If you want to see some chart-topping pop stars at Chi-Town Rising, you'll have to watch a YouTube video on your phone.
Today, the inaugural outdoor New Year's Eve celebration revealed the remainder of its music lineup, on the heels of last month's announcement that Chicago (the band) and American Authors will headline the event. The rest of the bill announced today includes local acts such as the NuBlu Band, Carlito Olivero, Kweku Collins, Radio Free Honduras, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, the Heard and the O'My's.
Chi-Town Rising's plan to hoist a gigantic star up the side of a building on New Year's Eve seems designed to draw direct comparisons to the ball drop in Times Square—an event that will include Carrie Underwood as its headlining performer this year. While it's great that local acts will get the chance to perform at the public celebration, it seems like organizers could have spent a bit more of the privately funded event's reported "well into seven figures" budget on higher profile performers—the kind of names that might actually attract out-of-town visitors to the city.
Unless you've been dying to hear "25 or 6 to 4" just before the stroke of midnight or can't get enough of the ubiquitous commercial ditty "Best Day of My Life," Chi-Town Rising's live music lineup leaves something to be desired. If you must see a great band on the last day of 2015, you're better off spending some cash on tickets to one of the many New Year's Eve concerts in Chicago.