Cheers! Here’s the Chicago winners in the 2020 Great American Beer Festival

October 17, 2020 | Eric

Five area breweries, five bronze-medal finishes in the 2020 Great American Beef Festival (GABF).

Keep in mind — a top-three finish in any one category of beer is pretty impressive, considering there were over 150 entries in one of the winning styles.  Also, not every brewer makes an entry into this yearly judging, so — this does not belittle any of your favorite area Chicago beer makers.

Let’s put it this way — consider this list an excuse to go and try beer.  And honestly, who needs an excuse to do that? Here are the winners:

AMERICAN BELGO-STYLE ALE

Bronze: Still Single, Light The Lamp Brewery (Grayslake, IL)

AMERICAN LAGER

Bronze: Lite Thinking, Pollyanna Brewing Co. (Lemont, IL)

INTERNATIONAL PILSNER

Bronze: Little Wing, Horse Thief Hollow Brewing Co. (Chicago, IL)

AMERICAN-STYLE PALE ALE

Bronze: Pantsless, Alarmist Brewing, (Chicago IL)

EXTRA SPECIAL BITTER

Bronze: English Sporting Beer, Midwest Coast Brewing Co, (Chicago IL)

Stream Save Our Stages Festival with Foo Fighters, Rise Against, and more

October 17, 2020 | Kevin

The Save Our Stages Festival continues with Day 2 for free on a live stream from stages of empty independent music venues across America. The National Independent Venue Association is hosting the stream through the weekend and Day 1 was very fun with Finneas and a wide variety of musical acts performing for many music fans donating around the world. Over 1 million dollars was raised, and you can donate whatever you can with a link with the stream. Today’s Day 2 has several alternative favorites including a performance from the Metro with hometown heroes Rise Against (8PM CST), Foo Fighters (9:35pm CST), and Portugal. The Man(11:20PM CST). You can stream the whole thing here and get the lineup below.

Saturday October 17th (all times PT) 1:00pm – Jason Mraz at Belly Up Tavern 1:40pm – Adam Melchor at The Hotel Cafe 2:10pm – Kelsea Ballerini at Exit/In 2:40pm – JP Saxe at Troubadour 3:15pm – Cautious Clay at World Cafe Live 3:55pm – Bea Miller at Teragram Ballroom 4:35pm – Gus Dapperton at (Le) Poisson Rouge 5:15pm – Phoebe Bridgers at Troubadour 6:00pm – Rise Against at Metro 6:25pm – Brittany Howard at Ryman Auditorium 6:55pm – Leon Bridges at Troubadour 7:15pm – Miley Cyrus at Whisky a Go Go 7:35pm – Foo Fighters at Troubadour 8:10pm – The Roots at Apollo Theater 9:20pm – Portugal. The Man at Crystal Ballroom 10:10pm – Major Lazer at Gramps

 

Candy corn is NOT the worst

October 16, 2020 | <3 Lauren

So thanks to @PhotogMike50 for bringing it to my attention:

candystore.com ranked halloween candy and named candy corn the worst for the second year in a row.  The WORST.  They ranked candy corn WORSE that circus peanuts.  CIRCUS PEANUTS!!!  The disgusting orange stress ball they have the audacity to classify as candy.
Worst Halloween Candy by CandyStore.com

It’s okay though, I don’t mind.  That just means MORE FOR ME.  Happy Halloween!

P.S. October 30th is National Candy Corn Day.  And yes, I celebrate.  😀

<3 Lauren

Foo Fighters perform Learn To Fly acoustic

October 16, 2020 | <3 Lauren

Ahead of the Save Our Stages 3-day streaming music fest to benefit the National Independent Venue Association (that starts at 7p tonight, schedule below) Foo Fighters gave us a taste from the Troubadour on Kimmel last night:

SOS_Social_Schedule_1x1-1

More info on the Save Our Stages music fest HERE.  <3 Lauren

 

Bacon “flavored” face masks?

October 15, 2020 | jnettlebeck

Does your face mask smell lame? Well you could spice it up a little with this brand new bacon “flavored” mask!

I mean it’s not really flavored. It just smells like bacon, but you know what we mean!

You could get your FREE bacon face mask from Hormel Foods by registering for one here.

And if you don’t win, don’t feel too bad. Hormel says for every loser in their giveaway, they’ll give a free meal to someone in need!

So why not register? It’s for a good cause!

Do NFL players cheat on their wives on the road

October 15, 2020 | jnettlebeck

If you ever wondered if NFL players cheat on their wives while they’re on the road… this might answer your question.

Of course we can’t assume EVERY player is like this.

But if you’re worried about your partner cheating on you; maybe don’t date someone who is in shape, young, and famous!

Just to be on the safe side.

Huge change at Netflix: 30-day free trials is ending

October 15, 2020 | Kevin

Netflix has made a huge change to its streaming service and the free trial ride is over.

In the United States, Netflix has ended the 30-day trial promotion that has existed for years. Maybe they just don’t want you floating in and out for periodic binges or sharing someone else’s account. Objectiveluy, it makes sense as people are spending so much more time with media nowadays.

