It’s gonna be May

Back with the Radon Lounge was a wee lil baby, we hosted this band called Listener and folks drove from all around to see. It was our first full house show.

Listener @ Radon 2012

Now 5 years later we’re doing it again! It’s been great getting to know these guys over the years between sets of Red Sweater Lullaby, that Christmas show, and AudioFeed. Listener is coming back on May 16th and there’s rumblings about a new album in the works. If you haven’t had a chance yet, this is your best chance to hear the world’s best talk music.

Also on the show is Jeff Williams of the local legendary punk band NIL8. Jeff will be playing solo for this show as well as doubling as our featured visual artist.

This will also be the first performance of brand new band Layers, who is Aubrey Puyear (Honey/Suck) and Bloo Parks (Pryss).

Also during the show, enjoy snacks from Milk & Honey Fresh Market, our favorite downtown Springfield grocer.

Hope to see you! Here’s the facebook event. This may be our last basement show until the fall as we’ll be busy with AudioFeed and taking time for family trips this summer.

 

April, Round 2

We’re making sure this April is extra good with 2 shows! This doesn’t happen often.

On April 15th, we’re excited to host Bonesetters from Indianapolis. Self proclaimed surf-pop band whose most recent achievements include being listed in the Indianapolis Star as one of “Ten Indiana Bands You Should be Listening to Right Now”, and their song SAVAGES featured in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway announcement for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016.

Local Springfield rockers Blind Social are finally back once again at the Radon Lounge. One thing that strikes us about this band is thinking about what it might be like if certain classic rock bands were starting today with today’s sensibilities, what might they sound like? Perhaps this is it. Plus judging from recent pictures, they have the hair to boot! Rumors are they’re working up some new songs, can’t wait to hear them at this show!

Also on the show is the long overdue appearance of Eric Marvel. Some longtime followers of Radon may remember a local electronic band Luzhin Defense. Eric is one half of that band, striking out on his own. Springfield is definitely heavy on americana and country but certainly light on electronic music, but if that’s what you’re after, then this is where you need to be.

Music, visual art and poetry is all present at this show. Speaking of poetry, we’re privelidged to be hearing some poems from Ian Winterbauer, who has even recently published his own book of poems.https://www.facebook.com/ianwritesbooks/

Our visual artist featured at this event is Jen Santarelli, aka Arty Farty Slumber Party. Jen’s artwork consists of geometrics, straight lines, and nifty buttons. Check out her art at this show and definitely visit her online store! Also the artwork for this show comes from one of her original paintings.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JenSantarelli

Springfield’s creative cooking project Copper Pot Cooking Studio will be bringing good home cooked food to share with everyone at the event. If you’re not familiar, Copper Pot provides cooking classes with folks of all ages here in Springfield.

So much to do in one event, just how we like it. Check out the facebook event at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1876359165955057/

 

 

Young Eyes Record Release!

Our next show on April 1st is going to be a Young Eyes record release party! We’re so excited to be once again hosting Brian Lee and the gang as they’re definitely one of the best when it comes to central Illinois indie rock.

The Young Eyes

Ever since falling in love with their previous band Brian Lee & His Orchestra, we’ve been huge fans of whatever these guys do. However, once it was announced the Orchestra was morphing into a new kind of band, we were a bit worried. We really liked the current thing and didn’t like seeing it go away. Fortunately the Young Eyes are fantastic! The new sound has a  vintage timelessness to it that at the same time sounds modern and fresh. Due to the band’s business outside of being a band, it’s a bit difficult to actually see them perform, so make sure you don’t miss your chance this time around.

Also on the ticket is another local indie icon, Kirk Donley. Kirk is a veteran in the scene as he’s performed in quite a few bands, and is currently half of the Dandelion Pickers. When not playing shows, Kirk and his wife also give music lessons. If you’re someone looking to learn a thing or two, they’re the people to see.

Kirk Donley

We’re also excited to once again host local springfield rockers Stereo Static. Their last appearance was at last year’s Horse Show and they have been playing shows around town since.

Stereo Static

Outside of music, we’ll be displaying visual art by Immanuel Ahiable. Last show we experimented with a small art gallery format for Amanda Greive and it worked out really well. It was a challenge to figure out how to do this right in a dimly lit basement but it worked out so well that we’re excited to make this a regular thing. Immanuel will be showing some original paintings and maybe even video!

Immanuel Ahiable

Check out the show on facebook here, hope to see you there!

 

 

 

Next show, March 5th!

Are we already talking about the 3rd show of 2017? I guess this is happening. This year has been so great, we’ve been receiving so much love from our local community and it feels better than ever to keep putting on these events.

This March we’ll be hosting Edward + Jane from Chattanooga, TN. We’ve been trying to get this band in for a bit and just haven’t been able to get the scheduling to work out. We’re glad this is finally happening and what timing! They’re recently released single from their new album is just killer! We can’t wait to hear their indie folk/americana family band style reminiscent to the Oh Hellos. They will be arriving as a 7 piece band so get ready for a nice big full sound and something really great!

https://alexandthexos.bandcamp.com/album/alex-and-the-xos-2

Back for their 2nd Radon show is Alex and the XO’s. Some folks may remember this band from Bloomington, IL when they opened for the Strumbellas here at the Radon Lounge a few years back. It’s certainly been a while and this band has been churning out plenty of new music since then. They still have their interesting take on mandolin and ukulele coupled with styles reminiscent of the 90s alternative scene. Can’t wait to hang with them again.

