The Dead Bolts Bring South Side Swagger to Logan Square Arts Festival June 28th
Interview by: Shawna O’Hara – Photo credits: The Dead Bolts
CMG Editor Shawna O’Hara caught up with Dead Bolts frontman Eddie Hennessy ahead of their Logan Square Arts Fest debut.
It’s early Thursday afternoon in mid-June after a brutal storm in Chicago, another White Sox loss to the Yankees, and a morning of corporate meetings. Still, as I sat down to interview Eddie Hennessy of The Dead Bolts, it was apparent that nothing can deter his good-natured demeanor and signature Chicagoan sense of humor.
Right now, The Dead Bolts are preparing for their upcoming tour that launches in July, new music, and, most urgently, one of their biggest Chicago festival appearances at the Logan Square Arts Fest on June 28th. Despite growing success, Hennessy says the band’s identity remains rooted in a place entirely different from where much of Chicago’s music scene thrives.
Chicago’s South Side
“No matter how much we try, we cannot escape the South Side,” Hennessy jokes. “As we have grown and stepped into the professional sphere, touring, publishing… the South Side community has rallied around us.”
After years of viewing the area’s distance from Chicago’s rock scene as a disadvantage, the band now sees it as one of its greatest strengths.
Built on the South Side
The Dead Bolts are proudly born-and-bred Southsiders, collectively hailing from Beverly, Mount Greenwood, Oak Lawn, and Chicago Ridge. In true close-knit geographic fashion, the band’s most rabid base and loyalties reflect this. The band’s manager, Andrew Walker, is a fellow Southsider who earned his role in the most South Side way possible: he’s known Hennessy since fifth grade. The band affectionately refers to him as ‘Mo’.
“I’ve known Mo since we were kids. I was on his little league baseball team,” says Hennessy, a genuine smile on his face. “I never thought I’d be working with him professionally someday.”
Somehow still, even more true to their roots, is how the band initially formed in 2018: haphazardly, on a whim, and with a mission to prove something from jump. While the South Side made them, at times they felt separated from the larger Chicago music ecosystem.
“We carry a chip on our shoulder from the South Side thing,” Hennessy said. “It always felt like we were on the opposite side of the fence. We were isolated from all that the city brings. (in terms of) music venues, there aren’t really any true, small rock clubs down there.”
”At first we thought, ‘How do we overcome the lack of networking capabilities here? We’ll have to go up north,” Hennessy continued, “But, when we came out of the scene, we were propped up by a lot of great musicians in the area and crowds from the South Side.”
Branching Out With Roots
The band’s first big performance on the north side was at Schubas, to mark the release of their 2025 album, Beau Monde. Hennessy said it is their rowdiest show to date.
“When we first started playing bigger spaces, Schubas sold out largely in part because of the Southsiders who showed up,” Hennessy explained.
Since then, Hennessy says that every venue since Schubas has either sold out or become extremely close to selling out of domestic light beer.
“The crowd outdrinks themselves,” proudly said Hennessy. “That’s the South Side.”
Their crowds aren’t always polished. They’re loud and rowdy, but they’re authentic. And the band prefers authenticity.
“I don’t like performative shit, Chicago has that big city feel where you need to make it, but unlike in New York, for example, where it’s ‘prove it’, people here have an attitude of, ‘show me’, but out of curiosity.”
This, he says, exemplifies the authenticity the band most appreciates. He credits the crowds The Dead Bolts draw as a source of energy and inspiration, referencing a show at Thalia Hall: “We’ve grown our fanbase at shows enough for it to get lively. On the floor, there can be some intimidating South Side guys standing in the middle. If they get pushed by someone, they’re gonna think it’s a fight and will want to turn around and start something, but this went well; this was a fun rowdy show, great sound. We’re notoriously loud.”
Inspiration
Though heavily influenced by Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, as well as what Hennessy refers to as ‘southern-fried alternative’ acts such as Future Birds, the band credits Chicago-bred act, Twin Peaks, as their ultimate inspiration.
“They’re the kings of Chicago rock, in my opinion,” says Hennessy. “Their energy is contagious, they know how to write a song. They were the soundtrack to a lot of people’s formative years. We were trying to embody that feel in our first album, they were our gateway drug for us to evolve into a harder sound. They’re still our idols to this day.”
While Twin Peaks helped shape the band’s early sound, Hennessy says The Dead Bolts have
recently found inspiration much farther from home.
“At some point everyone in my band tuned into what was happening in the Ireland and England rock scene, bar none, the best bands are coming out of that, that sound, although we knew we wouldn’t embody it completely, really hit us and changed how we look at music. bands like IDLES, Fontaines DC, Shame. I commend Yard Act. (They’re) playful; serious messages to be conveyed in a vague or unserious way.”
Faking It Until They Made It
There is nothing about The Dead Bolts that isn’t rooted in entertaining lore. In their early years, Hennessy is the first to admit that the band was fueled more by determination than expertise.
“Our mantra was always: fake it ’til you make it, act bigger than you are and people will believe you.”
That mentality propelled the band’s growth. Hennessy recalls that one of the first lessons they learned while booking shows was that venues wanted to work with organized professionals, not musicians, directly. Their solution was simple: create the appearance of structure.
“We just made Andrew our manager,” Hennessy laughs. “He was ghostwriting emails, sending
them out, and all of a sudden we started getting more responses.”
This DIY spirit fueled the band’s early touring years. Long before studying Spotify analytics or strategically planning routes, The Dead Bolts loaded themselves into a 2011 Chevy Traverse, attached a rented U-Haul trailer, and pointed themselves toward whichever cities looked promising on a map.
“We used to go on shotgun tours, these towns seem cool, let’s go play there.”
The approach occasionally resulted in small crowds and empty venues at times, but the band embraced the chaos. Looking back, Hennessy believes that willingness to figure things out on the fly became one of The Dead Bolts’ greatest strengths.
“Really, what it comes down to is how badly you want it,” he says. “Most people don’t know what they’re doing. You just figure it out.”
Too Loud to Ignore
Whether they’re playing a packed festival slot, testing songs from a new record, or hauling gear out of a basement rehearsal space on the South Side, The Dead Bolts remain committed to the same goal they’ve had from the beginning: be loud enough that Chicago can’t ignore them.
Beau Monde addresses a common theme: what do we have to do to be good enough to make it? With the Los Angeles and New York scene comparisons looming large, the band decided they’d be so loud, they couldn’t be ignored. Of digging their heels in, Hennessy noted, “South Side bravado is something we’ll never be able to shake”
What’s Next
This summer, the Dead Bolts are slated to begin an 11-date tour that will take them into the fall, beginning with the Logan Square Arts Festival on Sunday, June 28th. Their next album is on track for a release later this year, and the band has already worked several new singles into their nightly setlist.
Of the Logan Square show, Hennessy said, “It’s huge. We were kind of taken aback that we were at this level where people were recognizing us enough to have us play,” He continued, “This one’s big, it’s massive. Not long ago, we were just a South Side band hoping we’d play this show some day. It’s an honor that they wanted to book us and give us the closing slot. It’s such an honor. It really is.”
Hennessy says like every show they play, they hope the crowd has more fun than they do.
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The Dead Bolts are closing out Logan Square Arts Fest on Sunday, June 28th. The event is free, but all are encouraged to donate at the door to help support the festival and local performers.
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Links:
Official: https://thedeadboltsmusic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedeadboltsband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedeadbolts
