Happy Pitchfork Music Fest weekend! This week’s Best Weekend Bets will be guided by sad man, good dad and Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy!
Also, tell all your friends to subscribe to the Chicago mailing list. Only good things will come out of it. Like Lollapalooza tickets… We’re giving away 3-day passes but you have to sign up to win!
Now for some sad Jeff…
We write stuff. Here’s some of that stuff from the last week that may be applicable to your preferences!
- We took some photos at the San Diego Comic-Con. That’s where nerds to go to nerd things.
- This is how it felt to attend the FIFA WWC Final in Canada.
- The New Pornographers are playing Pitchfork this weekend. You may enjoy our interview with them.
- It’s July. You may want to consult our Your Best July roundup.
- I don’t have to tell you that it’s National Funnel Cake day today, but it is. You knew that, and you also knew that they were celebrating all day with fun and activities today at Six Flags Great America.
- The main Wilco man himself, Jeff Tweedy, chats with longtime Pitchfork editor in chief Mark Richardson tonight at the MCA as a part of their In Sight Out cultural series.
- Ondatrópica draws influence from the last several decades of Columbian music to create a nostalgic, rhythmic pastiche, catch them tonight alongside Helado Negro at the Downtown Sound at the Pritzker Pavilion.
- Local favs Local H play a special afternoon show in the Threadless Warehouse which is right near Union Park so check that out before going to Pitchfork! A day before Pitchfork!
- The Edgewater Chamber of Commerce’s weekly family night at the Broadway Armory features the very thrilling youth circus CircEsteem.
- Old school skambassadors the English Beat are at Evanston Space tonight.
- Eclectic is sometimes a nice word for “tonally weird” and this Say Anything/Modern Baseball/Cymbals Eat Guitars/Hard Girls show tonight at the House of Blues is an eclectic lineup!
- The Empty Bottle’s got Steve Gunn, Jessica Pratt, and Mind Over Mirrors playing tonight, which is a super cool lineup of forward-looking folk-influenced music.
- Elastic Arts has a pretty cool looking hip hop showcase/unofficial P4K pre-party tonight headlined by Sharkula.
- Welcome to the Logan Theater, home of a screening of Good Burger, can I take your order?
- Animal Collective breakout dream boy Panda Bear has been known to embrace the drone during his live performances, pushing his catchy compositions to their most experimental extremes, a practice local synth duo Bitchin’ Bajas are no stranger to. They’re both playing at Thalia Hall tonight.
- The Chicago Cultural Center has a panel discussion tonight which will talk all about the relationship between technology and music as seen through the eyes of some of the originators of the Chicago house music scene.
- Weirdo songstress Natalie Prass and In Tall Buildings play an official Pitchfork pre-show at Schubas tonight.
- Adler After Dark, the monthly adults-only night at the planetarium is tonight, and this time around they’re celebrating the life and work of Pluto, beloved almost-planet that we just recently got a real good look at!
- Head over to Wang’s in Boystown for a night of experimental art pop from Andrew Sa, Vanessa Vincent, and sun riah.
- The folks behind Pitchfork fest staple the Book Fort are throwing a pre-party tonight at the Whistler, with readings from Paige Taggart, Sampson Starkweather, Alexis Pope, Craig Griffin, and more.
- The Pitchfork Music Festival is this weekend! I hope it doesn’t rain like it does literally every year! Wilco, Panda Bear, iLoveMakonnen, Steve Gunn, and more play today, the first day!
- In high school I always got Against Me and Rise Against confused but their paths diverted and one went on to pretty sizable crossover success and the other just sort of hung around modern rock radio. The latter plays the FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island tonight!
- They’re showing Goonies at the Clarendon Park Community Center right by Montrose beach tonight!
- Vic Mensa headlines the first of three Pitchfork after-parties at the very fancy Virgin Hotel, with a DJ set from Stefan Ponce booked as support!
- Hip hop legend Madlib plays a special late night P4K after-show at The Mid!
