Publications & Sites 
Up close with the music at Montrose Room
Animal Audio
Montrose Room
InterContinental Chicago O’Hare Hotel, 5300 N. River Road, Rosemont
Friday Nights Live series. Aug. 5: Animal Audio and Decibel Hogg; Aug. 12: Doug James and the Pocket; Aug. 26, Crisis; Sept. 9, Joan Gand and the Blue Road Band; Sept. 16, Soul Tree; Sept. 23, Watch Out for Kenny
Up Close @ Montrose: Aug. 20, Wayne and Marty from the Freddy Jones Band; Sept. 24, Jim Peterik, with new CD “LifeForce,” Mindi Abair & other special guests.
Shows begin at 8:30 p.m.
Ticket prices for shows vary
For complete schedule and information, visit www.montroseroom.com or call (847) 544-5300
Article Extras
Updated: August 12, 2011 4:22PM
When you can feel the spray of a musician’s sweat and see his spit fly into the air, you know you’ve scored some great concert tickets.
This is always the case at InterContinental Chicago O’Hare’s Montrose Room, where local bands play Friday nights, in the “Friday Nights Live” series, and national bands two Saturdays per month in the “Upclose@Montrose” series. Occasional comedy shows figure into the mix too.
“Montrose is about the intimacy of sharing the experience a band brings rather than the sonic blasts you get from the larger venues,” said Ryan Carney of Decibel Hogg, a rock ’n’ roll band playing the Montrose Room in on Aug. 5.
Getting up close to a variety of entertainers is key at the Rosemont club. Bands play everything from jazz and blues to New Orleans Zydeco and funk to ska and reggae. Comedy brings laughs from big names like Second City and Comedy Sportz.
“The advantage that we see for the guest is that you really are up close in a pie-shaped room, so anyone at any place in the room is within 35 feet, at the farthest, from the band onstage,” said Patrick Cook, director of Sales and Marketing at the InterContinental.
Carney describes the room as “Vegas style,” with a cool, classy vibe.
And part of that coolness is literal.
“Once you enter, you go through the Ice Bar,” Cook said. “We have the ice-tini menu that offers 10 or so variations of martinis that are served in ice glasses, so you’re drinking out of a large ice cube. It’s a wonderful drink that has become the signature drink of the Montrose Room.”
Drinks in hand, the guests enjoy laid-back, 21+ shows.
Robert Hynes of The Robert Hynes Band has played the Montrose Room many times. “It’s always a blast playing the Montrose Room,” Hynes said. “It’s definitely one of Chicagoland’s best kept secrets, although it seems the secret is getting out!”
Indeed, Cook said that the Montrose Room is working hard on expanding and building the audience base from what it is now.
“The followers on Facebook and Twitter have grown 10 times over the last year,” Cook said. “We know that it’s working and we’re just hoping to keep it going.”
