launch Google Map The Bottom Lounge is open for lunch, dinner & late-night dining. Our menu focuses on American comfort food, featuring lots of specials and vegetarian/vegan dishes.
Our menu is designed with the casual diner in mind, and whether you eat downstairs, upstairs, or on the patio, it's the perfect setting for feeding the hungry locals, West Loop workers, and concert-goers alike. Food is served 7 days a week, 11am to 10pm.
MenuUpstairs is a fantastic 5,000 sq. ft. room with a full bar, movie projector, and an adjacent 2,000 sq. ft. outdoor deck. It's a beautiful, tiki-themed loft space, ideal for special events, particularly:
The Bottom Lounge is built in a state-of-the-art facility, specifically constructed to accommodate touring bands and local talent alike. We're always dedicated to bringing Chicago the best in independent rock music. Just like at the original Bottom Lounge, we host 21+, 18+, and All-Ages shows.
Show Listings![[ THE PNUMA TRIO ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=9100&type=.jpg)
Try this story on for size: three upstarts in Memphis use their classical and jazz training to hammer out beat-driven compositions encompassing the funkiness of the jam scene and the mind-bending progressions of electronica. The young bucks known as Pnuma Trio instantly find themselves in high demand, playing nearly two hundred dates in 2006 alone. The trio bangs out scene-stealing festival plays at Langerado and Camp Bisco, gets tapped to provide support for such artists as Buckethead, The Disco Biscuits, and Michael Franti and Spearhead, and fills up clubs and small theatres that most bands reach only after years of toil. Just for style points, they finish up the year with a barn-storming, sold-out tour of Japan including a massive set at the world-famous Nagisa Festival. Yet despite their success, Pnuma Trio hasn't stopped developing artistically. The new year brings with it a move for the crew – from the rock and roll birthplace of Memphis to their new digs, in the cool mountain air of Boulder, Colorado – but more importantly, for their music. Incorporating the live-processed wizardry of their earlier work, Pnuma Trio is unveiling a new sound for their upcoming tour dates.
Eliot Lipp continues his impressive retooling of analog infused electro-funk with his latest full-length, The Outside, his first for Mush Records. Techno and R&B in their earliest, formative stages have inspired Eliot throughout his career, and form the common thread running through the album. Slick analogue synth work and tight drum programming abound, as Eliot deconstructs his influences to create something that is both recognizable and completely futuristic. For listeners who remember a time when electronic music had a little dirt under its fingernails, The Outside will truly capture your imagination.
![[ JON LANGFORD & THE PINE VALLEY COSMONAUTS ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=8315&type=.jpg)
Jon Langford's been a force behind the Waco Brothers, the Mekons, and the Sadies. Recently he's joined up with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts who have become major contributors to the fight against the death penalty. Last year's Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 1 raised more than $40,000 for the Illinois Coalition against the Death Penalty. Coincidentally, Illinois Gov. George Ryan stepped out of his Republican box to declare a moratorium on the death penalty in the same year.
The Toronto foursome combine '60s country rock and psychedelia, C&W, surf, punk and cosmic American music and transform it into their own unique sound. The Sadies may sound like a lot of things, but no one quite sounds like the Sadies or seems to do it quite so effortlessly.
Blending rockabilly, honky tonk, jazz, and Western swing along with traditional influences from her Tex-Mex heritage, Rosie Flores currently resides in Austin, Texas, where August 31 was declared Rosie Flores Day by the Austin City Council in 2006.
Best known for her involvement with the Mekons, Sally Timms recorded her first solo album, Hangahar, at the age of nineteen with Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks. She has released several other solo CDs... some of which were written by Ryan Adams, Mark Eitzel, Kevin Coyne, Johnny Dowd, Mekons, Jon Langford and Sean Garrison.
A husband-and-wife duo that make strange and beautiful rock music. Tim plays guitar and other stringed instruments; Christa often abuses a small drum kit. Both write songs and sing, Christa with a startling, classically trained mezzosoprano-to-alto, Tim with a reedy, evocative baritone. Their influences include Ray Davies, Gustav Mahler, the Clash, Kurt Weill, Dr. Dre, and Günther Grass
![[ AIR TRAFFIC ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=8913&type=.jpg)
Originally from Bournemouth, UK, Air Traffic's mindscape is one we have all experienced, or soon will. By turns anguished and exuberant, cocksure and crestfallen, it is rock lived at a pitch of bi-polar intensity that reminds you why you got into this stuff in the first place.
Americana R&B band from Chicago featuring ex mbrs of bands you love.
