All sorts of musicians have cut their teeth performing in unconventional DIY spaces: claustrophobic basements, dilapidated lofts, shuttered stores, old churches. Sometimes these artists are merely unknown, but in other cases they stay underground by choice—they prefer this community of volunteer-run spaces to the regular circuit of for-profit venues, with their occasionally gun-shy bookers and heavy reliance on alcohol sales.
I talked with five people from four Pitchfork acts about their experiences in Chicago DIY: Ogbonnaya, Byrne, Winters, Marshall, and Marshall’s bandmate and husband, Mick Fansler.
The Curls Fri 7/20, 1:00-1:40 PM, Green Stage
Melkbelly Fri 7/20, 1:45-2:25 PM, Red Stage
Julie Byrne Fri 7/20, 2:45-3:30 PM, Blue Stage
Nnamdi Ogbonnaya Sun 7/22, 1:00-1:40 PM, Green Stage
Miranda Winters (Melkbelly) Mister City, People Project, and W.O.R. Loft—those were spaces that I went to a lot of shows at and I played shows at. The only space I was part of running and living at was Roxaboxen in Pilsen—that was later on.
Miranda Winters When I started, I just wanted to play music and slowly realized, “Oh, there’s this community that has a voice and there’s power in that.”
Miranda Winters There’s a little bit of nerves when you start making music in a way that’s not normal. When you’re able to play through ideas that are not necessarily normal and they’re well received, or it’s for a group of people that are really into it, it makes you feel better about your art, so you continue doing it.
Mick Fansler With any scene, there will be the same group of four to ten bands that are playing the same space constantly. Sometimes you get caught up in that cycle, and I feel like you lose the potential for growing out of that community.
