This Friday, Halloween night, the ugly hug is partnering up with The Apartment and Solidarity Studios to share our first ever showcase. The lineup consists of Chicago staples Persian Cowboy, Chaepter and Mingus W., along with some close-up magic from the Magic Boys between sets. Tickets will be a suggested $10 donation and doors open at 7:00pm, music starts at 7:30pm. Halloween costumes are strongly encouraged, and all are welcome to compete in our costume contest for a prize. We will also be selling pizzas by the pie for $6 and BYOB.

The Apartment is a traveling venue at the heart of Chicago’s DIY community. Run by Cam Goulder and maintained with the help of many friends and community members, The Apartment has been booking shows since November of 2023. Hosting local artists and giving a home to touring bands coming through town, The Apartment has hosted countless favorites of the ugly hug, including Conor Lynch, Friendly Faces, Sick Day, Molly Carberry, Twocell, Deerest Friends, Twila Ping, Hannah Sandoz, Gerfety, Marble Teeth, Zofia, Yin Waster and countless more incredible artists!

To get in the spirit, we asked our featured bands a handful of questions to celebrate the upcoming show and holiday.

Persian Cowboy has quickly become a favorite amongst the dimly lit living rooms and architecturally questionable basements that are of sacred relics to so many here in Chicago. Singing the praises of the starry-eyed pop connoisseurs and rock n roll romantics alike, Persian Cowboy throws caution to the wind, sharing the invincibility that is spread from a solid guitar riff and a sincere melody. Consisting of Sarah Panahi, Calivn Foucault and Brandon Phouybanhydt, Persian Cowboy continues to grow their ground with every show they play, inviting all into their kind, intuitive and flat-out fun world that they have so instinctively crafted.

Do you believe in magic? How do you pitch it to others that may be skeptical or non-believers? 

Brandon: Yes. There is something more to this world.

Calvin: No. Brandon will have to convince me one day. My mind is extremely malleable and easy to persuade.

Sarah: Yes totally! How do you explain the effects of the evil eye?

What Halloween costume from your past are you most proud of? 

Sarah: Okay, so one year I went as Marceline from Adventure Time and I DIYed an axe bass guitar out of cardboard. The only issue was the cardboard neck was too heavy so it was quite lopsided. To fix the weight distribution, I duct taped a bottle of poppers to the back of the bass body and it made for a very cool ice breaker at Halloween events that year 🙂 

Brandon: Last year, I created a 2 ½ ft. cardboard mascot head of Bluecifer, the giant blue horse statue outside the Denver Airport. I recommend reading Bluecifer/Denver Airport lore, but Bluecifer’s creator, Luis Jiménez, was killed by a piece of the horse sculpture falling on him. I won a costume contest for scariest costume and received a caramel-covered apple. 

Calvin: a couple years ago I went as Bret Michaels. Everyone thought I was kid rock.

What’s your third space and how did it come to be a part of the way you see yourself and your community?

Calvin: CHAOS homebrew club. You can only learn so much stuff on the internet. If you want to get good at stuff it’s way easier if someone’s helping you

Sarah: Despite not drinking alcohol anymore, I love going to my neighborhood bar. I get myself a Polish N/A drink and just chat with my fellow neighbors–I’ve been going there for years and it is truly just a lovely place to be and makes me so much more connected with the people around me.

Brandon: I help run the Chicago Sheepshead Club, which takes place at Beer Temple every last Wednesday of the month. Some friends in my D&D group got really hooked on the “famous” Wisconsin card game last summer, and what started as a joke slowly grew into a bona fide club. I like organizing and facilitating opportunities to gather, so this club was a natural extension of that. We’re fortunate enough to have had sponsored prizes, and we‘ve recruited some people whom I never would have met without the club, so it’s nice to connect with people I never would have met in other spaces I frequent. If you’re reading this, come through! 

Do you have any Halloween traditions that you grew up with?

Calvin: not exactly but I once convinced my friends to join a Halloween pool so to speak where everyone is randomly assigned to someone else and you get to choose their costume.

Sarah: Hm, my dad’s birthday was November 1st so trick-or-treating candy was often combined with a serving of birthday cake which made for a very stomach sick Sarah. Nowadays, my sister and mom and I try to go apple or pumpkin picking at least once before Halloween!

Chaepter has always held an edge to a certain post punk antiquity, soldering jagged instrumentals with brutalist exposés of real life America and those that often fall through the cracks. Taking over DIY venues with a sweaty deliverance and long lasting intensity, his shows send you off with more than just the ringing in your ears, but an urge to challenge our most ignorant comforts that we have held on to for too long. Chaepter shared his latest EP Empire Anthems via Pleasure Tapes earlier this year, in which we got to have a conversation with him in regards to creative freedom and choice poisoning. Him and his crew, consisting of John Golden on drums, Ayethaw Tun on bass and Shane Morris on lead guitar, are currently working on finishing up some new music for you all.

Do you believe in magic? How do you pitch it to others that may be skeptical or non-believers?

Yes, totally. Maybe less in a fantasy novel way, but as a general vehicle for meaning and energy. Magic, for me, is just allowing oneself to suspend disbelief in your day-to-day, following intuition, finding gratitude in the unknown. If you aren’t a believer, I would argue that we use magic everyday – language is a spell, we use it to talk about things that do not exist yet, bring them into fruition. We use it to give meaning to most everything around us.

What Halloween costume from your past are you most proud of?

When I was in around 4th grade I went as an orc & I was unknowingly coming down with swine flu at the time. I went trick or treating with my siblings (probably super spreading it all across town) and then that night slipped into an insanely high fever that caused me to have all these crazy hallucinations. I was bedridden for a week lol, but the costume looked awesome

What’s your third space and how did it come to be a part of the way you see yourself and your community?

A show! Wherever it is, that’s always a place where I know I will see friends or make friends with like-minded folks. It reaffirms me in what I am doing and pursuing as an artist.

Do you have any Halloween traditions that you grew up with?

When I was kid, my siblings and I would engage in a post-trick-or-treating highpaced, cut-throat candy trading ritual. We would dump our pillow cases of goods out onto the floor, and haggle with each other to better our haul. Kitkats and crunchbars were treasured, – Babe Ruths & Almond Joys were as worthless as sand. Deals were made, crossed, eaten mid-transaction. It always ended with us all watching a scary movie together.

Mingus W., the creative outlet of Cade Dublin, plays as if Brendon Small set out to record soundtracks to accompany his sincere and adventurous home movies. Documenting life within a single frame, with a level of charm and notion to not take himself too seriously, Cade displays personal grievances and societal dilemmas into personal tunes and stories worth singing after the bar tabs close, the open sign is switched off and the brooms come out for the big sweep. Mingus released his debut LP Have Cake, Eat Two earlier this year, fighting through sugar-fueled tummy aches and colorful explosions to bring out an album of cheeky commentary, dynamic altercations and a newfound sincerity. Mingus W. is a not so gentle reminder that having a laugh is the first step to healing, and whatever may follow, you’re ready to take on.

Do you believe in magic? How do you pitch it to others that may be skeptical or non-believers? 

I believe in magic. I think that card tricks are cool. I like the ones where the card appears in people’s pockets. If magic wasn’t real then there would be lots of loose-lipped card-tricker-doers out there spilling secrets. People hate keeping secrets, it’s not fun, it’s so much more fun to spill. So, yes, I think it’s real. If it wasn’t they would’ve spilled. 

What Halloween costume from your past are you most proud of? 

I dressed up as a cigarette, with an orange beanie to look like I was lit. People used to tell me I was built like a cheese stick so one year I wrapped myself in Saran wrap and spiked my hair and went as string cheese. I like dressing as elongated items.

What’s your third space and how did it come to be a part of the way you see yourself and your community? 

Community is dying and everyone wants theirs to be theirs and no one else’s. Minor inconveniences are one of the most important moments of our lives and we try our darnedest to avoid them at all costs. I’m ashamed to admit I always wear my headphones at the grocery store so no one talks to me. I think my third space, after googling what it meant, is probably walking on the sidewalk. My fourth space is going poop.

Do you have any Halloween traditions that you grew up with? 

At midnight of Halloween, for just one minute, I used to turn into a little goblin and scratch at the walls of my bedroom, but that stopped after I turned like 16. Since then, I usually just drink a lot of beers and pretend I’m a princess on Halloween.

Message the Ugly Hug or The Apartment for address. Hope to see you there!

Written by Shea Roney