Beginning Friday (and for the next 3 successive Friday's after that), I will be bringing my show live out on the road to a neighborhood near you. Dubbed "Friday Night Live!" (get it?), my first stop will be this Friday (September 14th) at Cullinan's Stadium Club at 116th & S. Western (11610 S. Western) on the south side from 7pm - 12midnight. I will have Steve Vai concert tickets, Blackhawks tickets, premiere movie passes and lots of Loop gear to give away. The folks at Budweiser (who are sponsoring the tour) will have lots of drink specials, and you can of course then make your requests live from the bar! Come on out, bring your friends and join the party. Hope to see you there!

Took in some more great Loop shows lately. Cheap Trick played Naperville's Last Fling celebration, and it was a blast. Some 10,000 Loop listeners packed the hill near the riverfront on a beautiful evening for an energetic headline set from Robin, Rick, Tom and Bun E. Somewhat miraculously, Robin Zander's voice has survived years of road work perfectly intact as he tackled their new songs as well as their classics with equal aplomb. After I brought them on stage and checked out the show, a cocktail party-like atmosphere ensued afterwards. Tom Petersson and I shared some laughs about dating the same girl (not at the same time, though!) and I had a chance to catch up with the rest of the guys as well in the casual atmosphere. Great fun, contagious show. Cheap Trick is still a rush.

(See Cheap Trick perform "Surrender" here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pD8ymBR2Ufo)

(See Cheap Trick perform "Ain't That A Shame" here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_E5L4MwMzzM)

Speaking of which, Rush stepped on stage after an introduction from me to a deafening roar from the 20,000 + Loop listeners at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre this past Saturday night. Another crown jewel in the Loop's 30th Anniversary Concert Series, Rush was welcomed in a near delirious fashion. The band played many rarely-heard-in-concert gems like "Circumstances" as well as a healthy dose of numbers from their latest effort "Snakes & Arrows", just as Geddy Lee had promised they would on my show the previous week. The guys were uber excited to be playing Chicago again, and it showed. Geddy filmed some shots of the audience from the stage with his personal camcorder "for the folks back home", and Alex Lifeson was bouncing around like a pogo-stick on caffeine. Even the usually all-business Neil Peart was pulling faces and grinning from ear-to-ear as he furiously pounded out the best licks heard on drums since John Bonham and Buddy Rich. As they have on recent tours, the visual gags were in ample evidence this time around too, with big-screen song introductions from SCTV's "Bob & Doug"and "South Park" and three chicken rotisserie's (complete with attending chef) where Geddy's bass amps usually would be. All-in-all, it was a brilliantly delivered "evening with Rush" (no opening act needed), with great sound AND fun sights. Give 'er! Beauty, eh!

(See Geddy Lee of Rush clown around here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gwpGXfHmY-A)

(See a fan's terrific home-made video for Rush's latest "Far Cry" here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=G-6SZZv91_w)