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Until last month, Puerto Rican six-piece Davila 666 had been quiet since 2011. The riotous outfit had earned a reputation as one of the best live bands in the world, fusing stripped-down, hard-hitting punk with psych ambience and garage-rock melodies: each sweaty set was a nonstop high-energy barrage of beyond-catchy tunes, with every member of the band screaming out the words over the top. When the Davilas went their separate ways (like the Ramones before them, they all share the same last name), some stayed the course while others explored new musical identities: bassist AJ Davila went on to front a Davila 666-flavored punk band called Terror Amor, while lead vocalist Charles Davila went a completely different route with the hip-hop trio Fuete Billete....

The history of time travel began, at least according to James Gleick’s new book, Time Travel: A History, in 1895 when H.G. Wells published his novel The Time Machine. That’s not to say that no one had thought about traveling through time before, but those journeys had happened through supernatural means or the unexpected effects of getting conked on the head. Wells, Gleick explains, was the first to connect the notion of moving through time with science....

The more I read about the departure of George Lucas’s neofuturist storage unit, that unsightly blob of a building meant to house his movie posters and Yoda holograms, the sorrier I felt for the guy. He’s 72 and he just wants a museum. “A legacy piece.” Billionaires need their trap houses, too. This is America. “Where I live, a self-appointed group that starts making calls for the neighborhood, they’re called a gang,” the reverend said....

If there’s anything that perfectly captures the transformation of public housing from physical buildings and lived experience into a cultural commodity, it’s a small plexiglass box mounted on the wall of the National Public Housing Museum’s latest exhibit, “Housing As a Human Right: Social Construction,” on display at Archeworks through January 8. Inside the box there’s a pile of mint-green paint chips, blotched with brown stains and cracked like a dehydrated lake bed....

Jennifer Connelly (left) in Aloft Though it’s in English and stars internationally celebrated actors Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy, and Mélanie Laurent, Claudia Llosa’s Aloft—which plays at the River East 21 for another two nights—feels remarkably similar to the writer-director’s previous features, Madeinusa (2006) and The Milk of Sorrow (2009), which were made in Peru with nonprofessional casts. In Aloft, a single mother (Connelly) seeks out a nomadic faith healer in hopes of curing her terminally ill son and, in the process, discovers she possesses magic healing powers herself....

“The species in which peace and mutual support are the rule, prosper, while the unsociable species decay.” So wrote Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin, advocating for the concept of mutual aid, when communities care for their members rather than forcing them to eat each other to survive. It’s a concept that has sustained a sizeable portion of the Chicago restaurant industry during the pandemic, while at the same time supporting farmers, vendors, bakers, and thousands of hungry Chicagoans....

If Slayer play and no one is around to hear them, do they make a sound? Photographer Ryan Segedi hauled his equipment all over Douglas Park and the Riot Fest press tent, documenting the symbiosis of the bands that reign (sometimes in blood) and the fans that come to see them (sometimes 18 times).

This past fall, the board of local nonprofit Pure Joy, who came together in 2013 to launch an ADA-accessible, LGBTQ-safe all-ages punk venue, reached a crossroads when the latest in a series of potential spaces fell through. “We were like, ‘OK, that was our best bet,’” says board member Jes Skolnik. “‘We should probably figure out what to do, because it’s been four years and we’re not gonna get closer than that....

I was startled when I saw the news come up on my Twitter feed. A young American journalist in Myanmar had been detained and was likely being held in the country’s Insein Prison, notorious for incarcerating political dissidents, infamous for reports of its horrendous human rights violations. I read the story and instantly recognized the journalist. Danny Fenster. Danny is a former student of mine whom I met at Columbia College Chicago in 2009....

MARCH History ShmistoryIf you’ve ever wondered what Nikola Tesla’s stand-up was like, then this is the show for you. This show features comedians performing jokes as a historical figure. This time around includes Stephanie Weber as Johnny Appleseed, Analicia Kocher as Jimmy Hoffa, and Alex Collyard as Tesla. Thu 3/19, 8 PM, the Lincoln Lodge, 2040 N. Milwaukee, thelincolnlodge.com, $5. Peace CampThis stand-up showcase features Jewish and Muslim comics to “prove that [they] can live and laugh with each other in peace....

