It’s Friday, I’m in Love: Chicago’s Cure Night Turns Cole’s Bar Into a Goth Valentine Dream
There are nights in Chicago when the city hums in minor chords. When neon glows like a heartbeat and the cold air feels stitched together with reverb and romance. Friday the 13th at Cole’s Bar is one of those nights.
“It’s Friday, I’m in Love,” a full-tilt celebration of The Cure, transforms the beloved Logan Square dive into a swirling cathedral of goth, new wave, and beautifully bruised love songs. This is not nostalgia. This is ritual.
DJ Heaven Malone conducts the evening like a midnight orchestra, spinning Cure classics and deep cuts that glide from shadowy melancholy to dance-floor euphoria. Think Just Like Heaven, Lovesong, Pictures of You pulsing through a room wrapped in candlelight gloom and Valentine noir.
Hosting the evening is the magnetic Vampurrra, guiding the crowd through a night of romance, mischief, and mascara-streaked magic, highlighted by a Robert Smith look-alike contest where teased hair and smeared lipstick become badges of honor. Around the room, Cure music videos flicker like sacred text while gothy Valentine décor turns heartbreak into pageantry.
Beyond the eyeliner and atmosphere, the night taps into something deeper. Chicago has long been a heartbeat in the global goth and industrial scene, from smoky clubs to underground stages. Now, a new generation is rediscovering the sound, proving The Cure’s influence is less a memory and more a living current.
In conversations surrounding the event, Malone and Chicago storyteller Tom Barnas reflect on the band’s enduring gravity, their recent Grammy recognition, and the art of crafting a DJ set that feels less like a playlist and more like emotional architecture. The result promises a night where strangers become a chorus and the dance floor becomes a shared memory.
Dark romance. Loud hearts. Eternal songs.
On this night, Chicago doesn’t just listen to The Cure. It lives inside it.
Event Details
Cole’s Bar
2338 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60647
Friday the 13th | 9PM–2AM
$5 Cover | 21+
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