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Chicago · Venue

Martyrs'

A compact Chicago concert room with broad genre range, a former-post-office backstory, and a second-floor live-recording studio.

Upcoming shows
44
Capacity
320
Address
3855 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60613
Phone
(773) 404-9494
Next show
Sat, 3 Oct 2026
Official siteDirections
Martyrs' in Chicago

About Martyrs'

Martyrs’ is a 320-capacity Chicago music venue in a former U.S. Post Office, with live music across a wide stylistic spread and a recording studio on the second floor for capturing performances. The scale keeps the focus close: Fever describes an intimate room with good sightlines and strong sound, while the building’s past gives the place a distinctly workaday origin story beneath the stage lights.

A post office, a leap of faith, and a shut-down set

In October 1994, Ray Quinn signed a lease on the old post-office building at 3855 North Lincoln after five years booking bands, promoting concerts, and mixing live sound around Chicago’s North Side. Quinn, three initial partners, and fellow Annoyance Theatre members stripped out the space; small loans from friends and family, followed by an SBA loan for a sound system and payroll, carried the conversion toward opening. The name came from the gamble: Quinn wrote “Martyrs’” into the plan as a reference to the jobs and security the partners had left behind. The room’s early visual language followed suit, with tabletops painted as portraits of dead musicians. In February 2004, city inspectors stopped an Ojos de Brujo show sponsored by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs because of overcrowding. Ray Quinn and Kate Hill later joined fellow operators in discussions that helped lead to the League of Chicago Music Venues, formed amid tighter city scrutiny of club capacity and licensing.

The room on a show night

Martyrs’ casts a broad net: its own history names rock, blues, jazz, classical, hip-hop, house, reggae, folk, country, and traditional music among the communities heard on its stage. Booking is direct and musician-facing; the venue invites talented bands seeking a room to bring their fans and music. Expect a compact general-admission concert setting, strong sightlines, a bar-and-food component, and the unusual practical bonus of an upstairs studio designed to record live events.

Sources

  1. Martyrs' (Chicago): Events & Tickets — Fever
  2. History — Martyrs'
  3. A Fest to Say “We Exist” — Chicago Reader

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