Aftershows are always the best. There’s just something in the air that makes everyone put on their Sunday best, at least mentally and emotionally, that is. Everyone is in better spirits, exuding excitement with a helping of determined sociability, which in turn rubs off on the band and gives every concertgoer a show that turns out even better than expected. Ratboys, much like the last 20 years of Lollapalooza, has its roots in Chicago and is one of this city’s proudest indie rock institutions. Besides Wilco and maybe Beach Bunny, I can’t think of another band with deep Chicago roots more popular and beloved in the modern indie circuit as much as Ratboys.
Five albums deep with a sixth fully recorded and on the way next year, Ratboys are so much more as a band than mere local legends. Their fifth full-length album, The Window, not only finally gave them the notoriety and respect they’ve deserved for years amongst their peers and various online publications, but was also far and away their best, most cohesive, and fully realized record to date. Their vision of a post-country midwest indie rock sound was never as complete as on The Window, while still leaving room to grow and expand their sound even more.
I’ve known about Ratboys since I first moved to Chicago in 2021, right after the release of their fourth album, Happy Birthday, Ratboy, but I only recently went all in on their discography ahead of their 2025 Lollapalooza aftershow at Sleeping Village with Hemlock opening. Just as Breaking Bad got better with every season, Ratboys have stepped up their game with every single record, always leaving the previous one coughing up their lungs in the dust, respectfully. With each album, they get closer and closer to unlocking their fullest potential, both sonically and lyrically, and while every album objectively has songs that accomplish that, I don’t think they fully cracked the album code until The Window (and I’m saying that as someone who thinks Happy Birthday, Ratboy is a damn-near perfect record).
I had never seen Ratboys before their Wednesday Lollapalooza aftershow, which was (not to be that guy) technically their Lollapalooza pre-show performance. I didn’t think I could get any more excited to see them in such a beautiful and intimate venue like Sleeping Village, that is, until I saw Hemlock was opening. Hemlock is one of Chicago’s best-kept indie secrets, even though they really do try their hardest to spread the Hemlock gospel by touring like absolute loons.
Hemlock is the musical oasis of Louisiana-born singer and songwriter Carolina Chauffe, with demos on Bandcamp going as far back as 2018. Last year, they released one of the best albums of the year with 444; a truly intentional, cohesive, and fully realized collection of songs that, in at least some small part to me, felt like the first true Hemlock album. It was Carolina’s first album with a full band made up of Bailey Minzenberger from Friko on bass, Andy "Red" PK from Free Range on lead/slide guitar, and Jack Henry from Free Range on drums. Additionally, I believe it was their first outing with a more conventional format/structure of 12 songs coming in at just under 30 minutes, compared to most of their other releases that are usually 15-30-plus songs, adding up to over an hour of music. I attended the 444 album release show at Constellation, and it was an utterly magical experience with all their friends and family there providing such a wholesome display of support and love for not only Hemlock, but Chicago music at large. I couldn’t have been happier to see they were opening up for the mighty Ratboys for such a special occasion that was sure to sell out and give them some very well-deserved exposure.
Hemlock played a truly satisfying set of thirteen songs, eight of them being from 444, one of them being a new song they wrote just mere days prior while driving home from a long tour, and another being a country-fried version of “Headphones On” by Addison Rae, a local hero to Carolina’s hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana. I’ve now seen Hemlock three times, and each show has started and ended with old voicemails sent to Carolina from friends and family with some additional ones sprinkled in throughout the middle portion of their set, too. This isn’t just some cheap ploy to garner some additional laughs or attention, but rather to forge a deeper sense of community and fellowship with their audience. We all have friends and family who each have their own idiosyncrasies, and when we hear Hemlock’s voicemails, they make us feel more at home and safe at their show. It’s why Hemlock is one of my favorite performers because they always make me feel so local and at home when I see them perform.
I’ve also yet to see another band live, local or otherwise, that shows as much support for Gaza and Palestinians as Hemlock. For this show, after a beautiful and poignant speech about why they and their band write and perform music, their purpose as songwriters and storytellers, the local community they work so hard to help maintain and build, and the local Chicago minorities that are being taken from their own beds, streets, and places of work for looking a certain way, they pointed out that they were selling local prints designed by Carolina with all the funds raised going directly to helping nourish two specific families in Palestine. For a band that is still relatively unknown, I think it’s super admirable and respectable for them to take what little earnings they are making per show and give a big portion to help families in need while they try and survive a genocide.
Hemlock are not only good at raising money for humanitarian efforts but also putting on a great rock show. They are all experts in their musical fields, and every song they played sounded spectacular, with Carolina’s vocals and Andy’s slide guitar being my two favorite elements of their sound. As for my favorite performance of theirs at Wednesday’s Lollapalooza aftershow, they brought out Ben Brody, the bassist of Merce Lemon, to help sing “Anything At All”, a song Hemlock only released on their Audiotree live album that came out in April of this year. I had never heard the song before, and it quickly became a favorite of mine as soon as the first chorus hit with Carolina and Ben’s beautifully intertwined vocal melodies, coupled with the song’s murky, cool, and brooding folk melodies that reminded me of old Big Thief. At the end of their set, they all hugged quietly as the house lights came up, and if that doesn’t perfectly describe the kind of band and musicians they are, I don’t know what else possibly could.
Ratboys took the stage in a righteous and uproarous fashion, making good on the promise they made to me telepathically to start the show with my favorite Ratboys song, “Making Noise for the Ones You Love,” the ripping opener to their last album, The Window. In the process of going back through the Ratboys’ discography, “Making Noise for the Ones You Love” made me audibly gasp with how fantastic it sounded, and I just could not believe I had neglected it all these years; how wrong I was... The first five songs Ratboys played were all from The Window, and were the only songs they played from that album for the rest of the night, besides “Black Earth, WI” about halfway through the night.
