HIDEOUT BLOCK PARTY

A Music Review--Day One

Last night it rained. That part sucked. But it only rained while Michael and I were sitting outside eating, so we had that going for us, which was good. Also, the Dali Lama loves me, so I'm so getting into the heaven neither he nor I believe exists. It's quite possible I may end up a flower, though, so that'd be cool.

Anyway, this is a weather report, not an I-may-be-a-flower report. When it stopped raining, we did cartwheels all the way to The Hideout. There was a festival of music there. Also, many people.

Lineup:

The Changes.

I didn't get a picture of The Changes show because I was busy getting my all-access press/photog pass, the use of which came in handy as I took some exceptionally close, exceptionally focused pictures later on in the evening, the evidence of which you will see soon. Anyway, this is a weather report, not an I'm-so-cool-I'm-with-the-press report.

The Changes: There weren't that many people there for this one. I kinda thought maybe everyone knew something I didn't 'cause I was looking forward to seeing The Changes, but mostly because they were one of my first friends on MySpace and they sent me a message and that made me happy. MySpace is kinda a sea of confusion when you first jump in. Anyway, this is weather report, not I'm-a-geek-on-MySpace report. The Changes. The first few songs were pretty okay, except that, from the parking lot where the show was, you could see the Sears Tower, the King Friday's castle building, and the Amoco Building, or Aon Center, for those of you new to the city, and so, with that as a backdrop, you have to be either Prince or Axl Rose to get my attention, neither of whom is in The Changes. But you know, good rock. A guitar. Drums. Singer dude. Bass dude. Some form of keyboard thing that may or may not have been a "synth" as those of us hyper cool Things With Knobs people call that thing. Is a synth the long board version of "keys"? I will have to gather a panel of surfers and music dudes to discuss this.

HOWEVER, the third to last song in The Changes's set, the singer dude got on the drums and played what I think was the snare with what I think was a maracca and did so while holding the mic in his other hand and singing very well and very much along with the rest of the music and it was look-away-from-the-skyline enjoyable. And also, holy shit, dude. That is a lot going on. Way to rock it. And then the second to last song was also just as snare-with-a-maracca wow and so then I knew that I loved The Changes. And then the last song was a regular old rock song, but we here at Team Power Love love the regular old rock songs, so drink beer!

1900s. I think I'm missing the boat on these peeps. Harmonizing is awesome. And pretty. Also, having just as many women as men in your band is excellent. Also, having a lot of spirit when you play is excellenter. Except I wasn't feeling it. According to everyone standing around us, this is The Next Chicago Band. These fuckers haven't seen Things With Knobs, obviously. But anyway, everything in this set was tight and pretty and energetic, but my feet started hurting and I wanted another beer and usually I don't think about my feet or beer when I'm swept away by music. But everyone else loves this band, so maybe don't take my word for it. Neither Prince nor Axl Rose is in this band.

Bloc Party. Holy shit. What I'm sayin' is--if you have a guitar and stacked speakers, why NOT rip into it until the speakers blow up and out across the parking lot in which your playing? WHAT THE HELL ELSE ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO DO WITH GUITARS AND SPEAKERS! RIGHT! FUCKIN ROCK THAT SHIT! So there's the guitar dude who is very skinny and is quite possibly 14, though maybe older, though I hate it when people assume I'm younger than I am, so maybe he's 86, who knows, but my point is, this dude is awesome and if you let him, he will crawl inside your brain and kick the shit out of your frontal lobe and you know what? You should let him. Frankly, your frontal lobe's not do you any favors anyway.

The lead singer has a British accent. He said, "Are yoo reh-ay to geh down?" and "Are yoo reh-ay to pah-ay?" And maybe something about fish and chips, how would I know, THERE WERE GUITAR NOTES FLYING OUT OF THE SPEAKERS! And they played an encore. And it was great. And this is the first show of their just-launched-last-night tour, so it was probably the worst show they're gonna have and it was awesome, though not as good as others, as told to me by fans, but I wouldn't know, I've never seen them before, but I was thoroughly impressed and that music wrapped around me and danced with me and made me very happy and I couldn't stop moving and . . . yeah. Neither Prince nor Axl Rose is in Bloc Party. Bloc Party does not need them.