Jul
3
to Jul 5
Hey Riddle Riddle | STAGED
This show will be available Sunday, July 3, 2022 at 7:00pm CT for 48 hours only.
Filtering by: STAGED
Nov
1
to Nov 3
Hey Riddle Riddle | STAGED
This show will be available Monday, November 1, 2021 at 8:00pm CT for 48 hours only.
Oct
21
to Oct 24
The Menzingers | STAGED
This show will be available Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 10pm CT for 72 hours only.
Oct
15
to Oct 17
Lewis Del Mar | STAGED
This show will be available Friday, October 7, 2021 at 10:00pm CT for 48 hours only.
May
21
8:00 PM20:00
Hey Riddle Riddle | STAGED
This performance will be available until midnight on Saturday, May 22nd
SUPPORT STATION
About Hey Riddle Riddle
Hey Riddle Riddle is a podcast featuring hosts Adal Rifai, Erin Keif and John Patrick Coan, three Chicago improvisers who love, hate, and are completely indifferent to riddles. If you can relate to any one of those feelings, then this is the podcast for you!
Each episode, the hosts try (and mostly fail) to solve riddles, puzzles, and who-dun-its while dissecting, discussing and improvising scenes along the way. All shit, no Sherlock, it’s Hey Riddle Riddle!
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.
May
15
to May 16
NNAMDÏ | STAGED
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CHICAGO READER & SOOPER RECORDS
This performance will be available until midnight on Sunday, May 16th
SUPPORT STATION
About NNAMDÏ
NNAMDÏ is a Chicago Recording Artist, multi-instrumentalist Producer / Songwriter, and co-founding member of Sooper Records. He is widely known for his prolific artistic output over the last twelve years, having worked as a collaborator on countless projects across genre, all the while independently releasing a torrent of self-produced and recorded solo albums. The release of 2017’s DROOL (Sooper / Father Daughter) proved to be a tipping point, garnering wider national and international recognition for NNAMDÏ’s innovative, genre-bending sound. After two years of rigorous touring behind DROOL, NNAMDÏ set to releasing his long-awaited follow-up album, BRAT (Sooper) on April 3, 2020.
NNAMDÏ’s ambitious plans to promote BRAT were cancelled by Covid-19, including a scheduled Release Show at Lincoln Hall, and a scheduled US tour opening for Wilco and Sleater-Kinney. With time on his hands, NNAMDÏ set to making music in his home studio. He would go on to release two additional unplanned projects after BRAT in 2020. The Black Plight EP (6/5/20) was written and recorded in under a week in response to the murder of George Floyd and the protests for racial justice that ensued. The digital-only release was the highest selling record of any format on Bandcamp Friday, raising over $10,000.00 in 24-hours. NNAMDÏ donated all of the money to racial justice organizations and community members in immediate need of assistance. Less than a month later, NNAMDÏ released KRAZY KARL (July 3, 2020) a largely instrumental album whose title and sound pay homage to the late Looney Tunes composer Carl Stalling. The extremely limited run of 300 LPs sold out in 24-hours, and the album has since been removed from the internet. In a 2020 profile of NNAMDI in VICE, Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy echoed what many have known for years—recognizing NNAMDI as a “genius” and noting the incomparable and utterly idiosyncratic nature of his music. In recognition of his 2020 endeavors, the Chicago Tribune named NNAMDÏ Chicagoan of the Year. His 2020 releases were broadly recognized on Best Music of the Year lists.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of BRAT, NNAMDÏ will perform the album in full during a live-streamed performance at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall on May 15, 2021. This event marks the first full-band live stream NNAMDÏ will perform since BRAT’s release… and will make good on the release show that never was.
NNAMDÏ Links
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Apr
10
to Apr 11
Ohmme | STAGED
This performance will be available until midnight on Sunday, April 11th
SUPPORT STATION
About Ohmme
There's an obvious chemistry emanating throughout Ohmme's music that's so tangible it can only come from a decades-spanning friendship. Songwriters Sima Cunnningham and Macie Stewart formed their unbreakable bond performing throughout the fringes of Chicago's many interlocking communities, collaborating with titans from the city's indie rock, hip-hop, and improvised worlds. But together, along with drummer Matt Carroll, they've stretched the boundaries of what guitar music can do starting with the band's experimental 2016 self-titled EP and their adventurous debut 2018 LP Parts. Now their longstanding partnership culminates with the stunning and muscular follow-up Fantasize Your Ghost.
Ohmme formed in 2014 as an outlet for Cunningham and Stewart to explore an unconventional approach to their instruments. "That's the whole genesis of the band: us walking up to our guitars and saying, 'how can we make this noisemaker do something different?'" says Cunningham. But as their musical collaboration strengthened, bringing Parts and intensive tours with acts like Wilco, Iron & Wine, Twin Peaks, and more, the band's scope and focus has also broadened. Fantasize Your Ghost is the direct result of the band spending more time on the road than in Chicago, a record deeply concerned with questions of the self, the future, and what home means when you're travelling all the time.
"Grinding on tour last year for so long, it can alter your mental state where you have to think about your life in a different way than you would if you're home. A lot of the songs stemmed from just thinking about all of the possibilities that life could be and could take," says Stewart. On the commanding single "3 2 4 3," which tackles the terrifying realization of needing to make a change. The song opens with the two singing in transfixing harmony, "Looked in the mirror the other day / Caught my reflection / My mouth had moved a different way / The muscles were straining." Their deft scene-setting and the way their disparate voices blend together heightens the song's inherent anxiety. Later, they sing, "Filling the holes to make amends / Tearing them up to start again." These moments of emotional clarity fill Fantasize Your Ghost.
