http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF7xrCT6Ln0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RWCFhbBqZU

Valentine's Day Show!!!

As we are once again redesigning our website (www.doggybagmusic.com), Doggybag has decided to move the list of all our past performances to this blog, as well as using this blog to keep track of the venues we have performed at, which some people have been asking for. We hope to keep the list as up-to-date as possible.

Notable Venues Played In the Chicagoland Area
Elbo Room, Subterranean, The Kinetic Playground, The Double Door, Congress Theater, The Note, Reggie's Rock Club, Wise Fools Pub, Reggie's Music Joint, Underground Lounge, Birds Nest, U.S. Beer Company, Stage 83, Penny Road Pub, Red Line Tap, The Original Mother's, Club Lucky, and Daley Plaza

Notable Venues Played Outside of Illinois
The Knitting Factory (New York, NY), Play by Play Café (Cincinnati, OH), Sobo 151 (Denver, CO), Frisco Bay Marina (Frisco, CO), and Union Pier (Union Pier, MI)

Festivals Played
Emergenza Battle of the Bands (Chicago, IL)
Around the Coyote Festival (Chicago, IL)
Effit Fest (Osseo, WI)
smARTshow Festival (Chicago, IL)
Fairplay Summer Outdoor Festival (Fairplay, CO)
Houby Festival (Cicero, IL)
Rockfest (Yorkville, IL)
Polapalooza Festival (Chicago, IL)
South River Music Fest (Yorkville, IL)

PAST PERFORMANCES

2009
............

04.11.09	Café Prague	Chicago, IL	Easter Show
03.14.09	Besedim House	Chicago, IL	Czech Rock Night
02.14.09	Reggie’s Music Joint	Chicago, IL
01.23.09	Play by Play Café	Cincinnati, OH

2008
................

12.20.08	Café Prague	Chicago, IL	Christmas Show
11.21.08	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
10.02.08	Subterranean	Chicago, IL	opening for Anna K
09.13.08	Club Lucky Outdoor Stage	Chicago, IL	smARTshow Festival
09.12.08	Piece Brewery & Pizzeria	Chicago, IL	smARTshow Festival
09.05.08	First Base Pub	Chicago, IL
08.29.08	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
08.23.08	Penny Road Pub	Barrington, IL
07.11.08	Effit Fest	Osseo, WI	Tavern Stage (acoustic performance)
07.05.08	South River Music Fest	Yorkville, IL	Hide-Away-Lakes Campground
05.08.08	Double Door	Chicago, IL	Emergenza Semi-finals
04.12.08	Café Lura	Chicago, IL	"Lunar Cabaret" Release Show
03.22.08	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL	Emergenza Quarterfinals
02.16.08	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL	Emergenza Battle of the Bands
01.14.08	Reggie's Rock Club	Chicago, IL

2007
................

12.22.07	Café Prague	Chicago, IL	Christmas Show (acoustic performance)
12.13.07	The Original Mother's	Chicago, IL
11.30.07	The Kinetic Playground	Chicago, IL
10.28.07	Club Euro	Chicago, IL	Benefit Show (acoustic performance)
10.07.07	Houby Festival	Cicero, IL	Main Outdoor Stage
09.07.07	Birds Nest	Chicago, IL
08.24.07	Red Line Tap	Chicago, IL
08.19.07	Frisco Bay Marina	Frisco, CO
08.18.07	Brando's	Golden, CO
08.17.07	Sobo 151 Bar & Grill	Denver, CO
07.28.07	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
06.24.07	The Note	Chicago, IL
06.06.07	Subterranean	Chicago, IL	opening for David Koller Band
05.28.07	Klas Restaurant	Cicero, IL
05.18.07	Fiesta Cantina	Chicago, IL
04.28.07	Café Lura	Chicago, IL
04.08.07	Club Euro	Chicago, IL	Easter Show
03.28.07	Subterranean	Chicago, IL
01.19.07	Birds Nest	Chicago, IL

2006
............

12.21.06	Underground Lounge	Chicago, IL
11.03.06	Durty Nellie's	Palatine, IL
10.16.06	Durty Nellie's	Palatine, IL
09.25.06	Durty Nellie's	Palatine, IL
09.14.06	Subterranean	Chicago, IL
08.13.06	Wise Fools Pub	Chicago, IL
07.30.06	Wise Fools Pub	Chicago, IL
07.28.06	Klas Restaurant	Cicero, IL	Art Show
07.07.06	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
06.15.06	North Beach Club	Downers Grove, IL
05.21.06	Subterranean	Chicago, IL	opening for Chinaski
04.28.06	North Beach Club	Downers Grove, IL
04.16.06	Club Euro	Chicago, IL	Easter Show
03.31.06	The Vine	Chicago Ridge, IL
03.18.06	Wyndham Hotel	Rosemont, IL	Fashion & Art Show
03.17.06	Big Horse Lounge	Chicago, IL
03.10.06	Stage 83	Lemont, IL
03.09.06	Mutiny	Chicago, IL
02.24.06	U.S. Beer Company	Chicago, IL
02.10.06	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
01.21.06	Bohemian Hall	New York, NY
01.19.06	The Knitting Factory	New York, NY

2005
................

