Riot Fest announced Wednesday that it is moving to SeatGeek Stadium in the southwest suburb. The music festival will run from Sept. 20-22 — conflicting with the Sept. 21 Red Stars-San Diego Wave match. The decision drew ire from Red Stars leadership, which is now scrambling to find a new home for a nationally broadcast match in a whiplash moment only days after drawing a league-record crowd for a match at Wrigley Field.

“It’s devastating,” team President Karen Leetzow told the Tribune. “It’s devastating to have to go from that kind of a high to this kind of a low, to tell your staff and players that this is the level of respect we’ve gotten immediately after delivering that event.”

Bridgeview mayor Steven Landek first informed the Red Stars in early May of a potential need to vacate the stadium for the Sept. 21 game. Following an initial conversation, the Red Stars never received a follow-up or logistical support from the mayor’s office, even after reaching out for clarification, sources told the Tribune. The Red Stars found out Bridgeview was moving forward with plans to use the stadium on that date when a lawyer with Riot Fest reached out to the club earlier this month in regards to signing a contract with the village. The Tribune left a message for Landek seeking comment on the situation.

The current lease allows for SeatGeek and the city to host ancillary events at the same time as Red Stars games. However, the lease specifies that the stadium must be available for the specified use, which includes parking and accessibility to the stadium. The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game.

As of Wednesday, the Red Stars had not received any information on the logistics of how the events would be able to coexist on match day or even how Riot Fest planned to use the space.

The Red Stars have not located a new venue for the match and aren’t certain they will have an appropriate replacement on the same date. The Cubs play host to the Nationals on Sept. 21 at Wrigley Field while the White Sox will be on a six-game swing in California, leaving Guaranteed Rate Field unoccupied. Neither the Bears nor Fire plays at Soldier Field on that date, but sources told the Tribune that the Red Stars have been informed the stadium will not be available. Even if the Red Stars find an appropriate replacement venue, the cost could be prohibitively steep.

If the Red Stars are able to find a new location for the game, the club would want fees and costs to relocate and broadcast the match nationally to come from the involved parties forcing their game out of the stadium. But the club has not received any assurances that either party would contribute to mitigate these costs, sources told the Tribune.

The game holds heightened stakes for the Red Stars and the NWSL as it is slated for a national broadcast on Ion. This complicates the logistics for use of the parking lot amid the festival. Only five of the remaining Red Stars regular-season games are scheduled for a national broadcast.

“It is unfair and unfortunate to have our club put in this situation, shining a light on the vast discrepancies in the treatment of women’s professional sports versus men’s professional sports,” Leetzow said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring our players and fans have a first-rate experience on and off the pitch, and we are working diligently to find a solution that will ensure our September 21st game is a success.”

The conflict comes at a turning point for the Red Stars, who on Saturday drew a league-record 35,038 fans at Wrigley Field for a match against Bay FC.

Photos: Chicago Red Stars set NWSL attendance record at Wrigley Field

The Red Stars have played at SeatGeek since 2016. The stadium’s distance from the city center and lack of transit access have been key points of criticism for the franchise as the team continues to slip behind competitors in attendance. The Chicago Fire in 2019 paid more than $60 million to leave SeatGeek for Soldier Field.

The Red Stars’ SeatGeek lease will expire at the end of 2025. New ownership helmed by Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts has made it clear that relocating the franchise to a stadium inside the city limits is a driving goal for the organization.

Riot Fest — which will be headlined by Beck, Public Enemy, the Marley Brothers and Fall Out Boy — had been a source of contention for residents in North Lawndale since its relocation to Douglass Park in 2015, and before that with locals in Humboldt Park since 2012.

The three-day music festival is moving to Bridgeview, running Sept. 20-22 at SeatGeek Stadium, 7000 S. Harlem Ave. Tickets (2-DAY and 3-DAY) are on sale at 11 a.m. Wednesday at riotfest.org.

Other bands and performers include Michael C. Hall with his band Princess Goes, Spoon, Manchester Orchestra (performing their 2014 album “Cope”), Oliver Tree, Sum 41, Cypress Hill, Waxahatchee, New Found Glory, Something Corporate, Tierra Whack, Taking Back Sunday, Lamb of God, Mastodon (performing “Leviathan”), Hot Mulligan, Beach Bunny, The Hives, Suicidal Tendencies, L.S. Dunes, Basement, State Champs, Poison the Well, Gwar, Clutch, Rival Sons, Health, Descendents, Circle Jerks, Pennywise, The Lawrence Arms, Face to Face, Buzzcocks, Laura Jane Grace with Catbite, Dillinger Four, Lagwagon, The Vandals, All Strung Out, Dead Milkmen, D.O.A., The Dickies, Codefendants, Cobra Skulls, Swingin’ Utters, The Defiant, The Exploited, Urethane, Get Dead and Doomscroll. The full lineup includes some 90 bands.

