Chicago Best Weekend Bets

It’s Pride so Chicago’s very own (though the show was shot in Burbank) gay (not in real life) funny person Max will be our Best Weekend Bets guide. Have a Happy Endings weekend!

Also, tell all your friends to subscribe to the Chicago mailing list. Only good things will come out of it.

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

• Derek Sheen is this week’s Funny Human. He’s recording an album on Thursday! In Chicago!
• Seinfeld came to Hulu this week so we compiled our Essential Sitcom Streaming Guide.
• We interviewed Local H but mostly talked about Cheap Trick.
• We interviewed Lea Thompson about Back to the Future because she was in Back to the Future.
• Have you seen Inside Out? Are you ready to cry?

• As mentioned before, this week’s Funny Human of the Week, Derek Sheen, records his second stand up album at Comedians You Should Know tonight!
• Drink wine and eat snacks in Millennium Park while also feeling smart for enjoying some ~modern classical~ music as Downtown Sound continues tonight with a collaboration between Snarky Puppy and Third Coast Percussion performing Terry Rielly’s “In C.”
• Buzzy local guitar rock band Ne-Hi shares a bill with a performance from Deeper and a DJ set from Noble Savages.US tonight at The Hideout.
• Back Lot Bash at Mayne Stage kicks off weekend 2 of Pride Fest up in Rogers Park with a comedy show headlined by the Queen Latifah Show‘s Bridget McManus.
• Celebrate America’s royal family at Keeping Up With The Carters at Township, a nightlong celebration of all things Jay-Z and Beyonce organized by FLOF, a “hi-impact dance party.”
• Sup Pop recording artists The Helio Sequence play texturally rich indie rock with electronic flourishes. In other words, it’s nice music that you’ll probably enjoy! They’re at the Empty Bottle tonight.
• The folks at the Neo-Futurists have organized a special Pride edition of their landmark Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind show, offering up 30 Queer Plays in 60 Straight Minutes.
• The O’Mys and Mike Golden & Friends play the Chicago Reader’s celebration of the release of their annual Best of Chicago issue, with appearances from some of this year’s winners!
• Powerman 5000 is playing at Mojoes. Are you ready to go? Cause I’m ready to go.
• It’s a night of weird punk at The Burlington, with Nervosas, Red Dons, Daylight Robbery, and Mac Blackout splitting the bill four ways.
• Man, I don’t know about The Boxtrolls, something about the character designs and animation in that thing gives me some uncanny valley heebie jeebies. If you feel differently you should go to Graver Park tonight, they’re showing it (weather permitting of course) at Graver Park in East Beverly.
• Wildly popular local DJ Swaguerilla spins a celebration of all things queer tonight at Slippery Slope.
• Talib Kweli plays The Shrine tonight with support from Amp Fiddler and Jessica Care Moore & Steffani Mosley.
• Meatbute: A Tribute to Meat Loaf is a tribute band who plays Meat Loaf songs. I always wondered if they thought of the name first and then agreed they HAD to make the band because the name was too good/bad to pass up. “Meatbute.” Either way they’re at The Whistler tonight.
• Have you heard about the new Sheryl Crow rarities and B-sides collection? The first cut is the deepest, the rest are pretty readily available. She’s at Ravinia tonight, you go have fun.
• The Chicago Symphony Orchestra kicks off a weekend long residency at the Morton Arboretum with a sold out night of music from superhero movies. Trees, an orchestra, Batman music, what else could a girl want?
• Local nice guy, Hozac Records honcho, and quality rock tastemaker Todd Novak DJs Cole’s tonight.
• Dark Matter Coffee and CH Distillery hooked up to create a new coffee liqueur, and in celebration they’re throwing a Big Lebowski themed party with White Russians made from the new booze flowing like water as the movie plays on screens throughout the space.
• U2 are playing like 20 (5, it’s 5) shows at the United Center over the next week. The first one is tonight and it’s sold out, I’m sorry if I got you excited. I think there are still some tickets available to some of the other shows.
• The Brookfield Zoo is hosting a LGBTQ cocktail party with an open bar and transportation to and from Boystown! The event is called Talk To The Animals but by the end of this thing I’d for sure be slurring at those lil critters 😉

