Six years ago, I characterized Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang’s winter solstice concert series as “an anchor, a beacon, and a seasonal tradition in its own right.” The two drummers began performing as a duo at Links Hall in 1990; surrounded by percussion instruments from around the world, they would begin by candlelight, then play […]
Tag: Vol. 51 No. 5
Issue of December 9, 2021 
The Drinks Issue
Where misfits fit in
Neo closed in 2015, after providing a sanctuary for generations of night crawlers—but its subcultural legacy continues to reverberate.
By Leor Galil
Windy City Times special quarterly insert (PDF) inside!
Find a print copy of the Reader.
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Posted inArts & Culture
Are neon signs really enough?
There’s a young person smiling, posing—hand on their hip—in front of a lit-up sign that reads: “EMPOWER WOMEN.” It intermittently flashes to include ED, making it “EMPOWERED.” The photo is snapped, the couple walks on. I’ve just entered Andrea Bowers’s retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Since the 90s, Bowers has been making […]
Posted inMusic
Dynamic guitarist Nita Strauss will shred your face off
Los Angeles-based guitarist Nita Strauss has made her name as a session player and composer of music for video games and indie film. She’s also been Alice Cooper’s guitarist since 2014, and as she fought her way up through the competitive world of studio musicians and hired guns, she became the first woman to have […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago art rockers Noir Disco complicate everyday experiences on NOW! 2073
Noir Disco’s new debut album, Now! 2073, belongs to a proud tradition of art-rock. Siblings Nolan and Carter Dickson lead the Chicago group, and their music draws on specific reference points from a lifetime of shared music nerdery. On Now! 2073, the band take inspiration from 70s classic rock, 80s European new-wave pop, and 00s […]
Posted inMusic
Queer nightlife fixture Cae Monāe opens for her synergistic collaborators in darkwave trio Pixel Grip
Cae Monāe’s existence is her art. Whether she’s taking over an Instagram square with her face abstracted by embellishments and makeup or adorning herself in a custom outfit and commanding a stage with iPhone beats, she demands consideration. And why shouldn’t she? She’s a Black trans woman, so invisibility isn’t an option for her. It’d […]
Posted inMusic
Dan Sartain’s posthumous Arise, Dan Sartain, Arise shows why his songwriting will live on
It took only the opening bars of the first Dan Sartain record I heard, 2006’s Join Dan Sartain (released on the illustrious Swami Records), to hook me on the music of the Alabama songwriter. His sharp, sometimes dark lyrics, his soulful and magnetic voice, and his ability to spin timeworn styles such as blues, rockabilly, […]
Posted inMusic
Metz deliver more reliably bombastic noise rock on Atlas Vending
The best thing about Metz might also be the worst thing about Metz. The Toronto-based trio have been cranking out high-volume noise rock for more than ten years. Their music is solid, reliable, and interesting—and like Nirvana before them, they begin with a subversive sound, then add enough melody and take away enough grime to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Archiving the city’s past
Cities change. As Chicago is a city and most certainly not exempt from this immutable law, I can tell you that Chicago will change in some fashion by the time you finish reading this piece. By the time you finish this sentence a family might have packed up their belongings in Chatham to relocate to […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
A note on this week’s cover story
Lincoln Park nightclub Neo closed for good in the middle of the summer six years ago. So why write about it now?
Posted inMusic
Neo: where misfits fit in
In summer 1979, Suzanne Shelton hatched a dream to open a punk dance club. She had two priorities: it had to play lots of new wave, and it needed clean bathrooms. Shelton had been DJing at a failing Lincoln Park disco called Hoots, but she spent all her free nights at O’Banion’s, a run-down gay […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Drinking and surviving it
On sharing a genetic predisposition to alcoholism
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Why shareabortionpill.info matters now more than ever
Plus, why you shouldn’t get your straight friend a shiny latex gimp suit
Posted inMusic
Powerhouse punk-pop rapper Rico Nasty brings her innovative energy to Radius
On her 2020 debut album, Nightmare Vacation (Atlantic), punk-pop rapper Rico Nasty introduced her versatility to new listeners while showing longtime fans that signing to a major label wouldn’t jeopardize the playful mix of genres and vocal approaches she’s flaunted since she hit the music scene in 2014. Songs such as 2016’s nursery-rhyme-like “Hey Arnold” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Drinks with drama, cocktails for comedy
There was a time when concessions at Chicago live theaters were pretty basic: water, soda, candy, coffee, tea, and maybe some beer in a can or wine in a box (depending on whether or not the venue had a liquor license). But as theater bars have expanded their range of legal booze options (or in […]