This week at the H/O

Whoa! Here in the deep days of summer I thought things were supposed to be all lazy and mellow. Nothing new; nothing to write home about? Just keep on drinkin’ that lemonade and swattin’ flies on the porch, right?
Yeah, not so much.
This week is JAM PACKED, with double bookings almost every dang night.
Tonight (Thursday) come Twist Out Cancer at a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma foundation, with Jesse Palter and the Alter Ego, DJ Dave Pelerin, and much more.
Friday, we’ve got a very special Shame That Tune, at which Brian, Abraham, Jeanine, and brave contestants pay tribued to the Blue States. at 6:30 . Do your part to ensure the triumph of NPR, Michael Moore, and the Toyota Prius, as we celebrate all things Blue and Beautiful!
Then, later on, prepare for the sonic onslaught of “mind-fucking acid punks” Plastic Crimewave Sound and “eerily beautiful avant-folk combo” Spires that in the Sunset Rise, with special guest Michael Zerang, as they warm up the stage for headliner, the man, the MYTH, Bobby Conn!
Saturday sees the return of the one and only Mr. Rudy Day, fresh off the law-school boat from Hotlanta and, according to Monica Kendrick in the Reader, “very nearly the platonic ideal of a party band — loud, clever, sexy, adaptable, and both heavy and funky, as if Prince were fronting Molly Hatchet and writing their songs.” More on them, with pics and vid, here. Opening for Rudy, bringing more of the heavy, is Alma Negra. And after, to wring the last bit of sweat from your bones, is a Saturday night dance party with DJ Supreme Court.
After that you’d think we’d be closed on Sunday, but NO. We are open, with a special show featuring My Goodness, Bully in the Hallway, and Manbirdbelly.
Monday, Robbie Fulks is taking the night off … so we’re replacing him with the Josh Abrams Natural Information Society, Zena Bel Band, and And Lay. Whoaaaaa, what? Abrams is well-known around town for a multitude of projects, and Time Out Chicago’s Areif Sless-Kitain says the last two are splinter groups of the Debo Band, which plays the Old Town School and Grant Park earlier in the weekend. Back over at the Reader, Bill Meyer says the Zena Bel Band “gives Ethiopian folk music a relatively stripped-down and hard-edged treatment.” And after they’re done stick around for Hot Grits with DJ Jeff Parker.
Tuesday brings the debut of Fictlicious, a new literary and musical mashup featuring writers and musicians riffing on the theme “Just Deserts.” And then, just when you thought you could go to bed: The Sanctified Grumblers return to bring the hootenanny washboard rhythms to the front room.
Wednesday? Wednesday we are CLOSED for a private party. Phew.
I’m exhausted just from writing this up. Time for a disco nap if we’re going to make it through the weekend.