Chicago Best Weekend Bets

Garbage is bringing their debut album to Chicago this weekend. That’s a decent reason to have a Garbage Best Weekend Bets!

Also, tell all your friends to subscribe to the Chicago mailing list. We gave away tickets to Riot Fest and Lollapalooza to Chicago mailing list subscribers.

We write stuff. Here’s some of that stuff from the last week that may be applicable to your preferences!

• Have your best October yet. Consult our YOUR BEST OCTOBER feature.
• We had two cats review Meow the Jewels.
• Megan Green is our Funny Human of the Week.
• It’s Scaretober! Celebrate the spookiest month with our roundup of funny horror.

• Chicago Ideas Week continues today, events as disparate as a mozzarella tasting, a guided tour of the inner workings Kimball Brown Line Station, and a local riff on Shark Tank are among the many events that await you today!
• Thalia Hall hosts SoulBender, a yoga/soul dance night/punch social hybrid evening for you soul music loving yoga-heads out there! “Ohmmmmmm”- Sam Cooke.
• Titans of crossover EDM stuff, Disclosure, headline a show at Navy Pier of all places.
• Chicago’s only band that decided to call themselves Lasers and Fast and Shit, Lasers and Fast and Shit, headline an evening of weirdo rock at the Emporium Arcade Bar on Milwaukee tonight.
• A pair of touring comedians, Geoff Tate and Emma Arnold, stop by Wicker Park weird comedy haven @North tonight for a special one-off show.
• Stoner rock artisans Kylesa play the Empty Bottle for the first time in almost 10 years tonight!
• Rootsy singer-songwriter Jesse Malin is at Subterranean tonight with Matthew Ryan and Mono in Stereo rounding out the bill.
• The Logan Theater is doing late night screenings of two fun/scary movies tonight. The first one is Child’s Play, which I believe is about a small boy named Chuck that runs around a bunch in order to scare people.
• The Logan Theater is doing late night screenings of two fun/scary movies tonight. The second one is Beetlejuice, which I believe is about a zombie man who forces anyone who dares speaketh his name drink his tainted fruit beverages.
• Americana collective The Black Lillies are known for their countryfied male/female harmonies and throwback songwriting. Go see if they’re your thing tonight at Lincoln Hall!
• Catch an open rehearsal of Afterword, an opera, this afternoon at the MCA. It’s free with admission! Go look at modern art and then also see some opera being developed live onstage!
• The Driehaus Museum hosts a talk from Lee Glazer, a historical scholar who’s on deck to discuss the history of the Peacock Room, one of the most iconic spaces at the Driehaus.
• Chicago-based experimental songwriter Helado Negro plays the Old Town School of Folk Music tonight with Thomas Wincek.
• The 5th Annual Kickstarter Film Festival, which screens a pair of films funded by successful Kickstarter campaigns (short film Afronauts and New Zealand comedy What We Do In The Shadows), happens at the Music Box tonight!

• More Chicago Ideas Week today! Go check out a beekeeping demo, a discussion about Twitter activism (and it’s ugly lazy cousin, slacktivism), and a Vietnamese food tasting at the Ba Le Bakery.
• Electric Six is that band from the early 2000s with that “Gay Bar” song. Their new album is called Bitch, Don’t Let Me Die!, which is, hoo boy, good for them. Good on you Electric Six. Go say hi to them at their concert tonight at the Double Door if you want.
• Catch the perennially underrated 90s rock band Luna tonight at the BEAUTIFUL and HISTORIC House of Blues.
• Couple of fellas are gonna pound the shit out of each other in a small square inside the UIC Pavillion today.
• The one and only Steve Wonder is at the United Center tonight. That’s truly something, I bet he puts on a great show.
• The Music Box is doing a prom-themed event that culminates in a showing of Carrie! Yay!!
• Mike Kinsella plays a solo show as Owen tonight at the Beat Kitchen as a part of the venue’s 25th anniversary weekend!
• Today’s the first day of Fall Fest at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Pumpins and hayride and a faris wheel. All the best!
• The Second Annual UNICEF Masquerade Ball Chicago fundraiser is tonight at the Moonlight Studios if u liek galas.
• The Vertigo Sky Lounge hosts a Chicago Fashion Showcase fundraiser if u liek fashion.
• Josh Groban plays his beautiful songs tonight at the Chicago Theater. We sang “You Raise Me Up” in high school chorus so I still know all the words to that one.
• CHIRP Radio celebrates their forthcoming FM radio debut with a Homecoming Rally at The Hideout with musical guests Netherfirends and Soft Speaker plus other forms of fun & entertainment!
• Gauzy soundscapist Teen Daze headlines Schubas tonight alongside Austin-based Heavenly Beat.
• The Logan Theater in Logan Square is showing two scary movies tonight because of Halloween’s nearness. The first one they’re showing tonight is The Exorcist!
• The Logan Theater in Logan Square is showing two scary movies tonight because of Halloween’s nearness. The other one they’re showing tonight is Friday The 13th!
• Go see a performance of Afterworld, an experimental opera at the MCA. Open yr mind, brosephs!
• Uh, a bunch of people are gonna go sit on the ground at Millennium Park and stare at each other for art and world peace and human connection. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• Do some daytime stuff:
• More Chicago Ideas Week! See panels on poetry, yoga, gender, fashion, photography and more!
• Today also is the first day of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Open House Chicago weekend, where you can walk around and snoop at a bunch of fancy houses and other private buildings. What a nice treat!
• Hell yes scary movies for 24 damn hours in a row. It’s the Massacre at the Patio Theater! Screenings of stuff like Gremlins 2, Dawn of the Dead, They Live, The Descent, and many more! This is always a fun time!
• Man it is most DEFINITELY Cassette Store Day so if that’s your bag, baby, then have at it. Go buy a bunch of tapes from participating record (cassette?) stores.
• Go see the Paper Machete show. It’s smart AND funny AND good.
• Midnight Circus In The Park: At Midnight? No. In the park? Yes.
• The Music Box is hosting a screening of “Divers,” a new music video from Joanna Newsom directed by Paul Thomas Anderson! Damn!
• The Anthem on Division Street hosts PONG WARS. A beer pong tournament! You know? Cool!
• Constellation hosts a networking event called Meet your Maker: Connecting Chicago Creatives. Get to know some cool folks in a casual atmosphere!
• Celebrate all things alternative and Japanese fashion at the Harajuku Fashion Walk in the Loop!

