Andy Seifert

"I'd like to dedicate this to Stacy," says local guitarist Eric Mantel, before his first song, a nine-minute prog-rock jam that allows two camera crews to storm the stage. This is hour one of eight of this Stacy Peterson benefit concert, a fundraiser dedicated to raising money to pay for continued search efforts of the Bolingbrook mother who's been missing since October. At least that's the official statement; judging by the piñata with Drew Peterson's picture plastered over its face and the homemade "Who ya gonna call? Drewbusters!" sign, this could have easily been named the "Drew Peterson can go to hell" benefit concert.

On a Sunday afternoon at 115 Bourbon Street restaurant in Merrionette Park, hundreds of friends, family, well-wishers and media outlets assemble to show their support and partake in the complimentary buffet. There are plenty of good intentions ostensibly evident, with several local domestic-abuse organizations setting up shop to distribute pamphlets. However, there's at least a shred of irony in holding a concert for respecting women in a Mardi Gras-themed restaurant. Avon, the "company for women," has a prominent space and a company representative across from the "PMSing and loving it!" sign to show off its beauty products. Admittedly, a decent majority of attendees are women; some of them wearing Stacy Peterson "missing person" t-shirts introduce themselves to one another, having first met on the findstacypeterson.com message boards. Equally as prevalent are television camera crews, getting shot after magnificent shot of hundreds of people sitting around drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade and eating fried chicken.

"This is for, uh, this is…" says Mantel, trailing off as he probably realizes dedicating every song to Stacy is a little repetitive.

(2008-03-11)

Also by Andy Seifert

Punking Lincoln Square
"Lincoln Square Idol," a battle of the bands featuring sixteen mostly amateur bands, each adhering to slightly different genres of pop/rock.
(2008-03-05)

Trained in the Arts
For most Chicagoans, the El's dirty steel trains are just a screeching, annoying necessity of life; for an artist, it's another canvas. Some choose to draw graffiti, others like to spray fake blood all over them and write "Real Patriots take Public Transit" and "Storm the Castle!" in the windows—just like the one currently hanging inside A.Okay Official's modest gallery. Unfortunately, this conceptual train isn't life-sized (yet), but in model-sized, two-foot long form and hanging alongside thirty-five other train art creations, at least twelve of which are more peculiar and eyebrow-raising than this bloody, castle-storming artifact
(2008-02-19)

Painful Reality
A taxi screeches to a halt on Clark Street in front of Goose Island Wrigleyville, where a patient crowd of teenagers and twentysomethings are lined up. Out steps a gentlemen in his early twenties who wears faded jeans, Armani sunglasses and what appears to be Derek Zoolander's "blue steel" pose. The sad reality is that he is strutting towards the line to audition for the twenty-first season of MTV's "The Real World," and he probably has a decent chance at making the cut
(2008-02-12)

The Gates of Hell
If campaign rallies are any indication, John Mellencamp is the most popular musician of our time. Virtually every presidential campaign uses the pro-America, pro-common-sense values embedded within the prose of "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A," and Republican frontrunner John McCain is no exception
(2008-02-06)

Bono Appetit
(2008-01-29)

As Fast As You Can
(2008-01-22)

Smoked Out
(2007-12-26)

It's All in the Surname
(2007-12-04)

Bear Barren
(2007-11-27)

Rebel Cacophony
(2007-11-19)

Martha Martha Martha
(2007-11-19)

Take It Personal
(2007-11-06)

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