H.O.G. POD: Chicagoland Hyper Local Music Scene

Pete Jansons and Bongo Mike sit down with Chicagoland booking agent and working musician Joseph Preissing (AJP Music Haus / A Sure Thing) for an inside look at the local music business. How he got started booking bands, why so many bars hire a DJ after the band, where the live-music crowds went, how he protects the bands he books, the $5 cover charge debate, the odd private-event gigs that actuall...

The Flock – Illinois Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 2026. Backstage at the Harris Theater in Chicago on induction night, Sept. 27, 2026, original members of The Flock and today's line-up sit down with Pete Jansons and Bongo Mike to tell the story, 50 years later. How a suburban high-school band turned into a jazz-rock band on Columbia Records, how their roadie turned out to be a classicall...

Chicago clubs want cover bands—but where does that leave original artists? Zacky Manic spent almost 10 years making Mood Swing, re-recording songs as his singing, guitar playing and production skills improved. Zacky joins Pete Jansons and Bongo Mike to talk grunge roots (he heard Nirvana at two years old), running the studio at Harper College, why Chicago clubs book cover bands over original acts,...

Casper Alexander — the Peoria-raised rapper, stage manager and promoter behind CHISongwriter — says 400,000 TikTok followers don't mean much at the door. He's spent 15 years booking, performing and building shows, and he's seen the gap between online clout and real ticket sales firsthand. Casper stage-managed the Mosquitoes' set at this summer's Lincolnwood fest, and now he&#39...

What happens when a Chicago singer takes Ratt's "Round and Round" and drops Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" right on top of it? The guys cheer, their faces fall, the girlfriends rush the stage, and by the chorus the whole room is back. Casey Torrey fronts Remix Riot, a Chicagoland festival band that mashes rock and metal anthems with pop hits. Think "Smoke on the...

What makes a mosh pit one of the friendliest rooms in music? Elise McLearen says metalheads are all show on the outside and soft at heart underneath — the same crowd that runs full speed into each other will drop everything to pick you up off the floor. Elise joins Hogpod with fellow Diva Lisa Orduna and guitarist and scene-supporter Adam of Lombardy Black to talk about the Ronnie James Divas: an...

Can a Joliet museum really move Illinois' Rock & Roll Hall of Fame into a downtown Chicago theater — and pull it off? Ron Romero — Founder, CEO & Board Chairman of the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 — is back on Hogpod with Rob Stepen to break the news: for the first time, the Illinois Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction leaves the Joliet Rialto for the Harris Theater i...

What happens when the powerhouse voice fronting three Chicago bands turns out to spend her days as a senior HR executive? Tamara Woodruff is back on Hogpod — and this time the biggest surprise isn't a song. She fronts Pacific Sound Company (a West Coast tribute running LA to Seattle), sings lead in the country band Wildfire, and runs an acoustic duo on the side. By day? Thirty years in human r...

How do you save a historic theater, keep legendary artists coming back — and build a life around "music and meatballs"? Ron Onesti, President & CEO of Onesti Entertainment, joins Hogpod as the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Ron tells the story of driving out to the Arcada 25 years ago, finding a dumpster out front and discovering the theate...

If you've spent any time in the Chicago tribute scene, you've probably seen Chris "C-Bob" Bobrowski on a stage somewhere — Rok Brigade, Super Unknown, Ten, No More Tears, No More Faith, and roughly ten other projects depending on the weekend. C-Bob returns to Hogpod with Pete Jansons and Bongo Mike for a wide-ranging one: AI and musicianship, the Chicago tribute scene, shrinking...

A guitar player walked into her Lake Zurich fitness studio, said "I have a proposition for you" — and that's how a personal trainer became the Nancy Wilson in one of Chicago's premier Heart tribute acts. Lisa LaManna sings and plays the Nancy Wilson role in Heart 2 Heartbreaker — the Chicagoland Heart & Pat Benatar tribute alongside Jerry (Benatar) and opera-trained Diva. Thi...

John Gabrysiak — "John G" — has spent 40+ years in the music business, from booking agent for John Mayall, Johnny Winter and Levon Helm to Music Director & Talent Buyer at Special Events Management (chicagoevents.com), where he now books the bands for Chicago's biggest summer street festivals. Pete and Bongo Mike sit down with John for a full-circle conversation: Pete booked the...

How does a suburban music teacher end up interviewing Blind Melon, an Allman, and the guy who wrote "Wagon Wheel"? She just slides into their DMs. Rachel Locker — host of the Rachel Locker Music podcast and a teacher at Our Music Institute in Northfield, IL — joins Hogpod to explain how she lands big-name guests the low-tech way: a direct message on Instagram. Along the way she walks us...

