SUPPORT STATION
Beach Bunny will be donating proceeds to G.L.I.T.S. Inc.
This performance is only available until midnight on Thursday, July 16th.
About Beach Bunny
Few artists can pinpoint an emotion as clearly and honestly as Beach Bunny's Lili Trifilio. The Chicago artist writes songs about love and sadness that are so immediate it's pretty much universal. On Honeymoon , the excellent debut album from Trifilio's songwriting project and band, it's as if she's singing about things everyone has felt before but never had the courage to put in words themselves. When she sings, "Part of me still wants you, part of me wants to fall asleep" on the anthemic opener "Promises," it's vulnerable but it's also defiant and wholly relatable.
Beach Bunny started in 2015 as a solo outlet for Trifilio to process her feelings about a budding relationship. Her early recordings were spare, lo-fi and home-recorded, delicately tackling heartbreak and loss across EPs like 2015's Animalism , 2016's Pool Party , and 2017's Crybaby.
"When I started writing, I just needed to get out what I was feeling somehow. It was definitely a very therapeutic process," says Trifilio. Her performances at countless house shows and venues around the city quickly earned her music a fervent local audience. In 2017, the project became a full band with Matt Henkels (guitar), Anthony Vaccaro (bass) and Jonathan Alvarado (drums) joining on. With 2018 single "Sports" and their breakout 2018 EP Prom Queen , Beach Bunny is now one of Chicago's most exciting indie rock bands. Their infectious and muscular new musical palate perfectly translated to a raucous, sing-along heavy live show. Though Trifilio's songwriting remained just as resonant and intimate as her earliest efforts, having her self-described "family unit" backing her has brought a new vitality to these songs. Tracks like "Prom Queen" have earned them millions of streams and their obvious onstage chemistry charmed on tours with bands like PUP and Remo Drive.
Honeymoon is the stunning culmination of Trifilio's evolution as a songwriter and artist. Recorded at the iconic Chicago studio Electrical Audio with producer Joe Reinhart (Hop Along, Algernon Caldwaller), the nine songs on the LP burst with energy. "Joe really pushed us to experiment. With our older songs, our setup was really bare bones. But here we decided to really play around, winging harmonies and trying out so many guitar tones," says Trifilio. Take a song like the wiry and driving "Colorblind," which boasts one of the biggest choruses the band's ever tackled. The record captures the life-affirming and communal intensity of their live show. "My goal going into this album was touch upon all the themes someone might go through when exiting the honeymoon stage of a relationship," says Trifilio. She adds, "If you heard it, you could think that this is a breakup album but it's really focusing on those times where you're just not really sure where the relationship is headed and things are getting kind of shaky." This is an LP for the comedown after a whirlwind fling, where doubt and confusion sets in and big breakup-or-don't decisions have to be made. When she sings on the rocker "Ms. California," I need to let go of everything / It’s getting hard to fight the feeling" she captures the insecurity perfectly. Honeymoon shows that it can be an uncertain and scary time but it can also be thrilling to commit to love.
Upcoming Streams
About Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL)
CIVL acts to secure the long-term future of these and other venues for the benefit of our communities and emerging artists. Member venues have played a crucial role in the development of Chicago’s music over the last 50 years by nurturing local, national and international talent, and providing a platform for these artists to build their careers and develop their music. Chicago's independent venues provide thousands of jobs, as well as millions of dollars in salaries, revenues, charitable donations and taxes. CIVL strives to gain recognition for the essential role these venues have played in defining the music culture as it exists in Chicago today.
About Lincoln Hall
Lincoln Hall is a modern, mid-sized, independent venue located in Chicago's Northside. Opened in 2009 by its sister-venue, Schubas Tavern, Lincoln Hall features top-level production in an intimate environment, all while playing host to a wide variety of musicians, comedians, speakers, and more.