May + the Ladies, Basal Jones, Night Beach, Emily Rach Beisel
May Klug is a composer based in Minneapolis, MN. Her project May + The Ladies celebrates high-femme pop spectacle, drawing from her experimental synthesizer practice, past as a frontwoman in queercore bands, and deep love of house, bubblegum bass, and electroclash. Joined by Jared Hemming and Cleo Pupillo, this is May’s heartfelt, desperate, and misguided attempt to make extremely likable music. Basal Jones – I am a rap artist who has a taste for different sounds and cultures. This EP will include everything from a medieval bop to a crash course into the City Girl lifestyle. Night Beach is a 4-piece band playing creative indie songs about love, identity, and a life in common. FFO Elliot Smith, Parquet Courts, & Yo La Tengo. Expect new chords, sweet melodies, and seismic revelations on the nature of reality (DISCLAIMER: revelations not guaranteed) Emily Rach Beisel is known for visceral performances blending extended vocal and instrumental techniques with analogue electronics. Their works is described as “heavy stuff, sounds retrieved from the deeper places… Beisel pokes around in the sonic depths and brings leviathans out to play. (A Jazz Noise)”
The Metric Ton, Mr. Clit & The Pink Cigarettes, Maneaters, Nightfreak
The Metric Ton – A conglomerate of sounds from Cincinnati, Ohio, embarking on a celebratory tour of our latest album, Can’t It All Be So Simple? Mr. Clit and the Pink Cigarettes are three loser nerds with a love of cinema and music. Influenced by the B52s, Pee-wee Herman, The Cramps, and girl groups of the 60s. They mix punk with camp, femininity with aggression, pretty and ugly, snot and candy. Upon formation they started touring the US, which led to multiple international tours, including Canada, China, and France. Who is Mr. Clit? They dont know, but who is Hootie? also featuring Maneaters and Nightfreak
Big Chemical, Disaster Kid, Growing Boys
Big Chemical is a twangy indie rock band formed in Ann Arbor and currently based in Chicago. They take inspiration from The Band, Dear Nora, and The Replacements to bring a complex and high energy performance. Chicago Nostalgia rock trio Disaster Kid finds reflection at the core of their music. Packed together by vivid detail and passionate melodies, their cathartic indie rock sound is lined with lyrical storytelling which puts an emphasis to the mysticism in the mundane. Growing Boys, a folk and alt band, is the brainchild of two best friends whose harmonies are as tight as their bond.
Radderall, Crisis Actress, Helicopter Leaves
Radderall is a Cleveland-based music and art project started in 2012 by longtime friends Zach Taneyhill and Jonny McAllister. What began as sharing songs on MacBook laptops grew into a layered blend of dream pop, shoegaze, glam, psych, and lo-fi R&B, paired with a strong visual side.Joined by drummer Alexander Eliopolous in 2021, the trio has released three albums, including How Can I? (2022), which marked a shift in their sound.Since 2021, Radderall expanded their studio sound to the stage with a live band of Taneyhill, McAllister, Eliopolous, and bassist Ryan Fletterick. They’ve shared stages with Nick Hakim, Donny Benet, and Welshly Arms, and played festivals like Brite Winter, Ingenuity Festival, and Cincinnati’s Rock and Roll Carnival. In 2022, they joined the Wax Mage Records roster. Chicago-based Crisis Actress crafts noise-pop that exists in perpetual evolution. At the heart of their sound are swirling keyboards, vocal stacks, loops, drums, and wires. Fresh off their full-length debut, Return of the Puppet King captures the band’s shared musical obsessions and commitment to experimentation. Recorded at the hallowed Electrical Audio last fall, each track is a testament to their collective journey- a dream realized through collaboration with countless talented friends who helped shape their vision. Helicopter Leaves is Influenced by a combination of 90s indie rock and 70s power pop. Led by Chicago born and raised singer/vocalist Anthony Vaccaro. The debut album Get Stuck In is a collection of songs with intricate stories in 2-3 minute indie pop blasts of fun.