The Riot Fest 2024 Lineup is here.
2-DAY + 3-DAY Tickets on sale now. https://t.co/y6Es7qgAmd pic.twitter.com/ym2sTc0vC0

— Riot Fest (@RiotFest) June 12, 2024

The announcement of the move Wednesday dubbed the new location RiotLand, and came after a social media statement from Riot Fest founder Mike Petryshyn late Tuesday that the annual three-day music festival would no longer be held in Douglass Park in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Riot Fest had been held there since 2015, before that in Humboldt Park since 2012.

Before Riot Fest’s move, the annual Summer Smash music festival of hip hop relocated in 2023 from Douglass Park to SeatGeek Stadium, with this year’s Summer Smash taking place there this coming weekend.

Riot Fest to leave Douglass Park following years of community tension, founder says

Petryshyn said the Chicago Park District was “solely” responsible for the festival’s move, and thanked Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, for her support of the event. Though Scott said the local community supported Riot Fest, some had criticized it and some other big music events for taking over portions of city parks and fencing them off from the surrounding community.

The SeatGeek Stadium campus, which is owned by the local village of Bridgeview, has hosted other music festivals in the past. Along with the stadium, the location has a number of surrounding sports fields with artificial turf that have been used for stages.

Although it has a large parking lot, the location is some 15 miles southwest of downtown and is not easily accessible by public transportation, requiring a Pace bus transfer from the the Midway Orange Line CTA station. A Getting to RiotLand page on the festival’s website said that information about shuttles was coming soon.

Riot Fest will also include its usual array of food, drink and merchandise vendors, as well as the the Wedding Chapel, vintage arcade games and the Hellzapoppin’ Circus Sideshow Revue. A Q101 Radio Tower is described as “a nostalgic tribute to an iconic radio station.” The Cabaret Metro Stage is named after the Chicago music venue. Riot Fest also promised an NOFX World stage, a skate ramp and an operating casino.

Scott issued a further statement early Wednesday, saying that Park District permission for Riot Fest to remain in Douglass Park had been scheduled for a board meeting Wednesday but the decision had come too late.

She also called community opposition to the festival a “false narrative” and said inequities to the community were a wider problem.

“For the past eight years. Riot Fest has been a cornerstone of positive impact and opportunity in our community. The festival has worked closely with our office. community organizations. and numerous stakeholders to develop a plan that resulted in unprecedented benefits for the local community. Their significant investments in our youth, small businesses and residents have greatly contributed to the well-being and vibrancy of the 24th Ward,” the statement read in part. “My constituents have expressed their concerns about the vast financial inequities that exist in parks located in predominantly Black neighborhoods versus others. Despite the substantial payments made by Riot Fest over the years, local stakeholders believe the promised reinvestment into our community is insufficient.”

dgeorge@chicagotribune.com

Riot Fest will move from Douglass Park in North Lawndale to a new location set to be revealed Wednesday, its founder shared on social media Tuesday night.

The multiday punk, rock and hip-hop festival has occurred in Douglass Park since 2015, but tensions among festival management and residents have mounted in recent years over issues including complaints of lack of access to the park and disruptions to the neighborhood by a music festival.

Founder Mike Petrynshyn promised to unveil a new concept he called “RiotLand” Wednesday morning in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the statement, Petrynshyn thanked Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, for her support of the event and said that the Chicago Park District was “solely” responsible for the festival’s move.

“Their lack of care for the community, you and us ultimately left us no choice,” the statement said.

Scott, for her part, also pinned the move on “challenges” with the Park District as she expressed her support for the festival’s organizers in a statement Tuesday evening. The city department granted the festival approval months late, she said.

“This unnecessary and inappropriate delay in the process, among many other issues, has led to critical setbacks in areas that include, but are not limited to, operational, financial, and community initiatives,” Scott said.

The festival had earned widespread community support with “unprecedented benefits for the local community,” she added. She called the opposition to the festival a “false narrative” and said it came from “only a small group of people,” some of whom do not live in the neighborhood.

The 2024 lineup and ticket sales for the festival running Sept. 20 through 22, will be released Wednesday at 10 a.m, according to the festival announcement.

Albeit, music that buzzes and whines, thrums and fizzes. Music that crackles and pulses, rustles and hums like an industrial fan set too high. Music that clomps along with a rhythmic ththththththth, and a wooawhoowooa whoowooawhoo, and sometimes an Eee….erer Eee…erer Eee…erer. Music goes WEEEooo WEEEooo and sounds like a metal sheet in the wind.

That may not sound like music to many of you, but know that in the South, there have been news reports recently of residents calling 911 to complain about the incessant shrill of the cicadas. And that is exactly how a lot of people react to loud, discordant sounds that they don’t understand.

Also known as … music.

But this, you can’t dance to, and there is no melody nor lyrics.

Unless you count the word “pharaoh,” which some say is the sound of the cicadas. “You just can’t hear the tail end of the word, so it all blends together into a wave of ‘pharaohs,’ ” said David Rothenberg, a professor of philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who has a side gig as an experimental musician. He likes to collaborate with nature. Mockingbirds, whales. He’s arriving in Chicago on Wednesday to spend a week jamming with midwestern cicadas in public parks and open fields. He began playing with Illinois insects — him on clarinets and flutes, them on their buggy anatomy — about 13 years ago, and returns whenever a cicada brood emerges.