• Then, night stuff:
• YES Garbage YES. You’ve seen the GIFs now SEE THE BAND! Live at the Riviera Theatre with very cool openers Torres.
• Electronic indie pop sensation Neon Indian plays Thalia Hall tonight with special guests Tamaryn and Explorer Tapes.
• Provocative alt pop mainstay Peaches brings her singular stage show to the Metro tonight. Should be a sight to see!
• EDM big man Kaskade plays a big concert for all you drug takers and dance makers out there at the Navy Pier! If you’re going I hope you have fun and be safe!
• The Hawks play the Blue Jackets at the United Center tonight. Maybe go there or just watch the game at a bar or from home. You pick!
• Night two for ol’ Joshy Grobes! Get raised up!!!!!!!!
• Broncho, Twinsmith, and Sunjacket play a night of well-rounded, just-fuzzy-enough rock music at Lincoln Hall tonight.
• There’s nobody quite like Chicago-based standup Junior Stopka. Go find out what I mean at @North, where he’s headlining tonight!
• Chicago’s own Poi Dog Pondering celebrate the 20th anniversary of their fan favorite LP Pomegranate tonight at The Vic. This will sell out so I hope you get tickets soon!
• The Logan Theater has another helping of both Friday the 13th and The Exorcist tonight!
• Fuzzy folk rock band Saintseneca are at the Empty Bottle tonight, joined by The Sidekicks and Yowler.
• The New Mastersounds play a nice concert for you at the Concord Music Hall tonight. The Heard will be there too.
• Chicagoans Ratboys headline a show in the downstairs room at the Subterranean tonight! Woozy, Coaster, and Churchkey play, too.

• Today at noon, the Empty Bottle has a very special square dancing event, with string band guests from New Orleans, Cleveland, and beyond soundtracking your old timey hooting and hollering.
• It’s the final day of Chicago Ideas Week today. You can and should go on a food/bike tour, an architectural tour, and take in a talk about the growing maker movement.
• Go see alt-R&B artsy boy Autre Ne Veut at Lincoln Hall if you’re a fan. If not, maybe give it a try! You know? Gems and Mazes will be there too.
• It’s that time again, my friends. Chicago Pop Punk Fest 2015 awaits you at the Abbey Pub! Approximately 300 pop punk bands play for you starting around 3pm! What a dream.
• So I guess Lil Dicky is like a crossover comedy rapper who is serious now or something? I don’t know but I do know that I don’t like it! If you do like it go see him at the Concord tonight.
• It’s day two of the architectural fiend/snooper’s dream, Open House Chicago. Make it count!
• Innovative writer/director/improviser Irene Marquette is the special guest at a live taping of comedy interview show Improv Nerd at Stage 773 this afternoon!
• 1st Ward, the event space in the back of Chop Shop, hosts DIY art fair Revolution Craft Show starting at noon today.
• The Empty Bottle hosts San Francisco psych rockers Cool Ghouls tonight, with support from Las Rosas and The Rubs.
• If you aren’t already deep into the Halloween spirit, the Emporium Arcade Bar in Wicker Park will help get you there with a Troma Films movie marathon. They’ve got a triple feature of Toxic Avenger, Terror Firmer, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead!
• The Vintage Garage Chicago hosts one last record fair before the end of the year!
• Very cool South Side music venue The Pomontory hosts the Hyde Park Handmade Artisan Bazaar and Farmers Market.
• David Huntsberger is a hugely underrated standup comic who you can see do an intimate one-off show tonight at @North! These guys are killing it with comedy shows this weekend. Good job, @North.