Written across 2019, early sketches of the album's tracklist were demoed at Sam Evian's Flying Cloud Studios in upstate New York. "That's where we really started to see the record come together," says Cunningham. The sessions were intensely collaborative and open: the product of long, existential conversations between Stewart and Cunningham in the van about their lives and how to channel the anger they were feeling about the state of the world. Tracks like the driving opener "Flood Your Gut" underwent several revisions with Ohmme uncovering several new directions the song could go before finishing it. The refrain "your whole vision's not enough" is a call to action, says Cunningham. "Do you want to be someone who can disconnect or someone who is hyper-engaged and present?"
Fantasize Your Ghost was recorded over a six day session in August 2019 when the band decamped to the Post Farm in southern Wisconsin, where Cunningham runs a yearly DIY music festival. With indie rock journeyman producer Chris Cohen and the idyllic setting just outside Chicago, the songs came to vibrant life. Though Parts showcased their wildly burgeoning
influences and talents, Fantasize Your Ghost captures the astounding magnetism and ferocity of their live show. "Selling Candy" is the perfect example. It's a small snapshot of childhood complete with nostalgic references to summertime hot dogs and wandering the city but set to an explosive, stadium-ready fuzzed-out arrangement. Elsewhere, songs like the dystopian dance rocker "The Limit" further stretch their already dynamic palette.
Fantasize Your Ghost encapsulates the thrilling and sometimes terrifying joy of moving forward even if you don't know where you're going. It's an album that asks necessary questions: When life demands a crossroads, what version of yourself are you going to pursue? What part of yourself will you feed and let flourish and what do you have to let go of? When they sing, "Just walk out the door and / Don’t tell them goodbye" it's drastic but also exhilaratingly hopeful. This is a record of strength, of best friends believing in each other. Unapologetic and brave, Ohmme are ready to figure it all out together.
Ohmme Links
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Mar
25
to Mar 26
Julien Baker | STAGED
There are three separate air times for this event based on time zone. Each stream is the same and includes a 24-hour rebroadcast window.
SUPPORT STATION
About Julien Baker
If you are lucky enough to have a future where the present anxieties of distance become romantic memories, I hope there are people who turn this album over in their hands years from now and remember the world it tumbled into. A world that, in whatever future moment exists, will likely be defined by the work people undertook and the fights people continued to show up for. But it will also be a world defined by how many of us exist on the other side of distance.
In the moment, here is a new Julien Baker album that arrives as a world comes to newly understand its relationship with touch, with distance. At the time of this writing, I shouldn’t want to run into the arms of anyone I love and miss, and yet I do. In an era of hands pressed on the glass of windows, or screen doors. An era of hands reaching back. An era where touch became an illusion. If we have been unlucky enough, our own lifetimes have prepared us for the ever-growing tapestry of aches.
To wrestle with the interior of one’s self has become a side effect of the times, and will remain a side effect of whatever times emerge from these. The first time I ever heard Julien Baker, I wanted to know how an artist could survive such relentless and rigorous self-examination. I have been lonely, I have been alone, and I have been isolated. There are musicians who know the nuances between the three. What whispers in through the cracks of a person’s time alone. Julien Baker is one of those artists. A writer who examines their own mess, not in a search for answers, but sometimes just for a way out. A lighthouse to some newer, bigger mess.
It is hard to put into words what this feels like. Little Oblivions is an album that steps into that feeling and expands it. Sonically, from the opening swells of sound on “Hardline” rattling the chest, loving but persistent jabs to the way “Relative Fiction” spills into “Crying Wolf,” which feels like speeding down a warm highway that quickly turns into a sparse landscape, drowning in a hard rain. Lyrically, too, of course. There are writers who might attempt to bang at the doors of their listeners, shouting their particular anguish of the hour. And there are undoubtedly times when I have needed that to get from one sunrise to the next. But there are also writers who show up assuming anyone listening already knows what it is to crawl themselves back from one heartbreak, or to shout into an enduring darkness and hear only an echo. Little Oblivions is an album that details the crawling, details the shouting. An album that doesn’t offer repair, or forgiveness. Sometimes, though, a chance to revel in the life that is never guaranteed. Yes, the life that grows and grows and is never promised. How lucky to still be living, even in our own mess.
The grand project of Julien Baker, as I have always projected it onto myself, is the central question of what someone does with the many calamities of a life they didn’t ask for, but want to make the most out of. I have long been done with the idea of hope in such a brutal and unforgiving world, but I’d like to think that this music drags me closer to the old idea I once clung to. But these are songs of survival, and songs of reimagining a better self, and what is that if not hope? Hope that on the other side of our wreckage — self-fashioned or otherwise — there might be a door. And through the opening of that door, a tree spilling its shade over something we love. A bench and upon it, a jacket that once belonged to someone we’d buried. Birds who ask us to be an audience to their singing. A small and generous corner of the earth that has not yet burned down or disappeared. I can be convinced of this kind of hope, even as I fight against it. To hear someone wrestling with and still thankful for the circumstances of a life that might reveal some brilliance if any of us just stick around long enough.
Julien, how good it is to hear you again. And now, in all of our anguish and all of our glory. I miss the way the outside world reflected myself back to me. Now, I make mirrors out of the walls. I am so thankful for a better noise than the howling of my own shadows. Julien, you have done it again. You expert magician. You mirror-maker. Thank you for letting us once again watch you maneuver through all of your pleasant and unpleasant self-renderings. If there is a future, there will be people in it who might not remember how this album came at a time when so many hungered for a chance to put themselves back together. When the imagination of a person, a city, a country, was expanding. When, despite all of that, in the quiet moments, there were people who still wanted to be held by someone they maybe couldn’t touch. Thank you, Julien, for this comfort. This glass box through which a person might better be able to see a use for their own grief. This kingdom of small shards of sunlight, stumbling their way in to disrupt the darkness.
