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The afternoon crowd packed tightly around the BMI stage as Chicago-based band  Case Oats began their performance  at Lollapalooza yesterday. Frontwoman Casey Walker Gomez said it still feels difficult to process. 

“Things that lived in my head for so long, to have other people hear them, I think there’s something special about having your art reflected back at yourself,” Walker said.

The performance was a part of a whirlwind year for the band, which released its debut album, “Last Missouri Exit” last year and recently wrapped up its first headlining  tour across North America, Europe and the U.K. 

The local singer said she’s still in disbelief about playing in Europe, saying, “That blew my mind that we can go do a country where people don’t speak English at all, and we can sell out a venue.”

The band’s Lollapalooza set turned into a family affair, as Casey’s father, blues musician Don Walker, joined Case Oats onstage to play saxophone for several songs. 

“It’s special,” Casey said. “Not everyone gets to do it.” 

Although her father built his career playing blues rather than rock music, she said performing together helps them bridge that musical gap.

“We flex a lot of the same music over the years, but have never really ever played together,” she said. “And to be able to do that now is really special.” 

But he’s not the only father performing alongside the band. In the fall, Case Oats will join Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy on his solo tour. He is the father of Spencer Tweedy, Case Oats’ drummer and Walker’s fiancé.

“Music is so important and something that we bond over,” Walker said.

Walker originally came to Chicago from St. Louis to attend  Columbia College, where she earned a degree in creative writing in 2016. 

“Chicago felt like a home almost immediately,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is the best city in the world.’”

She began writing poetry before a friend gave her a cheap electric guitar, allowing her to turn her poems into songs. Through Spencer Tweedy and other musicians, Walker met friends who would soon become her band mates. 

The band first came together around 2018, when Walker asked her friends if they wanted to play a Halloween cover set. 

“We liked playing with each other and they became my band,” Walker said. “And I’m lucky they still want to play with me.” 

The band’s name combined “Case,” short for Casey, and “Oats” after her pet hamster, which was Walker’s internet screen name in high school. The band uploaded their first recorded music to Bandcamp, an online music platform for independent artists, under Case Oats.

“I thought I would change it or go by my name eventually. But I never did,” Walker said.

Walker said when she originally formed the band, she thought the height of her career would be to play with a garage rock band at Cole’s Bar. 

“That was good enough for me,” she said. 

But then Tweedy suggested they record their music. 

“He was coming from a world of ‘anyone can make music.’ And I hadn’t really thought like that before,” she said.

Siblings David Palmer and Rayne Palmer were drawn to the BMI stage after hearing the music while walking around the festival. Enjoying what they heard, they headed towards the band’s set after looking them up on Spotify. Although they aren’t from Chicago, they both said it’s extremely important to support local artists. 

“It’s making them grow, but also listening to different genres of music. Because the main music right now is bouncing off of each other,” Rayne Palmer said. “To hear just uniqueness and different styles is nice.”  

David Palmer added, “Local artists make their own music. And it’s cool to experience that and get a taste of what other people are like.” 

Walker realized Chicago was a great city to start a band after she noticed the commitment others had to making art.

“I grew up in a place where you were a weird art kid if you did anything like that at all,” she said. “So, being able to live in a place where everyone’s kind of doing it and everyone’s supporting each other, why wouldn’t you do that thing if you want to do that thing?”

Having been to Lollapalooza when she was a teenager, Walker said she never could have imagined she would be back to take the stage. She said it was an honor to play. 

“It feels like a rite of passage, but also a privilege to be able to do it and to be a Chicago band doing it,” she said. “I have a lot of imposter syndrome, and so I think that I haven’t totally wrapped my head around that.”

Walker said  Case Oats’ last album leans towards Americana but is ultimately rock and roll because the band is making music that feels good to them. She hopes new listeners take away the lesson that music doesn’t have to be perfect. 

“I am always approaching it from that angle, and I have to remind myself that you can do whatever you want as long as you are feeling it and it’s authentic to yourself,” she said.

Case Oats is currently working on new music. But Walker said she’s not one to plan ahead and that she trusts the universe for what’s to come. 

She said, “I think my goal is always just to keep making art in whatever form it is and keep focusing on making music that feels meaningful and true to us.”