I couldn’t help but think of the Pitchfork Music Festival held in July when I entered the
Hideout compound for the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary Festival. Both festivals took place in Chicago and they were kind of the same and different at the same time. Both were very much for the more dedicated music fan and ran very smoothly with a minimum of bullshit. Tim from the Hideout introduced all the bands with his harried, rambling middle school teacher monologues. The crowd’s however seemed to be at least 10 years apart in age. Truth be told, I am more in the Touch and Go demographic. Older, grayer and fatter than those svelte, hip and energetic Pitchfork readers.
Usually the Hideout has a block party this time every year but they decided to dedicate this
year’s event to Touch & Go. So it was a big party with 2 stages and 20 or so bands over 3 days held in a parking lot where the city parks it’s garbage trucks and gasses up it’s police cars. Very Chicago!
The standouts for me were :
1.
