Hideout Block Party

Second week of September is Hideout Block Party time. This year (2014) the headliner was Death Cab for Cutie. Not a band I would expect from the Hideout but the place was packed and it looked like a success despite the the threatening weather.
Then there’s the food and drinks. Lagunitas Brewery was a sponsor. And for those desiring a more sophisticated cocktail, Crafthouse Cocktails was another sponsor. Food offerings included the Tamale Spaceship, Wow Bao and Publican Quality Meats. The festival area is spacious and there are plenty of port-​a-​potties.
We had a great time. The weather co-​operated and the music, food and libations were top notch. My teenage niece got a funnel cake because as she said «it’s just not a festival without a funnel cake.» Her uncle will paraphrase this with «its just not a festival without beer.»

Dang, where are the reviews for this excellent festival?
In my book, the big music festivals are a young man’s game, and I am not a young man. The best thing about the Hideout Block Party is that it is modest and comfortable enough for soft, lazy old misanthropes like me. Cheap too.
It’s taken Neko Case to draw me here both times. 2008: Neko Case solo headlining Saturday and The New Pornographers headlining Sunday, which is pretty much as good as it gets at this price level. Although I wasn’t there, last year’s lineup was fantastic (Wilco, Iron & Wine, Glen Hansard, and Wye Oak), while this year was a slight step towards the more obscure (to me) with Young the Giant (who?) headlining Saturday after Neko Case on Friday. But there were plenty of gems to mine among the undercards, such as Trampled by Turtles, The Both (Aimee Mann and Ted Leo), and The Hold Steady. Neko was fucking awesome on Friday night, belting out old favorites and a boatload of songs from her newest album. The greatest revelation to me was The Walkmen on Saturday afternoon, cited by an attending friend as a long-​time favorite. I appreciate smart, sophisticated rock and roll, and I was really impressed by the lead singer’s passion and high energy.
To boot, you can enjoy all this music with sufficient breathing space and elbow room. There’s nothing worse than making unwanted physical contact with the average summer music-​festival attendee. Well, that isn’t much of a problem here. (More difficult to avoid is the garbage smell wafting over the fence from the dozens of trucks parked at the Streets and San depot.) And about fifteen minutes before the headliner’s showtime, there are still opportunities to sidle close-​ish to the stage. I don’t know why this festival isn’t better attended, but I’m glad that it isn’t.
The food and drink options were up and down. Lagunitas brewed an excellent pale ale just for the festival. At that point I looked no further, although I believe that I did behold some wine stations and other types of beer in cans. In the food realm, I saw tacos, tacos, tamales, pasties, barbecue, and various sandwiches from Goose Island. Hmm, I wouldn’t have minded more variety. I ended up getting a «fried chicken» sandwich from Goose Island, and it was a big disappointment. Not disappointing, though, was the haute ice cream bar, also from Goose Island. They had a few different flavors, all featuring a pretzel rod instead of a stick. Genius! (I believe that they knew that I was coming, and named this thing «The old stick in the mud.»)
So drink beer and get dessert here, but perhaps eat your lunch or dinner elsewhere. Or at least lower your expectations for food. But definitely raise them for the acts and the value. Frugal old fogeys are thrilled to spend so few entertainment dollars for so many hours of great music.

The Hideout Block Party has a really cool vibe. I only went on Friday night, but my friends bought the two day tickets to the show. The festival is very family/​kid-​friendly and has a very chill vibe. There are tents where you have to wait in line to purchase tickets for beer before waiting in another long line to attain said beer. This something I’d like to see improved upon for next year. As food the eats, they only had a few option from tents and few food trucks. The spot is large enough that all of the food trucks in the city could converge to have more food options. There were plenty of port-​a-​potties available, and on Friday night were relatively clean still. Mavis Staples was awesome, but I had a little to much fun to actually enjoy Nico Case. I can’t wait to go back next year (when maybe Wilco will be back again).

This is perhaps the best bang for the buck music festival in Chicago. You get to listen to great music (Wilco seems to come every year) right next to the city Garbage Truck garage along the river. City and garbage truck views compete with music, great food truck food, and oddball art installations, performance artists, and custom brewed Lagunitas beer. Lost of people come every year, and since the Hideout is one of my favorite places to see music in Chicago, this annual block party really puts the Hideout on the map along side Chicago greats like the Empty Bottle.
Standing on blacktop for 2 days started to hurt my feet. Other than that I am super happy with this festival. Bring earplugs if you are an oldster. There were a lot of people here with kids, and the mood was very chill. It got very packed for the 2.5 hour Wilco show, but otherwise was just the sort of place you could bring your kids for a rock and roll experience. They even had performers for the kids and a kids area in the back of the concert section.
One thing that matters: toilets! They had the little blue poo houses all over the place. They really did a great job making it easy to have a beer, take a pee, wash (they had a good supply of cleaning stuff too) then go out and rock.

Great cheap music festival with good beer, and good food trucks.
-$ 45/​two days
–AV Club sponsored «Valet» bike parking aplenty
–North Ave. bus takes you right there
–Lagunitas had three excellent beers in 2012, including Block Party Pale Ale
–Wine available, and Tall Boys can be had inside the Hideout
–Food truck awesomeness– from perfect burgers at Wagyu Wagon, to Glazed and Infused donuts, to tamales, Cornish pasties, and more– I actually couldn’t wait to eat!
One music stage means you might have to wait one set for your next fave band, but with music like Glen Hansard, Iron and Wine, Wye Oak, Wild Belle, and Wilco, there was barely any room for improvement in 2012.
I changed my address, so now I’m registered to Vote for Nov. 2012, and other «causes» had informational booths. Plenty of port-​a-​potties, and lots of room to move around. Kid friendly, but not too kid-​focused.

If you enjoy live music, you will enjoy this event. Always a top-​notch line-​up and inexplicably low ticket prices. The value event of the Chicago summer concert season.

This was a cool event, ‘cos the Hideout is cool.
Bunch of music, bunch of food trucks. Thousands of bikes and hipsters.

I had tickets for both days of this year’s block party. Neko Case was spectacular. Such a beautiful, haunting voice. And what a venue to see her in. I had a great view and the sound, while it had its kinks (feedback, etc) was okay.
The second day was even better (I cant believe I am saying that because what can top Neko?). Tim Fite was hilarious and entertaining. The Uglysuit was great. There was a bit of a Michael Jackson tribute which was worth my $ 45.00 alone. A Thriller dance, complete with zombies and Rhymefest topped it off with MJ inspired beats. And of course, The New Pornographers. It doesnt get better, folks.
Plenty of porta-​pottys, cheap beer tickets, decent food vendors, and (!) a table to register to vote! Awesome, because I just moved here and was wondering when I would get that done.

Great music! The block party is right outside of the Hideout on a lone stretch of Wabansia. The stages are situated in an empty parking lot directly south of the Hideout and there’s food, beer and vendors around the parking lot with the stages. My boyfriend said that the setup this year is much better than in years past because the stage was in a poor corner near the entrance to the parking lot, so there was a ton of traffic right at the entrance. He also said that this year there were chairs and tables so you could actually sit and rest while you were eating or whatever.
I really enjoyed the first night because, unlike Lollapalooza or even Pitchfork, the festival is fun but not insanely crowded. There isn’t a 492 minute wait for the port-​a-​potties and 321 people aren’t smashing into you at every turn. The beer lines were not at all long and the food was pretty delicious (warning: do not have the Pad Thai — it’s disgusting).
I’ll update again tomorrow once I see some more bands!