Chicago Best Weekend Bets

David Letterman said goodbye last night. We’re using Dave and his best guest, Bill Murray, to guide us this holiday weekend.

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

• This week’s funny person is Comedy Expo headliner Baron Vaughn.
• Gena Gephart told us her NIGHTMARE GIG. It involves a duck whistle.
• Because we write about pop culture we were legally required to write about how Letterman is, was and forever will be great. He doesn’t care.
• Meredith Kachel told us how she got fired. It involves racism and rap.
• The style director of Loft told us how to dress for job interviews.
• We taste tested the new limited edition S’Mores Oreos, which is a type of ‘cookie’ you now know exists.

We’ll miss Dave, too.

• Formerly Chicago-based talk show/podcast You, Me, Them, Everybody returns to Chicago for a live taping at Logan Square record shop saki. Guests include Gabe Liebowitz, Alicia Sowisdral, Meredith Kachel, and Meaghan Strickland.
• French art film Cousin Jules, which blurs the line between documentary and fiction filmmaking, has its long-awaited Chicago premiere at Columbia College in the South Loop.
• Lo-fi pop songsmith Advance Base plays an intimate show at the Logan Square Comfort Station with Portland, ME-based folk singer Lisa/Liza.
• You’ve seen him cover “I’ll Be There” on faucets for a sink commercial (and as the drummer in Wilco but that faucet thing is important), now watch Glenn Koche join forces with the Third Coast Percussion collective for a performance of his new composition “Wild Sound” at the MCA.
• Danny Kallas is, hands down, the best standup comic working in Chicago. Tonight he headlines Stand Up Stand Up, one of the most reliably solid showcases in the city. They give you free pizza when you buy beer at their shows, it’s great.
• Matt & Kim are at the Riviera tonight, it’s sold out but maybe if you show up and ask really nicely they’ll let you in?
• When I was younger and just getting into music I didn’t know there was a difference between Jeff Beck and Beck. I still don’t and can’t wait to hear both “Sexx Laws” and “Freeway Jam” tonight at The Chicago Theater.
• Moody, 90’s-indebted singer-songwriter Torres plays the Empty Bottle in support of her new LP Sprinter with Minneapolis’ Aero Flynn and locals Landmarks.
• So since the black-eyed beast called nostalgia is unavoidable and coming for us all, you might as well give in and check out Emo Night at The Burlington, where special guest DJ Bob Nanna (Braid, Hey Mercedes) spins tracks that remind us all of a time where Livejournal reigned king and Through Being Cool was the most important record in the world.
• Slo’ Mo: Slow Jams for Homos (And Their Fans) is a long-running and well-loved dance night at the Whistler. Check it out if you haven’t and are available!
• Yesterday Amy Schumer announced a show at Constellation and now it’s very sold-out.
• Ian Svenonius’ (Nation of Ulysses, The Make Up) latest rock band Chain & The Gang plays a free late night show at the Owl with Blizzard Babies. Ian is the punk rock Liberace.

• You like Top Chef, right? Of course you do. You’ve seen every episode. Thanks to the Chicago Reader Key Ingredient Cook-Off event, you can be like those lucky, beautiful people who go to those tasting parties and try all the fancy small plates and pick who made the best one. It’ll be just like Top Chef but no Padma!
• Revolution Brewing company hooked up with Stay Smooth for a very special 90 minute Chicago River cruise featuring food, drinks, and more yacht rock jams than you can shake a Top-Sider at.
• Local drone/experimental label Hausu Mountain programmed a night of weirdo performances in the basement of Thalia Hall as a part of the You Are Here festival.
• Orchestral indie rock group Other Lives plays Metro tonight with their tourmates Riothorse Royale and locals Wedding Dress.
• The Comfort Station, the little house by the traffic circle around the monument in Logan Square, is a cool place. They do good stuff (like the Advance Base show we mentioned yesterday). They’re throwing a fundraising kegger at the Logan Square Auditorium, with music by Tim Kinsella, Psalm One, and Marrow and all the beer you can responsibly drink!
• Chicago comedy institution The Lincoln Lodge reprises its monthly comedy series in Evanston with a special pair of shows featuring the fabulous Todd Barry at Evanston SPACE.
• Some people are excited about a Chevelle/The Used double headed tour, probably. I mean, those guys were both pretty popular at one point. They’re at the Aragon tonight.
• Go see Willie Nelson in a casino in Indiana for me, please. I can’t make it but think you should go.
• Brody Stevens, master of positive energy and onstage drumming on chairs, is a wholly unique and amazing comedian. He kicks off the Onion’s 2nd Annual 26th Annual Comedy Festival tonight at Schubas with local nasty boy Nick Rouley.
• There’s a musical named after the city in which you live, did you know that? They’re showing the movie version of it from 2002 at the Logan Theater tonight. Richard Gere sings in it.