—Hanif Abdurraqib
Upcoming Streams
About NIVA
The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) Emergency Relief Fund, a project of The Giving Back Fund, is a collaboration between patrons, businesses, organizations, and funders in support of a 2,800+ membership consortium of independent venues and promoters across the nation. This Relief Fund aligns with NIVA’s mission to preserve and nurture the independent ecosystem that presents music, comedy, and the performing arts (fund recipients) and raise relief funding for the extreme landscape and challenges independent venues and promoters are currently facing in the COVID-19 era.
About Analog at Hutton Hotel
Set on the grounds of Nashville's iconic Hutton Hotel and steps from Music Row, the 5,000-square-foot, 300-person venue offers high-design interiors and a state-of-the-art Bose sound system to create uniquely intimate experience.
Mar
11
to Mar 12
Retirement Party | STAGED
This performance will be available until midnight on Friday, March 12th
SUPPORT STATION
About Retirement Party
Retirement Party is an indie punk band rooted in Chicago, Illinois. The band is fronted by Avery Springer and rounded out by Eddy Rodriguez on lead guitar/bass and James Ringness on drums. Characterized by stream of consciousness lyrics, wailing guitars, and intricate drums, Retirement Party crafts an upbeat and exciting wall of sound. The band released their debut EP January 1st of 2017, just three months after forming. They signed with Counter Intuitive Records and released their debut full length LP, Somewhat Literate on May 25th, 2018. The following years were spent relentlessly touring, bringing their wall shaking performance to venues across the United States. The band refined their sound with their sophomore LP, Runaway Dog, released on May 15th, 2020. Taking a listen through the Retirement Party discography sends you through the tumultuous journey of self discovery and reflection that comes with transitioning from childhood to adulthood, all while packing quite the punch.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Mar
5
8:00 PM20:00
Hey Riddle Riddle | STAGED
This performance will be available until midnight on Saturday, March 6th
SUPPORT STATION
About Hey Riddle Riddle
Hey Riddle Riddle is a podcast featuring hosts Adal Rifai, Erin Keif and John Patrick Coan, three Chicago improvisers who love, hate, and are completely indifferent to riddles. If you can relate to any one of those feelings, then this is the podcast for you!
Each episode, the hosts try (and mostly fail) to solve riddles, puzzles, and who-dun-its while dissecting, discussing and improvising scenes along the way. All shit, no Sherlock, it’s Hey Riddle Riddle!
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.
Feb
25
to Feb 26
Julia Holter | STAGED
This performance will be available until midnight on Friday, February 26th
SUPPORT STATION
About Julia Holter
Aviary is an epic journey through what Julia Holter describes as “the cacophony of the mind in a melting world.” Out on October 26 via Domino, it’s the Los Angeles composer’s most breathtakingly expansive album yet, full of startling turns and dazzling instrumental arrangements. The follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2015 record, Have You in My Wilderness, it takes as its starting point a line from a 2009 short story by writer Etel Adnan: “I found myself in an aviary full of shrieking birds.” It’s a scenario that sounds straight out of a horror movie, but it’s also a pretty good metaphor for life in 2018, with its endless onslaught of political scandals, freakish natural disasters, and voices shouting their desires and resentments into the void.
“Amidst all the internal and external babble we experience daily, it’s hard to find one’s foundation,” says Holter. “I think this album is reflecting that feeling of cacophony and how one responds to it as a person — how one behaves, how one looks for love, for solace. Maybe it’s a matter of listening to and gathering the seeming madness, of forming something out of it and envisioning a future.”
Fittingly for an album about the chatter of the mind, most of the songs on Aviary grew out of “cathartic solo improvisations” with voice and synth, recorded by Holter at home throughout 2017. Where Wilderness showcased her knack for writing immaculately constructed pop ballads, she describes Aviary as an exercise in letting her subconscious show her the way. “I was really trying to have fun and make a daring record. I found myself drawn to certain things that would happen when improvising — surprise utterances and slips.”
Holter then took her favorite parts of the home recordings and expanded upon them, writing lush arrangements for an ensemble of frequent collaborators. In early 2018, she recorded their contributions at Hollywood’s Band House Studios, with executive producer Cole MGN and co-producer Kenny Gilmore. Aviary combines her slyly theatrical vocals and Blade Runner-inspired synth work with an enveloping palette of violin and viola (Dina Maccabee, Andrew Tholl), double bass (Devin Hoff), and percussion (Corey Fogel). Drawing inspiration from the medieval world, she added trumpet and bagpipes into the mix, played by Sarah Belle Reid and Tashi Wada, respectively.
To evoke an overwhelming swirl of voices, Holter indulged her love for wordplay, often combining multiple languages and temporal tenses in a single phrase and embracing phonetic sound over meaning. “Chaitius” playfully combines her own words in English with lyrics from a medieval Occitan troubadour song. “I Would Rather See” borrows its references to chariots and steadfast footsoldiers from a mesostic poem she made using an Anne Carson translation of Sappho; “Why Sad Song,” the album’s ruefully meditative closer, is an English-language phonetic translation of a song by Nepalese Buddhist nun Choying Drolma. But Aviary also elevates the “babble” concept to a compositional principle. “A lot of the songs play with hocketing, which is something you have in medieval music, where melodies are shared by different interrupting voices,” says Holter.
