While there are plenty of festivals in the city of Chicago to choose from, ranging from the high acts and prices of Lollapalooza, to the now 20 year old Riot Fest, there is only one where you can not only discover new local acts in the city, but find new friends to support in your scene. Bummer Summer is celebrating its second year with an impressive pool of talent, with the headliners as its own organizers. Tenmonthsummer, or more specifically (as the shoutouts were barreling towards the deserving organizer all night), frontman Nishat Ahmed, has created a space where not only old friends can come together for a night of music and familiarity, but also inviting any new fans to find their new favorite act, opening a space that allows for Chicago’s best to let loose. With the acts being Chicagoland natives, there was enough excitement before the show even started for some, knowing that the “hometown” feel was both in the crowd and on the stage. Even when doors opened at 5:30pm that evening, there was an air of familiarity, with people coming together to say hi to old friends, or plenty of handshakes in between and after sets for those making new connections.

For me, the best part of the night was the blasting air conditioning that not only gave room for a breather from the ongoing heatwave, but had the room spinning and moshing well into the evening. While Memory Gardens were the first ones on the bill, they still gave Beat Kitchen a set that proves for bright skies in their future. Impressing with fast paced drumming and clever tongue in cheek lyricism, Memory Gardens were pretty late to be added to the bill. Despite some technical difficulties after just two songs in their set along with missing two of their members, they still took to the stage as if they practiced every day for the past 5 months. (Or you could say…. Ten months.) An excellent blend of pop punk influence and original ideas, Memory Gardens is a band that you don’t want to miss before they’re playing sold out shows in their near future.

Next on the bill were the all grrl act Hotell. Opening up the floor with an original song, it’s easy to see that many of their childhood influences play a part in both their own musical feats and their onstage performances. Hotell is a band that can so clearly be seen in sync and in their element on stage – with the girls stopping at one point during the middle of a song to link arms, clink their beers, and take swigs all in one beautiful fluid motion, getting right back to shredding after their ritual. Even aside from their fun on stage, I was absolutely blown away at the vocal range, with Hotell playing a few covers, from Paramore’s “Still Into You” to classic 80’s American Hits, from which some of their own originals have taken inspiration. While at the start of their set they told us it was their first time playing at Beat Kitchen, the set that Hotell played felt as if they were well on their way to bigger things tomorrow.

Lavender Point is a band that I have had the pleasure of seeing four times now, and each time gets better than the last. Like Hotell before, Lavender Point is a band that is in sync on stage, and they know it. Cracking jokes between songs while keeping the fast paced riffs and two stepping beats, they’re consistently keeping up with their own output of energy to the point where I start wondering if they’re superhuman and just never get tired! Along with originals, Lavender Point proved that no music genre is safe from their grasp, as a cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” was included on the set. Overdriven guitars with the iconic beat coming from the kit at the back of the stage, there was noticeable excitement before the song even started in the room full of emo kids. Ending a perfect set with high energy, Lavender Point paved the way for what was to come during the next set.

If you have never seen Splitjaw before, and live within the radius of a show that they’re playing, then you are severely missing out on icons. As the fourth band on the bill, people were already revved up, and the floors were, quite literally, bouncing from the bass and how many people were moving in the small Beat Kitchen back room. From a pit that didn’t die down until their set ended, to the nonstop spinning and headbanging, Splitjaw is no stranger to getting a room hot and sweaty. Along with playing songs from their first EP, Artificial Spine, the band played unreleased songs from their new LP, even mentioning that one of the songs “may be our best yet, I don’t want to speak too soon though.” (I think I agree.) Always a joy to see, hardcore band Splitjaw knows how to keep a room moving.

