Tomorrow Never Knows Heats Up Chicago with Perfume Genius, DIIV, Real Estate, and More

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Tomorrow Never Knows Heats Up Chicago with Perfume Genius, DIIV, Real Estate and More

Live scenes and portraits of Antarctigo Vespucci, 54 Ultra, Bad Bad Hats, fantasy of a broken heart, 454, and more from the multi-venue, month-spanning festival.

Words: FLOOD Staff

Photos: MoneyShot4All

February 04, 2026

January may quiet Chicago’s streets, but for two decades, the Tomorrow Never Knows festival has turned the city’s coldest weeks into a hotbed of musical discovery. Founded in 2005 by the team behind the city’s Schubas Tavern, the fest has expanded into eight venues, offering a fertile (snowy) ground for the next wave of music. In the past, TNK has hosted shows by Bon Iver, Caroline Polachek, MAVI, Geese, and countless other stars that reinforce Chicago’s prevalence as one of the country’s greatest cultural hubs.

For its 20th anniversary, the festival spanned all of January, with Thursday-through-Saturday shows spotlighting special underplays, anniversary sets, and genuinely exciting combinations of local up-and-comers with nationally acclaimed acts. This year’s stacked schedule offered even more than we could document here, so we followed our instincts and pursued the nights that promised something emotionally charged, striking, or otherwise rooted in the times. These were the shows that brought out thousands night after night in sub-zero temperatures, affirming that no matter the conditions, people will do anything to be close to the music they love.

That sense of connection paid off early. When 54 Ultra stepped out onto the stage at Lincoln Hall, the room filled with joyous screams (and phones) as the young audience set to record what would undoubtedly become a core memory. John Anthony’s charisma immediately pulled the room together with riffs and references to Latin pop staples like “Oye Mi Canto (Hear My Song)” that grounded the night in shared cultural memory. He incorporated birthday shoutouts, dedicated songs to couples in the crowd, and fully leaned into the audience’s energy in a way that made the fans themselves a central part of the performance.

Embracing nostalgia without getting stuck there, Real Estate celebrated the eleventh anniversary of their 2014 album Atlas at Metro. Opening with “Darling,” they eased the room into a warm, reflective space helped along by sunset-like washes of color. When Atlas surfaced mid-set, the performance felt less like a longing for the past and instead honored the way the songs have aged beside the people who hold onto them. Written and recorded down the street from the venue and first performed in this same room over a decade ago, Atlas landed with the quiet confidence of a band that understands its catalog as a living thing still capable of surprises.

The following night, DIIV unfolded a crushing set at Lincoln Hall in heavy red haze accompanied by an equally ambitious film that ran for the remainder of the night. In between tracks, hypnotic infomercial-style TV hosts faded in promising that “this concert will be a transformative experience” in a moment that felt like waking up late in the middle of the night while the TV was still on.

Their performance carried on alongside the movie with remarkable precision. Unreadable email chains, internet slop, and home-video snippets of the band on the road flooded our eyes before culminating in an unsettling stream of unrest and police brutality videos—a strong political statement. As serious as the live movie was, it came with plenty of comic relief, like when they seamlessly and almost subliminally included the phrase “Kill the President” at the end of a DIIV-sponsored Papa Johns commercial.

Arriving with a heavy and enveloping sound, REZN’s hometown set grounded the tension in the air with crushing low-end and swirling distortion that became immersive and meditative rather than overwhelming. Layers of guitars, synth, and saxophone stacked slowly with drums that pulled you into something entirely physical—something you stood inside of. It was the kind of performance that demanded stillness as much as movement, a reminder of how grounding volume can be when handled with care.

Perfume Genius’ duo performance shifted the festival into a more delicate space. Mike Hadreas and Alan Wyffels approached each song as if inviting the audience into their living room, performing with an intimacy that recalled the intensity of the times in which these songs were originally written. The result produced a set that felt lived-in, unguarded, and deeply human. Fragility and power combined in a way that made the room lean in, collectively holding its breath and exhaling only when the two of them allowed.

Later in the month, she’s green emerged with sweeping dream rock anchored by the commanding vocals and delicate movements of singer Zofia Smith. Fans were blessed with unreleased tracks and rarely played live gems and returned the band’s energy with thunderous applause. “We’ve been in a lot of places this past year and Chicago is still the best place in the fucking world,” Smith stated. As the momentum of the show reached its peak, the Minnesota band expressed their support for everyone back home in Minneapolis calling for an end to the horrors after bassist Teddy Nordvold read aloud the names of the victims, then proclaiming “Enough is enough!”

Proof that Tomorrow Never Knows isn’t about summation but continuation, the festival came to a glorious close with 454 supported by sibling Pig the Gemini. Each carved out their own space before joining forces: runaway momentum from 454 with lean percussive tracks snapping through the speakers paired with Pig’s emotive and romantic hooks. As the power duo took the stage together for their biggest collaborative hits, they received endless support and praise from the entire audience that ran through all three sets.

Twenty years in, TNK hasn’t yet calcified into a legacy festival as it remains restless and tethered to the present moment in music, still invested in the small rooms where music still feels negotiable and alive. In an era where music is increasingly scaled and commercial, TNK operates on something simpler: direct trust with Chicago’s most committed show-goers, across generations.

DIIV at Lincoln Hall