You Died is a 4-piece hard-rock band from Chicago,IL. Featuring veterans of legendary acts such as The Arrivals, Local H, The Tossers and Mary Tyler Morphine, they might be mistaken for a supergroup if you lower your standards. Is it hard rock? Punk rock? What the hell difference does it make? If you like tight songwriting and themes that span from video games to folklore, we got your number.

The Gelheads are a guitar-driven post-punk quartet that formed in Chicago in 2001. Citing influences such as Cheap Trick, The Replacements, Jimmy Eat World, and The Foo Fighters – the band formulates crafty, hook-laden melodies backed by a hard-hitting rhythm section to create memorable anthems. After their first single “Deer in Headlights” debuted on Chicago’s Q101, the band quickly rose through the ranks and found themselves travelling across the U.S., amassing a grassroots regional fanbase. Over their 20-year career, the band has toured nationally opening for well-known artists including The Killers, KISS, Everclear, The Goo Goo Dolls, Papa Roach and Sugarcult; as well as earning a brief stint on the 2002 Vans Warped Tour. The Gelheads have emerged from a period of lessened activity to release the “Tail Lights” an EP of three songs from a former session that were never completed and thought to be lost. The band worked with producer Andy Gerber at Chicago’s Million Yen Studios to painstakingly locate the original tracks and give them the mix they deserved. Tail Lights was released on March 12, 2021. The band is planning on festival appearances later in the summer and will re-enter the studio later this year.

Sweetie is a Chicago-based lipstick punk band with a femme fatale ferocity and a French attitude, thanks to frontwoman Birdy Vee, who blends her francophone background with her fervor for punk and drag. Voted a Top 5 Punk Band in the Chicago Reader two years in a row, Sweetie commands the stage at punk and drag shows alike, including venues such as The Green Mill, The Egyptian Theatre, Reggie’s, Beat Kitchen, The Forge, Cobra Lounge, Last Rites, Liar’s Club, and Metro. Their debut album, Bad Thing, Sweet Thing, was released in 2020, and is soon to be followed by their second album La Vie En Rouge, set for release in June 2025. Festival appearances include Motoblot, War On Xmas, Elgin Pride and Hands Off Our Fest, organized by frontwoman Birdy Vee to showcase fellow femme-fronted bands.  The three-piece has shared the stage with touring acts such as The Lawrence Arms, Suzi Moon, The Soapgirls, Koffin Kats, The Dollyrots, Sorry Mom, Hayley and the Crushers, and Soraia. In the past, Sweetie held a residency as the house band for T-Time at the Comedy Shrine, a queer comedy and drag variety show. They currently hold a residency as the house band for The Rocky Horror Picture Show at The Egyptian Theater in DeKalb, IL. They have also collaborated extensively within the drag community, playing at Dragzilla, Nightcaps, and Witchorama.

The south side of Chicago has a tough working class reputation, it’s also known for one of the largest populations of Irish people this side of the Emerald Isle. So it’s not entirely incongruous that a hard luck kid from the south side of town would choose to play traditional Irish folk music in pubs around the neighborhood. At 18, Anthony (T.) Duggins, was doing just that – playing pub favorites and covers of greats like Christy Moore, and Ewan MacColl. Before long his brother and his best friends were playing the original songs he had written as well, and so became The Tossers. The name was taken from an old slang term used for worthless British coins in Sean O’Casey’s play The Plough and the Stars. The coins became useless after the southern Irish Free State won independence from Britain, and started to print it’s own currency. The term tosser has since come to mean wanker, or it’s American equivalent, jag off.