• Do some daytime stuff:
• The Empty Bottle book club meets for an early afternoon chat about Wolf in White Van, the first book by The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. Grab a drink and talk non-linear narratives with some new friends!
• The Paper Machete is the city’s hottest live lit show, with great guests sharing hot takes and cool goofs on the week’s events. This week will be no different.
• Hey music fans, the Belmont-Sheffield Music Festival has everything: 90’s tribute bands, 80’s rock tribute bands, and general rock tribute bands. Lakeview parties in a few different ways, and this is certainly one of them.
• The White Sox play the Minnesota Twins this afternoon. Tickets are limited but STILL AVAILABLE.
• Kick off Summer with the Randolph Street Market’s Garden Party Summer Kick Off, which features food and drink, body painting, and people described as “vintage beach bunnies.” They’ll also be appraising your sports memorabilia.

• Then, providing you make it to the night, here are some suggestions for the evening:
• Pipeworks brewing company is taking over the taps at Emporium arcade bar, with a bunch of weird and cool beers plus musical guests Ghastly Menace, Reaches, BlackGlass, and Imelda Marcos.
• Red Bull Sound Select is presenting a crazy show at Thalia Hall with Flying Lotus’ house bassist Thundercat, Sicko Mobb, and Leather Corduroys.
• There’s a reason Windy City Soul Club is packed every month. Go find out for yourself!
• Super hot hip hop producer Hudson Mohawke is probably best known for his work on Yeezus and just released a new solo album, Lantern. Catch him tonight at Chop Shop in Wicker Park.
• The great retroactive cultural flattening of the 1990s continues with a triple bill of New Kids on the Block, TLC, and Nelly sharing the stage at the Allstate Arena tonight.
• Chicago indie rock stalwarts The Sea and Cake are joined by sonic experimentalist Willis Earl Beal for a special show at the Portage Theater.
• The Miyumi Project features avant garde jazz complemented by Japanese percussion, courtesy of Chicago-based world music/jazz artist Tatsu Aoki, vibe out tonight at Constellation.
• Local weirdo video shop and Wicker Park stalwart Odd Obsession presents performance art, DJ sets, and film clips for their Film Series & Dance Party Ting!
• The Metro hosts the 2015 Grabby Awards, an NSFW awards ceremony honoring the best and brightest in the gay adult film industry.

• Get loaded on a bunch of $1 garbage beers at the 1st Annual Crap Beer Day at Thalia Hall. They’re offering square dance lessons and will be spinning classic rock tunes all day. Hell yeah, dude.
• Once a year they close down Lakeshore drive and let cyclists take over. This Sunday is that one time this year. Do it, it’s fun and for charity.
• Relive your childhood in a fresh new way at a screening of I Am Big Bird at the Siskel Film Center, a heart-swelling portrait of the man inside Big Bird, Caroll Spinney.
• Northwestern professor Donald Nally conducts the Midwestern premiere of the experimental composition Lost Objects at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavillion.
• A gang of local folkies are getting together at The Hideout to celebrate Robert Zimmerman’s 103rd birthday.
• Comedian and vodka sommelier Chelsea Handler takes the stage at the Horseshoe Hammond casino for a night of shit-kickin’ celebrity gossip!
• A 50 piece ensemble unites to perform classical and folk music from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and more at The Arab Concert at the University of Chicago.
• Butch Walker’s new album features contributions from Johnny Depp and Bob Mould. I don’t think either of them will be at his show tonight at the Vic but there’s only one way to be sure.

• It’s a holiday. Celebrate it the right way or not. It’s your call.

• Every Monday, the Music Box Theatre offers discounted admission and no matter what you go see or when, you’re in for a treat. Revisionist western Slow West, fashion doc Iris, and Welcome To Me, which answers the question “What if Kristin Wiig starred in Synecdoche, NY instead of Phillip Seymour Hoffman?” are all playing today and are all worth seeing.
• Health & Beauty headline a stacked-ass lineup of psych rocking oddball locals tonight as a part of the Empty Bottle’s weekly free Monday night show. Invisible Things, Dark Fog, and Plastic Crimewave Syndicate round out the bill.
• The folks from Salonathon offer up the secret to life at the Memorial Day edition of their weekly variety show at Beauty Bar, hosted and curated by local event producer/in-the-know lady Jane Beachy.
• Fans of Speedy Ortiz should make a point to get over to the Beat Kitchen for Massachusetts-based indie rock trio Palehound. They’re similarly 90’s-indebted and destined to blow up soon.
• Set To Scene asks some of the best standup comedians in Chicago to leave their material at the door and improvise their entire set based on a series of audience suggestions, and then a crew of improvisers do a short set based on their performance. Sound confusing? It’s not, just check it out!
• Check out the Relax Attack Jazz Series at the Whistler, featuring top jazz dudes from around town setting a nice cool atmosphere for you to sip on a fancy cocktail or two to.
• The world-renowned gay fetish beauty pageant/celebration of everything kinky and done up in leather, the International Mr. Leather summit comes to a close with their final event, the Black and Blue Ball tonight.