If months of dire news, pandemic-related social isolation, and deepening national trauma have thrown you into a tailspin of ill will and lethargy, then Gossip Wolf has just the musical antidote. The upbeat, exuberantly riff-packed trad metal of local jammers High Spirits has appeared in this column before, but their latest album, Hard to Stop (out July 31 via German label High Roller), has arrived with exquisite anti-apocalyptic timing. Though High Spirits perform live with a five-piece band, Hard to Stop was entirely written, performed, and recorded by front man Chris Black, the local metal lifer who’s also the heart of long-running units Dawnbringer and Superchrist....

To the uninitiated, Alice’s Lounge is an unassuming corner tap with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it facade. But once Alice Boron permits you, with a quick touch of a door-buzzer button, entrance into her Avondale domain, you realize it’s an oasis filled with cheap drinks, good company, and some of the best karaoke in town courtesy of Fred Wood, a middle-aged man who plays a mean inflatable saxophone. But these days Boron has seen business boom....

Jacqueline Burnett, statuesque, iconic. She stands, as if chiseled into the air, with a stoic determination, perched on a hollow cylinder, the expression on her face no different than if she were rooted in the ground. In a dark room in an old house—midwestern, modernist—Andrew Murdock makes conversation with a shadow. He speaks with his mouth and his hands. He speaks as if he sees the others, but he does not see the others....

Chicagoans is a first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. This week’s Chicagoan is Beau Nagan, arborist and winner of the Illinois Tree Climbing Championship. When I first started doing tree work, I was not too terribly comfortable with the heights, not because I’m afraid of heights per se, but because I didn’t really trust the equipment, and it seems counterintuitive to let go of something with your hands....

There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts happening this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 6/2: Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film Full Metal Jacket screens in 35mm at the Music Box as part of its Filmworker series, a tribute to Leon Vitali, an actor who became Kubrick’s right-hand man. 10:15 PM, Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, 773-871-6604, $11 Sat 6/2: Ric Wilson‘s new record BANBA lifts his community as it takes his hip-hop career higher....

Chicago-via-Michigan rapper Smba plies pop-punk aesthetics to make hip-hop tracks soaked in melancholy. These songs could tentatively be described as Soundcloud rap, since that term (which took hold of hip-hop four years ago) has already been stretched far enough to include any MC with a Fall Out Boy T-shirt, but they have enough dimensions that not even the loosest label can contain them. Smba takes a gentle, inviting approach on their latest EP, Claustrophobic (2DB Company), usually maintaining a level-headed restraint on their half-sung verses even when their syllables cluster in rapid-fire knots—and that sense of self-control and self-awareness lends hopefulness to their most somber lyrics....

If Donald Trump won’t tackle climate change, then Chicago will” was the headline of an August op-ed piece in the Guardian by Mayor Emanuel, who loves to tout Chicago as a green city, all the more so since the Trump administration thumbed its nose at the Paris climate agreement. Earlier this month Chicago played host to a conference (rather grandly titled the North American Climate Summit) that drew 51 mayors who signed on to a charter calling for cities to meet or exceed the targets set by the Paris accord....

It can be tricky to pick a subject for an open-ended column like the Listener, but when I realized today was Delia Derbyshire Day, my choice was obvious. In the early 1960s, this UK electronic composer and performer helped change the world of sound as we know it. Derbyshire is most associated with her iconic 1963 version of Ron Grainer’s theme for Doctor Who, but that was the only time in her career that she arranged someone else’s composition....

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed on Tuesday on behalf of the father of bike courier Blaine Klingenberg, who was fatally struck by a double-decker tour bus at Michigan and Oak during the evening rush on June 15. The suit names bus driver Charla Henry and her employer, Chicago Trolley & Double Decker Company. “Disobeyed a solid red indication on a traffic signal” “Failed to exercise that degree of care and caution that a reasonable person under similar circumstances would have exercised in the operation of the [double-decker] bus”...

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at the recent closed-door City Hall meeting in which Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool pretty much called Tenth Ward alderman Susan Sadlowski Garza a liar. Everyone in the room was shocked to hear a mayoral appointee essentially call an alderman a liar. It violates the general order of things for an alderman to be so blatantly disrespected, even by an aide who’s close to the mayor....