![[ THE DIPLOMATS OF SOLID SOUND ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=341&type=.jpg)
Move on up to the bandstand folks and get ready to behold the undeniable groove of the ambassadors of instrumental soul The Diplomats of Solid Sound. Tune into the hard stepping funky action of these dance floor scientists.
The Del Moroccos are a powerful 8 piece Rock n' Roll band who perform dirty 50's rock, R&B material with girl group vocals. With a blast of 60's garage, a hit of late '50s black rock n' roll, dress 'em up like Johnny Cash, and you get a raucous, mean mix of "'50s garage".
With surf rock influenced guitar, The Stacks bring a whole lot of soul into their songs.
The Honeybees' Sound: Late '50's rockabilly meets early '60's rock n' roll. The Honeybees were created with the idea that female vocals can be reinvented to make an important impact on today's music scene. The two core members worked with various personnel over the years. Today, the Honeybees' rock-solid line up includes Rachel Decker (vocals), Mark Braun (guitar/steel), Manny Guevara (guitar) and Michael Hogeorges (bass). With the tight, expressive harmonies of Barbara and Rachel, and Theresa as the driving force behind the drums, these three women represent the feminine strength behind the name. From there, the Honeybees move into a driving, modern energy mode driven by the varied guitar sounds of Mark, Manny and Michael. The band's musical influences range from rockabilly and roots legends such as Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin, Brenda Lee, Chuck Berry, The Sonics, Ricky Nelson, and T-Bone Walker to modern artists such as Rosie Flores and the Paladins.
![[ SLINK MOSS AND THE FLYING ACES ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=9091&type=.jpg)
Country Rock that's the Real McCoy." "Slink Moss manages to take elements of just about everything that's cool in rock'n'roll (the Velvet Underground, Bubble Gum, early 80s New Wave, the Cramps, Hank Williams) and fuse it into his own brnad of primitive country-garage pop music. Most of these songs are based around acoustic guitar but that doesn't stop them from rockin' with the best best of 'em. Two tunes in particular ("Rome" and "Baby Talkin'") deserve to be in heavy rotation on the radio so thirteen year girls can go ape over Slink and hang his poster on their walls. If anybody wants a lesson on how to craft honest unpretentious pop that sounds just as good the thousandth time as it did the first, they should pick up this CD and study it because it doesn't get much better than this.
Tijuana Hercules are a positively unhinged rock band, a deep impact, off-the-rails bullseye, that sound moments away from shearing off into shrapnel under the ramshackle hedonism of every song. Singer and guitarist John Vernon Forbes performs with a revolving gypsy band of drummers, horn players, keyboard players, percussionists, and assorted other noisemakers. The band's primary emphasis is pounding out bare-bones blues rattles that make it easy to understand why holy rollers viscerally understood rock and roll's threat to God. With a band like Tijuana Hercules, the phrase "stolen thunder" takes on an entirely new meaning.
Hometown: Chicago, IL US Ladies and gentlemen, quite possibly the best live rock band on the planet. We've seen them a hundred and sixty seven times, and the Waco Brothers never fail to entertain with their train wreck approach to country. Subtlety is for the weak, so they've chosen the path of optimum mayhem and tomfoolery. In their rollicking career, they have been called everything from the flagship act of the alternative country "movement" to pure butchery. Both are likely to be correct. The line-up, in case you haven't been paying attention: Jon Langford (Mekons, Pine Valley Cosmonauts), Steve Goulding (Mekons, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Graham Parker & the Rumour), Alan Doughty (Jesus Jones), Deano (Dollar Store, Wreck), Tracy Dear (World's Greatest Living Englishman), and Marc Durante (KMFDM).
Folk'n'roll that is smart, funny, and something more, written and sung by an endearing/witty/clumsy troubadour, backed by an All-Star line-up of Chicago and Boston musicians.
"We're a tight four piece, playing that roots-deep country music all hot and sweet-like. We're masters of the shuffle and the waltz; just right for dancing and drinking all night. We play it the way we like it, and we like that good country music. Come check it out!"
Always striving to capture the sights and sounds of a honky tonk bar circa 1960, True Historians have carefully studied those who've made a life of dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud music. Between them, the band has spent countless hours performing in both the liquor lounges of Central Texas and Chicago's finest live music venues. Trevor McSpadden and Jessica Jane Childs cut their teeth in the roadhouses just south of Austin, performing regularly at the legendary Cheatham Street Warehouse ('an art gallery for Texas music'). Coming to Chicago in January of 2005, Trevor quickly got involved in the thriving underground country music scene. Within months, he had assembled a full honky tonk big band and after a few phone calls, Jessica headed north. The band sharpened up on some classic Cash/Carter duets and were ready for the road when Jessica hit town. True Historians take great pride in performing at some of the seediest beer joints around, but they are also quickly becoming a favorite on the country circuit in northern Illinois. With a couple of purebred Texan vocalists and a crew of musicians that can channel the greats, True Historians have created their own honky tonk style that reflects the sounds of the night life.
