Big Thief, Blues, and a Cat Walk in the Rain

Your daily guide to what's popping in Chicago

By Raj Singh · Published August 13, 2026.

Rain is the headline today — around 75F and wet, with a heavier system rolling in Friday — so this edition leans indoors, where a soggy Thursday actually improves the odds. There is a big-room concert, a comedian testing new material, a free one-night reading down in Hyde Park, and a couple of rain-proof plans to line up for the weekend.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13

Big Thief — Somersault Slide 360 Tour @ The Salt Shed

Adrianne Lenker and Big Thief bring the Somersault Slide 360 Tour to the Salt Shed tonight, the reclaimed Morton Salt plant on Elston that has turned into one of the city's best-sounding rooms. Lenker's songwriting is the engine — Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik, and James Krivchenia build the quiet-to-roar dynamics live that the records only hint at.

Doors and set times run early (the listing has it at 6:15pm) and tickets sit in the $85–$173 range, so this is a plan-ahead night, not a walk-up. The Salt Shed is on the West Town edge with limited street parking, so a rideshare or the Elston bus is the easier call. Tonight reads 75F with rain around 40 percent — if your ticket is for the outdoor Fairgrounds side, pack a poncho and check the venue's stage note before you leave.

Alex Edelman: What Are You Going To Do @ Steppenwolf

Alex Edelman is back at Steppenwolf with a new hour after the sold-out run of Just For Us, the solo show that went from Chicago to Broadway to an HBO special. This is him working out fresh material in a room that already knows him — a rare chance to catch a comedian mid-build rather than on a polished arena tour.

Steppenwolf's Halsted campus makes for an easy Lincoln Park night: the theater is right at 1650 N Halsted, walkable from the Old Town and Clybourn corridors. Showtime is 7:30pm. With heavier rain moving in, an indoor theater seat is the smart use of a soggy Thursday — grab dinner along Halsted before the lights go down.

A Womanist Trilogy: Hurston, Richards, and Kennedy @ David Rubenstein Forum

Court Theatre's Spotlight Reading Series lands a one-night-only triple feature: staged readings of mid-century work by Zora Neale Hurston, Beah Richards, and Adrienne Kennedy, three Black women playwrights who bent theatrical form to their own ends. It is part of Court's 2026 season, A Century of Black Progress, and it is free.

The reading is at the David Rubenstein Forum on the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park — a modern glass tower at 60th and University with skyline views from the upper floors. Free and one-night-only means seats go, so reserve through the link rather than assuming walk-up. It is an indoor, seated evening, which is exactly what this rainy Thursday wants. Confirm the start time on the listing before you head south.

Blues In The Parks at Taylor @ Taylor Park

The Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks series brings free live blues to Taylor Park on 47th Street from 5 to 7pm. No ticket, no cover — just an early-evening set in a South Side neighborhood park, the kind of low-key civic programming that runs all summer and rarely makes the listings.

It is all-ages and free, an easy detour if you are near the 47th Street corridor. One caveat: this is outdoors, and tonight carries about a 40 percent chance of rain at 75F, so these park sets can shift or scrap for weather — check the Park District page before you make the trip. If it holds, bring a folding chair.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14

Gallery Conversation: Anonymity and Authorship in Two Portraits @ Art Institute

The Art Institute hosts a gallery talk on anonymity and authorship in two portraits — a Diego Rivera and an Albert Schindler — tracing how sitters like Luz Jiménez, a Nahua weaver and historian, and Emmanuel Rio, an enslaved Afro-Brazilian musician taken to Vienna around 1820, get recovered from the margins of art history. Luce Curatorial Fellow Sofia Ortega-Guerrero leads it, meeting in Gallery 221.

It is included with museum admission, and Friday's heavy rain makes a few hours inside the AIC an easy sell. The museum sits on Michigan Avenue at the edge of Millennium Park, a short walk from any Loop 'L' stop. For lunch after, the Berghoff on Adams is the old-school move — German classics in a room that has not changed in decades. Confirm the talk's start time on the museum's calendar.

Cat Walk Fundraiser and Fashion Show @ Rockwell on the River

Tree House Humane Society's annual Cat Walk fashion show and fundraiser moves to Rockwell on the River this year — a riverside industrial space in Avondale where the North Side no-kill shelter turns its adoptable cats into the main event. Tickets run around $125 and the money goes straight to the shelter's work.

Doors are 6–9pm Friday. Rockwell on the River is a covered riverfront venue at 3057 N Rockwell, so Friday's heavy rain is not a dealbreaker. It is the rare fundraiser that is genuinely fun — cocktails, a runway, and a room full of cat people. Buy through the link ahead of time; this one draws a crowd.

ON THE HORIZON

Supertri Chicago @ Montrose Harbor

Mark the weekend of August 22: Supertri Chicago — the race formerly known as the Chicago Triathlon — returns with nearly 10,000 swimmers, cyclists, and runners launching from Montrose Harbor, barreling down Lake Shore Drive, and finishing on Columbus Drive. There are courses for every level plus separate kids' races for ages 14 and under.

If you are racing, registration and wave times are worth locking in now at the event site — this is a plan-ahead commitment, not a day-of. If you are spectating, Montrose Harbor is reachable by the Red Line to Wilson plus a short hop east, and the lakefront finish makes for a good morning before the late-summer heat sets in. Expect Lake Shore Drive lane closures both mornings.