On Aviary, we travel a world populated by birds, angels, and ghosts — at once characters in a mystery of uncertain denouement and a stand-in for the memories and thought-images that seem to fly through the mind on their own volition. Inklings of impending doom (“Everything Is an Emergency”) hover side-by-side with ecstatic professions of love (“Turn the Light On”) and moments of triumphant solidarity (“Voce Simul”). Like other recent projects — composing and performing a live score to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, as well as arranging her album Tragedy for opera, in 2017 — Aviary sees Holter juxtaposing ancient and contemporary reference points. Time collapses, with references to the deep past — Joan of Arc, the Christian Crusades, the mass hysteria of the dance of Saint Vitus — seeming to double as metaphors for our hopes and anxieties in the present. Jetting between medieval chamber music and proggy jazz-rock transports, plaintive balladry and android robotics, it’s a journey full of wild twists and turns — but it’s one that seems to cling to a sense of radical hope, even in its most somber moments.
Back in the 5th century, North African theologian Saint Augustine envisioned the trajectory of human history in terms of an ongoing conflict between the City of God and the City of Man, aka “the earthly city.” As Thomas Pinsky describes it in his translation of Dante’s Inferno, the City of Man “may also be thought of as a radical representation of the world in which we live, stripped of all temporizing and all hope.” When the world you live in starts to feel more and more like a hell, it can be hard to know which way to turn — and while it isn’t art’s job to show us the way, what it can do is offer us glimpses of what defiance looks like. On “Words I Heard,” a melodic standout full of swirling strings, it’s there in a simple line of text: I love you in the City of Man.
“In a lot of the songs, when I mention love, it’s about a seeking for compassion and humility in a world where it feels like empathy is always being tested,” Holter says. In Aviary’s case, that search for sweetness — that bridging of the gulf — becomes a metaphor for the creative process itself, cutting through the hierarchies of history, language, and musical form to offer something more fluid, more inclusive, more idiosyncratic. “For a long time in music, there has been a discussion about what ‘dissonance’ and ‘consonance’ actually are,” the artist explains. But what, Holter asks, is the sound of empathy?
The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) Emergency Relief Fund, a project of The Giving Back Fund, is a collaboration between patrons, businesses, organizations, and funders in support of a 2,800+ membership consortium of independent venues and promoters across the nation. This Relief Fund aligns with NIVA’s mission to preserve and nurture the independent ecosystem that presents music, comedy, and the performing arts (fund recipients) and raise relief funding for the extreme landscape and challenges independent venues and promoters are currently facing in the COVID-19 era.
Upcoming Streams
About Lodge Room
Built in 1922 as the Highland Park Masonic Temple, Lodge Room has been preserved and updated for a new chapter. As music fans ascend the stairs to the 2nd story, they escape normalcy and are enveloped with timeless architecture and modern décor allowing an old world feel to usher in new world performances.
Feb
24
to Feb 25
The Nielsen Trust | STAGED
This performance will be available until midnight on Thursday, February 25th
SUPPORT STATION
About The Nielsen Trust
The Nielsen Trust is a new band featuring Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick and his family.
The Nielsens are a pretty talented family. Of course, there's Rick. The legendary guitar player from Rock n Roll Hall of Fame band, Cheap Trick. His son Daxx plays drums for Cheap Trick too. Another one of his sons, Miles, has his own successful project, Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts. Miles' wife, Kelly Steward, has her career as a singer and songwriter.
They have all jammed together at various times in the past but now it's official. This family band is called The Nielsen Trust. They recently made their debut at the Castle Theatre in Bloomington, Illinois. It was an added surprise for the fans attending the album release party for Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts. Rick and his family continue to bring the heat with an eclectic mix of Cheap Trick and original tunes.
The Nielsen Trust Links
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.
Dec
19
8:00 PM20:00
Dec
17
8:00 PM20:00
Dec
10
8:00 PM20:00
Nov
20
8:00 PM20:00
Nov
6
8:00 PM20:00
Greet Death
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About Greet Death
Greet Death is a three piece post-rock band from Flint, Michigan. They initially made waves with their infectious debut album "Dixieland" (Flesh and Bone, 2017). The album was well received, with Pitchfork giving it a "7.7" rating and stating "...This is a remarkably tuneful, forthright pop-rock band that just so happens to play six-minute songs at bradycardic tempos".
"New Hell" is the latest album from Greet Death. It was recorded by Nick Diener (The Swellers) at Oneder Studios. Additional recording was done by Jake Morse. It was all mastered by Jay Maas at Getaway Recording, and artwork for the release was created by illustrator Liam Rush.
The album as a whole is a creative intermingling of lush melodic atmosphere with melancholic lyrical content. Within that haze their personal subject matter is cleverly cloaked amid beautiful vocal deliveries and dreamy guitar work. This is the case in songs "Circles of Hell", "Do You Feel Nothing", "Let It Die", and "You're Gonna Hate What You've Done". This not-so-subtle vitriol continues to spread through self reflection in unforgettable songs like "Entertainment", "Strange Days", as well as the tone-soaked "Strain". While "Crush" plays as a complex outpouring disguised as a hook-laden pop number. All of this leads to "New Hell", a nearly ten minute epic of towering proportions. Lovingly constructed before ominously swaying in the wind and collapsing under its own emotional weight.