![[ JEREMY ENIGK ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=3409&type=.jpg)
Jeremy Enigk first emerged as the frontman of the highly touted Seattle band Sunny Day Real Estate. In the midst of recording the group's sophomore effort, Enigk underwent a radical spiritual transformation and left the group; although he later returned to complete LP2, Sunny Day Real Estate nonetheless dissolved, leaving bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith to join Dave Grohl in the Foo Fighters. Initially, Enigk retired from the music industry, but he soon picked up his guitar and began writing new songs... in 2006, he followed Frog Queen with another solo album, World Waits on his own label, Lewis Hollow Records.
Urban folk singer/songwriter Damien Jurado quietly built up one of the strongest catalogs on the indie scene, earning high critical praise yet somehow never quite getting his proper due. His independent-mindedness was born at least in part from the influence of punk, and one of the results was a concern for emotional authenticity that led him to delve into other people's lives instead of his own. Many of Jurado's best songs spun concise, literate tales of quiet everyday despair, which often earned him comparisons to short story writer Raymond Carver.
![[ MUDHONEY ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=8594&type=.jpg)
Redefining stripped-down, “back 2 basics” ramalama, Mudhoney’s new one is deliberately and aggressively raw. It sounds as lean and as full-on as any modern equivalent one cares to mention. Recorded in a scant 3.5 days (including overdubs) with Tucker Martine (who also recorded four songs on the previous album), Mudhoney went in armed with a batch of new material expecting to spend a fair amount of time getting it right. Bang—and bang again after some mixing—and a new album was birthed in record time, faster than anything else the band’s done to date.
Rocking with a scowling, felonious ease, Easy Action creates a dark world illuminated by glaring white noise. Their native Detroit is a historical wellspring of musical damage and the men of Easy Action brandish the seamy, steamy sounds of downtown. Easy Action has a grim and gritty real-life feel, the outlaw kind that rockers like Keith Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash know so well.
The Fake Fictions have been building a reputation for sharp hooks, good times and an insanely fun live show since forming in Chicago in April 2004. Nick and Sarah (on guitar and bass respectively) write raw and catchy pop songs with alternating boy/girl vocals, while Ben provides a pulsing backbeat that ties together the three-piece's hook-laden melodies. With a sound that references new wave, garage rock, and pure pop, the Fake Fictions bring a fun and nostalgic sound; the perfect soundtrack for the last day of school or dry-humping in your parents' basement.
![[ DAVE FISCHOFF ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=7384&type=.jpg)
Fischoff weaves solitary minisamples into elaborate harmonies and beats of their own, giving The Crawl’s sweet electropop an impressive amount of depth—if the Postal Service was a little smarter, it might sound something like this. - Time Out Chicago
Current and former mbrs of Colossal, Smoking Popes and Lawrence Arms.
The band's high energy shows are fueled by singer/guitarist/keyboardist Shawn Rosenblatt, the frantic and precise drumming of Paul Michael Newmann (ask about his salad dressings), and Angie Kang's use of samples, melodica, flute and everything else in her eclectic arsenal. Shawn's lyrics are often clever, human, catchy, and never contrived or pretentious. Whether you find yourself smiling along to them on your iPod or dancing like a fiend at one of their shows, watch out for Netherfriends. For fans of: Animal Collective and Man Man.
![[ SLIM CESSNA'S AUTO CLUB ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=5472&type=.jpg)
Engaging, riveting, sad and humorous; demanding the audience to participate both live and while listening to their albums; Slim Cessna's Auto Club has been branded with every musical description possible. This seems fitting, as SCAC describes their music as American (Is that not what America is and has been, a mixture of every one and thing resulting in something new?); and after a decade of working and living as SCAC, they have created their own genre. The instruments are drums, upright bass, pedal steel, banjos, piano, guitar, vocals and stories. They have recorded critically acclaimed albums (Village Voice, Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle) on Jello Biafras Alternative Tentacles label. Spin Magazine and No Depression have described them as the best live band in America. The songs are each thoughtfully crafted with unique arrangements, executed by superb musicianship, then fully realized through original, insightful and intelligent lyrics. With two of the most charismatic frontmen around (Westword) and four accomplished musicians (Wovenhand, Delta 72, 16Horsepower), SCAC is the past, present and future of American music.