- Parquet Courts, The Funs, and Piss Piss Piss Moan Moan Moan do it up after-party style at Thalia Hall.
- Buzzed-about singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. plays Schubas for, you guessed it, a Pitchfork after-party!
- Ex Hex put out one of the best albums of 2014 and tonight they’re at the Empty Bottle for ANOTHER Pitchfork after-show.
- Pitchfork after-shows RUN THIS TOWN this weekend. Waxahatchee plays with Tenement and Pinkwash at Subt late!
- Go catch a game at the Cell. The White Sox play the Kansas City Royals.
- OG punk band from Ireland Stiff Little Fingers are at Metro with Pegboy and Dummy, if you’re looking for something a little less Pitchfork-y.
- R&B godfather Shuggie Otis headlines City Winery. Wow!
- DJ #feelgood spins at The Whistler tonight.
- Check out the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia for their well-loved Beers, Brats, and Beethoven show!
- The Chicago Theatre’s got two titans of Smooth Jazz sharing a bill tonight: Boney James and Brian Culbertson. Can you dig it? I knew that you could.
- Two great options await you at a pair of midnight screenings at the Music Box: B-movie trainwreck The Room and train hopping crustpunk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part III.
- Do some daytime stuff:
- Pitchfork Fest continues today with sets from folks like Sleater-Kinney, Future Islands, Kurt Vile, A$AP Ferg, Protomartyr, and more!
- Rogers Park throws its annual Celebrate Clark Street festival with a world music and unique food and craft vendors hanging out all weekend long!
- The Blueberry Madness Festival looks to be very worth the trip across state lines into Indiana. You love blueberries! There will be cooking classes, music, free samples, and a damn chocolate fountain!
- Celebrate the art of the ale at Naperville’s Ale Fest! Over 200 beer vendors from around country will be on deck to let you sample their wares.
- Gallery 400 and the Parks Department are partnering on a fun class right near the 606 where you can learn how to use all-natural dyes and other found objects to customize your clothes and make them look hella cool and earthy!
- Wanna have a bit more aggro time changing the color of your clothes? Throw on some light colors and hoof it to Barret Park for a massive COLORED water balloon fight! That’s right, they filled these water balloons with colored water, so you’re gonna get ALL STAINED UP!
- Lincoln Park’s annual Sheffield Music Festival & Garden Walk is now in its 47th year of showcasing neighborhood garden spaces. Go snoop at other people’s cool landscaping!
- The Taste of River North abbreviates itself as ToRN which is pretty badass if you ask me! This is a street fair and we live in Chicago so you can bet your BOTTOM that there will be tons of cover bands all weekend!
- Sausagefest Chicago has relocated to its most logical location: the intersection of Clark & Addison, in the parking lot of the Cubby Bear. Trapt headlines. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Then, providing you make it to the night, here are some suggestions for the evening:
- “Push” yourself out of the “Real World” for a minute and treat Yourself or Someone Like You to a “Smooth” show from Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas under the “Bright Lights” at Ravinia tonight. Hopefully traffic won’t be too bad and you’ll get home before “3 AM”!
- Mixtape celebrates the art of music videos by staging them live, choreographed by Chicago-based theater folks. This sounds good and also unique!
- Look, if you’re not the type of person who at least thinks a show with Taylor Swift and Haim at Wrigley Field SOUNDS like fun IN THEORY, we probably wouldn’t get along. This will be a plain old good time, you know?
- Check out the closing reception for Rend, the latest art show over at Uncharted Books in Logan Square. Wine and poetry readings!
- Watch The Lego Movie while surrounded by trees from all over the world tonight at the Morton Arboretum!
- Well-loved local favorite weekly comedy showcase The Two Hour Comedy Hour booked a night of all-star Chicago comics for a night they’re calling The Two Hour Comedy Hour’s Destroyers!
- Real solid night of free rock and roll music at Cole’s tonight if you can’t swing a Pitchfork ticket. J. Fernandez, Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk, The Hecks, and Famous Laughs all play!