As collaborators, cicadas are patient, he said.

They don’t fly away. “It’s actually humbling,” he said. “You become one musician among millions, billions. You are one more sound. You fade into their drone. A lot of people think it’s ridiculous, of course, but I always think it’s good for a musician to recognize they are not the center of attention. People will say that this is not music, but then someone else is completely moved by the sound.”

Rothenberg even regards the 13- and 17-year sleep of cicadas as making a form of music, “if you think of it as being performed at a very slow rhythm.” Or, perhaps, as cicadas covering composer John Cage, whose famous piece, “4’33”,” was the long silence and incidental environmental sounds that came from just sitting in front an audience for four minutes and 33 seconds.

As for me, depending on where I am in the Chicago area these days, I also hear a theremin, that weird electronic instrument that requires its player to wave around their arms like a conductor.

Think: the spooky ethereal whirring of UFOs in 1950s sci-fi.

But sometimes I hear the hypnotic oscillation of the great 1970s punk act Suicide. And when several breeds of cicadas clash at once, I imagine the feedback tsunamis of Sonic Youth and Neil Young‘s Crazy Horse. Or even Lou Reed’s noise rock landmark “Metal Machine Music.” Other times I hear the synth soundtracks of old John Carpenter movies, or Michael Mann’s “Thief,” which blew up the Green Mill lounge in Uptown, arguably, symbolically, dislodging jazz.

You get musical variety with cicadas because different breeds produce different kinds of sounds. The result can be a wall of sound, which is also the name given to the recording style of Phil Spector, the famous producer and convicted murderer, whose 1960s classics came off so crowded with instrumentation it was hard to tell where one player ended and another began.

Cicadas sound like that.

Ryan Dunn, whose longtime Wicker Park art space Tritriangle occasionally plays host to hard-to-categorize noise makers, sees a degree of overlap with the music of cicadas: “In many ways, (experimental music) tends to have so much more in common with natural soundscapes, because it doesn’t hem to familiar, preestablished structures of Western music. And animals and insects in nature don’t, either. They are just trying to find a way to be heard the best.”

Chicago-based sound artist Kiku Hibino, whose work is typically heard in spaces like the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Lincoln Park Conservatory, has made a career of drawing connections between the sounds created by nature and electronically created music. He grew up in Japan, often surrounded by cicadas, he said. He would collect their light green shells,  and he remembers the way cicadas chirped playfully whenever he tried to catch them. He describes their late summer song as going something like: “tsuku tsuku boshi.”

The analog synthesizer he favors for his art sounds suspiciously like the high-frequency calls of cicadas. He figures that’s because he never really shook loose childhood memories of the bugs.

In tone and sound, he said, “they are the complete opposite of electronic music in the fundamental way they produce sound. Electronic musicians think with our brains, and create sounds with synthesizers and then send them out to speakers. The cicada is different. Its entire body is a synthesizer with speakers.”

Specifically, a cicada contains a drum-like organ called a tymbal that includes a set of muscles that it pulls inward and snaps back at a rate of 300 to 400 times a second to create its songs.

The result — assuming their volume is quieter than a jet engine — can be meditative, and indistinguishable from the ambient soundscapes of artists like Brian Eno and Philip Glass.

Chicago-based StretchMetal is a record label and booking business that focuses on ambient music. Its signature project is an eight-hour-long Drone Sleepover during which the audience curls up — and usually sleeps — for a dusk-to-dawn concert of uninterrupted electronic droning. Once a month at the Hideout, StretchMetal also stages Drone Rodeo, a two-hour version.

Unlike many electronic artists, Gray Schiller, who curates and runs StretchMetal, said he doesn’t really distinguish between naturally-created and synthesized ambient sounds. The buzz of the cicada may be a “more literal manifestation of the natural world,” he said, but then, “the capacitors inside our synthesizers are made of clay. Our electronics wouldn’t hold power if they weren’t connected to ground or batteries composed of wet earth.”

Take comfort: Cicada season may be nearing its peak in Illinois, but the song of the (recorded) cicada plays on forever, no further than Spotify, where the ambient “First Summer Cicadas” has been streamed more than 181,000 times and “Cicada Sounds” has more than 168,000 listens.

On the other hand, you know who didn’t have Spotify?

The Greek poet Meleager of Gadara, who called the cicada “shrill-voiced.” Or Aesop, who thought of the cicada’s music as a free symphony. Or Margaret Atwood, way up in Canada, who probably has Spotify, but also once wrote of the insect perfectly, as emerging with “the yammer of desire, the piercing one note of a jackhammer, vibrating like a slow bolt of lightning.”

Each of those artists heard a natural performer where others heard a natural pest.

When Hibino was studying music in college, a professor in his first composition course played him a piece of abstract music and asked what he heard. He said he heard a giraffe. He heard a pepper mill grinding. Also, he heard cicadas. No, the professor revealed, it was just white noise.

But for Hibino, “It was my big aha moment, knowing sound can capture a human imagination.”