Fox Business reported this week on the change, saying that sources claim the move has been in the works for a while now and similar changes have been made to the service in Mexico. There is also speculation from Marketwatch about Netflix possibly raising it’s subscription but the company has made no official annoucnement on that at this time.

Statista is currently reporting that Netflix has 72.9 million subscribers in the Untied States, adding 10 million new subs in the last few months.

Schedule update: Save Our Stages Fest this weekend

October 15, 2020 | Kevin

Months ago 101WKQX proudly broadcasted a 34 Radiothon to raise funds for our beloved independent music venues in Chicago like the Metro, Reggie’s, Lincoln Hall, and more through the Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL). Now many big names bands and musical artists are getting together for a three-day streaming music festival raises funds for the National Independent Venue League this weekend (October 16th-18th.) The event will be available for free through YouTube in the stream above, make sure to set a reminder and donate what you can.

Here is the really strong lineup which includes alternative favorites like hometown heroes Rise Against along with Foo Fighters, the Lumineers, Nathaniel Rateliff, Portugal. The Man, Dave Matthews, and many more.

Independent music venues all over the country are closing and need our help. Tune into #SOSFEST October 16-18 to catch…

Posted by Rise Against on Thursday, October 8, 2020

10/15/20 Schedule update:

SOS_Social_Schedule_1x1-1

Watch The Flaming Lips perform for an audience in bubbles

October 15, 2020 | Kevin

2020 has basically stopped us from having the lives we had before the pandemic, and obviously, those of us in the music world is really missing concerts. We have thousands of music venues, road crews, and musicians suffering while we wait out the storm but alternative veterans the Flaming Lips are using an old trick from their live shows to still put on safe shows. Singer Wayne Coyne has spent a good chunk of the band’s legendary shows inside a human-size bouncing ‘hamster ball’ which has allowed him to roll on top of the crowd, creating this incredible interactive visual experience, and it’s just fun. Now the Lips have said ‘why not take everyone in the crowd and put them in their own bubbles?! Yes, a bubble concert is a thing, a very very 2020 thing now.

The mini-show was held in the band’s hometown Oaklahoma City at Criterion on Tuesday. The venue normally holds 4,000 people under normal circumstances but for this special test run, it held about 100 space bubbles with a crew in safety gear helping out. The entire four song performance was shot for a video following the band’s latest release ‘American Head’. You can see some Instagram pics of what this video shoot looked liked below.

 

The band did an early version of this in June in a taped performance for ‘the Late Show’ on CBS in June. The first line of the song really makes you think of the race we are all hoping to win sometime sooner than later. The proverbial finish line will be crossed when we all live and enoy our lives safely again. Let’s get there and be mindful of each other.

Kid’s reaction to his rooms new paint job is priceless

October 14, 2020 | jnettlebeck

Imagine coming home as a kid and your parent’s surprise you with a brand new paint job in your room. They even style it to your favorite thing!

Would you be mad that you didn’t get to help?

@eric.lynner##johndeere ##newpaintjob ##fyp ##parentingfail♬ original sound – Eric Lynner

In a way that is so sweet of this kid.

He just wanted to help!

This video of Elton John saying “preposterousness” will make you smile

October 14, 2020 | jnettlebeck

Need a Thursday pick me up?

Then watch this video of Eton John trying to pronounce the word “preposterousness”.

He tried his best! You try saying that word, it’s hard!

Green Day’s ‘Insomniac’ turns 25: Watch classic documentary and MTV ’96 show

October 14, 2020 | Kevin

Green Day are a band that has been awesome for a very long time, and they have endured through the years from their humble beginnings touring out of a van from the West Coast to playing stadiums like Wrigley Field. When they hit in the ’90s they hit huge, they were ever-present in youth culture. You did not listen to them, you had to listen to them. The pressure and expectations were built-in following the game-changing ‘Dookie’ album, so when they came out with a more focused yet still angry album with ‘Insomniac’ in 1995, it meant they were going to keep the momentum going for years to come.

  • History of Alternative l on Sundays 8a-12pm on 101WKQX 

Tre, Mike, and Billie are celebrating the 25th anniversary of that special music by releasing a double LP reissue with added live tracks from their 1996 Prague show at Sportovni Hala. The reissues will likely reach fans in early 2021 due to COVID related production issues, and you can order now at their website. They also gave us some mid-90’s goodness today with this performance from MTV’s ‘Hang’n Out’ from 1996. You can watch that above.

They also rolled out this 20 minute documentary of never-before-seen footage from the Insomniac tour. Those boys had some fun overseas back in the day. Look at those crowds going nuts!

 

Whose Karen is it?

October 14, 2020 | jnettlebeck

Oh boy, it’s that time of the week!

Time to play Chicago’s favorite game, whose Karen is it!

This week we found a Karen that is absolutely livid over her neighbors… C-section?

What a strange soapbox to stand on.

Where do you think a c-section scar hating Karen would hail out of?

 

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