Big Names on the Street
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“My memory of street fairs was that you would have the bar-band mentality. It was like there were bands that were on the street-fair circuit,” says Eleventh Dream Day’s Rick Rizzo. “When I called [bassist] Doug [McCombs] to ask him to do it, he said, ‘Do we really want to do a street fair?’ When I told him that Calexico and Archer Prewitt, people we knew, were also playing, he said OK. It also pays more than a regular show.”
The community groups behind neighborhood street fairs usually hire outside companies to book talent, organize vendors, handle security, and advertise. This year the West Loop Gate Community Organization, which puts on Taste of Randolph Street, raised the bar by hiring Jam Productions, the city’s biggest independent concert promoter. “It seemed like a natural to partner with Jam to create an event at a level much higher than people typically expect from street festivals,” says Eric Sedler, president of the organization. “If you have really high-quality entertainment you’re going to get a bigger turnout, the restaurants will make more money, there will be more people making donations, and everybody will do well.” In recent years his event–which requests a donation ranging from six bucks before the music starts to ten once it’s under way–has drawn an estimated 30,000 people.
A few weeks ago Mitch Marlow stepped down as talent buyer at Nevin’s Live, Evanston’s first rock club. He’d been booking the venue since it opened in April 2001. Burned out by the grind of booking a club full-time, he’s now managing a young mod-inspired rock band from Deerfield called the Pages, who will release their debut album in July on Undertow Records. Filling his position at the club is Chris Anderson.
