Live Music at the Drive-In
Hello My Name Is James
16 Candles appears at Carpool Concerts in Schaumburg July 9
One of the unfortunate casualties of the coronavirus is the loss of live music. While music from
the stage is only in a self-induced coma, Chicagoland has essentially been music free from stages
since the lockdown went into effect on March 19. As we’ve waded through our first three phases of
Governor Pritzker’s quarantine in March, April, and May, it wasn’t unusual to wonder if we would
ever see a live band again in 2020.
Enter a relic from a bygone era – The drive-in movie theater. In the age of venues that cater to luxury
dining and Dolby Atmos surround sound and at-home VOD streaming, drive-in theaters have
gone the way of Blockbuster video. But with social distancing the order of the day in a global pandemic,
seeing a show in your car with social distancing around your parking spot at a drive-in show
has a new and timely appeal.
One of the local pioneers of the COVID-19-era drive-in concept – starting with movies (instead of
music) – is Louie Medicino, owner of Chicago’s Cobra Lounge. Medicino and other live music vets
have looked to other avenues to bring folks together with entertainment that provides safe social dis-
07•2020
tancing. “Chicago Drive-In Theaters” launched pop-up movie showings in Bridgeview at Seat Geek
Stadium and the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates. “This is a project founded by members of Chicago’s
career festival and large scale event producers and organizers. We take tremendous pride in bringing
Chicagoland’s foremost events to life in all avenues of cultural experience. As long as an avenue for
entertainment exists, we aim to deliver that opportunity to the people that love coming to our events
as much as we love creating them.”
Chicago’s Local H was the first area band to bring a large scale concert to the masses at a drive-in,
but they had to travel 200 miles south to Gibson City, IL to the Harvest Moon to pull it off. Last month,
the duo sold out two shows in Ford county, and the results were encouraging. Fortunately, the band
has a following that was willing to take a road trip and a founder that “got” the concept of a rocking
drive-in show. Frontman Scott Lucas told Selena Fragassi from the Sun-Times, “I love drive-ins. It’s
something I’ve always wanted to do — even before the pandemic – was to play a show at a drive-in,
so this is kind of a dream come true for me.” IE’s Isabella Spinelli, who attended the Harvest Moon
show, said the enthusiasm from fans was palpable even as the confines of their cars constrained them.
“Lucas and Ryan Harding played to a field of parked cars with audience members sitting in lawn
chairs as well as in their cars. And they seemed dedicated to making the concert experience not only
as exciting as possible but also as safe as possible. In fact, at one point, Lucas asked security to push
back fans who had congregated too close to the stage.”
As Illinois eagerly enters Phase 4 of reopening, long-time Cubby Bear talent buyer and event coordinator
Duff Entertainment is taking Chicago’s top tribute bands to baseball’s Boomer Stadium in
Schaumburg for a series of “Carpool Concerts.” Like most event coordinators, it took some time to
find the right location. “Schaumburg is more accessible, food, beverage, and alcohol can be sold at the
concerts, and we were able to get the approval we needed for people to get out of their cars and enjoy
the concert outside next to their cars," Sonia Binder told IE. Starting on July 9th, '80s tribute stalwarts
16 Candles will launch the weekend series with two shows at 6 PM and 9 PM. Shows slated through
July 12th feature Boy Band Review, American English, Rod Tuffcurls and the Bench Press, Trippin’
Billies, and Southern Accents. General admission starts at $30 for cars with two guests, $45 for three,
and $50 for four. VIP parking with food service is available at premium pricing. All tickets are being
sold by advance-purchase only. Visit ticketweb.com (bit.ly/BoomersCarpoolConcerts) for more infor-
House of Lords James Christian (black shirt)
O
ne optimistic upside to our current coronavirus pandemic, wherever
you happen to be in the world? You and your family are forced to
shelter in place together. The downside? Err, you and your family are
forced to shelter in place together. And House of Lords anchor James
Christian admits that he’s learned some hard lessons the past three months
while sequestered in his West Palm Beach retreat. He’s been in life-saving
lockdown with his rock star wife, Robin Beck, and their Broadway-based
daughter, Olivia Dei Cicchi (who uses her dad’s real surname) whom the couple
hasn’t seen for the past two years due to her bustling touring schedule
playing the innkeeper’s wife (and Cosette understudy) in the hit musical Les
Miserables. So while it’s great to be reunited as a family, says the singer, 66,
who just issued a great, eerily-prescient HOL barnstormer New World, New
Eyes, mainly co-written with acclaimed producer/songwriter Mark Spiro
(Cheap Trick, Heart, Lita Ford) there have been some heavy, often heated
intergenerational discussions with 23-year-old Olivia. Especially after the
nationwide Black Lives Matter protests over the brutal Minneapolis murder
of George Floyd.
“And there’s no getting around it,” sighs Christian. “Of course, like 99% of
the country, we all feel that what happened to this man is just horrible, and it
should never happen to anyone in this land. But on the other hand, with all
the rioting and looting — stuff that has nothing to do with the death of the
man — I just find it a little crazy out there right now.” Outside agitators bent
on fomenting chaos, down to convenient piles of bricks left at protest sites,
just perfect for throwing — he’s heard it all. “I’m a news junkie, so I know
everything that’s going on and the people who are responsible for it — where
the facts lead me, that’s where I like to go. But my daughter is in the mode of,
she really wants to change the world. And I understand that because so did I
when I was 23.”
You’d think Christian would be on the same political page, judging by the
earnest new House of Lords anthems like “Change (What’s It Gonna Take)”
(“Listen up baby, hear that sound/ Sounds a lot like revolution going down”),
“New World, New Eyes” (“Out of the ashes a new sun will rise”), “Better Off
Broken” (“Pick up the pieces and just keep going”), and “We’re All That
We’ve Got” (“It’s in the rolling waves, the winds of change, this uncertainty”).
But he swears he’s no Nostradamus. The songs were all penned pre-pandemic,
with no significant metaphorical axe to grind. “I’d love to take credit for
having such vision,” he confesses. “But I know that there’s always a period in
time when those words will ring true, and in this case, they did. But it just
happened — I had that “New World” song, and then all of a sudden we’re
dealing with a pandemic. But the two definitely relate to each other — in a
world that you have to rebuild from the ground up, you definitely have to
have a new vision.” He spoke about this and other strange coincidences last
month.
IE: So what is this revolution your record predicts?
JAMES CHRISTIAN: I’m only basically talking about what it’s going to take
to change; to change things in this world. There was an element to that lyric
that had to do with junkies, people shooting up, people dying in the streets.
So the ‘change’ is broader and has to do with a lot of different things. So you
make it a more broad-spectrum, so pick from it what they want, rather than
just zooming in on one particular thing.
IE: The feminine presence in “One More” could be Mother Nature, actually.
JC: Well, yes. Yes, you could think of it that way. But I wrote that with Mark
Spiro, and what we were going for was the boy who was really in love with
the girl, but he was on the outside looking in and watching one man abuse
another woman, while he’s the one that’s truly in love with her. He wants to
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illinoisentertainer.com june 2020