Miss Misery, Rocco Desgres, Sponj, 8-bit crEEps
Miss Misery brings a high energy performance to accompany their bittersweet melodies and incredibly dance oriented tracks. Guaranteed to provide a larger than life experience you won’t forget. Rocco Desgres is an LGBTQ+ musician from Chicago, Illinois, exploring the lo-fi sounds of the 80s on analog synthesizers. With soaring falsetto vocals, pulsating electronic dance beats, and live analog synthesizers. Their two Studio Records, “The Very Very Best of Rocco Desgres” followed by “Rocco Desgres Now in Five Exciting New Flavors!”, are high-energy synth pop songs recorded exclusively on analog synthesizers. Their live electronic sound has classic inspirations from Depeche Mode, O.M.D., and Italo Disco, and modern inspirations such as Holy Wire, Dutch Experts, and Odor Eater. Rocco Desgres has collaborated with many artists such as Recent History, Moving Day, Translucent Industry, and Cosmic Duct Tape. They have been dazzling audiences with their high-energy performances at the best venues in Chicago, most notably, Coles Bar, The Burlington Bar, and the Fallen Log. The pulsating electronic dance music and captivating high-energy performance of Rocco Desgres always give audiences an unforgettable experience. Formed in 2023, sponj is a two-piece, indie-electronic, two-guys and a drum machine band from Chicago. Sitting somewhere between Suicide, Depeche Mode, LCD Soundsystem, and Massive Attack, they provide a transportive, retro-futuristic alternate sound universe, for everyone. 8-bit crEEps are a psych-wave quartet in a polygamist marriage with new-wave synths, fuzzed-out guitars and driving beats. The band has been experimenting with these sonic elements and conceptual storytelling since 2016. We ask that you attribute any defective material to the stresses of nepotism, capitalism and cognitive dissonance. That is to say, come on friends! Let’s party!
Body Shop, Genre is Death (NY), King Sans, AAAYYYAAA
When you hear trembling guitar, charged bass lines, siren-like synths, and throbbing drum machines, you’re listening to Body Shop. The Chicago outfit, composed of songwriters Kit Dee, Sam Crow, and Lou Larsen, is on a mission to radicalize through inoculation. To the uninitiated, they’re just a band. To those in the know, Body Shop is a manifesto. They honor their disco-punk predecessors by offering up tracks that fuse and transcend. Body Shop redefines the very meaning of its name. In a world dominated by fiscal greed and sexual repression, Body Shop fights back with biting wit and precise sonic warfare. For Body Shop, making music isn’t about building a bomb shelter, it’s about creating an immune system, one that heals the body and soul. Total liberation is the goal. “Genre Is Death (NY) destroy limitation….Their minimalist sound, presentation and performance rather than acting as a typecasting influence, provides an expansive backdrop from which their connection with each other can be fully explored…Connection isn’t a one dimensional concept to Varesi and Lee. Intricate guitar/bass lines and vocal call/response give way on many occasions to menacing wall of sound moments that evoke early . More rhythmically open passages bring about a playfulness reminiscent of performances. Genre Is Death make connection captivating. They induce audiences to mosh, make-out or watch in rapt attention as they perform their art without clenching a muscle.” Insecurity Hits King Sans – Gothic noisepunk from the shadows of Chicago:Always putting on a show to remember, as King Sans, Iz and Jake deliver chaotic energy with melancholic lulls, to create a night as dynamic as each day itself. AAAYYYAAA – MIDWEST INDUSTRIAL
Halloween Cover Show with Fleshed Out (Indie Sleaze), Tommy Bravos (George Michael), Liska (No Doubt)
Fleshed Out is a band of spectacle. Bold, brash, and packed with charisma, they bring an electrifying energy that gets crowds on their feet and keeps them there. Their genre-hopping pop-centric sound defies expectations—no two songs are alike, but every track is as catchy as it is unpredictable. Tommy Bravos is like no other. His dreamy music is a fusion of Greek influence, pop hooks and deep lyrics that make you contemplate reality. Fun to listen to, even more fun to feel to. With Briggite Bardot hair, psychic abilities, and enough broken hearts to inspire an entire discography, Chicago’s-own Liska has all the makings of a “pop girly,” the Gen-Z-originated internet term of endearment reserved for the most iconic of icons. Liska’s sound blends her resolute confidence with sheer magnetism and electrifying musical experiments that hit the mark in their addictive verses and honey-dipped choruses. Her tour-de-force artist persona illuminates her identity; her music is a direct expression of her truest truths, her soul’s exclamations, her observations of our ever-changing world.