- Oh baby so we all know there are a lot of after-parties tonight, but if I had to pick just one to check out, Viet Cong and Ryley Walker would FOR SURE be my pick. They’ve released two of the best albums of the year and have very different sounds but I WHOLE HEARTEDLY recommend this show.
- Protomartyr and Bully at Schubas would be my second choice for super cool must-see P4K after-party tonight. Two more very good bands.
- DJ sets from Future Islands and Hit City USA plus live sets from Ex Hex and The Orwells is what tonight’s after-party at the Virgin Hotel has in store for u!
- Lo-fi indie mainstay Ariel Pink plays an official Pitchfork after-show at Lincoln Hall with support from Mr. Twin Sister.
- Heady black metal band Liturgy hits the Empty Bottle alongside Locrian, Yvette, and Trevor De Brauw for a night of weird heavy rock!
- Copenhagen’s Iceage are also doing an after-party, this one is at Beat Kitchen!
- Catch a free post-P4K DJ set from How To Dress Well at the East Room if you’re into that sort of thing!
- Soul Summit‘s got a guest set from DJ Phill Most Chill in from Philly! Should be a pretty cool time if you’re looking to dance your butt off post-Pitchfork.
- Culty indie folk band Breathe Owl Breathe play the Co-Prosperity Sphere tonight.
- Dwayne Perkins headlines Zanies this weekend and he’s very funny! 2 drink minimum though so watch out for that!
- Storytelling show/house party We Still Like You has become a favorite amongst local comedians and comedy fans. Find out why in a slightly tamer atmosphere tonight at iO!
- A+ Lakeview dive bar Delilah’s is showing the Monkees notoriously trippy film Head, which should be pretty cool.
- It’s day 3 of Pitchfork Fest and the lineup is AWESOME today. Chance the Rapper, Run The Jewels, Courtney Barnett, Madlib & Freddie Gibbs, Jamie XX, and more! Holy cow.
- Get ToRN up again in River North all day long! Food, bands, beer, you know the drill.
- Walk through some gardens at the Dearborn Garden Walk! Pretty self-explanatory, dude!
- Check out over 100 vendors at this month’s Vintage Garage event in Uptown, and this month’s theme is the weirdly mashed-up Rockabilly Tiki!
- A double bill of How To Dress Well and Lower Dens is quite possibly almost TOO chill. Catch it tonight as a perfect wrap-up to your crazy hectic P4K weekend at Lincoln Hall.
- Head over to the Copernicus Center for the annual Colombian Festival, which has a ton of Colombian cuisine and music for you to enjoy all day long.
- Fresh off their spot opening for Taylor Swift, Haim DJs a Pitchfork after-party at the Virgin Hotel with a secret surprise guest!
- Warp Records assembled a very impressive looking lineup of DJs at Smart Bar for a post-P4k thing featuring sets from Daphni, Clark, Sicko Mobb, and more.
- Comfort Station is having a “pretend garage sale” where its set up like a garage sale but everything is free. You have to pretend to buy them though? I think this is art?
- Local podcast the Nerdologues has invited comedy podcaster Mark Colomb to curate tonight’s installment of their monthly storytelling show before he moves to Denver at the end of the month!
- Breakout gospel all-stars The Blind Boys of Alabama play a show at Evanston Space. Should be good and chill!
- Folky punk rockers (punky folk rockers?) Rocky Votolato and Dave Hause are at the Double Door.
- A bunch of folks who were a part of the 2005 World Series Champion White Sox are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their win tonight at the Chicago Theatre! Stories and memories and charity stuff!
- Blizzard Babies, Squish, Boots, and Pink Bathroom play a stacked show at the good old Fireside Bowl!
- Blipsters on Broadway celebrates the show’s co-host Felonius Munk’s recent marriage with a comedy show/wedding reception! Fun!
- They’re showing Goonies damn again this weekend! This time at Hiawatha Park in Norridge.