Follow the band
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Oct
29
8:00 PM20:00
Jean Deaux
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About Jean Deaux
Consciously evasive of being confined to one style, 25-year-old Jean Deaux made a name for herself outside her native Chicago during the mid-2010s with output ranging from R&B-oriented pop to low-key house, along with a wide variety of cross-genre guest appearances. The rapper, singer, and songwriter was involved with acting and poetry, then made major inroads as a musical artist starting in the early 2010s. SoundCloud uploads and featured appearances on tracks by the likes of Isaiah Rashad, Mick Jenkins, Saba, Mykki Blanco, and Smino. In 2017, Deaux issued the spaced-out house track "Father Time" followed by breakout independent releases like "Wikipedia," a dreamy number somewhere between Little Dragon and Erykah Badu. The following year, Deaux's output continued apace with more singles, highlighted by "Energy”, “Back 2 You” and “Due To Me”.
The Chicago artist unveiled her first full body of work in October of 2018, KRASH--a stellar debut showcasing Deaux’s dynamic voice, songwriting abilities, and versatile sound. Deaux then followed up with EMPATHY in June of 2019, an emotive and incredible EP about love & control, featuring DUCKWRTH, Terrace Martin & Kehlani. She followed up her 2019 breakout project with the 2020 rap tape, Watch This! -- a confident and bold feat showing she can hang with the best of the best, bar for bar.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Oct
27
8:00 PM20:00
Califone and Robyn Mineko Williams and Artists | Echo Mine v2 Live Stream
SUPPORT STATION
Echo Mine (Jealous Butcher Records)
About Echo Mine v2
Providing audiences with new perspectives on their acclaimed 2019 collaboration, Echo Mine, Califone and Robyn Mineko Williams and Artists premiere Echo Mine v2 exclusively via STAGED, Audiotree’s new livestream concert series. Echo Mine v2 highlights musicians and dancers working together as one, blending Califone’s “urgent, lushly melodic” soundtrack (Billboard) with Mineko Williams’ “stirringly magnetic” choreography (Chicago Reader).
Originally staged live at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Echo Mine was inspired by and created alongside Chicago dance icon Claire Bataille, one of four founding members of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and longtime director of the Lou Conte Dance Studio. Danced by three Chicago-based artists mentored closely by Bataille, Echo Mine v2 explores the nature of artistic legacy and lineage, as well as the inimitable qualities Bataille brought to her work as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. In October 2017, one month after her first rehearsal with Mineko Williams for the project, Bataille was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she passed away at age 66 in December 2018. Before her untimely death, Bataille encouraged the work’s completion.
Joining Califone’s Tim Rutili (bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals) for Echo Mine v2 are longtime collaborators Brian Deck (bass, electronics, percussion, synthesizer) and Ben Massarella (percussion), responding live within the framework of Califone’s Echo Mine score to the unique qualities and rhythms of this multi-camera presentation at Lincoln Hall.
Joining choreographer Robyn Mineko Williams are Meredith Dincolo—like Williams a former company member at Hubbard Street—and current company member Jacqueline Burnett.
Echo Mine v2 adapts original scenic and projection design by CandyStations (Deborah Johnson), lighting design by Eric Southern , and costume design by Hogan McLaughlin . Echo Mine, the first new Califone album since Stitches (Dead Oceans Records, 2013), is available now digitally, as a vinyl LP and a CD from Jealous Butcher Records .
Echo Mine premiered in partnership with the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance on December 7, 2019, with major support provided by a 2018 Princess Grace Foundation–USA Special Projects grant, a 2018 DCASE Individual Artist grant, and Jack and Sandra Guthman. Original music for Echo Mine is commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation. Facilities access for the development of Echo Mine v2 was provided by the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
Upcoming Streams
About Independent Venue Week (IVW)
Independent Venue Week is a 7-day celebration of music venues around the country and a nod to the people that own, run and work in them, week in, week out.
By championing these venues, we are able to highlight why they are so much more than just places for live music – they are cultural hubs for learning, creativity, arts and culture more widely connecting people in their local community of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, genders, skills and walks of life.
These venues, all local businesses, are the backbone of the live music scene and Independent Venue Week recognizes all that they have done to create some of the most memorable nights of the past so they can continue to do the same in the future.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Oct
24
8:00 PM20:00
Sen Morimoto | Album Release Live Stream
SUPPORT STATION
About Sen Morimoto
By: Sadie Dupuis
It was a 2014 move to Chicago that inspired Sen Morimoto to start his solo rap project, drawing on a lifetime of experience as a cross-genre collaborator--R&B piano, noise rocks drums, improvisational jazz saxophone--to produce his own instrumentals. Playing out in his new city’s multidisciplinary scene led to a friendship with like-minded polymath Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, who encouraged Morimoto to record an album for his label, Sooper. That release, Cannonball!, incorporated Morimoto’s many discrete interests, and its unique fusion led to critical accolades and international festivals. “I tried everything I possibly could on the last album,” Morimoto says. “It changed my life a lot, and that process was scary to me.”
The self-titled Sen Morimoto is his sophomore effort for Sooper, of which he is now a co-owner. “Working with other artists from the label side showed me how everyone sets intentions for their art,” explains Morimoto. “That’s taught me a lot about treating my music as my baby, and giving it everything it needs to thrive.” This reinvigorated perspective, along with his fandom for songwriting heavyweights Carole King and Lauryn Hill, refocused Morimoto on lyrical foundations; he fervently edited to favor conversational lines and meticulously plotted arrangements that were “concise roadmaps.”
Morimoto wrote much of the album in transit and gazing out of windows, so motion and water recur thematically. Sleeping in unfamiliar places gave him vivid dreams, uncannily close to reality and hard to rouse from. This uncertainty between waking life and fantasy became his central focus, explored excellently on the detuned, eerily rolling haze of standout “The Things I Thought About You Started to Rhyme.” Morimoto toys with clarity, never quite certain whether he’s gaining perspective, but always searching. “I believe in you like I believe in words,” he pledges. “I believe in God like my dog believes I’m dead ‘til I come home from work.”
