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Haunted bars, Ibsen, Mardi Gras, and wrestling
Looking for a good way to close out the month? Here’s some activities coming up that will have you ending February with love and entering March with joy. FRI 2/25 From 7-9 PM tonight, the HIV...
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Soul man Nate Barksdale makes disciplined songs that can help you relax
Over the past few years, Nate Barksdale has become one of my favorite emerging Chicago soul artists. His releases tend to arrive in clusters, and so far this year they include a handful of singles and...
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Radkey explore the personal and political with their new single and video
When teenage brothers Isaiah, Dee, and Solomon Radke emerged as Radkey in the early 2010s, their hook-driven garage punk made an immediate impression. The Missouri band probably weren’t trying to...
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Kaina proves herself worthy of pop stardom with It Was a Home
Kaina’s concise debut album, 2019’s Next to the Sun, confirmed her as one of Chicago’s best and most accomplished emerging musicians. Her new It Was a Home (City Slang) makes an argument that she...
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Everson Poe’s powerful vision focuses the expansive metal of The Night Country
Chicago multi-instrumentalist Mae Shults began self-releasing heavy rock laced with doom metal under the name Everson Poe in 2009. In the ensuing years, she’s moved deeper into metal, amplifying her...
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Jazz saxophonist Melissa Aldana looks inward on 12 Stars
For her 2019 record Visions, jazz saxophonist Melissa Aldana looked outside herself, crafting songs around meditations on the work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. But on her new Blue Note debut, 12...
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Farewell to Mark ‘Marko’ Rahman of 90s Chicago hip-hop group East of the Rock
Mark “Marko” Rahman, aka Chicago rapper the Mad Thinker, died February 18 at age 54. Rahman came to prominence in the early 90s as part of East of the Rock; his childhood friend and EOTR bandmate the...
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Best of Chicago 2021
What you are holding in your hands, or squinting at on a screen, is the biggest issue of the Chicago Reader in recent memory. Larger even than our before-times Best of Chicago issue in 2019, which was...
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Rewriting the rules of journalism (with fire)
The need for diverse voices in journalism has never been more pressing, yet many challenges remain in providing access. Locally, nationally, and internationally, diverse journalists from all...
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Mystery in space
Based on the 1961 novel by Stanisław Lem, which spawned two films, Solaris, the play by David Greig, makes its North American premiere in a Griffin Theatre production under Scott Weinstein’s...
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Best suburban source for horror writing and talk
Jon Kitley of Aurora has made a friend of horror. For 22 years he’s run Kitley’s Krypt, a site devoted to horror films, ranging from the earliest silent nightmares to the latest terrors from overseas....
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Lukewarm welcome
I didn’t expect to be escorted off the premises of the city’s only overnight warming center on a 28-degree evening, though perhaps I should have. After all, I’d been warned. Last fall, when I learned...
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Where to find a print copy of this week’s Chicago Reader
Credit: Illustration by Vichcraft. For more of Vichcraft’s work, go to vichcraft.com. The latest issue The latest issue of the Chicago Reader is the issue of March 3, 2022, the Best of Chicago 2021...
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Best free daily roundup in your inbox
In the tradition of 18th-century newspapers like Samuel Johnson’s The Rambler, or more contemporary efforts like I.F. Stone’s Weekly, Charlie Meyerson’s Chicago Public Square, a daily newsletter...
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The second-biggest news about Bandcamp this week
Friday, March 4, is the 20th installment of what’s become known as Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp passes along its usual share of revenue to the independent artists and labels selling music through...
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Best commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire’s sesquicentennial
2021 marked 150 years since the Great Chicago Fire. While acknowledged by major institutions, the anniversary was muted, perhaps because it’s difficult to commemorate a massive tragedy in the midst of...
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Best mayor impersonation on social media
In the spring of 2020, as memes of Mayor Lori Lightfoot advising ballplayers to ditch basketball courts and stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic made rounds on the Internet, videos of her...
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With Painless, Nilüfer Yanya presents a quietly perfect pop album
Fans of the eclectic sprawl of Nilüfer Yanya’s 2019 debut album, Miss Universe, may be a little disappointed in her more conventional follow-up; there are no satirical parodies of wellness culture on...
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The best tortillas are made with Michigan (and Mexican) corn
When Aaron Harris’s wife adopted a gluten-free diet he had to start from scratch when it came to tacos. He was raised on his grandmother’s homemade flour tortillas, and she was raised in Chihuahua,...
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Best reason to catch a ride to the northwest suburbs with a hot-dog fanatic
I’m a gourmand when it comes to hot dogs and their crustier cousin, the corn dog. When I went to a Chicago Dogs baseball game on $1 hot dog night last summer, I took the special promotion as a...
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