11.19.05	Klas Restaurant	Cicero, IL	(Mike Amandes's 1st show)
08.27.05	Rockfest	Yorkville, IL
08.28.05	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL	"Invisible Living" Release Show
07.29.05	Lilly's	Chicago, IL
06.04.05	Congress Theater	Chicago, IL	Polapalooza Festival
05.06.05	Club Euro	Chicago, IL	Benefit Show
04.22.05	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL	Humane Society Benefit Concert
03.27.05	Club Euro	Chicago, IL	Easter Show
02.11.05	Flat Iron Building	Chicago, IL	Around the Coyote Festival
02.06.05	Club Euro	Chicago, IL	Tsumani Benefit Concert
01.29.05	Sobo 151 Bar & Grill	Denver, CO
01.27.05	Chill Nightclub	Frisco, CO

2002-2004
................

12.17.04	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
10.30.04	Union Hall	Countryside, IL
08.27.04	Rockfest	Yorkville, IL
08.27.04	Daley Plaza	Chicago, IL
08.14.04	Garfield Park Conservatory	Chicago, IL
08.13.04	Club Euro	Chicago, IL
07.30.04	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
07.04.04	West Loop Art Market	Chicago, IL
06.25.04	U.S. Beer Company	Chicago, IL
06.18.04	Flat Iron Building	Chicago, IL	Art Show (acoustic performance)
06.13.04	Club Euro	Chicago, IL
06.11.04	Underground Lounge	Chicago, IL
05.01.04	Union Hall	Countryside, IL
04.23.04	Elbo Room	Chicago, IL
07.06.03	Union Pier	Union Pier, MI
08.23.03	Summer Outdoor Festival	Fairplay, CO
02.18.03	Molly Malone's	Forest Park, IL
12.31.02	Klas Restaurant	Cicero, IL

Doggybag, DJ Delfin, Harmony of Lies, Assimilation, Few Left, & Logical Chaos are joining together for a one-day outdoor music festival at a great campground in the Chicago suburbs.

Come celebrate the 4th of July weekend with Doggybag and friends at our favorite campground, just an hour outside of the city. For $20 plus the price of camping, you get to see 5 live bands play from 3pm to 10pm, with DJ Delfin playing in between sets.

Saturday Jul 05, 2008
Hide-Away-Lakes Campground
8045 Van Emmon Rd.
Yorkville, Illinois 60560
Click Below To View Event
http://events.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&eventID=438545.39652&hashcode=AE9DB419-E216-49CE-AE72-21A30C325534

Camping is available all weekend long, and Hide-Away-Lakes has a huge camping area. There are no food or drink vendors on-site, so the event is completely BYOB and BYO-Food, though it's only a 10-minute drive into town. Please, remember to bring any camping/picnic supplies you might need, and all local, state, and federal laws apply.

Visit www.hideawaylakes.com/ or www.camprv.com/il/hideawaylakes for camping info, and feel free to contact Doggybag with any questions. Please check out all the bands playing, too:

Doggybag www.myspace.com/doggybagmusic
Harmony of Lies www.myspace.com/harmonyoflies
Assimilation www.myspace.com/assimilationlive
Few Left www.myspace.com/fewleft
DJ Delfin & Logical Chaos

Feel free to print out the flyer below to help spread the word. We'll see you there!

Hey, we just wanted to keep everybody up to date on what's been going on with Doggybag. Make sure to check out our page from time to time, as we've been trying to change things up, including songs and pictures.

On that note, we just posted a ton of photos from our CD release show back in April, thanks to our friend and photographer Radim Rotek. We also recently posted a video from the release show, edited together by our friend Jill Vanc, and, if you haven't seen it, you can always check it out directly at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EtzepKgScw. We're also planning to post more footage from the show, including some of the best performances of the night, just as soon as the editing is all finished. Thanks again to everyone who came out that night. It was an awesome party!!

