Neurosis have spent more than three decades redefining what heavy metal is and what it can be. They’re a multifaceted beast, moving in many directions depending on where their creative forces guide them and combining sludge metal with prog-rock arrangements, spacey soundscapes, and postrock instrumental layers. The members of the five-piece band frequently break away […]
Tag: Vol. 51 No. 19
Issue of June 23, 2022
Summer Theater & Arts Preview
Irregular Girl is leading the fight for trans utopia
“I don’t perform positivity as much as hope.”
by Micco Caporale
Plus: Making Theater Outdoors | Primary Election Guide | Prince
On the cover: Photo by Dylan Bragassa. For more of Bragassa’s work, go to linktr.ee/DYLANEATSWINGS.
Included with the print issue and also part of the full issue PDF: Check Your Judges: Special pullout section PDF from Injustice Watch
Find a print copy of the Reader.
←Previous issue | Next issue→
Posted inMusic
Rethinking concert safety
Police and security are meant to keep concertgoers safe, but what happens when they do more harm than good? In summer 2020, as America reckoned with a sickness in its system of law enforcement, so too did the music community interrogate the role of police and hired security at concerts. Like the municipalities that explored […]
Posted inMusic
After two years online, historic Chicago house collective the Chosen Few return to Jackson Park for a 30th-anniversary picnic and festival
I can’t imagine summer in Chicago without the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival, and that’s not just because this grassroots house-music gathering is celebrating its 30th annual installment (plus two years online during the pandemic). It’s also because house music—and Chicago—would be very different if it weren’t for the Chosen Few DJ collective. Chicago’s gay […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The House of Wah Sun abides, in Irving Park
Last Saturday night at the House of Wah Sun in North Center, Mark Chiang lingered at the table of a few of the night’s last customers. His wife, Young Ja Kim, had already wheeled over the egg rolls, crab rangoon, and heaping platters of crispy chow fun, cumin lamb, and Sichuan green beans, but Chiang […]
Posted inMusic
The Chicago Soul Jazz Collective refreshes the sounds of the city’s postbop era
Since 2018, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective has made waves in town by resurrecting the stylish grooves of the postbop era, which began in the late 1950s—nationally, the sound was shaped by the likes of the Jazz Crusaders, Cannonball Adderley, and Jimmy Smith, and in Chicago the Rush Street club scene was at its height. […]
Posted inStaff notes
A note from an editor 2022
This is the first time we’ve done a summer theater and arts issue, and judging by the full-to-bursting content, that’s surprising—especially given how much Chicagoans love getting outdoors in the summer. You can read about some theater and dance programs that specialize in bringing performances to public parks, or, if you prefer indoor immersive experiences, […]
Posted inCity Life
House music, Midsummer parties, and Queer Pride
Here’s some events and activities to close out the month of June and start the summer right.
Posted inMusic
Cult emo experimentalist Weatherday arrives in Chicago
In February, teenage Chicago indie rockers Dwaal Troupe contributed a tender, dusty tune called “Everyone Forgot but You” to Porcelain Songs, a 30-track compilation made by fans of enigmatic Swedish indie-rock project Weatherday. The musicians involved in the comp put it together via Discord, a messaging app and social-media platform that allows young fans to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Method and madness
“My dear boy, why don’t you try acting?” Laurence Olivier’s quippy response to Dustin Hoffman’s story of how he stayed up three nights to fully inhabit the sleepless state of his character in the 1976 thriller Marathon Man may be the most oft-cited example of the absurd ends Method acting came to in America. But […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Siah Berlatsky shakes up Shakespeare
Siah Berlatsky just graduated this month from ChiArts, but though she’s taking a gap year before college, the 18-year-old playwright-director-actor isn’t letting the grass grow under her feet. In August, she’ll be part of Artistic Home’s outdoor developmental series, “Summer on the Patio,” with her Elizabethan-style gender-bending rom-com, Malapert Love, which she also directs. (“Malapert,” […]
Posted inTheater Review
The magic is gone
Every piece of art has a timeliness. When it is born and put into the world, it becomes part of its identity for better or worse. For Godspell, that time has come and gone. First staged in 1971, this musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak is painfully dated. That cannot be fixed no matter […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Pride, prejudice, and the ‘bamboo cage’
On giving thought to the cultural forces that may have shaped “preferences”
Posted inTheater Review
The celluloid closet
The Chicago premiere of British playwright Chris Woodley’s Tommy on Top, now playing at Pride Arts Center, is a witty farce that elevates crucial questions about representation and authenticity in contemporary media. The show is centered on Tommy Miller (Ryan Cason), a closeted actor who’s just been nominated for his first Academy Award. He’s the […]