I was tempted to give Mayor Lightfoot a standing ovation for her recent “Chuck and Larry” remarks at the City Council, but then she started talking about slicing the pie—and it was downhill from there. Other than that—wonderful movie. I get the main point. As a city we’ve got to expand opportunity for everyone, not pit one group against the other. We shouldn’t resort to nastiness and prejudice, and aldermen should set a better example....

The bike helmet debate stirs strong emotions. Many of us have heard stories of people who suffered traumatic brain injuries after being struck by a motorist while biking without a helmet. It’s also common to hear testimony from people who believe that wearing protective headgear made the difference between life or death during a crash. On the other hand, there are many people—even mainstream American bike advocates—who say helmets aren’t necessary for all kinds of riding....

Michael John LaChiusa’s musical Queen of the Mist contains a second-act song that critiques its heroine Anna Edson Taylor’s lackluster performance on the lecture circuit recounting her 1901 trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The lyrics ask how she’s managed to make such an inherently thrilling adventure sound so “tedious, monotonous, repetitive, and not fun.” It’s an apt critique of the show itself, directed by Elizabeth Margolius in this Firebrand production starring Barbara E....

Two years ago local rapper-producer Lucki (then still going by Lucki Ecks) asked MC and beat maker Frank Leone for some instrumentals. Leone, who lived in Chicago at the time, says he spent about a week on a track called “Cocaine for Kids,” hoping it would land on Lucki’s forthcoming sophomore mixtape, Body High. “Cocaine for Kids” didn’t make the cut, so Leone added his own vocals—and recruited Monster Mike for the first verse....

Chicago producer and multi-instrumentalist Dan Jugle got hooked on electronic music in the mid-90s, when he had to find his way to raves without being old enough to drive. Shortly after he turned 16, he started messing around with analog equipment to make his own music. He fell in love with techno, and in recent years he’d earned a reputation for the waterlogged club tracks he made with Juzer (a duo with Beau Wanzer) and the raw, throbbing cuts he recorded with Dar Embarks (a duo with childhood friend Ken Zawacki)....

Welcome to the Reader‘s weekday news briefing. Jeanne Ives is “a little bit surprised at some of the hysteria” over campaign ad Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives says she’s “a little bit surprised at some of the hysteria” surrounding her campaign’s controversial ad, which slams transgender rights, undocumented immigrants, Chicago Teachers Union members, and women who have had abortions, among other liberal targets. “The commercial does not attack people, it tackles issues, I truly believe illustrating the constituencies Rauner has chosen to serve, to the exclusion of others,” Ives, a state representative running from the right against Governor Bruce Rauner in the GOP primary, said at the City Club of Chicago Monday....

Rahm and John in more idyllic times A year ago I posted a video of Tribune columnist John Kass schmoozing with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It was Christmastime. Followed by a Tribune camera crew, Kass had trotted over from the Tower to exchange presents in Emanuel’s office. On Friday Kass struck a familiar note—the media are full of suck-ups. But all I seem to hear is this: WWCD? What Would Chuy Do?...

Welshman Jon Langford’s love and fascination for American musical culture has long pulsed at the center of his work, whether he was sending his pioneering punk band the Mekons toward honky-tonk or forming the Waco Brothers to honor the forgotten sounds of Nashville. In 2015 Langford, a longtime resident of Chicago, contributed visual artwork to an exhibition at the Country Music Hall of Fame celebrating Nashville’s musical legacy, and by chance he met bassist and producer Norbert Putnam—a key figure behind the nexus of soul, country, and gospel music recorded over the decades in Muscle Shoals, Alabama....

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Julia Sweeney considers herself “the Al Jolson of androgyny.” She’s best remembered from SNL for portraying Pat, a character whose ambiguous gender is the subject of much speculation. In her one-woman show Older and Wider, Sweeney breezes past her career in comedy and shares charming stories about what came next: the life of a stay-at-home mom in Wilmette, having the idyllic “bread-eater” fantasy with a husband and their daughter, Mulan....