December in Chicago can be so dark and gloomy that even people who like the holiday season might wish for a reprieve. Local band Beach Bunny debuted the Pool Party mini fest (named after a 2016 EP) in August 2023, and now it’s returning as Pool Party on Ice to give you a dose of summer when you most need it. Your body may still be in the midwestern winter, but with the right tunes you can imagine yourself in any sun-kissed locale. Lili Trifilio founded Beach Bunny as a solo project in 2015 and expanded it into a full band in 2017. The group’s toothy but squeaky-clean indie rock expertly complements Trifilio’s clarion-strong delivery of her witty, relatable lyrics. Beach Bunny’s tunes tackle heartbreak, self-discovery, and the pressures of modern life with disarming directness—they feel primed to soundtrack Netflix teen rom-coms. Their breakout song, 2018’s “Prom Queen,” was inspired by a friend of Trifilio’s who battled an eating disorder, and their latest single, September’s “Clueless,” confronts the disillusionment of realizing your teenage dreams aren’t quite panning out.
Beach Bunny headline on Saturday (and play a different set on night two), and AJ & Aly, aka Los Angeles–based sisters AJ and Aly Michalka, headline on Sunday. As teens in the mid-2000s, they often worked on Disney projects (Aly starred in a Disney Channel movie, and in 2005 the duo toured with the Cheetah Girls), but they’ve since carved out an identity of their own that reconciles their conservative Christian upbringing with their progressive politics. They use their platform to address reproductive justice, voting rights, and suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth, and along with their catchy tunes, this has helped them pull off the rare feat of bridging mainstream pop and the subculture of Christian music. The sisters’ latest single, the contemplative “Sirens,” deals with their experience surviving a mass shooting in 2022, and when it came out in September they announced a partnership with nonprofit March Fourth to call for the reinstatement of the federal ban on assault weapons. As Aly told Mother Jones in 2019, “If we do get a backlash from the right wing, we gladly take it on.” The six other acts on the two-day bill include LA pop rockers Honey Revenge, local punk group Scarlet Demore, and LA-based singer-songwriter Caroline Kingsbury, who brings ferocious poise and a battery of 80s-inspired sounds to her glammy queer ballads.
Pool Party on Ice night one Featuring Beach Bunny, Honey Revenge, Caroline Kingsbury, and Hank Heaven (solo). Sat 12/28 at 6:30 PM, and Sun 12/29 at 6 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, single-day and two-day passes sold out, 17+