We've also booked a bunch of gigs for the summer, and we'll be adding more in the next few weeks. We're playing at a couple local clubs, as well as a couple outdoor festivals. If you're interested in coming to hear us at the Effit Fest in Wisconsin July 11th, please let us know, since the band has a few half-price tickets. Also, Doggybag is organizing an outdoor music fest for Saturday, July 5th in Yorkville, IL. It's listed on our gig page, and we'll be sending out more info on that soon.

Also, we set up a sonicbids page a few months ago, which you can see at www.sonicbids.com/doggybagmusic. This is our official Electronic Press Kit, so, if you know anyone or any venues interested in having Doggybag play, please give them that address.

We also wanted to let you know that our new album, "Lunar Cabaret and Full Moon Cafe", will soon be available for purchase though iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, Rhapsody, and a few other music-selling sites. The album is still getting processed and will up on these sites in the next few weeks. Visit www.tunecore.com/music/doggybag to see a complete a online stores where you can buy the album. It will also soon be up on CD Baby and, of course, directly through the band at any of our shows.

Thanks for all your support. Rock on!

Doggybag

UPDATE: Promoter's ordinance tabled (for now), following a nearly unprecedented outpouring of concern from the Chicago music community and a meeting with activists and some of the top concert promoters and venue owners in Chicago. http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/05/update_promoters_ordinance_tab.html

For those who haven't heard about the proposed Promoter's Ordinance here in Chicago, here's some info.

The City of Chicago is looking to pass an ordinance quietly and quickly! This new Promoters Ordinance would require independent promoters to get licenses to promote any/all events which in turn would negatively affect the future of the Chicago music community. This proposed law would:

1. Require independent promoters to acquire a promoter's license costing up to $2,000 every two years.
2. Require promoters to obtain liability insurance for every event thrown (even if the presenting venue already has liability insurance).
3. Require promoters to be fingerprinted and background checked, and maintain extensive records of each event.
4. Unfairly single out small venues and venues without seating, with no justification for during so.

Here are some of the ways that it will impact the Chicago music community:

1. It would affect the bottom line of small/mid-sized clubs that make a significant portion of revenue from partnerships with reputable, incident-free independent promoters.
2. Losing independent promoters means Chicago music fans would lose out on many small niche events important for minority groups and the overall growth of the independent music scene.
3. Restricting independent promoters would drastically cut into the ability to do charitable and political benefit concerts, as it would no longer be financially feasible for non-profit organizations to organize these events.
4. If they can get away with doing this to promoters, it is likely that they will go after bands next forcing bands to carry liability insurance and being subjected to background checks and keeping logs on their events.

This ordinance will hurt a lot of promoters in the city, both large and small, and it could hurt our band in the future. It needs to be stopped immediately, and the final city council vote is tomorrow!! You can go to www.savechicagoculture.org to read some basics, find your alderman, etc.

Below is what we first heard/read about this issue last week, which really gives you the big picture and shows how much the city is overreacting (to a 5-year-old issue!!!). You can follow the direct links if you want to keep up, and please forward to anyone who might be interested.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/05/the_city_tries_again_to_legisl.html
http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/05/update_promoters_law_passes_co.html
http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/05/the_promoters_ordinance_the_vi.html

All written by Jim DeRogatis

The city tries again to legislate Clubland — without any input from the music community

Last time this ordinance got shut down by the Chicago Music Committee, thanks to Bruce Igluar of Alligator Records and Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions. Stay tuned for more as friends of the local music scene mobilize in an effort to make themselves heard at City Hall.

UPDATE: Promoters law passes committee

The promoter's ordinance: The view from City Hall

In case you didn’t get invited to the event, here’s the info.

Hosted By: Doggybag
When: Saturday Apr 12, 2008
at 8:00 PM
Where: Cafe Lura
3184 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL

It’s going to be a great party, with 2 bands and 2 DJs performing. We’ll see you there!


Click Here To View Event

Hey, everybody. Well, we've been back for a couple weeks now, but we thought we should write something about our recent trip to Colorado. We had a great time and wanted to thank everyone who came out and saw us, not to mention the bar owners and the guys in CZL for hooking us up with all the gigs. A huge thanks also goes to Paul and his wife Olga for hosting us in Denver. The put up the entire band, plus the one friend and two significant others traveling with us (8 people total!), for two days and nights, and Paul even made us breakfast Saturday morning. None of us have ever seen hospitality like that. Thanks again, if you're reading.

