Weekend Reminders

Recently, Thursday posts have focused on events that were previously mentioned on Broken Hearted Toy, and are taking place during the upcoming weekend. Plus, the occasional event taking place this weekend that has just come to my attention.

The Handcuffs will get a jump on year-end festivities with their Pre-New Year’s Eve Celebration at the Outtaspace venue in Berwyn this Saturday evening. The Chicago-based band has four albums worth of adventurous indie rock tunes to choose from for the event. Their special guests will be The Vaughan Building, a self-described “bluesy garage rock band with a pslightly psychedelic twist.” I’m assuming ‘pslightly’ is spelled that way to match ‘psychedelic.’

Sounds familiar. Saturday Morning Flashback has been a popular program on Chicago radio station WXRT since the days when the always informative and entertaining Wendy Rice served as its host. Nowadays, hosting duties are split among Frank E. Lee, Annalisa Xrt, and Johnny Mars, who are also quite good. The format remains the same—a look back at music and culture from a particular year in the distant past. The selection of years Flashback explores was only recently expanded to include the very beginning of this century. This Saturday, WXRT will break from tradition by focussing on the year we’re currently in. 2024. From 9:00 am to noon, this week’s Saturday Morning Flashback will feature Frank E. Lee delving into the music and events of the past 12 months. WXRT (93.1) is available on the Audacy app.

The Phenoms punk band will headline a four-act show this Sunday night at The Sidebar at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn, along with the Chicago-based indie rock groups The Safes; Time Thieves; and Speed Babes. The music starts at 8:00 pm.

Wisconsin-based Americana rockers The BoDeans will perform at The Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, IL this Saturday.

The Razor and Die Annual End Of The Year Special will air from 3:00 to 6:00 pm tomorrow on Chicago independent radio station WLUW. DJ Di will only play tracks from 2024.

Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol will wrap up its run at the Studebaker Theater / Fine Arts Building this Sunday. The production offers an adventurous take on the holiday favorite with a plot that concerns a widow attempting to carry on her husband’s annual Christmas Carol puppet show, but getting caught up in her own interpretation. The production involves “handmade puppets, immersive sound design, and live music.”