Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In my mind at least, DIY concerts are practically synonymous with art-damaged loft parties and house shows with a half dozen crusty hardcore bands on the bill, but promoters have been working outside the established venue circuit since before the circuit was established. In this week’s B Side cover story, Jake Austen profiles Fletcher “Spoon” Weatherspoon, who’s been putting on shows since 1951 and is one of the last living pillars of the “social club” scene that once formed a robust alternative entertainment market among black Chicagoans. The punk-born DIY community could stand to pick up some of the social-club scene’s panache—the groups putting on the shows had immensely styling names like the Gents Optimistic, the Foxy Mannequins, Les Sophisticates Modernistics, the Monarch-etts, and the Space Queens.