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

She said in an Instagram video that she was hurt when she went there to pay her respects on Friday, which would have been his 66th birthday, but was not let into a studio. She said that it “won’t take away the joy that he and I had together” at the studio in suburban Minneapolis, which is now a museum in his memory.

“I went in to celebrate him, and I wanted to go into the studio and do a live video, take a picture, and they said, ‘No.’ “ Sheila said. ”My heart’s broke. I can’t even walk into Paisley. That’s kind of messed up. … Not a nice way to celebrate his birthday.”

In a follow-up statement released through her publicist on Monday, Sheila said she now wants the museum to return her old drum kit, which she said Prince personally asked to “borrow” to display there. She said she even heard a tour guide say, “My idol, Sheila E. even has her drums setup in the studio!”

Paisley Park posted on its own Instagram account that it just needed some advance warning.

“Hello Sheila – We love and respect you, and we did offer for you to come in and film in the soundstage or other areas, but we couldn’t allow filming in the studios without prior knowledge and planning, especially with tours going on at the time. We hope to have you back to Paisley Park in the future — just give us a heads-up! Happy Prince Day,” the message read, ended by a purple heart emoji.

Sheila was in Minnesota for a concert with Morris Day & the Time on Saturday in the northern town of Walker. In her statement Monday, she said she was the first artist to record at Paisley Park with Prince and walked the grounds with him when “the foundation was mere dirt and rope.” So she thinks her history should count for something.

Prince had no will when he died in 2016 of an accidental fentanyl overdose, so his estate, including Paisley Park, went to his siblings, who later sold most of their shares. His estate is now owned by two corporations, the music management company Primary Wave and Prince Legacy LLC, with a 2% share still held by his sister, Tyka Nelson.

The updated complaint in the federal lawsuit between the non-profit music organization and the microbrewery accuses the brewing company founders of intending to, “trade and infringe on the Ravinia [Festival Association] name and trademark” from the start of their business plan.

Relying on newly produced business documents from Ravinia Brewing Company, the festival argues the documents reveal how the brewing company intended to “falsely imply” an association with the Ravinia Festival.

Ravinia Festival also filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last week requesting the cancellation of Ravinia Brewing Company’s registered trademark, on the grounds that the brewery knowingly made false statements in its application to register the Ravinia Brewing mark with the USTPO.

The petition alleges RBC signed the “no confusion declaration” on the USTPO application despite knowing the declaration was false. The clause states that, “no other persons … have the right to use the mark in commerce in the identical form or in such near resemblance as to be likely, when used on or in connection with the goods/services … of such other persons to cause confusion or mistake, or to deceive.”

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois also approved the festival’s request to add Ravinia Brewing IP, LLC as a defendant to the 11-count complaint first filed in October 2023, alleging the brewery violated a since-rescinded 2018 agreement to limit the use of their shared name.

According to the updated complaint filed on May 24, the music festival only recently learned of Ravinia Brewing IP (RBIP), a Delaware-based company that allegedly owns all intellectual property used by Ravinia Brewing Company (RBC) and licenses the intellectual property to the brewpub and “possibly others.”

The complaint states Ravinia Brewing IP is a “necessary party” in the lawsuit for Ravinia Festival to, “obtain complete relief.”

In a press release from the Ravinia Brewing Company, the brewpub calls for community support against the “unjust litigation.”

“The lesson taught to us by Ravinia Festival Association’s lawsuit is Ravinia Festival Association can strong arm a small business like Ravinia Brewing Company to close their doors by filing a lawsuit against a business whose families cannot afford to defend,” the press release said. “Anyone who has been financially bullied and under financial duress by someone with more money will know exactly how we feel.”

In the release, the brewing company asks: “Is there really anyone who believes that the Ravinia Festival Association, with its $60M in cash reserves and seemingly unlimited legal and PR resources, is damaged by RBC when you enjoy RBC beer and tacos?”

The founders of the brewing company plead in the news release for Ravinia Festival board members and community members to request the litigation end immediately.

Prior to taking legal action against the brewery, the festival made efforts to work privately with the brewery, Ravinia President and CEO Jeffrey Haydon said.

“The recent revelations expose a troubling pattern of behavior, including the brewery’s intentions from the outset to capitalize on Ravinia’s brand and its ambitions to operate nationally,” Haydon said in a statement. “The brewery’s disregard for our trademark rights and misrepresentations to Ravinia and the community left us no choice but to take further action to protect Ravinia’s trademark.”

According to the amended motion, four days after the non-profit festival organization asked the brewery to consent to the filing of the amended complaint, Ravinia Brewing IP filed a declaratory judgment action against Ravinia Festival in state court.

The motion filed on May 20 in the Circuit Court of Cook County seeks a declaration that the 2018 trademark agreement between the festival and the brewery remains enforceable. The brewery argued that the viability of the federal court case depends on whether or not the 2018 agreement is still in effect.

In February, the brewery answered the festival’s October complaint in a pair of counterclaims, alleging the festival committed fraud when obtaining a trademark.

