Ike Reilly and The Assassination to Head Out on Annual St. Patrick's Day Massacre Tour

Rebel rocker and raconteur Ike Reilly is set to hit the road for select Midwest tour dates in March (see tour schedule below). The New York Times has praised Reilly's music and live shows, writing: "Ike Reilly is a kind of natural resource, mined from the bedrock of music. All the values that make rock important to people-storytelling, melody, rage, laughter-are part and parcel of every Ike Reilly show I have ever seen. One of the best touring acts in the country, Reilly's band takes it as a personal challenge to upend and amaze every room they play in." With sets that are replete with true stories, tall tales, and bonhomie, Reilly will be performing this string of shows - dubbed the St. Patrick's Day Massacre Tour (the fifth annual outing under this moniker) - with his full band, The Assassination. The Chicago show, being held on St. Patrick's Day, is part of the Lincoln Hall/Schuba's 30/10 Anniversary Series. Opening on all of the dates, and joining Ike and Co. on stage, will be Brendan O'Shea. Reilly plans to play songs from his full catalog with emphasis on 2018's Crooked Love, which made many "best of 2018" lists, including the No DepressionReader's Poll.

Ike Reilly tour schedule:
Thursday, 3/14 - Shank Hall | Minneapolis, MN
Friday, 3/15 - The Dubliner | St. Paul, MN (sponsored by Summit Brewing)
Saturday, 3/16 - The Castle Theatre | Bloomington, IL
Sunday, 3/17 - Lincoln Hall | Chicago, IL

Chicago, IL-based indie rock singer-songwriter Ike Reilly released his seventh studio album, Crooked Love, in 2018 via Rock Ridge Music. Since his major label debut, the groundbreaking Salesmen and Racists, Reilly has been making punk/folk/blues influenced rock 'n' roll records that lean heavily on stories of outsiders with keen details and broad strokes that insinuate a crack in the American dream. Press praise for Reilly's music has been extensive over the years. Chicago Magazine lauded Reilly's "outlandish storytelling, underdog combativeness, and slapstick humor." Minneapolis City Pages said, "Equal parts punk rocker, poet, and blue-collar barfly, Reilly's stories are as bizarre and filthy and honest and pure as the people who come out to his shows. His songs reach out and grab people, shake them by the collars, make them jump up and down." Chicago Tribune admired that Ike "merges his affinity for folk-punk narrative and anthemic guitar chords with hip-hop's vocal cadences and rhythmic drive." PopMatters.com called him "the best songwriter in America... Hilarious, unsettling, raw... but mostly just rocking." USA Today hailed Reilly as "never less than original... ferociously intelligent... always worth listening to." And Los Angeles Times described Reilly's music as "...barroom rock narrated by a wiseguy who's as comfortable regaling PhDs and poets as he is pimps and pornstars."

Photo credit: Luis A. Lopez