I love “Making Noise for the Ones You Love” and “Morning Zoo”, so it was no surprise that those songs were a ton of fun live, but songs I’m a little less crazy about, like “It’s Alive!” and “No Way”, were a breath of fresh air! “No Way”, in particular, had an absolutely crushing outro that transitioned seamlessly into a beautiful moment of contrast with the intro acoustic melody to the album title track, “The Window”. Along with “Making Noise for the Ones You Love”, “The Window” is my favorite Ratboys song, and even though I’ve listened to it countless times, I didn’t recognize it when lead singer Julia Steiner started the song. It was much more raw and singular live than on record, with Julia having almost no reverb or soft, subtle synths laying the foundational groundwork behind her gently fingerpicked guitar that is there on the studio recording. All is to say, I didn’t think the song could be improved upon, but absolutely adored the live version we got Wednesday night.
Ratboys really blew up with the last two albums, but one of their most popular songs from before Happy Birthday, Ratboy is “I Go Out At Night” from Printer’s Devil, and they played that next to much fanfare. After, Julia introduced a brand-spankin’-new song called “Light Night Mountains All That” that she noted was the band’s collective favorite from their upcoming fully-recorded sixth studio album to be released sometime next year. The song had a great main riff and was definitely one of their faster and more aggressive songs, but I didn’t pick up much in the way of melody, which is probably just the fault of hearing it live for the first time; even though it wasn’t my favorite song, it definitely showed promise for the new album! Next, the band did the ol’ Chicago 1-2 opening for “Go Outside”, a summery alt-country stomper that has the blood, sunburns, sweats, and tears of a Chicago summer baked into every verse and chorus. After going outside, Ratboys transitioned into the ambitious and long post-country rocker “Black Earth, WI”, the first song released for The Window. The song was one of my favorite songs to hear live since half the song is just a crazy guitar solo leading into an infectious lead riff that the band goes collectively crazy for. The entire eight-plus minutes of Crazy Horse cacophony provided some of the best entertainment the band had to offer that night.
After all the blazing guitar solos and percussive attacks of “Black Earth, WI” concluded, Julia informed us that everything we had heard up until that point was their Lollapalooza set, more or less, and now we’re about to be treated to the extra secret set that the Lolla concertgoers wouldn’t be privy to. They started off the second part of their pre/aftershow with a new song affectionately referred to as “Penny” on their setlist. I loved this new one much more than the previous since it leaned much harder into my favorite aspects of Ratboys’ sound of midwest indie rock, healthily tinged with twang in all the right spots.
They then transitioned into “Elvis in the Freezer”, one of their more popular songs that Julia said they hadn’t played in a hot minute, but they just felt like pulling it out for us Wednesday night because we’re so special. The original recording features pedal steel, but they’re never lucky enough to have one on stage with them; at least, most of the time. Luckily, Andy from Hemlock stayed after their set to help out (and even played their actual Lollapalooza set the next day!). Andy’s honky talents provided some beautiful additional colors to the song’s already lovely palette. From the same album, Julia introduced the opening track to their 2017 GN album called “Molly”, a performance dedicated to their sister who works in immigration social work. She spoke of her impossibly hard year with ICE coming into most big cities, disrupting and displacing hundreds of families, each and every time in a brutal kidnapping-esque fashion.
Their next two songs were both new songs from their forthcoming 2026 album. The first, “The World, So Madly”, was another hit with its big power pop chorus coupled with some wonderful melodic verse moments. The next new one, “Burn it Down”, dedicated to all the outdated and deadly institutions of this country that just need a plain restart, was a moody, spacey, and infectiously dreamy rocker that crescendoed into a grand ol’ finale. It’s hard to tell from hearing all these new songs one time if the band is truly growing and progressing their sound, but they were at least catchy and fun to listen to, so you needn’t worry about new Ratboys letting you down!
For their encore, which they elected not to take and just faked it on stage, Ratboys dragged out another old favorite with “Alien With a Sleep Mask On”, the opening track to their incredible third album, Printer’s Devil. It’s such an upbeat, joyful rocker and proved itself to be effective in getting the crowd efficiently riled up for the end of the show. The band officially ended their Lollapalooza pre/aftershow with another song from Printer’s Devil called “Look To”, a song I wouldn’t have guessed they’d end a set on in a million years as it’s a bit of a sleeper hit on that album but hey, that’s why I’m not in the band and just here writing about their show because boy, what a finale!
As the band left the stage, Sleeping Village understood the assignment and immediately started playing “War Pigs”, and it was a wonderful reminder of all that Ozzy and Black Sabbath at large have done for the world through their brooding, doom-laden tunes. For a sold-out show on a rainy Wednesday night, I couldn’t think of a better way to do it. Although I went in with high expectations, Ratboys exceeded them all; truly, one of my favorite Chicago bands to see live that brought an energy that far too few bands are able to rival these days. I’m not sure what they’re smoking, ingesting, drinking, absorbing, or telepathically imparting, but I want in on some for my day-to-day life. If you missed them at Lollapalooza or their pre/aftershow, I highly recommend catching Ratboys headlining the main stage at Thalia’s Free For All summer concert event happening August 23. There will be a slew of other artists performing in every room and on every stage that Thalia has in their building, plus all the local food, clothing, and homemade trinket vendors your heart can handle. It’s free, you have no excuse. Don’t make Ratboy cry, they just had a birthday!
All photos by Lorenzo Zenitsky.
Support arts and culture journalism today. This work doesn't happen without your support. Contribute today and ensure we can continue to share the latest reviews, essays, and previews of the most anticipated arts and culture events across the city.
