Empty Bottle

Empty Bottle Music, Friendly, Dancing
7 nights/week
(4813)

n 1992 the Empty Bottle started out as a cat-ridden hole-in-the-wall bar in Ukrainian Village (just south of Wicker Park) where you could get any one of nine beers for a buck-fifty or less, play pool for 50 cents, and find everything from Monster Magnet to Bill Monroe on the jukebox. On Halloween of 1993, we moved two blocks up the street and threw open the doors to our new, sound-equipped, slight

ly larger hole with three nights of great shows, culminating with a SCRAWL performance that could have been a scene out of “Carrie.”

We’ve done a bunch of shows since then; in fact, we’ve been anything but empty these last 20 or so years, thanks to the same low prices, lack of attitude, and dedicated regulars that made the original bar such a success.

05/26/2026

Holy hell – day two of was fu***ng incredible. One for the books. Still recovering. Absolute joy & excellence. Thank you for coming.

A massive thanks to , , , , , , & . The best. Just really, really somethin’ else.

Thanks to the incredible staff. Thank you for capturing these everlasting memories. Thank you to & for the art, the wares, the tattoos. Thank you to for the heady-ass visuals. for their support & boat playlists. for said boats. for the dock. Our partners , , , , & for hangin’, samplin’, chillin’. Hell yeah.

Who do y’all want to see next year? Countin’ down the damn days.

“Come on down here where everything is warm love and cool dreams forever.” - Nelson Algren

05/24/2026

Thanks for joining us for day one of . That was fun as hell.

Special thanks to , , , , , & . Incredible artists. Immaculate sets. Good fu***ng times.

Did you get a tattoo at ? Purchase some fine art from ? Ride a boat with & ? Did you play some games ? Eat some ? Blessed.

We’re doin’ it all again today– doors at 1pm. The homies kick it off at 2pm on the Fairgrounds. Some tix still available online or at the door. May we say– c’mon now?

🎥 🐐

05/15/2026

Sessa! Saturday! Here at our humble abode!

Sessa f***s, bruv. Straight up. A gorgeous mish mash of samba, jazz, rock & soul that cuts straight to the heart. Pulsing through your capillaries. Our modern Brazilian Topicalista.
Do you miss smiling? Do you miss weeping softly & peacefully? Do you miss swaying your body around in a nice, safe environment? You’ve come to the right place.

welcomes .sessa.sessa with special guest this Saturday, May 16th. Tickets on sale at our damn website. De nada.

05/01/2026

Twisted Tea Party: The Grand Opening of the Empty Bottle is tomorrow— Saturday, May 2nd from 4pm-8pm sponsored by .

What makes us happy?? You really wanna fu***ng know?? Smashing $5 Twisteds outdoors. That’s what makes us happy. Tomorrow it all begins. Pizza, games, tunes, hangs. Come chill out with us before the show. We love you.

Warm Love Cool Dreams Music & Arts Festival from Empty Bottle Presents returns May 23rd & 24th at the Salt Shed in Chica...
02/03/2026

Warm Love Cool Dreams Music & Arts Festival from Empty Bottle Presents returns May 23rd & 24th at the Salt Shed in Chicago.

The wide-ranging, multi-genre festival takes place across the entirety of the Salt Shed facility: indoors, outside on the Fairgrounds, as well as the cocktail bar Three Top Lounge and arcade Elston Electric. Warm Love Cool Dreams proudly features the inclusion of Oddball Market and the Arts of Life Studio Sale, as well as river boat rides around Goose Island for attendees.

The festival boasts an exciting, eclectic lineup that runs the gamut, including Australian indie royalty Courtney Barnett, the genre-shapeshifting maestro Toro y Moi and legendary Scottish post-punk quartet The Jesus and Mary Chain. Alongside Chicago mainstays Tortoise, Whitney and Pixel Grip and sensations of the underground like Nourished By Time, Smerz and YHWH Nailgun, Warm Love Cool Dreams aims to amplify the next wave of boundary-pushing artists, connecting the city of Chicago to the worldwide avant-garde in one unified, forward-thinking celebration.

Two Day & Single Day Passes are on sale this Friday at 10am CST at warmlovecooldreams.com.

