When Ratboys headline Thalia Hall the day after Thanksgiving, it will mark the end of a year spent mostly on the road. It’ll also be a celebration: After 10-plus years, the band put out its fifth — and best — record, The Window, in 2023. That album took them to Japan, earned them the opening spot on the Decemberists’ tour, and solidified their place among the Midwest’s preeminent indie bands.

With song titles like “Black Earth, WI” and lyrics like “Now we’re drivin’ round Michigan / Hours flying by, with the windows down just listening to Maps & Atlases,” Ratboys aren’t just from the Midwest — they’re decidedly of it. “There’s that self-deprecating wit and earnest lack of pretension that I really identify with,” says vocalist and guitarist Julia Steiner, who grew up in Louisville but, like the rest of the band, now makes her home in Chicago. “I think that comes through in our music.” Steiner and guitarist Dave Sagan, a native of suburban Oak Forest, founded the band as students at Notre Dame. “The way we bonded when we first met was taking these long, aimless drives on the weekends and just listening to music in the car and getting lost on purpose,” Steiner says.

At the Black Friday show, the band, which also includes drummer Marcus Nuccio and bassist Sean Neumann, will debut new songs destined for an upcoming record. Says Steiner: “The idea of finishing this whole run, this big year of live music, in the city where we live and love so much — and then go sleep in our own beds afterwards — is frankly like a fantasy at this point.”

Ratboys play Thalia Hall on November 29.