Flea and the Honors Band & 4 More Chicago Plans This Week

Flea jazz at Thalia, a free immersive show in Evanston, honky tonk happy hour at Empty Bottle, a 40-vendor night market, and a Wrigleyville pickle festival.

By Raj Singh · Published May 7, 2026.

Thursday in Chicago: a chilly, overcast 61F kind of day — the city is reaching for sweaters again before the real warmth shows up this weekend. The week ahead has range. Tonight Flea (yes, that Flea) is at Thalia Hall with a working jazz quartet, and there's a free immersive exhibition open up in Evanston for the lower-key crowd. Friday brings a free honky-tonk happy hour at Empty Bottle and a 40-vendor maker's market inside a glass-blowing studio. Saturday warms up to 72F just in time for a Wrigleyville-wide pickle festival — yes, really, and yes, you'll have fun. Here's what to do.

THURSDAY, MAY 7

Flea and the Honors Band @ Thalia Hall

If you only know Flea as the bassist who plays in his underwear with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, this show is going to recalibrate something. Honora is Flea's solo debut — described by his own camp as "kaleidoscopic, bracingly forward-looking, and defiantly colorful." He plays trumpet on it (his original instrument, before bass was even on his radar) alongside electric bass, and he's surrounded himself with some of the most fearless improvising musicians currently active: drummer Deantoni Parks, bassist Anna Butterss, and Chicago's own Jeff Parker on guitar with Josh Johnson on saxophone. This isn't a Chili Peppers warm-up gig. It's a working jazz quartet record, and they're playing it at one of the best rooms in the city.

Thalia Hall in Pilsen is exactly the right size for this — about 800 capacity, ornate balcony, sightlines that put you close enough to watch Flea actually decide what to play next. Standing-room downstairs, seated-ish upstairs (it's reserved benches, not assigned chairs, so first-come). Show's at 8pm but get there early — Pilsen on a Thursday is one of the most underrated dinner moves in the city. Walk a block north to Birrieria Zaragoza for goat birria tacos, or hit Pleasant House Pub two doors down from Thalia for a proper British steak-and-ale pie before doors. If you want sit-down with cocktails, S.K.Y. on 18th has a tasting menu that holds up.

Tickets were available as of pipeline scrape but moving — Flea-led anything with Jeff Parker in Chicago will sell. Thalia is on the Pink Line (18th St stop, two blocks east). If driving, the lots on Halsted fill up; you're better off parking on a side street north of Cermak. Weather tonight is 61F and overcast — light layers, you'll be fine. 21+ for the bar; the show itself is all ages.

Walldrawings: Friedhard Kiekeben & Maria Burundarena @ Evanston Art Center

If you want a quieter Thursday — something that doesn't involve a bar tab — this one's worth the trip up the Purple Line. Walldrawings pairs two artists in active dialogue: Friedhard Kiekeben's source works are large-format pieces on inkjet-printed paper and pasted vinyl, abstract and architectural. Maria Burundarena was invited in to respond — she's added reflective surfaces, mirrored spaces, LED light interventions, and pillar wrappings that turn the First Floor Gallery into one immersive room rather than a series of hung canvases. The press copy calls it an exhibition that "invites contemplation and a multiplicity of views and readings," which is the kind of thing curators always say, but here it's earned: you genuinely see different work depending on where you stand.

Evanston Art Center is in the old Harley Clarke Mansion area on Central Street — a beautiful, slightly weird old building right by the lakefront. The neighborhood around it is leafy north Evanston, walking distance from a stretch of Central with some of the better food in the burb: Tomate (Mexican, big plates, BYOB), Lulu's (modern Asian small plates, half-block south), or if you want a coffee-and-walk-the-lake vibe, Brothers K Coffeehouse and then a stroll down to Lighthouse Beach. The exhibition is in the First Floor Gallery — it runs daily until Sunday May 17, so if today doesn't work, the weekend is also live (Saturday/Sunday hours are 9am–4pm).

Free admission, no RSVP needed, just show up between 9am and 4pm on a weekday (or 9–4 weekend hours). If you're driving from the city, ~25 min via Lake Shore Dr/Sheridan; from the Loop, take the Purple Line to Central and walk 12 minutes east. EAC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the exhibit is partially funded by the Illinois Arts Council — supporting them by showing up costs you nothing.

FRIDAY, MAY 8

Hard Country Honky Tonk with The Hoyle Brothers @ Empty Bottle

Some weekly residencies become institutions, and the Hoyle Brothers' Friday happy-hour set at Empty Bottle is one of them. They've been doing this for nearly two decades — a rotating lineup of veteran Chicago players grinding out hard-country and classic honky tonk in the front room while the regulars file in straight from work. The do312 listing nails the energy: "Grease your gears and clutch-it-up. The Hoyle Brothers are lightin' the way on the Chicago country music scene, servin' up a honky-tonkin' good time." Steel guitar, telecaster twang, songs about drinking and trucks and being broke — it is exactly what it says on the tin, and it is genuinely great.

