The iO Theater, in collaboration with Truth Zone Records, is proud to present THAWED OUT – a new, single-day music and arts festival held at the legendary iO Theater on April 26th, 2025.
The festival will be held at the historic improv comedy theater’s Lincoln Park location, located at 1501 N Kingsbury St, and will feature two stages, one indoor and one outdoor, and will feature the mixed media visual art of 15 incredible visual artists as well as live music performances from 8 amazing bands spanning the genres of folk, jazz, rock, and more.
General admission single day pass tickets are on sale now. Early bird pricing is available until April 1st. Grab your tickets HERE.
Featuring live performances by:
ROSALI
DAVID NANCE & MOWED SOUND
RICH RUTH
MINOR MOON
THE CURLS
ELKHORN
CALEB WILLITZ, ELIJAH MCLAUGHLIN & TOMMASO MORETTI
FRANK HURRICANE
Artwork by:
Won Kim
Inaki Munoz
Le Panther
Pat Marek
Connor Ryan Degnan
Hori Miso
Natalie Clare
Zorzorzor
Garrett Luczak
Dan Estep
Nick Apple
Daniel Harris
Nick Jackson
Lucie Van Der Elst
MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:
“We really hope to bring a new kind of music event to Chicago with Thawed Out. By working with the legendary iO Theater, a venue known for groundbreaking underground art and exploration, we’ve sought out musicians and artists whose work is known for being exploratory, daring, and improvisational. Late April is the perfect time to shrug off the tail end of spring and get a head start on enjoying the perks of Chicago summer weather. Thawed Out will be a transformative experience, both physically and artistically.” – festival organizer, Steve Plock
Thawed Out Fest will also be part art gallery, hosting the work of 12-15 visual artists from Chicagoland and beyond, expertly curated by multidisciplinary artist Pat Marek.
“The theme of the event is Modern Psychedelia —blending vivid, surreal aesthetics with contemporary culture. Expect bright colors, fluid, organic, and dreamlike elements.”
All the work appearing at the festival will be for sale so we encourage guests to show up early to save time to admire the work on display.
FAQ:
How long is the event?
The doors will open at 2pm for all ticket holders. Music will start at 3pm and will wrap up around 12am.
Can I see every act that’s performing?
Yes, please do! Thawed Out will feature two performance stages, one indoors and one outdoors on iO’s spacious patio. The festival schedule is designed so that there is very little to no overlap between acts so that guests cause get the full immersive experience of watching each group perform. Both of the performance spaces are general admission with some seating available first come first served.
Will there be food and beverages?
Yes. The iO Theater’s food and beverage partner Candlelite Lincoln Park will cooking up delicious tavern style thin crust pizza, salads, sandwiches, appetizers, snacks, desserts and more. Full dining service will be available inside the main bar and dining room area for those who want to take a break for a snack or dinner. There will also be mutiple full service bars featuring a wide array of draft beers, bottles and cans, wine, spirits, and craft cocktails. We are also working with some exciting beverage parnters like Apologue Liqueurs, Vers’eau Great Lakes Apéritif, TOKE Seltzers , Metric Coffee to create unique offerings specific to Thawed Out
How can I stay update on any announcements about the festival?
Go follow our Instagram, @thawedoutfest, to stay up to date on festival announcements. You can also learn more there about all the bands and artists who will be featured at the festival.
Can I bring my kids, or my grandparents, or my cousin?
Yes. The iO Theater is an all-ages venue and Thawed Out is an all ages event. All attendees over the age of 12 will need a regular GA ticket.
Can I buy the artwork?
Yes, all of the artwork on display by are expertly curated lineup of visual artists will be for sale. We hope you’ll enjoy their work enough to go home with a piece, or to at the very least, follow these artits and explore more of the work after the festival concludes.
So the venue is a comedy club, but this is a music festival, what’s going on?
Fair question! Yes, The iO Theater is a historic and legendary comedy theater and training center that has been in Chicago since 1981 and has trained and been home to a long list of notable alumni including Mike Meyers, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Chris Farley, Adam McKay, Chris Redd, Sarah Sherman, Tim Robinson, Connor O’Malley, Jason Sudeikis, Seth Meyers, Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, Stephnie Weir, Rachel Dratch and many many more. But one of the theater’s founders, Del Close, was also an influential figure of the 60s counterculture movement and was one of the first light projectionists for The Grateful Dead. The underground, exploratory nature of improvisational music and theater feel so closely intertwined as forms that iO as a venue for this festival felt like the perfect fit. The spacious 30,000 square foot building in Lincoln Park will offer fetival goers plenty of space to enjoy both the music and artwork, while also offering guests to learn a little bit more about the history of this historic venue.
Will there be comedy at the festival too?
No, not this year. The venue will be entirely turned over to Thawed Out for this one day, but the theater has live comedy shows 7 nights a week otherwise and you can learn more about all of their upcoming shows HERE.
What’s this I hear about a Record Fair?
We are hosting a Record Fair at the iO on March 30th from 11am-5pm and it’s free. Come check out the space and browse the crates of over a dozen amazing vinyl/CD vendors from the Chicagoland area. We’ll have food and drinks available and all attendees can enter for a chance to win some free tickets to Thawed Out. More info about the Record Fair can be found HERE.
What if I have more questions that weren’t answered here?
That’s very natural and nothing to be ashamed of. You can email and all inquries to info@ioimprov.com and someone will get back to you within 24 hours.
MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Rosali: North Carolina-based artist Rosali makes songs that take their time in revealing their full power. What might first appear to be restrained, introspective compositions will stretch slowly outward, snagging your attention with a subtly sideways guitar lead or an exceptionally raw lyric you didn’t catch the first time around. A child of two musicians, Rosali grew up as part of a large family that sang together and taught themselves various instruments, finding the earliest forms of her musical voice harmonizing and making up songs with her sisters. As an adult, Rosali merged this musical upbringing with an active involvement in Philly’s experimental and D.I.Y. community.
David Nance & Mowed Sound – David Nance is a musician based in Omaha, Nebraska and David Nance and the Mowed Sound is his latest group and recording project. Led by Nance on vocals, guitar and whatever instrument needs playing, with partners in crime Kevin Donahue on drums, James Schroeder on guitar and Derrick Higgins and Sam Lipsett on bass. David Nance and Mowed Sound is the first album by the Nance group on Third Man Records but it arrives on the heels of over a decade of sprawling releases by the prolific Omaha songwriter. Songs like these don’t spring from the head of Zeus, after all. Picasso famously said, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal,” an admission that the only way you can hope to ever be original is to impersonate, chew up, distort and regurgitate without shame the things you love that came before.
Rich Ruth – Rich Ruth, the recording project of Nashville multi-instrumentalist Michael Ruth, makes wholly immersive instrumental songs that thread the line between gleefully adventurous and calmingly meditative. His music starts in solitude with mesmerizing loops and drones anchoring the arrangements that are eventually colored in by an eclectic cast of collaborators. The resulting exploratory compositions, which combine spiritual jazz, synth-infused post-rock, and cosmic ambient, often beguile but they always soar with a palpable immediacy. His new album Water Still Flows is both his heaviest and his most cathartic. Across seven songs, the LP is both a document of an artist stretching the limits of his process and a testament to how songwriting can be a personally grounding force.
Minor Moon – Minor Moon is the songwriting project of Chicago-based musician Sam Cantor. Conjuring elements of J.J. Cale, Grizzly Bear and Judee Sill, the band’s latest album, The Light Up Waltz (Ruination Record Co.) takes a big-hearted and kaleidoscopic lens to apocalyptic themes. The resulting vision is “deeply adventurous … [with] a sharp, reflective eye on the rearview mirror” (Pop Matters) and shot through with “soothing, sure-footed tenderness … [and] an undeniable buoyancy” (Chicago Reader).
Elkhorn – Elkhorn, the psych-folk guitar duo of Drew Gardner (NYC) and Jesse Sheppard (Philly), is known for the interaction of Sheppard’s earthy 12-string acoustic fingerpicking with Gardner’s expansive multi-instrumentalist improvisation. The band has put out thirteen albums since 2016, four of them released in 2024. Elkhorn demonstrates again and again that there is no height they won’t scale, no direction they won’t travel. Their music unfolds at its own unhurried yet boundary-pushing psychedelic pace, freely mixing folk, blues, cosmic jazz and anything in between.
Frank Hurricane – Frank Hurricane is a spiritual blues and folk musician/storyteller from the South and the North of the holy US. He has been traveling and performing in the spiritual underground and DIY scenes for over a decade, gathering tales and touring the world. He has self released many records and also has put out records on Feeding Tube, Ultra Excema, Mystra, Scissortail, and many other exceptional labels. PBS recently made an Emmy-nominated documentary about his musical journey. He has performed with many legends across the spiritual board and has hiked thousands of mile of trails in the mountains.
The Curls – The Curls are an underground experimental rock band with a cult-like following. Founded in Chicago, the band has performed at Pitchfork Music Festival, Lollapalooza & SXSW. The group has provided music for television series like Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Stereogum describes The Curls sound as “Acid fried Talking Heads”. They have toured North America and overseas the past 9 years performing alongside artists like Tame Impala, Post Animal, Dehd, Wombo, Maps & Atlases and Sunburned Hand of the Man. They’ve been featured in various media outlets including Pitchfork, Stereogum, Chicago Tribune and the NY Times. They’ve received praise from legendary artists like Adrian Belew, Ariel Pink and R. Stevie Moore.
Caleb Ellitz, Eliah McLaughlin, and Tommaso Moretti – Elijah McLaughlin, a Chicago-based guitarist who has released three well-regarded albums as bandleader of the Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble (Astral Spirits, Tompkins Square), and his long time friend and collaborator, Caleb Willitz, a recording engineer, producer, and sound artist, are in their element on this album, as each musician is constantly feeding off the other’s creativity. The eight tracks that make up Morning Improvisations / Evening Abstractions are replete with experimentation, and each performance displays a building excitement and exudes inspiration. Willitz, who also worked with the likes of Jeff Parker and Bill MacKay, and McLaughlin set up the ideal conditions to invoke the best of their abilities, allowing for even the recording process itself to take on a more spontaneous spirit. The duo set up camp in Willitz’s studio to work without the restraints of time, a move that allowed total freedom to create adventurously. Utilizing a refurbished 8-track tape machine, the pair was only restricted by the 25-minute limit of their analogue reels of tape. With McLaughlin playing an electric guitar routed through stereo amplifiers and various effects and Willitz playing piano while simultaneously controlling a tape delay with a foot pedal, the two developed ethereal and transcendental soundscapes that exist somewhere between free jazz, post-rock, and ambient music.
