack brings a very unique style to every project he’s involved in. Quite possibly the most ‘freeform’ comic book artist we can think of, his artistic style varies greatly throughout the SEVEN volumes of his series, Kabuki. He also wrote an arc and drew an arc for Daredevil, bringing a refreshing thoughtful and gentle beauty to the superhero genre with his atypical paneling, watercolors, and self-styled lettering. If you’re at all interested in comics, David Mack is a great place to start…and end for that matter. Check out some preview pages of his Kabuki books here.

WZRD would like to thank these guys from the bottom of our hearts for all the beautiful custom pictures! They’re going straight up on the walls of the studio.

While comics are getting a lot more mainstream attention than they did, say, five years ago, there’s still a whole world left unexplored in the comic book realm. Even in the superhero genre, which has garnered more attention in recent times, there is a lot left to explore with lots of very creative artists and writers building unique and interesting stories and characters (David Mack’s along with Brian Michael Bendis, and Alex Maleev’s Daredevil runs being great example)

We’d like to have covered more on alternative press and independent artists/publishers as well and wish we’d have spent more time in the web comics area—we can’t wait till next year!  The next C2E2 will take place in Spring, 2011.