Dedicated Ears Presents ... A Success

Dedicated Ears Presents a Night Of Music at The Chopin Theatre was a success this past Saturday night. I want to say thanks to everyone who came out to the show. I met and talked to most of the people in the crowd and it was a blast. Thanks goes out to Lela an Zygmunt the owners of the Chopin Theatre who were gracious hosts. Thanks to August Forte, who went above and beyond promoting this event. Thanks to David Saffran, Brendan Losch, and Pretty Little Empire for performances that the audience really enjoyed. Thanks also to Brian Fitzgerald, who designed the cool poster ad, Michael Griggs for running the sound and Paul Leddy for helping with shooting the video for the show.

David Safran started the evening out with a singer songwriter set that had both a troubadour look and feel as well as some world beat rhythms mixed in. His band was tight and offered a slightly different spin on what you come to expect with a singer songwriter's performance.


Brendan Losch is an assured singer-songwriter who came across as earnest in his performance. After listening to his songs for a few weeks, I really enjoyed hearing them live. I would suggest checking out his albums on his site. He also is in the ambient-indie-gaze band Bullets In Madison, which I hope to get to play The Chopin. He also has a blog, Count Me Out, you should check out for news on a lot of indie music.


Pretty Little Empire is a band you may be familiar with if you read my posts. Their beautiful album Sweet Sweet Hands was on my end of year list last year. I still listen to it on a weekly basis. I went to film school with Justin Johnson, who plays guitar and sings lead and harmonies. I saw the band in St. Louis right after the release of their album and was blown away. They have gotten even better since then and showed it in their set. Their harmonies are stronger and they have added a 90's indie style punch of jangly guitar to their sound. Once the band was mainly acoustic and now they do well straddling the line between alt-folk and indie rock. I'll keep you posted about their upcoming album.



Many people commented on how cool they thought the theatre was and what a great place it is to see a concert. I agree fully. It's got a really nice vibe. I hope to book many more shows there and am working on June's show right now.

Dedicated Ears Presents: David Safran, Brendan Losch, and Pretty Little Empire Live May 8 at The Chopin Theatre Chicago

I don't usually incorporate much of my personal life in this blog as this is a music blog and not a blog about me. Yes, there is a but coming. But, I thought a little back story on how I went from no blog 1 yr ago to blog and booking shows might help set the story for Dedicated Ears' first show at The Chopin Theatre.

I went to see and interview Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs last October at The Chopin. I got to talk to Lela, who is half owner of The Chopin. I had started looking into venues for bands I was friends with and mentioned this to Lela. Earlier this year I met with Lela and the other owner, her husband Zygmunt. I dropped off music of the bands that were looking for gigs. Lela and Zygmunt have been putting on shows at The Chopin for 18 years and are still very excited about trying new things. So they asked if I would be interested in booking acts on a regular basis at The Chopin. I happily agreed even though I haven't booked shows anywhere before. I owned my own sub sandwich start-up and I did everything by myself, top to bottom. That was a big learning curve and I have found that those skills of organization, people skills and problem solving that go along with owning my own business will serve me well while booking shows at The Chopin.

I have had an invaluable amount of help from August Forte who works at Novo Entertainment. I went to high school with August and recently reconnected via facebook. He has helped me meet many cool people in the music scene in Chicago. He is also a good friend and will be promoting many of the shows I book for the Chopin. He has helped make my Dedicated Ears' first show at The Chopin Theatre a reality, so I thank him for it. The show is May 8th with doors at 9:30 pm and the first band at 10pm. This is a 21+ show with a $6 cover. The three great acts to perform are David Safran, Brendan Losch, and Pretty Little Empire. Thanks to these bands for playing this show. Also thanks to another blogger Tarty Tart, who is probably at a show as we speak! She gave me the heads up on Brendan's music. Please come see them play live and hang out in the very cool cabaret space at The Chopin Theatre.

A good friend of mine Brian Fitzgerald designed the great poster for the show that you see on this page. You can reach Brian at brianfitzgerald3@yahoo.com if you would like to inquire about his design work.

A special thanks to my wife. She's always supportive and helps me make my crazy ideas become realities. She originally pushed me to start this blog one year ago. Like I like to say, "This is all her fault", in a good way!