The brewery contended the festival association’s 2011 trademark for exclusive rights to use the “Ravinia” name for “restaurant services; catering services; offering banquet facilities” was obtained fraudulently, noting the signed declaration that no one else was using the name for food and restaurants – despite the existence of local restaurants like the Ravinia Green Country Club and the former Ravinia BBQ and Grill.

New records discovered

Ravinia Festival’s amended federal complaint brings to light records from Ravinia Brewing Company, which the festival alleges shows the brewing company, “falsely implied (and continues to falsely imply) an association with Ravinia.”

“From all appearances, this false implication is intentional,” the amended complaint stated.

Ravinia

In 2016, a marketing firm hired by RBC asked the founders in a questionnaire if the company had a reason for its name. The questionnaire was attached as an exhibit in the amendment complaint.

The founders responded that the company was started in the Ravinia neighborhood, and also that the area is well-known across Chicago, “largely due to a large outdoor music series.”

“As a result of the 100 year old music festival (which hosts a combination of classical artists to some of the best artists in the country), there’s an immediate positive brand equity associated with the name ‘Ravinia’… feelings of summer, sunshine, live outdoor music, picnics, and indulgence are conjured up through the name ‘Ravinia,’” the founders wrote in their response.

When Ravinia Brewing Company Chicago was seeking a loan from the Small Business Administration in 2017, the brewing company made “plain their intentions to trade on Ravinia’s valuable name and trademark,” the festival’s complaint alleges.

In a business plan from 2017, attached to the complaint as an exhibit, the founders state: “‘Ravinia’ is a well-known brand in Chicago made famous by the ‘Ravinia Music Festival’ that has celebrated more than 100-years of bringing music and entertainment to the broader Chicagoland community.”

The business plan later states: “The Ravinia festival creates community by bringing a diverse mix of world renowned performers and influences to the Chicagoland area, making them accessible to all who have a passion for music. At Ravinia Brewing Company Chicago, we aspire to capture the essence of the festival in world class beer and food available to all our customers – creating our own sustaining community.”

chilles@chicagotribune.com

Opening night performances at Bridgeport’s Ramova Theatre are already sold out, but the blues will echo throughout the rest of the weekend from three stages in Millennium Park. Southern Avenue will headline Saturday night, and tributes to Jimmy Rogers, Dinah Washington and Otis Spann will feature jam sessions with nearly two dozen artists. 

The full lineup follows below for stages in Millennium Park, which is marking its 20th anniversary season. The Blues Festival has become a cornerstone of the park’s free summer series. 

IF YOU GO

When: Noon to 9 p.m. June 7-9

Where: Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph St. Admission is free. Enter off of Michigan Avenue at Washington or Madison streets, or from Randolph and Monroe streets at the McCormick Place walkway midway up the block. (The BP Bridge from Maggie Daley Park is exit-only during events and the Nichols Bridgeway from the Art Institute is closed.)

Safety and security: The festival will be held rain or shine except in the case of severe weather. Allow time to pass through security. Bags and containers are subject to search and the area is under 24-hour surveillance. Prohibited items include weapons, drugs, fireworks, pets (service animals permitted), open flames, noisemakers, and bags and coolers larger than 26 inches long by 15 inches wide by 15 inches tall. Guests under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult (age 21+) after 6 p.m. Park hours are 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Food and drink: Wally’s BBQ Pit, in the North Promenade, will offer a full menu of food and drink, including beer, wine and cocktails. Festival-goers can pack their own picnic, but no outside alcohol is permitted. 

Restrooms: The West Arcade and East Arcade restrooms on the lower level of the Pritzker Pavilion are open during park hours and have wheelchair accessible stalls. A small number of accessible restrooms are also located in the McCormick Tribune Plaza adjacent to Millennium Hall on Michigan Avenue.

More information: ChicagoBluesFestival.us. Follow on Facebook (@ChicagoBluesFestival), Instagram (@ChicagoDCASE), (@Millennium_Park); or X/Twitter (@Millennium_Park) or (@ChicagoDCASE).

SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, JUNE 6

6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Shemekia Copeland and Ronnie Baker Brooks at Ramova Theatre, 3520 S. Halsted St. in Bridgeport; free reservations are sold out (ages 18+), ramovachicago.com

FRIDAY, JUNE 7

Jay Pritzker Pavilion
7:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. Centennial Tribute to Jimmy Rogers featuring Kim Wilson, Jimmy D. Lane, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Bob Margolin, Sebastian Lane, Felton Crews and Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith
6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mr. Sipp
5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Corey Harris

Visit Mississippi Juke Joint Stage (South Promenade)
4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Big A & The Allstars
3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. J’Cenae
1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Keith Johnson & The Big Muddy Band
Noon to 1:15 p.m. Nora Jean Wallace

Rosa’s Lounge (North Promenade)
6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Last Call with WDCB Radio and Carlos Johnson
5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Sheryl Youngblood
3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Luke Pytel Band, featuring Laretha Weathersby
2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Ivy Ford
12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Lil’ Jimmy Reed with Ben Levin