Playing their first Radon show and perhaps first show ever is Kneller. Folks have probably noticed Blaine Kneller hanging at Radon shows lately and other Radon events, we’re looking forward to seeing his band. Nothing is posted online yet, so you’ll just have to come listen to them here.

Keeping with our new focus on community collaboration, we’re excited to be hosting local painter Amanda Greive at this event. We were honored to use one of her original images for the poster for event. Her hyper realistic paintings defy our senses and we really just wanted to get her to bring her stuff here so we can find out once and for all how she manages to pull off these unique works of art. We will be displaying some of her original works at this show.

Also as a part of this event, we’ve got local Springfield treasure Yanni’s Gyros providing FREE BAKLAVA to the guests of this event. We can’t believe how generous they are to be supporting what we’re doing in such a cool way. Everyone needs to eat there and thank them for being such cool community collaborators!

So we’ve got 3 full bands, an amazing visual artist and a local restaurant all rolled up into one great event. Don’t forget there’s also the free arcade and coffee, hope you can make it!

Facebook event here

 

Super Bowl Party 2/5 #BYOSB

So while planning the next Radon Show, we found we were completely detached from reality and booked the same night as the Super Bowl, oops.

But, that won’t negate the fact we have an awesome show planned out. We’ve got just about everything happening at this Super Bowl party, including our new friend Emma Wilson baking cookies for everybody! you’ll just need to bring your own Super Bowl.

We’re really excited to have our friends Von Strantz back once again. Word on the street is they’ll be playing some new tunes! If you still have yet to hear these sweet Nashville soul sisters, then hopefully this will be your chance to right that wrong.

Also on the show will be David Rokos, singer-songwriter from Chicago. David recently released a new album, his 10th overall release, and 2nd solo release, “When You Were Her” finds Rokos hitting his stride as a songwriter with 8 songs that flow effortlessly between catchy pop-punk anthems in the vein of his band Get Well Cards and intimate acoustic stories.

This will be the first Radon show for local Springfield rock and roll band The Good Companions. This 3-piece founded in 2014 out of a mutual love of good song craft and honest live performance.

Arlin Peebles will be here for another Radon Lounge show. Arlin is Studio Show famous here in Springfield, after appearing on the popular local web series multiple times. When not trying his hand at acting, fathering, working, he’s also quite an accomplished singer-songwriter.

After the show we can score up the points to see who becomes the new reigning champion of the competition and who go home as weeping losers, just like all Radon Lounge shows! All shout and all dance as the Super Bowl is here!

Facebook event page here

1st show of 2017

Here we are starting an exciting new year. This show is hopefully the first of many with a new focus on tighter creative community collaboration. And by that we mean we’ll be hosting more than just music!

We still expect music to be the forefront, but hopefully we’ll find many opportunities to present other creative folks in our local Springfield community. First up is Springfield local celeb and poet Johari Idusuyi, famous for reading a book at Dear Leader’s political rally, but also an active poet.

We’re also excited to be featuring an author for the first time. local author Jonathan Meyer and his new sci fi book Cosmic Force. We actually don’t know a lot about this book just yet, but look forward to what Jon has to say during his selected reading segment of the show along with his book display and book signing!

As for music, we’re excited to be hosting Rebecca Rego & the Trainmen an Indie-Americana band based in Champaign, IL. Their recently released their album “Lay These Weapons Down” was recorded by Producer Beau Sorenson (Bob Mould, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Death Cab For Cutie, Field Report, Elsinore). Also check out their recent session on Daytrotter!

Also on the show is local singer-songwriter Ben Bedford, probably one of the most prolific musicians in town. It feels like a sin to not have featured this guy all these years until now. We’ve always enjoyed his performances around town and are thrilled he’ll finally be performing in the Radon Lounge.

Rounding out the show is Mike Butler. Although this is not his first time playing the Radon, as he has many times as part of The Locals/Vonne, this is his first solo performance. Mike will be opening the show so don’t be late!

We’re busy working on more shows this year, hopefully you can make it to one or more this year. We’ve just added a new pinball machine to the Radon arcade and hope to jam as much interesting stuff into each event as  we possibly can. Visit the facebook event for this event here.

5 years down, Looking at you 2017

We’re busy planning 2017 right now and already have show dates announced, lineups still to come. Keep tabs on our schedule page to see what’s coming next.

We also just uploaded the new 2016 Spotify playlist of bands and artists featured this past year. Check that out on our music page.

We’re excited about the possibilities of new collaborations in 2017 shows. We want to focus more on encouraging a more creative local community in Springfield. Perhaps shows will feature visual artists, poets, authors, and maybe even local bakers, chefs, restaurants, and who knows?

Also something to look forward to in 2017 is a new addition to the Radon Arcade, Getaway: High Speed 2 Pinball. The Radon Arcade is bigger than ever with 4 machines!

See you January 21st, our next Radon show, lineup still TBA!