Pop/Rock/Folk 
Spring Awakening(0)
My feelings about this play are fairly well-documented. To put it succinctly: I’m not a huge fan of the material. That said, this production was far more endearing – and overall successful – than the previous Broadway in Chicago venture. They made the material work better for them than their touring counterparts. And to a surprising degree. This troupe really found the comic moments between the words; they had great timing and used space very well.
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Lykke Li – Live at the Vic
She walked onto the stage swathed in sheer black, with matching black drapes hanging from the rafters, drifting through the smoke and light like a raven: cunning, cocksure, alluring. Immediately the deep thundering of bass toms filled the room, as if Glasvegas were playing a rave in Detroit. The sound of electric organ floated through the air and an acoustic guitar brought an earthiness that grounded the otherwise largely electronic aesthetic. Then Lykke Li opened her mouth and it sounded as if Fiona Apple met Joan of Arc on the stake.
Eye Inside: The Rock-n-Roll Allegory of Vance Barrett
Eye Inside is a blatantly great concept. It’s – okay, it kind of sounds chintzy at first glance – it’s about an evil agent who takes uniformly good-spirited and magnanimous actors and turns them into fame-whores and coke-fiends. He is a corrupter of the pure. But, honestly, making a rock opera out of the subject – and I’m selling it short, it’s far trippier than that sound-bite summation – well, it just makes sense.
John Hiatt and The Combo at Ravinia Festival
John Hiatt is a well-known and accomplished songwriter. He’s written songs for just about everyone under the sun, and a number of them have been hits – at least on the country charts.