Empty Bottle is the dive-bar-of-record for Ukrainian Village/Humboldt Park — graffiti-covered, photobooth in the corner, Old Style on tap, friendliest bartenders in the city. The crowd for Hoyle Brothers skews older and locals-heavier than the late-night indie shows the Bottle is famous for: think after-work crowd, people slow-dancing without irony, a few cowboy hats that have actually seen a horse. The food move is right next door at Bite Cafe (same owners, same building, connected through a hallway) — burger, falafel, killer salads, opens straight into the bar so you can run a Bite tab from the show.

FREE entry, 21+, 5:30pm to roughly 7:30pm. No tickets needed, no advance anything — just walk in. Friday is forecast 60F and overcast with light chance of drizzle, so it's a good night to be inside a warm bar with country music. Western Ave bus or a quick rideshare; on-street parking gets tight after 6pm. Tip the band — they've got a tip jar by the merch corner and they've earned every dollar twenty times over.

SAUCED Night Market @ Ignite Glass Studios

SAUCED is a roving local makers' market, and this is their special summer edition back at one of the best venues in the city — Ignite Glass Studios in River West. Over forty vendors are set up across the studio floor and the front lot, hand-picked toward the actually-good end of "craft fair": hand-blown glass flowers from the studio's own artists, delicate watercolors from Nicholas Holman Art, ceramics from Sarah Oak Pottery, candles from Sweet Bippy, and a long list of small-batch food and drink (Ruby Fine Hibiscus Tea, Midwest Nice, Barrovian Books for if you'd rather buy a novel than a candle). Food trucks parked out front: The Fat Shallot (the gem — get the Fat Shallot sandwich, you'll thank me) and Soul & Smoke for BBQ. Inside, 5411 Empanadas is set up for additional savories.

The thing that makes this venue special: Ignite is a working glass studio, not just a rented event space. There are usually live demonstrations happening — molten glass being pulled and blown a few feet from where you're shopping for a $40 print. River West is in a strange transitional pocket between Fulton Market, West Town, and Goose Island — heavy on warehouses turned into design studios and breweries. If you want to make a night of it, walk five minutes south to Forbidden Root for a pre-market pint, or hit Beatnik on the River afterward for a cocktail on a wildly over-decorated rooftop.

Free admission with RSVP through the event website (saucedmarket.com/chicago). Doors at 5pm, runs both Fri May 8 and Sat May 9. Address: 401 N Armour St (cross street Hubbard). The 9 bus stops a block away on Ashland; if driving, the lots around Hubbard/Armour are usually open in the evening. Friday weather: 60F overcast, ~20% rain — bring a light jacket but you'll be inside most of the time. Bring cash for tips and small vendors; most also take cards.

SATURDAY

Chicago Pickle Fest @ Wrigleyville bars

Chicago Pickle Fest is exactly as silly as it sounds, and that's the point. It's a Wrigleyville-wide bar crawl built around the pickle: pickle cocktails (think gin plus pickle brine plus dill, way better than that sounds), pickle-focused food menus, pickleback shots at every stop, and the kind of low-stakes themed fun that's perfect for a Saturday afternoon when you don't want to commit to A Real Plan. The Time Out copy is on-brand: "Do you love all things pickled? Well there's a festival for you. It's a day you'll relish forever." Yes, the pun is in the marketing. Yes, it works.

Wrigleyville on a non-game-day Saturday in May is actually pleasant — the streets aren't packed with Cubs traffic, the bars have actual room to breathe, and you can move between Sluggers, Murphy's Bleachers, Casey Moran's, Cubby Bear, etc. without elbowing anyone. The fest hits "some of the neighborhood's top bars" — your ticket gets you specials and themed menus at participating spots. If you want to break for a real meal, walk three blocks to Crosby's Kitchen for a roast chicken or hit Pequod's on Clybourn (1.5mi south) for the legendary caramelized-crust deep dish. Smoke Daddy on Clark is another solid mid-crawl reset — pulled pork, mac & cheese, sit-down break.

$10 to $30 depending on package (single venue vs multi-venue passport vs full-crawl wristband — check chicagopicklefest.weebly.com for tiers). Noon to 6pm — start with brunch, end before dinner. Saturday weather is the gem of the week: 72F with light drizzle, perfect for popping in and out of bars without overheating. Red Line to Addison drops you in the middle of it; please do not drive. 21+ at every venue, bring ID.