Four Stars took the stage quickly after Splitjaw, proving that pop punk is still a genre that’s well nested in not only our hearts, but in Beat Kitchen’s, for that matter. Bringing in a wave of faces in the crowd during their set with heartfelt lyrics and fun instrumentals to match, the best way to describe the vibes of the set is playful, as it can be seen both off stage and on stage from the three piece. The highlight of my night was their seemingly back and forthing on stage, making you feel as if you were just witnessing some friends and their hangout. Dancing and having a good time with it all, Four Stars easily may be my new hometown heroes.

Ghoul For A Goblin are a band that blew me away with the talent that shines throughout their band. Another band that I have had the luck to see live for the first time, they keep heads bumping, and it feels criminal that they have only 100 Spotify listeners. While they often have a melancholy feel to their instrumentals, they can keep up the pace when you least expect it, keeping the timing along with heartfelt and tender lyrics. Before the end of their set, the band showed off their skills in range by covering Turnover’s “I Would Hate You If I Could,” showing off to be a crowd pleaser. Nailing the same energy the original carries while also showing off their own prowess, Ghoul For A Goblin is already proving to be legends in the scene, and I cannot wait to see them again when I get the chance.

If we were counting, Wilmette would be a headliner in the world of Bummer Summer 2. Yet again, a new wave of faces piled into the still chilled room of the Beat Kitchen, and if it wasn’t obvious before, it was now that Wilmette was a source of inspiration for many. Despite being a band for just short of a decade, the Chicago suburban five piece still have the same game and are not short of breath in any sense of the phrase. Perfectly giving a combination of pop punk and hardcore elements, Wilmette are legends in their own right.

Last but not least is Tenmonthsummer, the head honchos of Bummer Summer as the headliners and organizers. The room easily filled as people moved close, with the set including mic grabbing, two covers that included Turnover’s “Cutting My Fingers Off” (a homage to their own namesake) and The Killer’s “When We Were Young”. Of course, also playing songs off their debut EP fate lines, along with new tunes, kept the room kept moving. Tenmonthsummer is a band that doesn’t focus too much on the lows of life, as showcased off of fate lines, and being able to see them live always feels like everyone in the room is or has been friends, with the amount of interaction that frontman Nish keeps going throughout the set. Calling out loved ones that songs are about while also keeping the microphone out for others to join in, the energy was kept as a solid bubble contained in the room, allowing yourself to be free of worries from the outside world. Most impressively, however, was drummer Luke Smith playing with just one hand throughout the entire set, his right hand having to be frozen so as to not hurt the injury further. Despite it all, Tenmonthsummer played flawlessly and proves that they can bring together any room if given the chance.

After the show, I got a chance to talk with Nish, and how he was able to put together such a great lineup for a single night.

“Bummer Summer is a mini festival that we started ourselves last year, and I do like 98% of the booking work. We’ve been working in conjunction with Kickstand Productions, namely Bridget from OK Cool, has helped us book it as well, and so we’ve been playing at the Kitchen the last two years. We just wanted to give them a shout out because even though we say DIY, obviously we’re using some global resources we have, and it’s really nice that they are letting this happen.”

Despite the also ongoing Pugfest in Ferndale, Michigan, there was still a crowded room by the time Tenmo had come onto the stage, and in more honesty, the crowds were already filling by the time Splitjaw had taken the stage earlier in the night. “There’s a lot of competition, and also just not a lot of space in the Chicago scene, unfortunately.  A lot of DIY spaces are getting shut down, or houses just can’t subsist. We have to depend on, you know, some of the more traditional venues here, so I really appreciate Beat Kitchen, Kickstand, and Bridget for letting Bummer Summer happen. This festival is really aimed towards highlighting mainly local acts. We obviously have some touring bands sometimes come through, but mainly highlighting bands that don’t get the opportunity to play these kind of stages, or just wouldn’t break through some of the booking ceilings we have in the city, whether it’s because they’re too small or because additionally, music has, you know, propped up cis white men a lot.” 

“These bands have trans folks, queer folks, indigenous folks, people of color, all identities, different abilities, etc. Different genres too, and it’s just important to me to make that space in the city, because I’ve been going to shows here since I was 16, god, I’m 31 now. Haha.”