Though he calls these philosophical themes “internal mental loops,” playfulness is inherent to Morimoto’s music. “Woof” takes a sardonic glance at emotional growth--“I’m too tired for pretending to be happy, now I’m crying so loud my dog is barking at me,” goes one hook--and pairs it with bright, solo Harrison-esque guitars, nervously pacing Wurlitzer, and a heavy kick. He delights in finding chords that excite him, then layers them with rhythmic shifts, unexpected harmonies, 8-bit arpeggios, and rapidly-gliding saxophone leads. While his production sounds vast and rich--with a level of detail akin to Jon Brion productions--Morimoto works with a simple selection of equipment, relying heavily on the taped up Nord Electro he found used as a teenager. Skittering drums are programmed on an MPC, or tracked live in the practice space he shares with a dozen punk bands, later chopped for beats. His vocal layers alone frequently hit the double digits, resulting in warm, tight harmonies or omnidirectional, spacy presences, as on the modulating, delicately concocted “Jupiter” (where boys go to get more stupider, as alluded to in the sly wink of a chorus.)
Morimoto wrote, arranged and performed the instrumentals alone, but he took every chance to highlight some of his favorite local musicians with guest vocals. Apart from Tokyo-based electropop artist AAAMYYY (who opened for Morimoto on a Japanese tour, and features amid the buzzy, futuristic funk of “Deep Down”), all other credits are Chicago-based--frequent collaborator KAINA, indie favorite Lala Lala, National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson, rappers Qari and Joseph Chilliams, and, of course, Nnamdï. This roster is a tribute to the place Morimoto now misses when he tours, and the scene to which he’s grateful for pushing him into music full time. “A huge part of being able to do what I do has been learning and growing in Chicago, and these are all the people I did that with over the past four or five years,” Morimoto offers. While this album investigates the murky line between lifelike illusion and fantastical reality, he’s more certain than ever of his friends: “It would be weird to not have them around.”
Upcoming Streams
About Independent Venue Week (IVW)
Independent Venue Week is a 7-day celebration of music venues around the country and a nod to the people that own, run and work in them, week in, week out.
By championing these venues, we are able to highlight why they are so much more than just places for live music – they are cultural hubs for learning, creativity, arts and culture more widely connecting people in their local community of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, genders, skills and walks of life.
These venues, all local businesses, are the backbone of the live music scene and Independent Venue Week recognizes all that they have done to create some of the most memorable nights of the past so they can continue to do the same in the future.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Oct
21
8:00 PM20:00
LowDown Brass Band
SUPPORT STATION
About LowDown Brass Band
The LowDown Brass Band is a uniquely strong representation of Chicago Music culture. This talented all horn band leans heavily on dancehall and street beat rhythm, with the energy of conscious hip hop, jazz, reggae, and soul.
Fresh off their headlining set at The 2019 Montreal Jazz Festival, LowDown maintains a constant performing and touring schedule throughout the globe. Recent performances include the World Music Fest, Vancouver Jazz Fest, Lagunitas Beer Circus, Chicago Jazz Fest, Frendly Gathering, Alaska's Salmon Fest, Chicago's Do-Division Fest, Wicker Park Fest, Wakarusa, and Cotai Jazz Fest,
Following an ambitious project titled LowDown Sounds, that included a critically acclaimed cameo by Roy Ayers on the track Everybody Loves The Sunshine, LowDown Brass Band is now touring their 2018 hip hop release titled LowDown Breaks featuring MC Billa Camp. This new record steps deeper into refining their unique sound, combining hip hop breaks with live soul samples and deep cut grooves.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Oct
17
8:00 PM20:00
Laura Jane Grace
SUPPORT STATION
About Stay Alive
Laura Jane Grace wasn’t planning on making a solo record this year. In fact, she was planning on making a record with Against Me!, the band she’s fronted for the past 23 years. But clearly, nothing went according to plan this year. “We came home from the Against Me! tour we were on in March, and right before we left, we had been in the studio working on songs, and I had been working on them for months prior,” says Grace. As she sat at home, all of her tours canceled, and the members of Against Me!—as well as her other band Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers—spread across the country, she was left with a batch of songs and no band to record them with.
“I sat around for a month-and-a-half at a home just being shellshocked being like, ‘What the fuck happened and what the fuck is happening with the world?’ As I started to get my bearings, I just came to the realization that waiting was going to kill the record and kill the songs. I spent two years working on all these songs, and the idea of throwing them away didn’t sit well with me,” says Grace. “But then I was like, ‘What am I waiting for?’ All I have to do is adjust my scope. I can sit here on my fucking ass and do nothing, or I can work.”
So, Grace got to work. She picked up the phone and called Electrical Audio, the iconic studio in her adopted hometown of Chicago, Illinois, to ask if she could make a record with famed engineer Steve Albini. The goal was to go in and document these songs exactly as she’d been playing them in her home, straight to analog tape. When she hung up the phone, she had four days booked.
The result of the session at Electrical Audio is Stay Alive, a record that doesn’t just embody that title, it serves as the guiding principle behind its creations. But it also put life back into an industry that’s been ravaged by venue closures, cancelled tours, and delayed records. “By putting the songs out, that puts the label in work, that puts a photographer in work, that puts a graphic designer in work, that puts a merch company in work, that keeps it alive,” says Grace. “You hear on the news every day about people losing their jobs and everything collapsing, and I want to fight against that. The only way I can think to fight against that is to work.”
