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The Nightlife!
One of Carbondale's most popular bands,
the Woodbox Gang, packing the dance floor.
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Packed nightclubs along Carbondale's legendary Strip jump with live bands and DJs, from both Southern Illinois and major cities such as Chicago and St. Louis. (By state law, you must be twenty-one to consume or possess alcohol. By Carbondale ordinance, you must be nineteen to enter nightclubs, although several coffeehouses and restaurants with liquor licenses regularly offer live entertainment, and can admit patrons of all ages.) Huge groups such as Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and REM played club dates on the Strip in their early days. Attending SIU means being able to say, "I saw them back when...."
The SIU Arena has hosted concerts featuring everyone from Marilyn Manson, the Foo Fighters, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Elvis Presley, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Frank Zappa.
Another one of Carbondale's most popular local bands,
trance group La Makita Soma, hit the Top 100
of the College Music Journal with both their
albums, Monkey Island and Brighton Park.
The group now is based in Chicago.
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Current local groups encompass punk (the Copyrights, the Clap), deep blues (Tawl Paul and Slappin' Henry Blue, Big Larry and the Down Home Blues Band), alternative and indie rock (Through Dint of Heavy Wishing, Clean Ray), jam bands (Alan Vasquez, Majnun), insurgent Americana (the Jackhead Band, the Woodbox Gang, Josh Plemon and the Lonesome Four), jazz (Mercy, Caravan), bluegrass (Shady Mix, the Ole Fishskins), reggae and ska (the Rum Runners), Cajun and Creole music (Creole Stomp, Chickenfoot Gumbo), hardcore (Ninety-nine Stabwounds), amped-up rock 'n' roll (the Dammit Boys), folk (Carter and Connelley), heavy metal (Zaius, When Mourning Comes).... The list goes on and on and on....
Local musicians record their own CDs in Southern Illinois's half-dozen recording studios and tour extensively-- Carbondale is centrally located between St. Louis, Nashville, Memphis, Springfield, Champaign and Indianapolis, between Chicago, Kansas City, Rock Island, and Little Rock. Its location also places Carbondale on the circuit of major touring groups, and makes Carbondale an ideal location for those who like to take roadtrips.
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Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers rock the conscious party at the free 1998
Spring Thing concert at SIU...
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... and George Clinton
tears the roof off
the sucka at the 1999 Spring Thing.
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Damn right he's got the blues!
Buddy Guy at the 2001 Spring Thing
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Wilco's seminal insurgent Americana
graced the packed 2003 Spring Thing
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Bruce Campbell, actor and
producer of the Evil Dead trilogy
and author of If Chins Could Kill:
Confessions of a B-movie Actor,
lectured at SIU in spring 2003.
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Dozens of Registered Student Organizations give SIU students a vast array of creative and entertainment outlets. The Student Programming Council gives SIU students a chance to bring in the big names you want to see. Back in the day, SPC brought in alternative rock icons the Replacements; more recently, they booked a psychobilly freakout by the Rev. Horton Heat and a newgrass revival by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. SPC's annual Spring Thing festival featured George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars in 1999, and Ziggy Marley in 1998. For those who want practical experience in the entertainment industry, SPC has committees that perform every task of a real entertainment agency, from booking and advertising to promotion and security. The committees encompass diverse activities ranging from concerts and film to comedy, lectures, parades, and travel.
Southern Illinois is legendary for its barbecue, something both Carbondale and Murphysboro celebrate in the First Cellular Carbondale Main Street Pig-Out and the Murphysboro Barbecue Festival. The annual Du Quoin State Fair brings in major roots performers (mostly country, but often classic rock, blues, and gospel music, too) as well as world-class harness and stock-car racing.
Want something more high-brow? During the summer, SPC puts on a free, weekly Sunset Concert series. A new arts and culture bash, the Shawnee Wine Festival, celebrates vineyards and wine-making, one of Southern Illinois's fastest-growing industries. SIU's Irish Studies program offers the rapidly growing annual Festival of Irish Music and Dance.
WSIU-FM brought Whad'ya Know? host
Michael Feldman to Carbondale for a
fundraiser in 1998. Here, on the Strip,
Feldman poses with local music legends
Scott Furtwengler of Crank (l)
and Jim Foerster of 40-Watt Flood (r).
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Want it even more high-brow? At least six theater groups (three on the SIU campus and four in the immediate region) put on live theatrical productions year round, some by local and student playwrights. Shryock Auditorium hosts a season of touring theatrical productions and classical, worldbeat, and jazz concerts. In addition, the SIU Music Department features student, faculty, and guest musicians performing everything from traditional classical to experimental music. John A. Logan Community College in nearby Carterville, recently lauded as one of the five best community colleges in America by Rolling Stone, hosts a bevy of touring and in-house performances. The SIU English, Honors, and Art Departments bring in prominent figures to lecture, or to read or display their work. Between the SIU campus and the surrounding communities, there are more than six galleries that display work by international, local, and student artists. Click here for a list!
You name it- if it's happening,
it's happening here!
And It's Cheap, Too!
The cost of living in Carbondale is a mere fraction of the cost of living in other university cities. Check out the U.S. Census Bureau's 2000 median rent statistics:
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Carbondale, Illinois, SIU
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$341 |
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Bloomington, Illinois (ISU)
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$461
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| Champaign, Illinois (U of I) |
$467
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| Charleston, Illinois (EIU) |
$361
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| Chicago, Illinois (UIC, DePaul, etc.) |
$543
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| DeKalb, Illinois (NIU) |
$499
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| Macomb, Illinois (WIU) |
$340
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| Normal, Illinois (ISU) |
$480
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| Urbana, Illinois (U of I) |
$463
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| St. Louis, Missouri (Wash U., etc.) |
$347
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© 2000 Carbondale Nightlife. All rights reserved. No reproduction is allowed without expressed, written consent. This site has been created independently of Southern Illinois University and the City of Carbondale. It is in NO WAY affiliated, officially or otherwise, with SIU or the City of Carbondale.
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