Mokena......
Oh well another show thats not in Chicago.
You have 2 choices for airports O'Hare or Midway. The problem is if your not renting a car public trans to the venue is a pain in the ass. There is a Metra Train that runs to Mokena.
Here is Metra schedules and stop information, its close to the venue but that train run is not close to either airport.
http://www.metrarail.com/Sched/ri/ri.shtml
http://www.metrarail.com/Sched/ri/mokena.shtml
So you can fly into either airport take the CTA Blue Line (O'Hare) or Orange Line (Midway) to downtown, then walk (a good distance) to get to the Metra Station and take that all the way back out of the city. Its really messed up and if your planning on hitting the Blue Line expect there to be service outtages on the weekends while they're doing track rework on the weekends. They set up shuttle busses to transfer you between the train stops that are out of service, its a time consuming headache.
Here are the google map links.
From O'Hare to Mokena
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...6&sspn=0.572604,1.043701&ie=UTF8&z=10&start=0
From Midway to Mokena
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...,-87.73819&spn=0.573079,1.043701&z=10&start=0
If your driving there from O'Hare in rush hour traffic which starts at 2:00 PM and ends around 8:00 PM figure its about 1 hr drive and about $4 in tolls each way. From Midway your going to spend close the the same time but not as much in tolls.
When at the venue expect TSA like scrutiny at the door, so if you have something like a keychain object that wouldnt get you on an airplane dont bring in with you there. I've seen people turned away at the door with little 1" pocket knife keychains. Though I think a nail clipper might be ok. Bring lots of money if you want to toss back some drinks, the beer selection is Miller and Bud. For being that far out of Chicago they have no problems charging downtown Chicago prices. $4 Cokes and Bottle Water!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont know about cameras that seems to change from show to show also if there is a no camera rule you might want to ask if you can bring your cell phone, some places get crazy about that.
As far as the artists doing signings, it really depends on the band. Some bands are really cool about that stuff and others just hide in their tour buss the whole night.
Edit - Illinois is a no-smoking state, if you want to smoke you will be doing so outside the venue.