SATURDAY, JUNE 8

Jay Pritzker Pavilion
7:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. Southern Avenue
6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Vanessa Collier
5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Centennial Tribute to Dinah Washington, featuring Dee Alexander, Elizabeth Faye Butler, Kristin Atkins, Bruce Henry, Miguel de la Cerna, Jeremiah Hunt, Charles Heath IV and Melody Angel

Visit Mississippi Juke Joint Stage (South Promenade)
4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Dexter Allen
3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Ra’Shad the Blues Kid
1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Melvin Taylor
Noon to 1:15 p.m. Mzz Reese and Reese’s Pieces

Rosa’s Lounge (North Promenade)
6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Last Call with WDCB Radio and Ivan Singh
5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. The Mike Wheeler Band
3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Jamiah “Dirty Deacon” Rogers and the Dirty Church Band
2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Vino Louden
12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Al Spears & The Hurricane Project

SUNDAY, JUNE 9

Jay Pritzker Pavilion
7:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. Buddy Guy
6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Cash Box Kings
5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Centennial Tribute to Otis Spann, featuring Johnny Iguana, Roosevelt Purifoy, Rie “Miss Lee” Kanehira, Sumito “Ariyo” Ariyoshi, Oscar Wilson, Bob Stroger, Billy Flynn and Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith

Visit Mississippi Juke Joint Stage (South Promenade)
4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Jaye Hammer
3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Anissa Hampton
1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Jonathan Ellison & The RAS Blues Band
Noon to 1:15 p.m. Southern Komfort Brass Band

Rosa’s Lounge (North Promenade)
6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Last Call with WDCB Radio and The Stephen Hull Experience
5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Melody Angel
3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Omar Coleman Westside Soul
2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Joey J. Saye Trio
12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Nate Manos Band with Alicia “Ya Yah” Townsend

AFTER-PARTIES AND MORE BLUES

Consult the venues for hours and ticket information.

June 7

10th annual Blues Fest AfterParty at Reggies Chicago, 2105 S. State St.; www.reggieslive.com

Lil’ Jimmy Reed with Ben Levin Band at Rosa’s Lounge, 3420 W. Armitage Ave.; rosaslounge-com.seatengine.com

June 8

Hot Blues Night at Chess Records Studio with Nick Moss Trio and guest Ben Levin, 2120 S. Michigan Ave.; www.bluesheaven.com

June 9

Joe Pratt & Source One Band at The Odyssey East, 9942 S. Torrence Ave.; 773-978-6520 and facebook.com/joeprattsourceone

Little Harvey and Chi-Town Blues at Rooster’s Palace, 5748 W. North Ave.; facebook.com/p/Roosters-Palace-Music-House

Live Nation, based in Beverly Hills, California, said in a regulatory filing Friday that on May 27 “a criminal threat actor” offered to sell Ticketmaster data on the dark web.

Other media reports say a hacking group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach in an online forum and was seeking $500,000 for the data, which reportedly includes names, addresses, phone numbers and some credit card details of millions of Ticketmaster customers.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Live Nation said it was “working to mitigate risk to our users” and was cooperating with law enforcement officials. It said the breach was unlikely to have “a material impact on our overall business operations.”

On May 23, the U.S. Justice Department sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America. The department asked a court to break up the system that it said limits competition and drives up prices for fans.

Sticking to core basics and refined techniques, the country music veteran exhibited an appealing relatability in both his songs and personality. McGraw didn’t come across as superior to any of the fans who packed the venue to the rafters. Flashing a permanent smile, the singer-guitarist adhered to a modest approach devoid of preachiness and most of the trite trappings associated with modern country. Namely, pop, glitz and pretense, along with the polish that coats his own studio work and that of many of his Nashville-based peers.

The combination of McGraw’s even-keeled nature, work ethic and fit physique almost made everything look too easy. He wore the same simple outfit — boots, black cowboy hat, skin-tight T-shirt, form-fitting blue jeans secured at the waist with a gold belt buckle — for the duration, untucking his top only at the conclusion of the 100-minute set. He walked or glided, never jogged or ran, and sang with one hand nonchalantly placed on his hip. The Louisiana native took his time delivering lyrics and phrasing lines to match the arrangements. Despite mounting his first arena tour in seven years, he chose to bypass pyrotechnics and fancy staging.

Which put the focus on him. Early in the performance, McGraw told the crowd it could ignore him since his backing band would be the best it would ever hear. Not quite, but the eight-piece ensemble proved very capable. It instilled a majority of songs with sturdy rock overtones and welcome traits — layered textures, Southern-styled grit, bluesy pep, fuller volume — that they lack on record. Prone to spreading his arms and dipping to one side like a kid who imagines he’s flying, McGraw fed off that energy and the walls of sound that emerged when the group’s instrumental configuration shifted to a five- or six-guitar front.

Risking excessive sentimentality, the singer also drew inspiration from his equally famous wife, singer Faith Hill, whose face cropped up on the backdrop screens during two songs. For all the well-meaning intent of seeing vintage footage of the happy couple amid “One Bad Habit,” McGraw registered his most powerful statement about family when speaking — not singing — and praising his spouse for helping raise “three independent, strong-willed, smart young women who have agency over themselves and their bodies.”

