Today in Rogers Park - March 30th, 2013

Today in Rogers Park is a series to inform our community of relevant daily events, including the arts, entertainment, presentations and community meetings. - Bill Morton 


Mayne Stage - Sound Culture presents: lePercolateur CD Release
1328 W. MORSE AVENUE CHICAGO, IL. 60626

WEBSITE | Phone: 773.381.4554

With a nod to the historic past of this grand facility, Mayne Stage features a restaurant (Act One Pub) and performance space that reflects the unique and diverse history of Rogers Park. Mayne Stage is happy to present a variety of terrific acts in its 230-seat multipurpose entertainment venue.
“A sly and surprising gypsy-jazz quintet who apply that idiom to modernistic pop tunes, as well as vintage jazz composition”
– Neil Tesser, Chicago Examiner
Beckoned by the dulcet tones of violin, bass, and the female voice spiraling through the darkness, the stranger was helplessly drawn towards the last lit trailer in camp that seemed to have sprung forth from another time. This chance meeting’s outcome: lePercolateur.
Fueled by coffee black as the night the musicians played ’til the sun began painting the eastern horizon red, and carnival rose ’round them from the ether.
Winding their caravan through the windiest of cities, lePercolateur has spent the time since this fateful night sweeping in to transport concert-goers to a time where music was a liberating and cathartic respite from persecution–where the frenetic energy of struggling to simply ‘be’ coalesced with the unbridled spirit of gypsy music and burgeoned into swing dancing.




Red Line Tap - 312 Presents Michael McDermott / Kevin Mileski 7006 N. GLENWOOD AVENUE CHICAGO, IL 60626

WEBSITE 

The Red Line Tap hosts music up to 7 nights a week featuring local and national acts on stage, from their resident band the Mudflapps, to Micki’s open mic and all sorts of great shows daily, Red Line Tap has something  for everyone!

The anthemic, arena-filling "Scars From Another Life" (from his forthcoming album Hit Me Back) paints the a picture of how far singer-songwriter Michael McDermott has come:  "I was so down... I had completely lost my way / When I hit Broadway I began to realize / That all they are are scars from another life." His life since becoming a recording artistfull of myriad highest highs, gutter-skimming lows, and absolute rock bottoms of the past two decadescould read like a screenplay, but with stories so ridiculously outlandish that they couldn't possibly be true.
All of it.. the addiction, the failed relationships, the financial dramas, the career hurdleshave left plenty of scars, but McDermott's moving on, moving up, and taking charge.  He makes no excuses for his pastit has made him who he is todaybut sings to everyone listening (and to himself):  "Don't run away, they're scars from another life." 
It's been quite a ride since singer/songwriter Michael McDermott unleashed his debut, 620 West Surf, but one might even go so far as to say that his 2012 release, Hit Me Back, represents the work of a new artist:  for the first time in his recording career, McDermott is a father, a philanthropic entrepreneur, and has experienced the loss of an adored parent.  All are major life changes which have found achingly honest expression in his songs. 
 Hit Me Back also exudes McDermott's trademark embrace of faith and hope in the face of adversity.  The lyrics are, as always, uniquely evocative: McDermott sings in poetry; his tunes are literate story-songs.  On the haunting "Ever After," he offers the listener palpable insight into the jarring confusion and doubt felt in the days that followed his mother's passing (in October 2011).  The wryly observed title track puts a new spin on fighting a long-time nemesis, alcohol.  His demon-banishing in the aforementioned "Scars From Another  Life" is echoed in the love-is-redemption refrains of "Let It Go."  The exploration of temptation and bowing to its siren call is explored in the Americana-laced "A Deal With The Devil." Influenced by such musical giants as Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, McDermott exhibited a talent for mature and lyrically dense songwriting that soon caught the eyeand earof then-talent scout Brian Koppelman (now a screenwriter, novelist, director, and producer; best known as the co-writer of "Ocean's Thirteen" and "Rounders"), who immediately signed him to Giant Records.  That first album, 620 West Surf, boasted a Billboard Hot 100 charting single, ("A Wall I Must Climb"). McDermott continued to write introspective, character-driven songs that won him an enduring band of appreciative followers.  In the liner notes for McDermott's self-titled album, bestselling author Stephen King wrote:  "Michael McDermott is one of the best songwriters in the world and possibly the greatest undiscovered rock 'n' roll talent of the last 20 years."
 The recording industry shakeup that marked the mid-1990s left McDermott without a contract, and awash in debt and self-doubt.  "Throughout the years, I had continued to feel like I was on a mission, of sorts, singing spiritual songs," he once said, "but never really feeling good about the other elements of my life."  McDermott released five more albums in the next decade, some with label distribution, others independently.  He also continued playing live shows, and riding a personal rollercoaster of addiction, recovery, and sometimes-misplaced ambition.  
 Having at last become more comfortable in his own skin, scarred but smarter, McDermott has in recent years begun to make more life-affirming choices.  He has launched his own coffee line, with sales from each bag of his two signature blends providing meals for seven children.  Understandably, he's found positive inspiration in his wife, Heather Horton (whom he married during a tour stop in Italy in May 2009), and the birth of their daughter, Rain (in July 2010).  And he's once again a signed artist, this time with New Jersey label, Rock Ridge Music, who will be releasing his forthcoming album.  McDermott and wife Horton (a gifted musician/vocalist), and producer CJ Eiriksson (engineered albums for U2 and Matchbox 20, as well as McDermott's 2007 album Noise From Words) spent a whirlwind eight days in the studio to record Hit Me Back.
Of course, recent positive inspiration doesn't mean he's forgotten his tumultuous past or that he no longer faces present struggles. For McDermott, a performer and storyteller to the depths of his soul, his connection with fans and his uncanny ability to communicate universal truths through his own personal experiences are helping fade the many of the scars that remain.  The demons aren't gone; he's just found a place for them to dwell in peace.  It is coming to terms with those demons and putting them in their place that continues to fuel his art ever further.

HEADS UP

Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce 4 Year Anniversary Celebration.

All Rogers Park businesses, organizations, institutions, community leaders, and residents are invited to meet and greet as the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce celebrates four years of supporting and unifying Rogers Park businesses.

This event will be hosted at Quest Network Services, 7301 N. Sheridan Road. Guests will be warmly welcomed to short (10-15 minutes) presentations by local businesses and service organizations and served tastes from restaurants and cafes of our neighborhood.

This is a public event on Saturday, April 13th, 2013 from 12 noon - 7pm. RSVP calls to (773) 850-0049 are encouraged. RSVP's to facebook and walk-ins are OK. This is a free community event.
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