• The Logan Square Arts Festival kicks off tonight with music from Bongripper, Oshwa, Natural Information Society and more.
• I feel like the collaboration between Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga was concocted in some sort of music industry laboratory to be perfectly tailored for performances during the Thanksgiving Day Parade. There is literally no other context in which these two together make sense, except MAYBE at Ravinia, where Gaga’s Monsters and Bennett’s fan base (“Pensioneers”? “The Recently Dead”?) will collide in a burst of glitter and Werther’s Originals wrappers.
• Tonight’s the final show at the Lincoln Lodge comedy showcase in Wicker Park before they go on Summer hiatus, and boy did they book a quality lineup: Tommy McNamara, Derek Smith, Alex Kumin, Lem Slaughter, the Puterbaugh Sisters, and more await you!
• Thalia Hall hosts an entire weekend of Soul music themed events called Soul Togetherness. Tonight a bunch of DJs from around the world will be on deck to spin some of their favorite rare tracks just for YOU.
• They’re showing Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Logan Theatre tonight, get on it, nerds.
• The Late Late Breakfast open mic/bunch party usually happens on Saturday afternoons, but at this, the 4th edition of Breakfast for Dinner, they’re doing their show on FRIDAY NIGHT! How exciting!
• Greek music, food, and drinks fill the streets at the Gold Coast Greek Fest all weekend long.
• Long-running cutie pie husband and wife indie pop duo Mates of State headline Lincoln Hall tonight.
• Movies in the Parks continues tonight with a screening of The Princess Bride at Mayfair Park near the Montrose Blue Line stop.
• I try to be steadfast in my insistence that nostalgia is a blight that will consume us all, but then Third Eye Blind and Dashboard Confessional announce a tour together with a date in Chicago and I’m SO into it. Nobody’s perfect.
• Christopher Owens was in Girls (the band not the TV show), and now he releases music under his own name. He plays Schubas tonight.
• Comfort Station is hosting a series of screenings celebrating contemporary video art! Sounds cool!
• Take in some Peruvian Folk music and dancing at the Old Town School of Folk Music, unless you’re already doing that somewhere else.
• Cool ass punk rock from Coliseum and United Nations (featuring Geoff Rickly of Thursday) goes down at Subt tonight.
• Monthly standup/sketch comedy hybrid Freak Happening returns to saki with Pee-Wee’s Punk House, a DIY reimagining of our favorite grey suited dude’s warped world.
• The glorified cover band staffed by sentient wax figurines known as the Beach Boys play with Kool & The Gang at Montrose Beach tonight.
• NO KIDZ ALOUD at the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Adults Night Out, which features food and drink vendors plus DJs sprinkled around the park for all yer after hours canoodling needs.

• Do some daytime stuff:
• Elston Avenue Sausage and Music Fest is one of two celebrations of music, booze, and tubular meat. This first one is near the Abbey Pub and features music from Heartless Bastards, Craig Finn from The Hold Steady, and more!
• Hot Doug’s Dog Dayz of Summer is the other one of two celebrations of music, booze, and tubular meat. This second one is at the Goose Island Barrel Warehouse and features music from Bobby Bare Jr., Freakwater, Archie Powell and the Exports and more!
• Break records and pet puppers at Woofstock: Road to Puppy Bowl at Soldier Field with Animal Planet and PAWS. They’re trying to break the record for largest gathering of shelter pets, I hope they do it! Also, Eugene Mirman is hosting this whole thing, which is just ridiculous.
• Before tomorrow’s massive Pride Parade, there’s another, more outwardly politically oriented queer friendly procession happening: the Chicago Dyke March, a “celebration of dyke, queer, bisexual, and transgender resilience” happens in Humboldt Park today at 1:30pm and looks to be a thoughtful and positive celebration.
• Hyde Park Records on 53rd Street features an all-vinyl instore series, with DJ sets from Mr.Jaytoo, Kwest_On, Tone B Nimble, and Brian Reaves.
• Local beer cafe Beermiscuous celebrates its first birthday all day long today with free food and apparel with your purchase! Cooool!
• The fine folks behind Chicago Zine Fest are throwing a fundraising ice cream social at Comfort Station right around noon, which should be a nice time!
• Artist Danny Volk’s Youtube channel features a webseries where he goes to artists’ studios and shoots the breeze while they apply make up to his face. He’s going to be at the MCA today to talk about this series (and more, I bet! He’s probably got other stuff going on, too).
• The Public Hotel is hosting a free screening of Look At What The Light Did Now, a documentary about indie superstar Feist.
• The Mighty Con Comic Show comes to Wheaton, IL this weekend, if you live in or near Wheaton, IL and are into comic books. If this is for you, you’re probably already aware of it and are probably very excited and I hope you have a nice time!
• Day two of the Logan Square Art Fest features music from ON AN ON, Sam Prekop, Bomba con Buya, and a special surprise mystery guest! Who will it be?
• Today and tomorrow The Hideout is hosting a Renegade Craft Fair popup shop from 11am-6pm! Go get a nice plate or a tote bag with a turtle screen printed on it!