Across the 14 songs that comprise Stay Alive, Grace takes all her pent-up fears, anger, and anxiety and releases it, like an olive branch to the weary listeners who are feeling those exact same ways. As she says in “Blood & Thunder,” a love song to Chicago—or perhaps a mea culpa for “I Hate Chicago” on The Devouring Mothers album Bought to Rot—the album’s thematic premise is all but spelled out: “When you give in and quit / There’s a power to be found in it.” It’s an idea that may sound odd on its face, but it displays Grace’s commitment to no longer resisting the changes in front of her. On a record that sees her traversing the globe—from Marbella, Spain to Glasgow, Scotland to London, England to the Land of Oz—”Blood & Thunder” is a begrudging embrace of what can’t be changed; Instead of resisting the city she once loathed, she finds the beauty in the little things, like the moon rising over Indian Boundary Park, or the wind rolling up Western Avenue.
The album’s title is one that surfaces in the record itself, and serves as a subtle rejoinder to her Polyvinyl labelmate Chris Farren, who gifted Grace a hat that said “Can’t Die,” and she’s spent the last two years running in it every single day. By flipping the phrase on its head, Grace built her own message; one based around work, struggle, and reaffirmed commitments. In certain cases, songs like “Hanging Tree,” which has a chorus that builds to the phrase, “A burning crucifix and a hanging tree,” have been kicking around since 2017, but finally found a moment that made sense for it on Stay Alive. And in the case of “Shelter In Place,” a song about her own isolation and introspection, the pandemic finally gave words to a feeling she’d long had but was never able to accurately describe.
The songs that make up Stay Alive are documents of a time and a songwriter who experienced enough to find levity in the simple act of doing the work. Recorded with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, an occasional drum machine, and her own powerful voice, Grace’s distinct songwriting signature is front and center. What’s more, she made it purely for herself. “I just want to put this out because it makes me feel alive and it’s giving me something better than sitting here losing my mind while the world falls apart,” says Grace. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about what you do. Just stay alive.”
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Oct
15
8:00 PM20:00
DEHD (Flower Of Devotion Record Release)
SUPPORT STATION
About DEHD
“I want nothing more than to be alone,” Emily Kempf sings early in Flower of Devotion, the third album by Chicago trio Dehd. It’s a startling admission coming from a songwriter who, just a year ago on Dehd’s critically acclaimed Water, wrote eloquently about the joys and pains — more than anything, the necessity — of love, compassion, and companionship. But then, “admission” isn’t really the right word here, given the stridency of Kempf’s tone. “Loner” is a declaration.
Not only for Kempf, who, when she wasn’t on the road with Dehd, spent much of the last year or so “totally alone, out of the game, just focused on myself,” as she puts it. It’s also a showcase for guitarist Jason Balla and drummer Eric McGrady, for the way the three of them play together, and for the seemingly impossible strides Dehd has made as a group in the short time since Water’s release. “We wanted to take a step up,” Kempf says. “We wanted to level up enough to where we feel powerful, but still in the same ballpark.”
Level up they did. In seemingly every way imaginable, Flower of Devotion is a major step forward — and a major statement, period — for Dehd. The songs show off a deeper range, from “Loner”’s synth-powered heartland rock to the empowered strut of opener “Desire” to the from-the-gutters howl of closer “Flying.” The performances are sharper, shot through with emotional clarity. The production, courtesy of Balla, shades everything in rich sunset tones. Flower of Devotion seems drawn from a well of confidence much deeper than the one they’d tapped on Water.
That’s not a coincidence. The trio went into the album’s writing and recording with clear minds, ready to take what they’d learned the last time around and refine it further. “We’re learning by the process of doing and doing and doing,” says Balla. “The last record, the vibe was ‘How minimal can it be? What’s the minimum that a song requires to succeed?’ This one was like, ‘How can we make this thing that’s really powerful?’” “We didn’t become more perfectionist,” Kempf clarifies. “We’ve always been really scrappy, but we decided to polish our scrappiness just a little bit.”
That polish brings out the shining and melancholy undertones in Balla and Kempf’s songwriting, even as it captures them at their most strident. His guitar lines at times flirt with ticklish cosmic country, while at others they reflect the dark marble sounds of Broadcast. Kempf, meanwhile, establishes herself as a singer of incredible expressive range, pinching into a high lonesome wail, letting loose a chirping “ooh!,” pushing her voice below its breaking point and letting it swing down there. When she and Balla bounce descending counter-melodies off one another over McGrady’s one-two thumps, or skitter off over a programmed drum pad, they sound like The B-52s shaking off heartache.
While they were writing the album, Kempf says, “we both went through hell, literally, and the world seems to be going through hell, too.” Balla experienced profound loss and all that comes with it: For him, the album is about “all the fixes you try to put on your problems,” he says, “struggling with bad impulses.” Kempf, for her part, cultivated the sense of self-sufficiency she craved, which forced her to confront her own need for attachment. “I’m obsessed with being with people, or I’ll have my identity attached to a partnership, whether it’s romantic or in the band,” she says. “How can I be utterly alone and chill?”
But what makes Flower of Devotion so impressive is how its creation seems to have strengthened its creators, both as individuals and as unit, even as they’ve stared down their own limitations. It’s also striking just how much fun they seem to be having in the process. “It’s okay to be lighthearted in the face of despair,” Kempf says. It’s a theme that runs through the album, from the opening back-and-forth build of “Desire” to the click-clacking chorus of “Haha,” which finds them deflating their own history.
At every turn of Flower of Devotion, sadness is countered by joy, joy is tempered by sadness. “Being alone and grieving is very isolating,” Kempf says, “but then you come out of your little cave of grief, and your friends and family and partner are all there to pat you on the back and hold you until you have to go back into the cave of grief alone.”