Other than growing older, seemingly little has changed for McGraw since he started dominating the country charts in the mid-’90s, married Hill and graduated to superstar status. His commercial and critical accomplishments —  among them 47 No. 1 hits, three Grammy Awards and the honor of owning the most-played radio song (“Something Like That”) across all formats in the ‘00s — kept him in the mainstream conversation. Artists three decades removed from their initial breakthrough don’t usually manage that feat. While the 57-year-old now releases albums at a slightly slower clip, he continues to generate hits with reliable consistency.

Credit McGraw, too, for expanding his visibility by pursuing other entertainment ventures. In 2019, his name graced the covers of two best-selling books. His forays into acting run deeper. After a breakthrough role in “Friday Night Lights” (2004), McGraw appeared in numerous films and television shows, most notably as the character of James Dutton on “Yellowstone” and its “1883” spinoff. Earlier this month, Netflix announced that McGraw will star as a champion bull rider in an upcoming drama series.

On Friday, the singer mentioned his acting roles and showed a short highlight reel of “1883” as a precursor to “The Cowboy in Me.” The breadth of the tune, which McGraw revisited and stripped down for “Yellowstone,” conjured big-sky vistas and wide-open plains. He and his band transmitted similar rustic landscapes on the bluegrass-infused “Just to See You Smile,” which adopted a traditional train-song rhythm and transformed it into a dynamic that suited the relaxed pace of a top-down cruise down a two-lane desert road.

For McGraw and company, the quality of the ride, rather than the speed of the journey or how good you look going somewhere, assumed the greatest importance. Restrictive to an extent, his music would have benefitted from added variation and departures from its established comfort zone. Multiple songs drew from formulaic patterns. The dreamy “Watch the Wind Blow By” tread an adult-contemporary path that closely paralleled known ‘70s soul classics. “All I Want Is a Life” and “Shotgun Rider” sacrificed any potential spark to stock predictability.

Fortunately, in combination with his band’s steady support, McGraw’s pleasant, relatively smooth baritone and emotional sincerity largely compensated for compositional shortcomings. As did his indifference to perfection. Granted, McGraw reached highs in his faithful cover of “Tiny Dancer” that Elton John stopped attempting before he retired from the stage. Still, his voice tended to wavered or slip into overly nasal territory on occasion.

Those minor flaws actually served him well, particularly when narratives angled toward mature themes or contained specific details pertaining to decidedly human elements. Yes, McGraw understood rollicking fun. The rowdy “Truck Yeah” paired a thumping beat with an anthemic chorus. Sent up with vibrant fiddle-piano exchanges, “I Like It, I Love It” emitted roadhouse vibes. A bleacher-stomping and hand-clapping “Felt Good on My Lips” gushed with joyous release. Yet unlike the bro-country generation that succeeded him and commandeered the charts, McGraw realized lasting pleasure and purpose involve more than alcohol, parties and riding around with pretty girls in pickups.

Whether expressing concern over the distracted driving of a loved one (“Highway Don’t Care,” featuring piped-in backing vocals from Taylor Swift), reflecting on how to better himself (“Standing Room Only”) or embracing a carpe diem mentality in the face of approaching demise (“Live Like You Were Dying”), the singer zeroed in on fundamental principles that matter most: compassion, reason, respect, acceptance, forgiveness, responsibility. Or, in a word, decency.

As much as he yearned to pass himself off as a hellraiser, McGraw faced no choice other than to admit he was a “Real Good Man” — a conclusion further implied by the innocence of “Something Like That” and wisdom of “Red Ragtop.” Such goodness peaked on “Humble and Kind.” The minor-key power ballad found the singer dispensing the sort of golden-rule guidance children are taught early on as well as a few selfless tenets to practice as a grown-up.

In our current climate, we’d do well to heed the advice.

Setlist from the United Center May 31:

“Truck Yeah”

“Southern Voice”

“All I Want Is a Life”

“Tiny Dancer” (Elton John cover)

“Just to See You Smile”

“Over and Over” (Nelly cover) to “Shotgun Rider”

“One Bad Habit”

“Watch the Wind Blow By”

“Something Like That”

“Where the Green Grass Grows”

“Standing Room Only”

“Red Ragtop”

“Highway Don’t Care”

“I Like It, I Love It”

“Felt Good on My Lips”

“Real Good Man”

Encore

“The Cowboy in Me”

“Humble and Kind”

“Live Like You Were Dying”

Montgomery rang it in with “Study No. 1,” premiered by Third Coast Percussion on May 3. Performers blew through surgical tubing into their drums to change pitch; later, synchronized stickwork recreated the adrenalized energy of drumline music. Far more enthralling than its academic title might imply, the “study” was an astounding freshman outing for Montgomery, who, before that premiere, had never written a work for percussion.

Going from that seven-minute work to a 20-minute percussion concerto, though? Only someone with Montgomery’s élan makes that quantum leap sound easy, as the premiere of her “Procession” did Thursday night, under conductor Manfred Honeck.

