Prints by Josh Davis of Chicago’s Dead Meat Design turn up frequently in the Reader‘s Gig Poster of the Week—and almost every time Gossip Wolf steals a cool show flyer from a light pole or the wall of a record store, it has Davis’s name on it! (But seriously, if you absolutely have to take a poster home with you, don’t rip it down till after the show has happened. Otherwise, that’s a flyer felony!) On Tuesday, March 21, a solo show of Davis’s art called “Appetite for Distraction” opens in the lobby of Loyola University’s School of Communication at 51 E. Pearson. (It’ll stay up till the start of the fall semester, meaning at least August.) Amenities at the reception include catering and an open bar courtesy of the university and a live set (in the school’s Convergence Studio) from upbeat local psych-pop band Yawn. There’s no cover charge, but you must RSVP through Eventbrite.
There are lots of ways to get through winter, but this wolf likes to eat chili and listen to synths. How fortunate, then, that in 2011 experimental musician Brett Naucke and producer Beau Wanzer launched the Chili-Synth Cook-Off! The annual event returns to the Empty Bottle on Sunday, March 19, with contestants Natalie Chami (aka TALsounds), Ken Zawacki, Jason Letkiewicz (aka Steve Summers), and Mike Broers (2016’s champion). The audience votes on whose synth set best complements their chili, bestowing a peanut-shaped trophy on the victor.
Subterranean’s downstairs lounge is one of the best aboveground venues in Chicago for underground punk, and it hosts a doozy of a show on Wednesday, March 22. Local noise-rockers Rash headline—you may remember that in November, Gossip Wolf told you to pick up their debut LP, Skinner Box. Also on the bill: grungy New Orleans outfit Pudge, local hardcore group C.H.E.W., and newish art-punk band Boney, whose lineup features former Haki bassist Connor Tomaka. v
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect a change in the food situation at the Dead Meat Design show.
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