![[ THE LONELY H ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=9033&type=.jpg)
Swaddled tight in the electrified buckskin of their classic rock-n-roll forefathers, our four Washington braves set out to blanket America in a hot winter blizzard. Don’t be fooled by the silk strands tucked behind their ears: what the maps don’t tell you is that all-night drives make for better lives, deer come out of nowhere, and what parents don’t know (night after night) won’t kill them. for fans of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Allman Brothers, Joe Cocker and the Grease Band, The Beach Boys, T-Rex, MC5, Supertramp...YES!
Mountain Coming Down (the record community inc.) of Chicago is quickly building a loyal local following by providing the audience with an energetic experience rather than an opening band to get drunk to. Mountain Coming Down is currently in the process of putting together their first EP entitled "the Ghost still haunts" due out summer 2008. MCD combines various influences of classic rock, blues, rock, and soul music and is perfect for people who enjoy The Band, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, and the like.
With chunky guitar riffs, sweet organ-driven dirges and blasting drums, this trio of whimsically memorable characters form STEREO STRIKES BACK.
![[ CHRISTIAN DEATH ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=8737&type=.jpg)
The founding fathers of American goth rock, Christian Death took a stand against organized religion and conventional morality which wallowed in blasphemy, morbidity, drug use, and sexual perversity. Their self-consciously controversial tactics set them apart from the British goth scene, having more to do with L.A. punk and heavy metal, and thus the band dubbed its sound "death rock". Instead, however, their sensibility was ultimately similar enough that the "goth" designation stuck in the end. Their music also relied on slow, doomy, effects-laden guitar riffs and ambient horror-soundtrack synths, and their theatrical performances were strongly influenced by British glam rockers like David Bowie and Roxy Music, as well as industrial provocateurs Throbbing Gristle.
![[ POWERTRANE feat. Deniz Tek of The Radio Birdman ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=9038&type=.jpg)
Powertrane is at heart a brutal guitar onslaught with often three and sometimes four guitars in the line-up. The guitar section is underpinned by Robert Gillespie, who played in Detroit bands The Rockets and Rob Tyner's All Stars. Robert is a mainstay in Mitch Ryder's current touring band. Scott Morgan's amazingly lyrical and fluent guitar playing, sometimes overshadowed by his vocal mastery, is the perfect complement to Robert Gillespie's rock attack. The engine room is manned by Ann Arbor natives Chris Taylor, bass, and Andy Frost, drums. Somehow, the sound is crushingly loud yet clear, explosive without being overly distorted, constantly driving yet dynamic. This backdrop frames the green eyed soul vocals of Scott Morgan - along with Mitch Ryder and Rob Tyner, among the greatest white singers to come out of southern Michigan. The line-up does vary. Sometimes Deniz plays guitar and sings, and has done many shows in Ann Arbor / Detroit with the band, as well as a national tour and a live recording. Other part time members are singer Hiawatha Bailey, from Ann Arbor's Cult Heroes, and guitarist Ron Asheton when he's not busy with The Stooges.
Alchemy ain't easy, but it sure is fun! You try turning lead into gold and see how it works out for you! Blistered fingers from the white hot heat, scoliosis from lifting 1000 watts of power, let me tell you brothers and sisters, this is no task for the lily livered. Thunderwing, forged in the furnace of solid gold easy action Rock and Roll, wants to know...are you ready to gentrify? Are you ready to homogenize? Fuck no!!! The time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem, or whether you are going to be the solution and we want to know, are you ready? Are you ready to pull down your pants, whip it out, shake it around and plug it into 50,000 watts of chemically unstable Rock Power? Party people over here let me hear you say hell yes!
![[ SLOPPY SECONDS ]](http://mpshows.com/admin/image.php?id=9103&type=.jpg)
Probably the only band out there who could rival Poison Idea in terms of sheer weight, Sloppy Seconds hails from Indianapolis, and play very melodic pop-punk. Their early releases had Steve Sloppy on drums, B.A. on vocals, Shazam Bo'Bajam on bass, and Danny Roadkill handling guitar, but they have since had several line-up changes. Their first single they released themselves on "Alternative Testicles" records, which followed with several singles and their all time classic album "Destroyed" on Toxic Shock, although the album has since been re-released several times on various labels. They have also put out other releases on Triple X, Taang, Metal Blade and most recently Nitro Records