In late 2014, Gossip Wolf was thrilled to hear that Funk Trunk Records had set up shop in Rogers Park—sadly, though, the brick-and-mortar location on 6960 N. Sheridan is no more. Owner Quinn Cunningham broke the news on Facebook last Friday, and he tells Gossip Wolf that the shop officially closed over Independence Day weekend. “I didn’t want to make it into a drawn-out ‘this is the end’ event,” he says....

It’s Leap Day weekend, spend your extra day wisely. We’re here to help with a list of recommended things to do. 2/28-4/11: The solo exhibition “Golden Hour” presents new paintings and sculptures from artist Jessie Edelman. Opening reception 2/28, 5-8 PM. Tue–Fri 11 AM–6 PM, Sat 11 AM–5 PM, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, 1749 W. Chicago, andrewrafacz.com, free. Sat 2/29: Enjoy some of the best Leap Day-themed VHS clips with stand-up from Tucker Brookshire, Lucia Whalen, Chris Santiago, and Clare Austen-Smith during VHS: Leap to the Future....

If you had founded a small professional theater company in Chicago before the mid-70s and wanted to open it in a storefront, you couldn’t have done it without the risk of getting closed down by the city. Before that, you had to call yourself a “club,” as Playwrights Theater Club did in 1953 when they rented a former Chinese restaurant on LaSalle Street. Or you could call yourself a “cabaret,” as Second City did when they rented a former Chinese laundry on Wells in 1959....

Q: I’m a thirtysomething gay man married to a thirtysomething gay man. For almost two years, we’ve been seeing another pair of married gay men around our age. They were our first experience with any sexual or romantic interaction outside of our relationship. The first six months were hot and heavy. We were together constantly and having sex almost every night. After the “honeymoon phase” ended, one member of the other couple (“Roger”) wanted to slow things down....

It was over 30 years ago, but I still remember it well—a gaggle of teenagers had taken to spray-painting graffiti on factories, garages, and houses in my neighborhood. So much for collective action. When it comes to your denials about anti-Semitism in your ranks, you’re starting to sound like Mayor Rahm with the Laquan McDonald video. But, no anti-Semitism on the left? C’mon, lefties—do you live on Mars? Do you not hear and see all the things that you’ve been hearing and seeing your whole life?...

ARTIST: Daniel MacAdam SHOW: Greensky Bluegrass with Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers at the Vic on Fri 1/1 and Sat 1/2 MORE INFO: crosshairchicago.com

Bryan Murray Jon Lundbom Sometimes I feel embarrassed when I discover musicians who once lived, studied, and worked in Chicago only long after they’ve split town. Last week Irish composer Jennifer Walshe played in town with Tony Conrad, but years ago, when she was studying at Northwestern and performing around town, I was oblivious to her presence. Same goes for saxophonist Jon Irabagon, trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, and composer Michael Pisaro....

For many, Porchlight’s In the Heights seemed like another chapter in the long theatrical tradition of whitewashing nonwhite characters by casting white actors to play them even when numerous actors of color are available. (The classic example: Laurence Olivier playing Othello in blackface.) But why, others argued, shouldn’t roles go to the actor who had the best audition? “Do you think Jonathan Pryce should be banned from playing Shylock because he is not Jewish?...

In my attempt to cheer up all the progressives crying at the sight of J.B. Pritzker proclaiming victory after Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary, let me say one thing. On that night I happened to be in the Reader’s old newsroom. It was almost surreal, listening to various editors, moaning, groaning and cursing as they watched one swing state after another—Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania—swing the wrong way. They put on their “big-boy pants” and voted for the billionaire....

Chicago theater has been forced to improvise. When COVID-19 caused Congo Square’s production of Douglas Turner Ward’s classic satire Day of Absence to close early, Charlique Rolle, the new managing director, led the company in exploring how they could adapt to the virtual realm. The result is a new online sketch comedy series, featuring a quartet of actors creating work in ensemble. For Congo Square ensemble member and HOTB cast member Kelvin Roston Jr....