It helps when Cynthia Yeh is your muse. The principal percussionist of the CSO since 2007, Yeh is the cool head keeping things in time in the back of the ensemble, but her presence is commanding both in and out of the limelight. On the CSO’s recent Europe tour, music director emeritus Riccardo Muti proudly recounted a review that said Yeh’s terrifying bass drum hits in Verdi’s Requiem, a CSO calling card, “still echo” in Vienna’s Musikverein.

Yeh’s christening performance of “Procession” will echo here, too. For these concerts, Yeh gracefully alternates between two percussion setups: one next to the conductor’s podium — with a vintage American Legion kick drum from her personal collection — and one behind the violins.

Like “Study No. 1” before it, the concerto is cogently crafted, its five sections linked by recurring themes. The main theme, a declamatory seven-note figure, later becomes the basis for a fantastical cadenza on vibraphone, played poetically by Yeh. As in “Study No. 1,” bent pitches become a motif in “Procession”: in the third movement, Yeh alters the pitch of a djembe by sweeping the drumhead with one hand and rapping it with the other, and winds take up sliding pitches in the final movement. (Listen, too, for the moment just before the end when some brass are asked to exhale through their instruments, creating a creepily disembodied effect in live performance.)

“Procession” makes hard-rocking use of a drum set, more often spotted in a rock arena or jazz bandstand than a classical performance. But leave it to Yeh to make a drum set sing. She phrased the turbulent kit parts opening and closing the concerto with a melodist’s touch. In a delightful interlude at “Procession’s” middle, piccolo players Jennifer Gunn and Yevgeny Faniuk stand up to join Yeh in a marching band-inspired interlude. (Yeh also leaned into the visual spectacle of it all, clad on Thursday in a glittery, sleeveless jumpsuit.)

Honeck’s command of the new score was thorough and articulate, and never more appreciated than in the second movement’s breakneck, mixed-meter dash. Gunn and Faniuk made stylish work of those diabolically hard piccolo parts, and sounded like musical twins to boot. Sadly, these concerts are among the last opportunities to celebrate Faniuk’s artistry: the assistant principal flutist was not granted tenure and will leave the CSO at the end of the Ravinia season.

The only other work on Thursday’s program, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, poses its own percussion question: to cymbal crash or not to cymbal crash? As with the Austrian composer’s other symphonies, this one exists in many editions, some that omit a climactic cymbal crash in the second movement and others that include it.

Thursday’s performance kept it, in all its hair-raising glory. But in that climax and others, Honeck and the CSO’s Symphony No. 7 reached dizzying heights not by brute force but by brilliance. A svelte sound kept this Bruckner light on its feet and, occasionally, even whimsical.

This performance made the rare argument for Bruckner-as-ensemble-drama, à la Mahler, rather than treating it like a symphonic monument. Where some see a stoic, this performance found Bruckner’s humanity. Honeck seemed, at times, to have assigned personalities to various sections: scampy strings in the finale theme, villainous low brass in third- and fourth-movement outbursts.

Wagner, Bruckner’s role model, coined the term “endless melody” to describe the constant lyrical flow of his operas. Though his musical language owes much to Wagner, Bruckner wasn’t an “endless melody” guy. His symphonies are segmented in the extreme, their changes in volume and mood abrupt, even shocking.

Honeck’s leadership did the nigh impossible: it found the endless melody in Bruckner. He kept a clear-eyed sense of the line, no matter how long — in the phrase, in the movement, even in the entire hour-plus-long symphony. Counterintuitive as it may seem, he achieved that sweep by letting his pace ebb and flow, choosing tempos that always served the melody rather than the other way around.

Brass inevitably wins the day in Bruckner. Some rough edges in the third movement aside, that section was richly blended and sonorous on Thursday — especially its saturnine choir of Wagner tubas, led nobly by Daniel Gingrich.

Given the scene in the hall on Thursday night, with a freshly commissioned and ecstatically received new work, you’d think new music was in good hands at the CSO.

You’d be wrong. Hours before, the organization announced its leanest MusicNOW yet: just two concerts, curated by Daniel Bernard Roumain and Jimmy López Bellido.

The silver lining is that Roumain and López Bellido are gifted composers and known quantities around here: their music has appeared at both the CSO and Lyric Opera in recent seasons. But it only adds marginally (one, by Roumain) to the puny number of premieres next season. Nor will either take on a role even remotely akin to a composer-in-residence — and if the CSO’s recent equivocation is any indication, it’s likely that role will remain empty until Klaus Mäkelä arrives as music director in 2027.

So, enjoy this weekend’s concerts while you can. Programs like this are about to get much more scarce at 220 S. Michigan.

“Montgomery & Bruckner 7,” 7:30 p.m. June 1 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets $35-$275.

“Daniel Bernard Roumain: Voices of Migration & Innovation,” 3 p.m. Nov. 24 and “Jimmy López Bellido: Inner Dialogues,” 3 p.m. March 23 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets go on sale Aug. 7.

Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.

The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.