The weekend got kicked off with a bang on Friday. We had played at Sobo 151 the last time we were in Denver, but we had an even better time this trip. With their cool beer garden, great staff, good food, and great selection of drinks, it was a fun place to hang out. It was also Sobo's fifth anniversary, and we felt honored that they had invited us to be part of the celebration. CZL played a great couple of sets, and we were surprised how many people kept showing up throughout the night. We didn't go on until late, but there was still a full, enthusiastic crowd, which stayed that way through the end of our second set. A few audience members got really into our music, dancing and clapping along, and Marek felt so inspired that he even jumped into the audience and starting dancing during the guitar solo on one song. Half the band had taken an 8AM flight into Denver that morning, which made us pretty tired, but the audience's energy kept us going right up to last call.

Saturday, we got to do some shopping and sightseeing, including a tour of the Coors factory in Golden, before heading over to Brando's for dinner and drinks. The Colorado Rock Show is actually in a room separate from the rest of the bar/restaurant that is Brando's, but it was a cool place to play, with CZL opening up for us once again. We can't say enough about the Colorado Rock staff, and it was amazing having a team of 5-6 guys setting up the sound and the video recording for us. Everyone there really knew what they were doing, and the sound was great both on stage and in the audience. They also record every show with a set of 9(!) cameras, which we got to watch on monitors as we and CZL played, and we got to take a copy home on DVD. (We're going to choose the best song and put it online, so keep your eyes out.) Overall, we all agreed it was the best-sounding room any of us have ever played, especially since the sound guy actually adjusted our sound throughout the show and took care of problems as they arose (like a real soundman). The guy in charge of taping really loved our sound and was excited about putting our video on his website, and the sound guy wouldn't stop singing our praises, even saying that Mike's drums sounded better than any drum set he'd heard in the two years he's worked there. (He told Jan to give him a call if we ever wanted him to come do sound for us; Jan immediately asked for his card.) So, it was a fun place to place, even if the turnout wasn't great.

Sunday's show was just the opposite. It took us a couple hours to get to Frisco from Denver, but, man, was it gorgeous; there's nothing like seeing mountains in every direction. We got to the marina early in the day and found the outdoor restaurant we were playing at. At first, they wanted us to set up on the back deck, but we didn't like that idea too much, since that would put us on the opposite side from the bar, not to mention all the tables and chairs they had set up. Fortunately, a short burst of rain as we were setting up allowed us to use "protecting the equipment" as an excuse for setting up under the second-floor deck, right next to the bar. The staff there was actually really wonderful, and the owner was not only grateful that we were there, but he made goulash special for the occasion. Knowing that we were going to be playing this gig outside, we had brought our own microphones, speakers, and monitors, and our engineer, Milan, who had come along just for fun, was thankfully there to run the board and help us set up everything. We had some technical difficulties, but Milan was a pro. The way we were set up also allowed everyone to hear us clearly, without our sound overpowering them, and the audience was amazing. As we were setting up, the people eating lunch and hanging out seemed to be in a hurry to get out of there before the music started (an ominous omen), but we were amazed and impressed at the number of people who showed up and stayed around. Locals who were in the area didn't just walk by or stay for a song or two; people we didn't know stuck around for hours. Strangers were complimenting us and giving us their business cards, and friends had traveled from towns near and far, including a bunch of people who had seen us Friday and half the members of CZL, who we thought would have been sick of hearing us by then. People moved chairs and tables around so they could see us better, kids and adults alike were dancing and clapping, and we even noticed someone singing along on Snails. Marek and Jan had to keep reminding themselves not to dance around so much (they kept getting out-of-breath because of the thin mountain air), but we were able to play three solid sets (and almost every song we know). It was the most fun we had had playing as a band in a long time, and we'd love to go back.

Well, we may have only been there one weekend, but it was well worth it and we'll be back soon. Everyone in Colorado said that winter's the time when the music scene is really happening, so plans are already in the works for a winter tour, probably after the holidays. This was also the first Doggybag tour that we had set up on our own, and we were amazed at how easy it was; a few phone calls a couple months before we left got us three great gigs. So, we're optimistic about next time. We're glad to be back home in Chicago, but we can't wait to go back.

"Summer time in Colorado!"

Hey, everybody. We just wanted to make sure that everyone was being kept up-to-date on what's going on with Doggybag. As always, we're constantly adding new shows to our page. So, check back often. Also, next Saturday, July 28th, we will be making our triumphant return to the Elbo Room here in Chicago, AND we will be shooting footage for our brand new music video during one song!! So, come on down, and you may end up in the video.
  
Also, for our friends out west, Doggybag is definitely coming to Colorado in a few weeks. We will be there during the weekend of August 17th-19th, and we're planning on playing 3 different shows. We're still ironing out some details, but shows will go up on our page as soon as they are confirmed. We're really looking forward to it.