Photo: Beau Wanzer

Under the muggy, stagnant heat of corn sweat blanketing the Midwest, Beau Wanzer escaped his non-air-conditioned apartment to talk about his weirdo sound ahead of his Metro show on August 9, with Black Moth Super Rainbow and clubdrugs. His music, drawing on industrial, horror and house, has a grit that feels inherently Chicago, a place he’s called home for more than two decades. Not exactly techno but dance-adjacent, expect a haven for freaks, punks and wandering souls at any of Wanzer’s shows.

Beau Wanzer: Chicago is one of the cities that still feels truly underground—like, if you don’t live in Chicago, you won’t know a lot of what’s going on.

And there’s a huge underground culture that propels that experimentation.

The longevity of underground spaces in Chicago is quite short. Sometimes people get evicted, or there are sound issues. Spaces might last a year, two tops.

Archer Ballroom is one great example of longevity.

In the early 2000s, it was called Texas Ballroom, and the person who started that works at the MCA now. Back then, there was a huge parachute on the ceiling to limit reverb, and the DJ wasn’t the main center point like today, but more hidden up near the rafters. To get to the booth, you had to climb up this janky staircase ladder. To get down, you had to hop on a slide with your records that ended in a pit of pillows.

That’s so silly! How have you seen these spaces, and the people that move through them, change?

The scene here fluctuates pretty quickly, whether that’s from people just going to college out here or for the glamorized ideals of life in other big cities.

Chicago music history runs deep; there’s so much innovation here. What makes you stay?

Of course, there’s an established techno and house scene, but there are so many weirdo anomalies and punk bands that get their start here. Chicago feels community-based, and I appreciate a smaller scene where you kind of know about all the strange corners.

I hear a lot of this city in your music, an underlying melodic noise that propels your tracks.

Before moving, music was my whole life; I was obsessed with this European rhythmic industrial sound. My first boss in Chicago at Weekend Records, James Marlon Magas, was really in the DIY scene, producing noise-inspired electronic music around the Midwest. The city also introduced me to house and experimental nu-wave. Going to shows, I wouldn’t hear the same techno for ten hours straight, but a mashup of genres—it was all over the place, which I think is very important.

Hearing sounds at night that can put you on a whole new type of music.

I would meet these people who were also like-minded, into fringe music.

Your recurring party, Hot on the Heels (HOTH), is one place for that. Your bookings bring a spotlight to underappreciated talent.

Photo: Beau Wanzer

Next year will be the party’s twentieth anniversary. I wanted a place to spin my old weird records, within the same context. I started at Danny’s Tavern, which unfortunately closed in 2020, but I try to keep the party in a somewhat intimate space. It’s a place for scenes to mesh, where I give a place for musicians who might bring out a different crowd or might not have played in Chicago before. It’s important that my party is not just an echo chamber for the same type of music.

What’s your sound?

It’s kind of an amalgamation of experimental, punk, industrial, electro, techno and nu-wave. I think my sound is my sound; rather than emulating copies of other influences, I try to make my sound as individualistic as I can. It’s weird, weirdo electronics with a weird aspect of comedy. I love that word. Music made by weirdos for weirdos.

The best! I can only imagine how strange it was to hear house loops for the first time.

I love that image—repetitive samples, and barebones drum machines people were experimenting on. When I’m in the studio, there are no computers, and I’m messing around to find cool sounds that I will record directly on tape.

I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got in the archive for this show.

Me neither. I like to figure it out on the fly and read the room. I’ll hear it for the first time at the same time as you.

Beau Wanzer performs live to open for Black Moth Super Rainbow at Metro, 3730 North Clark, on August 9. clubdrugs also opens. Doors at 7pm; show at 8pm. Tickets are $25 plus fees, available at metrochicago.com. Listen to Beau Wanzer’s music here.