I have been a fan of The Roots , the amazing hip hop band out of of Philadelphia (best known as the house band on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” ), for many, many years, but I had never seen them live until this past Saturday night at Ravinia  (with Digable Planets  and Arrested Development ) and WOW. Some Background I became obsessed with hip hop around 1987 and it was my favorite genre of music until the mid-late 90s when I felt it began lose its edge, get repeti

Buffalo Tom is a great band out of Boston that had a pretty nice run in the early 90's when grunge and alt-rock took off, even though they don't really fit into either of those categories. Buffalo Tom on the marquee of the Metro in Chicago They had a couple of hit albums and some singles and videos that made a splash or two (and a song featured in the ABC series "My So-Called Life"), but they never really took off like they should have. They are a truly GREAT rock band that

Yes, as strange as it sounds, there is in fact, a musical based on J.R.R. Tolkien' s trilogy of books, the same books that inspired Peter Jackson's magnificent trilogy of movies. When I first heard about this thing, I was immediately skeptical and expected the worst. I mean, how on earth can you condense Tolkien's sprawling work down to three hours? And still have time for musical numbers? And, who the hell wants to see Frodo and Gandalf sing and dance? I know I didn't. Well,