I agreed with Nish on the fact that the emo music scene has its fair share of white cis men, and it was refreshing, to say the least, in seeing fellow BIPOC, queer folks sharing the stage as well. “For 15 years, I’ve seen… not myself and not other people that look different on these stages a lot, so it’s a privilege that we, even as a band, can do it. We’ve had, in the few years we’ve been a band, some pretty humbling success. We want to use every single ounce of our platform to also bring others up with us, because we’ve had opportunities. Bands like Bottom Bracket, Speed, Bike Routine, Fuss, people of that caliber have brought us up as well as we’ve come through.”

With 8 bands in a single night, I had to know how Nish even took on this feat. “What we do with Bummer Summer is try to have it almost half and half, right? Like, obviously we can’t escape the fact that music, currently, especially when you’re using non DIY venues, is tied to capitalism, right? The venue, people that bartend, the servers of the kitchen, the sound person, the show booker… They deserve to get paid to use the labor, right?”

“Usually, the latter half of the night is filled with the bands that are doing some of the more heavy lifting to bring some people to the room, and with the front half, there’s less pressure. Obviously, we want everyone to bring people, but the way it works is everyone gets an even split, despite some of the bigger bands doing some work for the people.”

“We’d love to get more touring bands on this, but we would just need more time and people to show up to do it.” With touring nowadays, Nish understands that if you get a band on a bill, you need to take care of that band. “If you’re from out of town, you’re driving a car. Let’s say you’re coming from Ohio, even though you need to spend two tanks of gas to get here. That’s 80 bucks, right there. Now you have $100 leftover. You have five people in the band you need, you need to eat food prices in Chicago, you’re paying roughly $10 to $20 a person. Maybe that’s everything you made, everything you made from the show itself is going to gas and food, barely, if not that, right? Then it comes down to people having to buy merchandise. You buy one t-shirt for a band that’s straight $15 profit.”

“If there are bands that you like, tag them, talk to them. A lot of bands don’t know about Bummer Summer. If they hear about this and say, ‘Oh, there are fans that want us to do this,’ that gets them opening that email. It takes community, this is meant to be community and a community like effort, from both the bands and the fans.”

After our discussion with touring and supporting Bummer Summer, I asked Nish if there was anything on the band’s side that he wanted to promote, and discovered their next project will be titled midwestern haikus, along with their recently announced tour with Bottom Bracket. “I love them. They mean so much to us, both as people and as a band and as an inspiration in the community, as friends. We’re really grateful that they’re letting us come along on this ride with the,. It’s exciting as hell, we love new cities.”

“We’re moving onto some cooler things. We were on track for EP 2 to come out in a few months, and with Luke’s wedding and also breaking his wrist, he couldn’t record the drums, so it pushed it back. In the meantime, we wrote and created this sixth song, acoustic/lofi EP, that’s gonna surprise drop maybe in the next month or so. Just to give people something, it’s gonna be like… we’re recording it in basically a week or so, it’s just gonna feel like we almost just picked up the iPhone for recording. Just some raw stories, it’s gonna be called midwestern haikus. It’ll be more poetic and lyrics focused with some pretty stuff beneath it.”

“We’re living in an era of dystopia, of fear, negativity, of anxiety. We just wanted to offer a little nugget of summer, you know some warmth and joys and tenderness. Like little capsules of love that we can hold on to. Until EP 2 comes out, which will still have some of those themes, but definitely will be more reflective on some of the more horrible things happening in the world and our place in it, and how we can both negate it and fight back against it.”

It’s safe to say that I can see a bright future for Bummer Summer 3 and the acts that will be possibly surrounding it. As for now, you can follow Tenmonthsummer and see what they’re up to, and catch them on their tour with Bottom Bracket.

Follow Tenmonthsummer Here

All photos courtesy of Shaylyn Marie