Saturday, May 23
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Tortoise
Pixel Grip
Smerz
YHWH Nailgun
Kumo 99
Mark William Lewis

Sunday, May 24
Courtney Barnett
Toro y Moi
Whitney
Nourished By Time
Moin
Being Dead
Lauren Auder
To***co City

Art by Camilo Medina

Music Frozen Dancing returns on February 21, 2026! Our epic, frigid little festival is back with a vengeance, right outs...
01/06/2026

Music Frozen Dancing returns on February 21, 2026!

Our epic, frigid little festival is back with a vengeance, right outside the Bottle on Cortez from 1pm until darkness falls. Brought to you by Empty Bottle Presents & Goose Island Beer Company. A glimmer of warmth during the doldrums of wintertime. Let’s have some fun, huh?

Sextile & Snõõper on New Years Eve at Empty Bottle. December 31, 2025. The year is already coming to an end. It’s obviou...
10/29/2025

Sextile & Snõõper on New Years Eve at Empty Bottle. December 31, 2025.

The year is already coming to an end. It’s obviously been an absolute fu***ng nightmare, so we figured we needed to book the best, most fun NYE show ever. The seemingly unlikely yet perfect pairing of Sextile and Snõõper. Two of the best live bands in the entire country.

We literally saw a photo of the two bands hanging out together on Instagram so we shot our shot and to our surprise, they said yes. It turns out a bit of electronic darkwavey post-punk goes quite nicely with jagged, joyous rock & roll played at breakneck speed. Together at last.

As always, a champagne toast at midnight served in our finest plastic.
Happy New Year, Chicago. On sale this Friday at 10am.

09/23/2025

This Sunday, September 28th, we’re pleased to welcome Hand Habits, touring in support of their incredible new record Blue Reminder.

90’sish indie rock that soars through the breeze, songs of hope and yearning and fear that sound both carefree and careful. Songwriter and most-excellent guitarist Meg Duffy has garnered some beautiful acclaim for their new collection of bops, the New York Times raising the LP up as “a tender and endearing album that feels like a culmination of a decade of intense musical practice and work.” Yes indeed. We’re floating in the same sonic universe as Aimme Man and Neko Case. Fuzzy, rhythmic, explorative rock and roll, baby. It’s beautiful work.

We’re so excited to see it live along with the daringly sensational Fashion Club returning to us once again. To ensure proper entrance and arrival, grab a ticket right now in the comments. See you soon.

For our 33rd birthday, we’re having a party. A really, really big party. Introducing 33 ⅓ – an extra-special, celebrator...
07/23/2025

For our 33rd birthday, we’re having a party. A really, really big party. Introducing 33 ⅓ – an extra-special, celebratory series of shows to commemorate the Bottle somehow existing for this long. We can’t believe it either.

We’ve only celebrated our existence once before, our 25th Anniversary in 2017, which was sick as hell, everyone happy-cried, and a ton of amazing bands played. We’re doing something wilder and weirder this time around and celebrating our 33 ⅓ anniversary (like a vinyl record, heh). 33 years ago the Bottle dropped the needle, hit “play” and we’ve been spinnin’ ever since (c’mon now). Prepare yourselves for this lineup.

SAVE THE DATE(S): October 31st - November 10th.
Subscribe to the Empty Bottle newsletter and stay tuned for further announcements and exclusive presales on all shows.

Any guesses on who will grace the hallowed stage?

Plantasia Single-Day lineups & tickets are on sale now. Full live sets across the entirety of the fairgrounds at the Gar...
07/10/2025

Plantasia Single-Day lineups & tickets are on sale now.

Full live sets across the entirety of the fairgrounds at the Garfield Park Conservatory amidst the lush foliage and greenery. Projection-mapped visuals by Reflections, a curatorial platform for sound, light, and space. Presented by Empty Bottle Presents, Sacred Bones and Garfield Park Conservatory. See you soon.

Sunday, September 14th
Suzanne Ciani
Windy & Carl
Kara-Lis Coverdale
Jill Fraser
Vines
Zander Raymond
Jeff Kolar
visuals by Reflections

Monday, September 15th
Tim Hecker
Arooj Aftab
John Carrol Kirby
Voice Actor
Don Slepian
Roméo Poirier
African-American Sound Recordings
NOSEDRIP
visuals by Reflections

Ticket link in comments.

Address

1035 N Western Avenue
Chicago, IL
60622

Opening Hours

Monday 5pm - 2am
Tuesday 5pm - 2am
Wednesday 5pm - 2am
Thursday 5pm - 2am
Friday 5pm - 2am
Saturday 5pm - 2am
Sunday 5pm - 2am

Telephone

+17732763600

Website

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