Porn and Chicken—what could be better?
March 17, 2014
Ever Monday night at the Evil Olive, 1551 W. Division St., DJ trio Porn and Chicken bring an intense blend of chaos and debauchery too racy for water cooler conversation. If the idea of dousing your hair in champagne while watching looping pornography is enticing, Porn and Chicken may be a go-to for your nightlife excursions.
Made up of Orville Kline, Dom Brown and Fei Tang, Porn and Chicken have evolved from playing in the background of Wrigleyville bar Risqué Café, to playing at the 61,500-seat Soldier Field for the annual Spring Awakening Music Festival, which included headliners such as Skrillex and Afrojack. Their weekly Evil Olive show has a new theme every week and has included the “Game of Thrones Banger,” “Hulkamania Gone Wild” and on March 17, “Bang Me I’m Irish.”
In addition to DJing, Porn And Chicken produce their own music. Their original music ranges from bouncy moombahton—a hybrid of house and reggaeton—to 140bpm electro-house. Although their DJ sets maintain a fist-pumping energy, they are not afraid to mix in Pink Floyd edits with their own original anthems like “Let It Bleed,” a feel- good track that has all the soaring synths one could ask for.
The Chronicle spoke with Kline and Tang over the phone about their beginnings, playing for different audiences and what is in store for them as they continue to flourish.
THE CHRONICLE: How did Porn and Chicken come to be?
ORVILLE KLINE: About four years ago at a small bar called Risqué Cafe’, Dom Brown, the other found- ing member, was a manager there and hired a bunch of his friends to bartend or DJ. They happened to have an all-you-can-eat chicken wing special on Monday nights. It was already burlesque and pin-up themed and also happened to be the night they showed porn…. It was kind of a small Monday night food and drink special thing that quickly escalated into a really crazy party. After just a couple of months, the venue got too many complaints of being over capacity.
CC: Why did you move to Evil Olive?
OK: Evil Olive had four times the capacity and also had a 4 a.m. liquor license. The opening night was a huge success. It started to really blow up from there.
CC: What can people expect to see at Porn and Chicken parties?
OK: We have resident burlesque [dancers]. Our home girl Ammo [is] Ms. Ammunition, burlesque per- former extraordinaire. And [there is] fire eating and breathing and crotch-spark-grinding girls.
FEI TANG: Having a unique theme every week really helps set our- selves apart…. We just had a polar bear plunge theme where we actu- ally had a dunk tank with ice water, and we raised money for charity there. How f—king cool is it to go into a club and dunk someone in ice water while you’re raging your face off and eating fried chicken?
CC: How do you plan your DJ sets?
OK: It’s always an improvised, on- the-spot set because that’s the best way you can feed off the energy of the crowd and maintain a high energy, [keeping] things as fresh as possible.
FT: We don’t want to offer them something that they can see any night of the week in their own city.
OK: Every city has different taste. When we played in Honolulu, [peo- ple] were not really into trap at all, so we did mostly a house, electro and techno-inspired performance. When we played at Webster Hall [in New York City], it [was] a bass- centered party so we did a lot more bass and dubstep-driven stuff. We kind of cater to what goes over, but we also try to incorporate as much of our own music and our taste.
CC: Describe the Chicago club scene.
OK: I don’t think at the moment there is any ground-breakingly new unique Chicago style…. The Internet has made it a lot easier for waves to start in more than one central location at once. It’s hard to say. Juke music, ghetto house and ghettotech definitely has its foun- dations in Chicago.
CC: What’s in the future for Porn And Chicken?
OK: We’re trying to focus more on getting our music out there and heard. People already know how crazy the party is, but we want to let them know how awesome our music is.
FT: And Spring Awakening [is] com- ing up.
OK: We always have to top our- selves. That’s been our motto. We’ll push the bar a little more [at Spring Awakening] and break the rules.
FT: We’re going to slingshot fried chicken [and] you heard it here first.
CC: Has anyone that attended one of your parties walked away angry?
OK: It happens every week. You shouldn’t come if you are afraid of getting sprayed with champagne.
For more information, visit facebook.com/pornandchicken.