Apparently Rahm’s favorite thing to tell Chicagoans who’ve been affected by the city’s budget cuts is that they should “get creative.” So in order to safeguard the arts programs at Drummond Montessori, a magnet school in Bucktown, against CPS underfunding, a group of concerned citizens has taken his advice to heart and put together this fund-raiser—a subcultural tribute to the music of Beyonce Knowles, who’s done quite well with her Montessori education. Its stacked bill brings together many notable figures from the Chicago underground-rock scene, among them
Bobby Conn,
Tim Kinsella,
James Swanberg of the Lemons,
Jeanine O’Toole of
Bare Mutants,
Alex White of White Mystery, Braid front man
Bob Nanna, experimental guitarist
Matthew Hale Clark, and singer-songwriter Haley Fohr (aka
Circuit des Yeux). They’ll all interpret favorites from the Bey songbook, and avant-electronic duo
Sich Mang will top off the evening with an hour-long megamix of Beyonce and Destiny’s Child tracks. The organizers will be raffling off passes to this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, and they’re also promising surprise guests—considering the talent they’ve lined up so far, that could prove quite interesting.
—Miles Raymer