Chicago is a town that loves drinking and music. With a serious work hard, play harder attitude, the city is home to over 1100 active bars; staggered liquor licenses that keep select watering holes open until 5am and is known to be the birthplace of house music and two distinct styles of jazz. Simply put, any music you listen to probably has some sort of origin story based in the Windy City.

So to drink a Chicago beer, inspired by a Chicago band, with said band, at six bars before it would be tapped later that week at an iconic Chicago-grown music festival (Pitchfork) was a pretty special experience for me (or anyone, really).

On Tuesday night (July 12), Twin Peaks invited all their friends and fans on a Pub Crawl to celebrate the release of Goose Island brewery’s Natural Villain, and I got to tag along. The brew is named after a track on the band’s first album and is a lager meant to be refreshing in the humid Chicago heat. “We like Mexican style lagers,” singer/guitarist Cadien Lake James divulged during our weeknight beerfest. “Pacifico is my favorite beer and we basically told them we wanted something like Pacifico.” When asked why the band chose the name Natural Villain when it’s a slightly less-known track off their first album, singer/guitarist Clay Frankel had a simple answer: “It just sounded cool. Like something you’d want to drink. It’s not like we were going to call it ‘Stain’ [a track off 2016’s Down in Heaven]. Stain sounds like something your uncle would drink when he drops something racist.” 

James added, “But because it’s supposed to taste like a Mexican Lager, Goose Island was worried about the connotations that would come from calling something Mexican Natural Villain. So Goose Island called it a Garage Lager. Which the other guys love, but it’s really a Chicago lager. That’s what they should have called it.”

No matter what you want to call it, Natural Villain lived up to its light, refreshing description, and after stopping by the Goose Island taproom for the first beer chugging contest, our next destination was the Emporium Arcade, where bassist Jack Dolan tried his hand at Super Mario Bros while Frankel tried to master Tapper.  That is, until Randy Newman’s “Short People” came on, at which point keyboardist Colin Croom and friend Cuitlahauc started belting out the lyrics. When the topic of fans misinterpreting the song as actually condemning short people, Croom quickly commented.  “Well it’s not like today,” he explained. “In the ‘70s they didn’t know who Randy Newman was. Today it’s hard not to know a band.”

It was easy to see that the fans all knew Twin Peaks along the crawl. Not only had they connected with them online, but IRL, too. The Chicago live music scene had brought them together at random concerts and socializing in local bars like the ones they were sharing that night. That’s the thing about Chicago: It’s a city of three million, yet somehow you know everyone as well as any other Midwestern town. 

Next up was Parson’s. “Parson’s is my favorite [bar on the crawl],” James announced. “Hopefully that doesn’t get me in trouble with the other bars on the list.” It was light and airy in the back of the bar, but once back on the bus it was evident that this party was going to be hot and crowded the rest of the evening. However, that didn’t stop James from doing a backflip on the bus—a skill he’d honed from years of riding CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) trains.

The fourth stop, Cole’s, was the closest thing to a dive bar on the crawl. With graffiti on the bathroom walls and barely enough room to stand, this hot and sweaty bar prompted a few of the bus’ passengers to hang outside and smoke or grab food down the street. Croom played bartender, perching himself behind the bar and serving beers, and decided to stay perched, letting the bus leave without him. As drummer Connor Brodner was leaving he started handing out one-day passes to Pitchfork. “Goose Island just gave these to me to hand out!” he exclaimed. “They’re so nice.”

“It’s great to work with Goose Island,” James added. “I mean they might be owned by this big company, but it seems to be mainly for distribution. They kind of just are allowed to do their own thing and really stay a Chicago beer.” 

The fifth stop, The Owl, was the prettiest of the bars with an old-school jukebox and a vending machine that spit out cassette tapes. But Frankel was less than impressed. “I like Applebee's. It’s a family bar and I’m a family man...It’s also a great place to meet the ladies.” Bassist Jack Dolan, who had been quiet most of the night, chimed in. “My favorite is Montrose Saloon, the last bar on the list. It’s a few blocks from my place and I close it out all time.” 

Brodner agreed. “I live right by it and grew up a few blocks from it...I always drink Old Style and shots of tequila.”

Upon arrival, everyone called Montrose Saloon “Connor’s Bar,” so it wasn’t a surprise they ran out of all of their Natural Villain in less than an hour. A couple drunk guys attempting to mess with Brodner were stamped out quickly by close to 20 people surrounding them outside. After trying to come back in, they got the hint from everyone’s cold stares and made their way towards the door (that’s right, keep walking). Frankel flipped them off for good measure and shouted “Weenies!” as they finally left. Because who is going to mess with Brodner at his self-proclaimed bar? And really, who would want to mess with any of the Twin Peaks dudes? They’re all just sweet Chicago guys who love their fans, drinking “Garage Lager” and playing good music. No one can mess with that.