Dan Volpe has kept the same band alive for forty years, figures he's owned something like a thousand guitars, and still flat-out refuses to carry a setlist. He's the mastermind behind My Metal Heart and the guy who's run Exide since 1984 — and he just became the third member of My Metal Heart to land in the Hog Pod chairs, after Elise and Mark Molloy. He gets into the Thirsty Whale nig...

What do you do when Jam Productions calls with five days' notice and asks if you want to open for Bob Newhart at a sold-out Chicago Theatre? Heather Moran said yes — and walked offstage to a wink and three words she never forgot. This week the Bluewater Creek singer (with husband Mike Moran riding shotgun on the couch) covers a career that runs from opera training and Second City to Chicago ja...

Is it ever too late to start singing in bands? Jody Fields got married at 18, raised three kids, started college at 37, and didn't set foot on a bar stage until her forties. Today she's one of the busiest vocalists in the Chicago music scene. Jody is the backing-vocal secret weapon of Pacific Sound Company (formerly Blue Bayou, Chicagoland's Linda Ronstadt tribute), a six-year veteran...

What does it take to build a world-class music museum from scratch? Ron Romero, Founder, CEO and Board Chairman of the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66, joins Hogpod for an inside look at the museum preserving Illinois' incredible musical legacy. From honoring legendary artists like Cheap Trick, Survivor, REO Speedwagon, Muddy Waters, Curtis Mayfield and countless others, to creatin...

Can two veteran musicians use AI to make music that's actually good — or is Suno just a shortcut that's killing the craft? Jay Martini and Mitch Germaine have been playing together for 25 years, going back to a covers band called Big Witness and a smooth-jazz project called Opening Night that sold, in Jay's words, about eight copies in Romania. Jay's a working pro and Pete's ol...

Same high school. Same college. Same football team. Same career pivot — and somehow the same suburb. Steve McEwen and Pete Jansons have been living parallel lives since Lane Tech, and this week the former Q101 afternoon DJ walks through every spot those two worlds collided. Steve was on the mic at Q101 when Chicago's alternative scene was white-hot — he introduced Jakob Dylan at the Cubby Bear...

Scott Muzzey is a Chicago drummer-for-hire who plays the washboard, can trace his family in America back to 1633, and at seventeen sliced through five tendons, an artery and the carpal nerve in his wrist after falling onto a drinking glass mid-practice. The therapy that brought the hand back? More drumming. He joins Pete and co-host Bongo Mike (26 years in The Mosquitoes) plus fellow drummer-for-h...

For 22 years, Teddy O'Brian's was the down-and-dirty Highwood room where bands hauled in their own PA and the patio packed out on a summer Friday. Ted Banick bought the bar in 1999 and ran it for over two decades — booking Mr. Blotto, watching Bongo's eight-piece own that patio — and on this Hogpod he tells the whole story, right up to the new stage on the west side that's still wa...

Chicago guitarist and bandleader Dan Peters joins Pete Jansons, Mike "Bongo" Orfanos, and Chris "Rhodesy" Rhodes for a deep dive into the Chicago music scene, the Five Amigos, Shred-abilly, Broadway's Rock of Ages, auditioning for Brian May, playing with Dee Snider, AI music, DJs vs bands, and why everybody suddenly wants earlier shows. Plus: Green Mill swing-era stories, B...

Jim Pallucci from Anchors Away joins HOG POD: Chicago Music Scene Podcast for a conversation about Yacht Rock, tribute bands, live musicianship, and the Chicago music scene. Jimmy talks about burning out on music at 21, rediscovering music later in life, discovering Yacht Rock Review at Joe’s Live Rosemont, building Anchors Away, hauling Hammond B3 organs in box trucks, and why the band refuses to...

One week before their first show, the founder of a Chicago Oasis tribute band posted an ad looking for a new singer and bass player. The band saw it. They fired him. Then they played the show without him.—James Bruebach joins Hogpod to talk about Matchbox 90s, Wonderwall, Chicago tribute bands, trying to “make it” in music, and why losing his brother changed the way he approaches life forever. Top...

Rob Stepen is back — and this time, it's not a catch-up. He was just elected to the Illinois Rock & Roll Hall of Fame board, and the story behind it starts with a night where The Generations walked into a room full of Cheap Trick fans… and left with two standing ovations. Plus: Rob isn't just on the board — he's leading the charge to rebuild the tornado-damaged Route 66 museum. We...