Brody Price and the Shadow Band, Lucky Cloud, Noah Roth
Brody Price is a songwriter from the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, TX. Vacillating between moments of polished folk songwriting and walls of overdriven guitar, Price’s music carries on the tradition of the state’s alternative country scene of the early 2000’s. “In music, I’ve always been too country for the indie rock scene and too indie for the country scene. I’ve realized how comfortable I feel in that space now.” Price will be playing all new songs from his forthcoming album. Lucky Cloud is the songwriting alias of Austin-born, Chicago-based artist Chet Zenor, an instrumentalist who has performed and recorded with dozens of artists including Whitney, Squirrel Flower, Hannah Frances, Spencer Tweedy, Case Oats, Minor Moon, Max Subar, and others. He co-leads the avant garde country-jazz trio Alta Vista with Jakob Heinemann and Andy Danstrom. Lucky Cloud’s debut LP, Foreground, released in March 2025 via Ruination Record Co. Noah Roth is a singer/songwriter and multi/instrumentalist from Chicago, IL. Their music combines the confessional songwriting of Townes Van Zandt, Elliott Smith, and Silver Jews with the off-the-beaten-path production of 90s/00s indie darlings such as The Flaming Lips, Sparklehorse, and Wilco.
Good Luck, What Gives, The Feat
Originally formed in Bloomington, Indiana in the late aughts, Good Luck plays joyful, intricate, unique punk-ish music with a DIY spirit. They always delicately straddled the border lines between interwoven scenes, trying on Midwest emo, jangly singer-songwriter, anthemic rock, and twinkle guitar before settling somewhere in no man’s land with their own sound and a “we’re a punk band” shrug. After a decade-or-so hiatus, Ginger, Matt, and Mike got together again in 2024. With rejuvenated energy and a concerted “not a reunion band” effort, they’re playing some select dates in support of their soon-to-be-released first album in 14 years. They’ve got big dreams, mister. What Gives – power-pop-punk from Chicago, IL. we like candy Chicago’s THE FEAT – Craig Woods (Towers, Peter and Craig), Justin Wexler (Stillwell, Engines), and Matt Vicars (Ghost Towns, Sore History) – have created a sound that exists somewhere within their shared collective experience of independent and punk music. They exist somewhere in the venn diagram of mixed bill shows at the Fireside Bowl in the 90s, years of touring and playing basements across the country, and old well-concealed cash mailorders from Ebullition and No Idea.
BRIDEY, Alvin Flames, Mozey
BRIDEY is the project of singer/songwriter Bridey Hicks. Hicks moved to Chicago in 2017 and found her calling in writing, performing, and recording her own music. By 2021, she took the dive into the local Chicago music community and built her band from there. After relocating to Los Angeles, CA in late 2022, the project BRIDEY has now emerged as a captivating force in the American indie rock music scene. Whether it be the songs that focus on her alluring vocals or the songs that encapsulate a complete band, her versatile discography doubles as a soundtrack to potential crying sessions, make-out sessions, and/or moshing sessions. Alvin Flames is bedroom synth slop. Toe tapping, head bobbing songs sprinkled with beeps, boops and other noises. Mozey is a dynamic, queer indie band hailing from Chicago, made up ofZoë DePreta, Em Modaff, Alissa Wolff and Margot Mayer. They released theirfirst full-band single “Terrible Decisions” this summer. Mozey draws inspiration from their experiences as queer people, their punk roots, and the feeling of Chicago in the summer. Also, they’re perpetually unable to settle on a genre.