Two of alternative rock’s most dynamic and enduring bands — Counting Crows and The Wallflowers — are joining forces for this exciting summer concert at Charter One Pavilion.   Get tickets starting at $19 (half off) for their July 7th concert.  Counting Crows became instant stars in 1994 with the release of their up-tempo single, “Mr. Jones.” Drawn in by Adam Duritz’ expressive vocals, fans soon fell in love with Counting Crows’ dark and angsty mix of Van Morrison-style classic rock with alternative college radio attitude, ensuring the bands success throughout the ’90s and beyond. Hot on the Counting Crows’ heels, the Wallflowers came out big in 1996. Led by Bob Dylan’s son Jakob, the Wallflowers have more in common with ’70s roots rockers like Tom Petty than they do with ’60s folk. Their first album on Interscope, Bringing Down the Horse, became a major success due to hit singles like “One Headlight,” “The Difference” and “6th Avenue Heartache,” the group’s anthemic ballad which featured background vocals from Adam Duritz.

I don’t often post Goldstar deals outside of the Chicago area, which is a shame, because they offer the same great deals nationwide.  Here’s a list of all the hottest-selling offers in many cities:

Atlanta

Jesus Christ Superstar, the Hit Broadway Musical

Story of Classic Band Told in The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream

Baltimore

The World-Famous Harlem Globetrotters Amaze and Entertain

Always … Patsy Cline: Country Musical Tale of Friendship

Boston

See Boston Via Land and Water on Amphibious Duck Vehicles

Bon Jovi’s Because We Can — The Tour at Gillette Stadium

Story of Classic Band Told in The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream

Chicago

Barenaked Ladies Streak Through Chicago With Ben Folds Five, Boothby Graffoe

Dallas

Female Version of The Odd Couple, Neil Simon’s Classic Comedy

Houston

The Addams Family: Broadway’s Smash Musical Comedy on Tour

Kander and Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys at Ahmanson Theatre

Inland California

Next to Normal, the Groundbreaking Hit Broadway Musical

Las Vegas

Marc Savard Comedy Hypnosis at V Theater at Planet Hollywood

Los Angeles

Kander and Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys at Ahmanson Theatre

Exclusive: Reserved Section for Goldstar Members at Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival

Next to Normal, the Groundbreaking Hit Broadway Musical

Minneapolis-St. Paul

Shades Brigade: Original Radio Thriller Performed Live on Stage

New York

American Ballet Theatre 2013 Spring Season at the Met

Orange County

Broadway Musical Catch Me If You Can at Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Philadelphia

Big Time Rush With Victoria Justice: Summer Break Tour

Phoenix

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap: Most Popular Whodunit of All Time

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson: The Broadway Rock Musical

San Diego

Mainly Mozart Festival: North America’s Top Music Event

Seattle

The Tillicum Village Salmon Bake and Cruise Adventure

Washington D.C.

Anything Goes: Cole Porter’s Award-Winning Musical

International Spy Museum: Enter the World of Secret Agents

A 2008 Tony Award winner for Best Revival, Marc Camoletti’s classic farce Boeing, Boeing comes in for a landing, courtesy of Drury Lane. This high-flying comedy follows a French architect who’s secretly engaged to three different flight attendants. He has all three relationships carefully balanced so that he always has “one up, one down and one pending.” When the new, faster Boeing jet goes into service, his fiancées’ schedules get jumbled, and things turn turbulent as all three of them descend on his Paris apartment at the same time, along with an old schoolmate.  Get half-price tickets starting at $17.50 for performances through June.

We saw this on Broadway and it’s pretty funny. I’m not a farce person, personally (my life is way crazier than that!), but people around us were about peeing in their pants.

The Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart Makes Beats From Brainwave.  Comp tickets are available for the August 9 show at The House of Blues.

