After reading Xtine’s coverage, which she covered very well, of the event I noticed some differences between our viewpoints on the experience and felt that it was much needed to get another aspect on OKR.

After covering the Chicago Blues Fest, West Fest, Wicker Park Fest, Celtic Fest, and anything else called something “Fest” here in Chicago this year either for my other side projects of Paddyrock.com, Blueswebradio.com, and a ton more…. I can now say that the Hideout Block Party was THE BEST festival I have been to this year by far. The staff of the Hideout treats the press with the utmost hospitality, and the bands that came to perform were stellar.

Xtine’s coverage of the event was great since it’s good to have the prospective of someone new to the game in the mix since she is the most knowledgeable of all the staff members on the bands that performed with their history, song catalog, and she had seen the majority of the bands play live before at other venues throughout the country as a fan of the music.
As for me, I almost never get the chance to see a band over the past 13 years of covering music in the context of “Fan”… I’ve always been working the green room, introducing the bands on stage, conducting interviews with the bands for radio, or just plain promoting the shows with fliers, stickers, and business cards. The Hideout Block Party was my first time covering their event… and the staff there with Katie, Mike, Joe, Lily, and others made it easy for me to grab interviews, talk with the bands & fans of the show, and still have time to capture the event for the radio show and through photos. I believe this is why I will want to cover the event again in the future. So onto the music!!!

Day one:
While I won’t bore you with the details of what didn’t stand out for me… here are the highlights.
Giant Sand not only captured the audience into almost a trance of musical mastery, but Howe Gelb and the gang has that sound of almost Mark Lanegan and for the most part, though I’m friend with Mark, was in control of the crowd in a much finer way… poking jokes at them and the band as he went from song to song with ease. Howe has a knack of just writing great songs and with over 4 years of not releasing anything… “proVISIONS” his latest with Giant Sand is possible his best with his friends Isobell Campbell, Neko Case and M. Ward adding to the mix on this CD. Highly recommend to catch them live and please pick up this new CD in our OKR Music Store… you won’t be disappointed.

Next, was Little Cow whom I had heard a lot about before going to this amazing fest of musicians at the Hideout Block Party. Capturing the whole World Music Folk/Rock kinda thing that you could hear coming from other more well known acts like DeVotchka, Gogol Bordello, and others with their standard folk instruments being added to the more present Guitar, Bass, Drum stuff you see in all other bands. Little Cow has some really well written songs… done in a way that only Little Cow can do. It was also great to be sitting there taking them in as a young man by the name of Andrew Bird sat down next to me without me even knowing he was there I continued to be captivated by this exciting band from Budapest, Hungary. Funny thing is that at least Xtine was on top of things kinda… and grabbed a photo (although blurry it fits with story) of me walking away from him as I was coming to the stage to get some shots of Little Cow. As we made our way back to the VIP tent to get some much needed refreshments and to gather our thoughts on the event between myself and Xtine, to my surprise Little Cow came in get a review done with one of the many press peeps that wanted to talk to them… and I must Thank them for giving me a few minutes of their time with an small interview on their thoughts of coming to the US to perform and a little welcome to our fans on OKR as well.
Their latest CD is available for MP3 download on our OKR Music Store as well… must get it.

Next, Monotonix… this band captured raw power, emotion, and youthful craziness all wrapped up into one. These guys are out of control on stage and a press photographers wet dream to capture through their lens. The setting fire to the drumsticks, the lead singer jumping on the back of the drummer (while still playing), and then throwing himself into the audience was reminiscent of the years of Nirvana and the pyrotechnics of 70′s/80′s rock n’ roll. I think of MC5, Nirvana, hell even Bad Brains when I think of their live presence… I even think I saw some fans that came to see the action take a step back when they were performing because they didn’t know quite what was going to happen next. I love this adrenaline rush of chaos on stage… however I can see where Xtine took on another prospective they didn’t quite mix with the crowd… and they looked like attention whores in the process since their antics on stage stood out more than the quality of music they were putting out. Definitely something to look into in a couple years though… maybe they’ll set a chicken on fire next time and we can have some BBQ while they are tossing some midgets into the audience?!