• Then, providing you make it to the night, here are some suggestions for the evening:
• Old St. Pat’s World’s Largest Block Party is today, with music from Young the Giant and Neon Tree. I don’t know what any of the proper nouns in the last sentence are, but it sure sounds like the real deal.
• Original Juice Crew member Big Daddy Kane and frequent Biz Markie collaborator headlines The Shrine’s sixth anniversary party tonight.
• Elastic Arts hosts an event called Puppet Meltdown, which I can only assume means they’ll be rounding up some of the city’s creepiest puppets and then throwing them into a furnace.
• The Brazilian Connection Festival takes over the Logan Square Auditorium tonight with live Brazilian dance music and dancers in full costume. This looks 100% amazing.
• The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s weekend residence at the Morton Arboretum wraps up with a bit more highbrow collection of performances, with pieces by Haydn, Glinka, and Berlioz soundtracking your evening.
• The Music Box is hosting a double screening of the first two Decline of Western Civilization documentaries, with a special appearnace by the films’ director Penelope Spheeris. You gotta go to this, these movies are the greatest.
• Ignore their name and catch Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin tonight at Subterranean.
• Garage rock prince Ty Segall plays a VERY sold out acoustic set tonight at The Empty Bottle. Did you get tickets? What’s that like?
• Go see some of the city’s best punk rock bands tonight at the small space in the downstairs of Subterranean. Broken Prayer, Fake Limbs, and Split Feet play, with out-of-towners Hound rounding things out.
• Day 2 of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s weekend of shows at Ravinia is tonight. I HOPE THEY DO A SOME OLD CLASSIC JAZZ STANDARDS. WOULDN’T THAT BE NICE?
• Weird Al is at the Chicago Theater as a part of his massive Mandatory World Tour world tour. He’s supposed to be just excellent live so I think you’d probably have a lot of fun at this!
• The Bougie Ball throws a faux fancy/actually fancy late night Pride-themed dance party at the Metro tonight with sets from DJ Alex Acosta and Alexander.

• Here it is, folks, what we’ve all been waiting for. The Pride Parade rolls through Lakeview starting at noon today, but for goodness’ sake, get there earlier if you want a halfway decent spot along the route.
• The amazing new Annoyance Theater offers up their space all day for Frootsalad, a Pride Parade celebration featuring DJ sets, performances, and comedy from some of the city’s best queer artists.
• He said “What, what, in the butt” and none of us were ever the same again. Youtube sensation and Chicago gay icon Samwell plays HVAC Pub today at 5pm in Wrigleyville.
• The big Whole Foods on Kingsbury is hosting the most Lincoln Park event ever: a hybrid yoga session/wine & cheese tasting. Go ahead, indulge.
• Today at Millennium Park is the inaugural Chicago Mariachi and Folklórico Festival, which spotlights some of the brightest mariachi performers from Chicago and beyond.
• Helado Negro, Serengeti, James Sanders & Conjunto and more help wrap up the Logan Square Arts Festival today.
• Gather Home + Lifestyle hosts a nice afternoon party organized by local design blog Foxtail + Moss with Summer-inspired cocktails, snacks, and special deals on decor!
• Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show has opened for Mumford and Sons and Brandi Carlile and tonight he gets a show of his very own at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
• U2 plays the United Center again today. Is it sold out? Maybe! If not now it will be soon.
• For fans of feeling very weird at live performances, frequent Tim & Eric collaborator and cable access puppeteer David Liebe Hart is playing a show at Quenchers.
• A/V experiemental noise rock weirdos Ritual Howls play the Empty Bottle tonight, should be cool and strange!
• Critically adored jazz darling Esperanza Spalding plays Lincoln Hall tonight with a new show concept that blends music, theater, dance, and poetry.
• Legendary Chicago blues label Delmark Records presents their West Side Soul showcase at B.L.U.E.S. tonight, featuring some of the most impressive acts on their roster.
• NYC-based writer Colin Beckett gives a talk about the influence of Youtube and other streaming video services on the vernacular of experimental cinema, entitled Avant-Garde as Kitsch tonight at The Nightingale.
• Following a wildly successful first show, Revelrie at The Revel Room returns to Wicker Park with another night of high quality standup from locals like Tim Barnes, Tom Brady, and Mike Timlin.
• Founding member of the wildly influential post-rock collective Rachel’s, Rachel Grimes has released a string of solo albums over the past five years or so, and tonight will be joined by a trio of collaborators to play tracks from her latest LP, The Clearing, at Constellation tonight.
• Buzzed-about Atlanta based comedian Rob Haze headlines the You’re Welcome comedy showcase at Jokes and Notes tonight.
• The Mid hosts the Chicago Pride Closing Ceremonies with celebrity DJ Ivan Gomez manning the decks all night long.