“It’s never ending, new summer feeling,” Balla sings in “Month.” Fittingly, it’s a song that sounds exactly like the end of summer.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Oct
7
8:00 PM20:00
Deeper
SUPPORT STATION
About Deeper
Deeper’s Origins date back to 2014 when prior to releasing any material an abrupt line-up change left the Chicago based band looking for a new direction. Singer and guitarist Nic Gohl along with drummer Shiraz Bhatti threw out all of their old songs and brought on bassist Drew McBride to round out the lineup. The subsequent demos leaned on intricate guitar interplay, direct “of the times” vocals and a spirit that speaks to the band’s collective place in this pit of endless internet. Deeper honed their sound over the course of 2015 & 16’ in basements, lofts, and anywhere that would have them. Touring the demos and landing at a fully realized inflection point. Call it Post-Punk, call it Indie Rock, it’s a record that steps in and out of boxes filtered through an unmistakable midwestern lens. As social norms and political ideologies distort, writing and creating art was the only way to control the growing voice in the band’s collective head. The conceptualizing of the album started and stopped over that two year time warp culminating in a few feverish tracking sessions in late 2017. What was left is a stark shimmering portrait of a modern American experience.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Sep
28
8:00 PM20:00
Sep
24
8:00 PM20:00
Sep
18
8:00 PM20:00
Sep
10
8:00 PM20:00
ROOKIE
SUPPORT STATION
About ROOKIE
ROOKIE’s modern take on timeless American rock ‘n’ roll pulls from all corners of the sonic map; it’s familiar but fresh, lived-in but blown-out. It’s the ‘70s/’80s pop-rock sheen of recent tour-mates Cheap Trick; 3-minute precision songwriting of Big Star; loose Neil Young Americana; and the hazey, psych-flavored boogie of The Allman Brothers and Thin Lizzy. Though barely able to comfortably fit on most stages, once they’re plugged in and smooshed together, it’s a potent blend of power chords, blistering leads, and performance prowess beyond their years.
That cooperative vibe is most clear in their balanced attack, each of the six members bringing a signature part of the layered sound from song to song. “Hold On Tight” bashes down the door with a deceptively simple AC-to-the-DC riff, but the three-headed guitar monster attack of Dimitri Panoutsos, Christopher Devlin, and Max Loebman takes the standby arena rock formula to wild new places. In “Sunglasses,” Loebman’s lead vocals evince an ethereally sunny pop disposition, which he later strips down to great effect, just his upper register and acoustic guitar, for the stark “Elementary Blues.” Throughout the album’s 12 tracks, the rhythm section of Joe Bordenaro on drums, Kevin Decker on bass, and Justin Bell on keys establishes a groove-meets-power foundation. On several songs, including “I Can’t Have You But I Want You,” Bordenaro sings lead as well, while the rest of the group piles on with a rowdy gang chorus.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Sep
3
8:00 PM20:00
Bad Bad Hats
SUPPORT STATION
About Bad Bad Hats
Bad Bad Hats is an indie rock band from Minneapolis, MN. Their music is rooted in classic pop songwriting, with elements of nineties rock influence and an overall lightheartedness. Kerry (guitar, vocals) Chris (bass), and Con (drums) have toured the country several times in their trusty minivan, sampling the best local cuisine along the way. They have toured with The Beths, Margaret Glaspy, The Front Bottoms, Hippo Campus, and Third Eye Blind, among many others. The band has released two full-length albums, including Psychic Reader (2015) and Lightning Round (2018). The hats are hard at work finishing a third album.
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.
Lincoln Hall & Schubas Merch
Aug
24
8:00 PM20:00
Dogleg
SUPPORT STATION
About Dogleg
The word melee can mean many things to many people. To some, it can mean a confused, hand-to-hand fight among multiple people, and to others, it could represent one of the greatest video games of all time. In naming their debut LP Melee, Detroit, Michigan band Dogleg have presented a new sonic definition of the term, one that captures the pure essence of destruction and apocalypse through a new lens.
The band has spent upwards of two years crafting the album from the garage and basement of their home, and it shows. The band stay true to their roots of earthy, room-filling, DIY recording styles with their home recordings, but have honed their skills with lessons in patient songwriting and production work. Through shredded vocal cords, cascading melodies and scathing commentary on self-doubt, depression, and anxiety, Dogleg take absolutely no prisoners on their explosive path forward.
Opening the album, "Kawasaki Backflip" immediately propels the listener through an important question of how anxiety and depression will be dealt with - by burning it all down with fire, or letting yourself be blown away completely by the wind. The accompanying video shows the band at its most violent - destroying everything in its path in an effort to make sense of the internal turmoil of these important feelings.
Lead single “Fox” conveys a story of anger, anguish, and disappointment in someone that was once trusted. Diving into the song, it’s not difficult to see why fans have fervently latched onto Dogleg. An adeptness at combining anthemic choruses and infectious, danceable riffs with intense emotional messages that regard topics of depression, frustration, loss, and the darkness of self doubt is one of the band's hallmarks, along with their trademark rhythmic jolts. However, there's no doubt that Dogleg toes the line with light and darkness very often -- the song itself is named after Fox McCloud from Nintendo's ‘Star Fox’ franchise, and the band is always able to throw in moments of camaraderie and togetherness, as shown by the intense group chorus. In life, the going often gets tough, and the band certainly highlights that. However, they also show the sheer power and intensity that pure, raw emotion has -- a power that is able to go from "playing fast" to moving mountains.
Melee will be released on Friday the 13th of March on Triple Crown Records.
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.