Chicago Pride Guide for the Gay Tourist

Welcome to Dancing About Architecture. I see you’re in for pride. Your Melissa Etheride ’97 tour shirt tells me you may be here for music as well as getting your gay on. Glad to see you know that Pride is not only a great time to see a cross section of the Midwest gays or good lesbian spotting, but also a chance to see some great live music over the weekend.
Pride Weekend used to just be about the parade on Sunday, leaving the other days open for you to troll the bars. One year our pals at Northalsted Area Merchants Association decided a Pridefest, in the style of the successful Milwaukee one was just the thing. They were right. After a few shaky years, they seemed to have started to bring it. This year they’ll be bringing you stars like Ultra Nate and Deborah Cox on Friday night; Mya, Kim English, Crystal Waters and Kim English on Saturday. While a little 90’s diva heavy in my opinion, you can’t deny the star power and consistency, especially when there’s drag shows in between each act. If you need a break from all that weave, take a break and come with me and catch Chicago crowd pleasers 16 Candles and Rock Candy. So tasty.
A little drunk now on the music and warm Miller Lite? Let’s dance! You can hit some of boystown’s best clubs with the locals. Start at Scarlet where early is best and the DJ’s are always edgy and addicting. When Scarlet closes, you can go South for avant-guard craziness at Berlin, or more straightforward top-notch spinning at Hydrate. Don’t stay out too too late, the parade is the next day.

Post parade, I’ll give you two amazing options. You can follow me up North and avoid the bars and messiness for Pride North, a one night street party featuring live music by 16 Candles with opening DJ Voxbox and hosted by ME! If you’re not ready to pass out, join the legendary Circuit Mom as he presents Revolution, a new dawn in dance parties featuring DJ Brett Henderson and Matthew Harvat’s always stunning visuals. If you make it out of Chicago unstimulated by all this audio, don’t say I didn’t try! Thanks for coming, girl!

MIDSOMMARFEST NOT IN MID-SUMMER: DISCUSS

As I write this I’m staring at a well-worn plastic beer stein (filled with water. Its only Noon) and dreaming of 6 hours from now when my official street-festival-mojo kicks in with Lincoln Square’s Maifest. You’d think with being known as one of the biggest music whores in this town, I’d be dreaming of Lollapalooza and Pitchfork, but believe it or not, those are just too much for my wallet, and I’m a sucker for great local acts served up by one of Chicago’s zillions of Summer street fests.

Last year Andersonville’s Midsommarfest eclipsed Boystown’s Pridefest and Market Days for me in terms of good music and hot men: two things that rule my world. This is year it’s looking to make both look positively gauche. MSF, as I’m calling it, kicks off at 11am on Saturday June 11^th and just 2 hours after it starts I’ll be front and center for the rollicking alt country sounds of Devin & the Straights. Hang tight there because the acrobatics of the Chicago Spirit Brigade, always a crowd favorite, show off how they make cheerleading even gayer  followed by one of my favorite local acts, The Joans. Think The Cramps and the B-52’s opening for The Smiths in Joan Crawford drag. Then, 6pm gets tricky. You have figure out how you can see the amazing cover band, Rock Candy, featuring the sexiest frontwoman in Chicago, Molly Callinan (Cat Fight, Black Betty) then have time to squeeze in for the always sexy Chicago favorite 16 Candles and their crowd pleasing takes on John Hughes era rock. If you miss them, make sure you get to The Glenwood’s Pride North party with Mooseboxas the opener/host (PLUG!)

Molly Callinan

Some festival’s seem to load up all the top acts later in the day. Not Midsommarfest. Sunday kicks off with one of my favorite bands at 2pm. 7^th Heaven, a cover band brimming with way to much talent and featuring a reality show winner, will blow your mind. If you leave right as the last riff comes from 7^th Heaven, you may have time to get to hear the Brazilian rhythms of Chicago Samba at 3pm for a great change of pace. Personally after Chicago Samba I have to go home and walk the dog, but if you’re raging on, the funk & soul of Bumpus will chill you out like a cold beer.

Leave it to this fest to give us something for everyone for the finale. You probably already saw 16 Candles the night before, so skip them on Sunday, and check out the truly legendary alt country god, Robbie Fulks with Nora O’Connor. They’re most likely going to be doing some kids’ stuff too, but no worries. Robbie could sing NWA covers and still make you miss Hank Williams.

Star Of Wonder

The Wicker Park Choral Singers and our pal Matthew have kindly provided us with a recording of their December 4th concert (which I sadly missed, bad Moose). It’s a gorgeous and moving program focusing on the theme of looking to the heavens this time of year. Please enjoy and go check out more at Wickerparksings.org

Preview their recording of The Three Kings:

Download the entire concert here