Mickey Hart, who as one of the “rhythm devils,” put the beat behind the Grateful Dead for nearly four decades, brings his band and (literally) brainy style to the House of Blues. Celebrating his upcoming album Superorganism — which incorporates the natural rhythms of the human body into original music — Hart will perform wearing an EEG cap on his head. This remarkable device will allow the Rock and Rock Hall of Famer to amplify the sounds of his own throbbing brain and “play” his thoughts and feelings in real time. Joining him on stage will be the Tea Leaf Trio (Trevor Garrod, Reed Mathis and Scott Rager from the San Francisco jam band Tea Leaf Green). Experience the truly “inner” music of a legendary, Grammy Award-winning innovator and performer at this unique concert.

Click on the above link to see more of the summer performances at the House of Blues.

Join Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and all the beloved characters of Oz as Dorothy travels along the Yellow Brick Road to meet the Wonderful Wizard. Based on the timeless novel by L. Frank Baum, this show features the Youth Company Chicago’s Summer Camp Level 4 students in a fully produced production of the family favorite. With the songs “Over the Rainbow,” “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and “If I Only Had Brain,” this classic will teach you the true meaning of “home.”  Comp tickets for those age 17 and under are available for the July 26th and 27th performances ($4 service fee).  Freebies go quickly, so don’t wait. 

Bon Jovi brings the Because We Can — The Tour back to the U.S. for the summer, and one of its stops is Soldier Field in Chicago. Get half-price tickets for the July 12th 7:30 show for only $10-$15!  Come and rock out with these international superstars as they return from a trip around the world. There’s no place like home, so it’s sure to be an exciting show where you can expect to hear all your favorite Bon Jovi hits along with songs from the band’s new album. The band’s What About Now release debuted at No. 1 in March 2013, making it their fifth No. 1 position on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart. The new album’s first hit single, “Because We Can,” was the biggest single launch in the iTunes era of the band’s storied career, hitting the iTunes Top 5 in 24 countries and reaching No. 1 in 12 countries.

Goldstar has comp tickets to June and July performances of Sleeping Beauty.  Provision Theater for Young Audiences invites you and your family on a journey of magic, wonder and imagination. Princess Amber has fallen asleep under the spell of the evil fairy, Magenta. Prince Hunter and the Palace Sisters of Color Land must climb a mountain, sail across the ocean and face a fiery dragon in order to save her. Only time will tell if this brave and determined bunch of adventurers will be able to break the spell and save the princess before it’s too late. Find out if love really conquers all in Provision Theater’s enchanting production of the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.

Wow! A great way to catch some culture on the cheap!  Comp tickets are for the Friday, June 14th, 8 pm performance, so enough time to plan – the full price is $30.  Impress your out-of-town family and friends with this treat.

Under the baton of Italian conductor Mattia Rondelli, the Chicago Philharmonic welcomes solo pianist Susan Merdinger for a performance of works by both famed American and Italian composers, from Verdi to Puccini and Bernstein to Gershwin. The Italian Consulate and University of Illinois co-sponsor this concert that features popular all-time favorites like Rossini’s William Tell Overture, selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story and a finale of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Merdinger is an acclaimed soloist and recording artist who recently won first prize at the 2012 Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition and the 2013 International Music Competition of France.

Next week has preview and first-week performances of Uncle Bob for FREE to $5; thereafter they’re $12.50.

A loving and funny, abrasive and profane battle between uncle and nephew goes down in Uncle Bob. Written by actor-playwright-director Austin Pendleton (Booth, Orson’s Shadow), Uncle Bob centers on the title character — an uproariously articulate hermit in New York — and his visiting nephew, Josh. He has a wit and nervy desperation that finds its only match in his Uncle Bob — but that’s about all Josh has, since he’s an unemployed college dropout without any sense of a future. Richard Cotovsky and Rudy Galvan star, under the direction of Cody Estle.
* Additional fees apply.

Tickets to The Buddy Holly Story at the Cadillac Palace Theatre are almost half-off on Goldstar, with performances available through the third and fourth week of June. Take a musical trip back in time and rock out to the golden oldies at the Cadillac Palace Theatre as the upbeat biographical musical, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story comes to Chicago. This hit show follows Holly’s childhood in Texas, his musical beginnings with the group of high school friends who later gained fame as the Crickets, his meteoric rise to fame and his tragic early death — all set to a soundtrack of some of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest hits, including Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” and “That’ll Be the Day,” Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba,” the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace” and many more.