Credit: Photo by Colleen Durkin; products provided by Chicago Music Exchange, Penelope’s, the Lomography Embassy Store, Bash Party Goods, and Revolution Brewing

Critics' Picks

Best new music blogger

Best musical anniversary

Best honorary member of Chicago’s footwork scene with a day job at a steel mill in Gary

Best consequence of a broken HVAC system

Best transcendental deep-space synth trip

Best group of veterans of the Blue Man backing band

Best classical label

Best instructional dance video

Best onstage psychedelic costume party

Best 4 AM bar for live music

Best cross between the Breeders and Lightning Bolt

Best group making music with the contents of a thrift-store basement

Best career reboot by a septuagenarian harmonica player

Best feminist rock ‘n’ roll exorcism

Best band primed to break out this year

Best hot dice

Best new south-side nightlife spot

Best punk-rock LGBTQ night

Best reason to hang out at a barcade after midnight on a school night

Best way to footwork in an art gallery during off-hours

Best lasers at an underground rave

Best nomadic collective for weird, druggy, hard-hitting underground techno

Best progressive cumbia and tropical bass night

Best-dressed DJs

Readers Poll

Best music venue

Best band

Best music festival

Best up-and-coming band

Best rock club

Best DJ

Best band name

Best hip-hop artist

Best 4 AM bar

Best karaoke

Best jazz club

Best singer-​songwriter

Best local record label

Best dance club

Best dance party

Best jazz musician

Best dive bar