{"id":64615,"date":"2025-12-23T13:44:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T19:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=64615"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:00:52","slug":"in-the-loop-magazines-best-of-2025-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=64615","title":{"rendered":"In The Loop Magazine&#8217;s &#8216;Best of 2025&#8217; Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It&#8217;s that time of year again! Here&#8217;s our opinions and thoughts on what was the best in live music, concerts and events that happened in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>James Currie<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, it was a mixed year. Some new music was discovered, some amazing concerts were witnessed and a few albums that are in regular rotation made my &#8216;Best Of&#8217; list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best albums of 2025<\/strong> (in no particular order)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Peter Criss &#8211; self titled (2025)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wolf Alice &#8211; The Clearing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Turnstile &#8211; Never Enough<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deftones &#8211; Private Music<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Geese &#8211; Getting Killed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wet Leg &#8211; Moisturizer<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jeff Tweedy &#8211; Bleeds<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Horrors &#8211; Night Life<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Death In Vegas &#8211; Death Mask<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>King Gizzard &amp; the Lizard Wizard &#8211; Phantom Island<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sleep Token &#8211; Even in Arcadia<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Health &#8211; Conflict DLC<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Daisychain &#8211; Daisychain <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finitribe &#8211; The Sheer Action of Fini Tribe<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best concerts of 2025<\/strong> (in no particular order)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wet Leg &#8211; North American Moisturizer Tour at Salt Shed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Billy Corgan &#8211; &nbsp;A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness at Lyric Opera<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Queens of the Stone Age &#8211; The Catacombs Tour at Chicago Theatre<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Squirrel Nut Zippers &#8211; Christmas Caravan Tour at Park West<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teatro Zinzanni &#8211; at Hotel Cambria<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Martin Atkins Presents: Extremeties at Reggies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Riot Fest 2oth Anniversary &#8211; Douglas Park<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kula Shaker: North American Tour at Bottom Lounge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Simple Minds: Alive and Kicking Tour 2025 &#8211; Northerly Island<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nick Cave: The Wild God Tour &#8211; Salt Shed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Graham Lesh &amp; Friends (opening night of the club) &#8211; Garcia&#8217;s Chicago<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Black Sabbath (Back to the Beginning) (livestream) &#8211; Villa Park Burmingham, UK<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grace Jones &#8211; Ravinia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Kelly Clausen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn&#8217;t go to as many shows as I would have liked to but the ones I saw were pretty great. Here are my top concerts and events of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Teatro Zinzanni &#8211; at Hotel Cambria<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Squirrel Nut Zippers &#8211; Christmas Caravan Tour at Park West<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Simple Minds: Alive and Kicking Tour 2025 &#8211; Northerly Island<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Iggy Pop &#8211; Salt Shed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Japanese Breakfast &#8211; Salt Shed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Third Eye Blind &#8211; Brookfield Roaring Nights (Brookfield Zoo)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Windy City Smokeout &#8211; United Center<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Harrison Kristoff<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best Concerts 0f 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Buckethead &#8211; Des Plaines Theatre<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Old Crow Medicine Show &#8211; Genesee Theatre<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deftones &#8211; United Center<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Underworld &#8211; Radius<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>AC\/DC &#8211; Soldier Field<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Black Crowes &#8211; Ravinia<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Linkin Park &#8211; United Center<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oasis &#8211; Soldier Field<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nine Inch Nails &#8211; United Center<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Paul McCartney &#8211; United Center<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best Albums of 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Skrillex &#8211; Fuck U Skillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol But Ur Not!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deftones &#8211; Private Music<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wet Leg &#8211; Moisturizer<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thom York &amp; Mark Pritchard &#8211; Tall Tales<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pulp &#8211; More<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Horsegirl &#8211; Phonetics On and On<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Turnstile &#8211; Never Enough<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Geese &#8211; Getting Killed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wednesday &#8211; Bleeds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Kyle Decker<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best Concerts 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This being the year it was, I didn\u2019t get out as much as I usually like to. The shows I got out to were pretty killer, though. The final Murder by Death show in Chicago was a rager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Murder by Death -Thalia Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 The Oxys &#8211; Liars Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Whores &#8211; Sleeping Village<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best Albums 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 La Dispute &#8211; No One Was Driving the Car<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Murder by Death &#8211; Egg &amp; Dart\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Viagra Boys &#8211; viagr aboys<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Fontaines D.C. &#8211; Romance<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Wet Leg &#8211; Moisturizer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Heavy Lungs &#8211; Caviar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 Matt Berninger &#8211; Get Sunk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that time of year again! Here&#8217;s our opinions and thoughts on what was the best in live music, concerts and events that happened in 2025. James Currie For me, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,39,20],"tags":[1984,1985,1986,1988,1983,1987],"class_list":["post-64615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-music-news","category-reviews","tag-best-albums-of-2025","tag-best-concerts-of-2025","tag-best-live-2025","tag-best-of","tag-best-of-2025","tag-best-of-chicago-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64615"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64623,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64615\/revisions\/64623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}