Last, Neko Case. Need I say any more… well I’m going to. Although she performed a long set… I felt there was something lacking in the crowd response though. It was almost as if everyone whom had made it out to the show that wasn’t within the first 40 feet of the stage, which the whole football sized parking lot was packed to the gills, was looking for her to sing them a lullaby to make it easier for them to go to sleep. Other than those boring people whom were there more to just to catch a drink after wankerfest, I felt like I was at a campfire listening to her sing just to me…. or maybe it was wishing… never know. Her voice rang through the air like an angel and her band played to near perfection with every song. This was my first glimpse of Neko doing her solo thing and I was not disappointed with the performance more so that I felt the crowd wasn’t quite getting into it as the closer of the night. Hats of to her though from me and the OKR gang… was a pleasure. Pick up her music in our OKR Music Shop.

Day Two:

After waking up late from being in the hot sun the day before for the whole day… Xtine and I decided to split up to check into different aspects of the festival. She captured select bands from stage to stage… while I there to check into the crowd response and a more of out in the crowd aspect of the performances.
Although the day was packed full of bands… there really were only three bands I saw that kept me running… and I finally met up with an old friend in Honeyboy Edwards, whom I have worked with for years with my blues show I do on occasion. It was the first time in my life that I actually wanted a photo with someone that not only I’ve admired for years… but never got a chance to take one with him to hang on my wall in my home next to the other Blues greats of the Delta Blues… hell… he was there when Robert Johnson got poisoned. This is a man of history… this is a man whom not only plays the Blues, but lives it and influenced a generation of Folk Blues artists for decades. OK, enough of me talking this guy up… if you don’t know him… learn about him. Onto more music.
First, The Ugly Suit was just amazing to catch live. I can see the similarities to them and Band of Horses that not only Xtine made notice of… but some of the crowd were even talking about while they were playing. This Oklahoma based band took the stage and I was not familiar with them… but I am now… they commanded the stage with their southern touch on Rock with their hair swinging in the air throughout their performance and the crowd just kept growing and growing as their songs had them dancing and watching them become legends of the Hideout Block Party within the first two songs of their set. Israel Hindman gentle vocals layered over the top of this hard hitting and wall of sound guitar majestic is a perfect match… and hold true on all they performed… including their RADIO hit of “Chicago” off their latest Self-Titled CD… which you can pickup in our OKR Music Store… highly recommended.

Next, Tim Fite… this boys got something great going on here it the mix of country, hip-hop, and some of the best written lyrics spit out on this audience as they tossed watermelons on the audience as well. At first I thought Gallagher was going to be performing on stage with all those props of watermelon. Then as the show progressed it just all came together. It wasn’t like the stereotypical hip-hop crowd of wife beaters and head bands either… this was hip-hop fusion for a more eclectic crowd of music junkies. The bass was bouncing off of everything including the port-o-potties like a wave of goodness… and the crowd was coming in as waves as they too were listening to what this lyrical master had to say… chalk full of humor and subject matter that we can all understand…. this ANTI artist has what it takes to captivate to his level through words… and watermelons I guess?!!… Pick up his CDs though… very fun stuff… you can get them through our OKR Music Store as well.

Lastly, The New Pornographers put on one of the best sets I’ve seen. No Myriad Harbor and others that the crowd was screaming for them to play of their favorites… but how could they play them all… they would be on stage til Wednesday. It was a great night… and I was even more happy to see their true fans singing along… you know… not the scenesters who came out to show off their clothes and scarves and other stupid shit… THE FANS… of all ages. They packed the whole Block Party and cleaned out the VIP area for a bit as well with all the press types coming in to see them play as well as most of the staff from The Hideout as well… (yeah Mike… I saw you dancing in the press pit). As for the New Pornographers… Newman’s and Cases’ vocals were sharp and truly meant to be singing with each other… Blaine and John were having fun… but the highlight and possibly my favorite performer of the night of the NP was Kathryn Calder… she was tearing it up on the keyboards and vocals… and she was going nuts up there and looked like she was really into this mass crowd that had come out to see them… some of them waiting all day by the stage until they were to perform. By far the New Pornographers made this Block Party an event for all to remember and had the crowd craving for more… some old fans… and some new. Great stuff to be had by all… buy ALL of their CDs in our OKR Music Store.

To close: If this Block Party is any clue on what the Hideout has in store for next year… sign me up… hell… sign me up twice for good measure so I can possibly have an orgasm from all the great music, food, drink, fans and bands i met, and the amazing organizations they had throughout the event. This is the one place I would want to be every year that I wouldn’t consider work… this is where people go to have a great time and finally a place where the press can enjoy themselves as well. Hats off all of you at the Hideout… and see you next year.