Capitol Hill Block Party is this strange little festival smacked in the middle of Sasquatch and Bumbershoot with far less of a budget, yet somehow it still holds its own. How? You ask? It knows its crowd.
Going to festivals is cool, whether it’s in the middle of a canyon or if it’s in the middle of 13 apartment buildings, it’s still like way cool to Instagram your favorite bands and filtered pictures of your friends while you are drunk. Capitol Hill Block Party has a small advantage here, and that is that it is far easier to get drunk at Capitol Hill Block Party than most festivals. Rather than trying to shove six cans of beer in your pants or throw a gallon of wine in you fuccboi hat, you can just take a little jaunt home, shotgun your favorite piss water and walk back. Or, if you live too far to walk home, you can walk to your favorite Capitol Hill bar, pay a small amount more than usual and get your fix of the sweet, sweet fuccboi nectar.
Does it really matter who plays? To about 40% of people it does. These people are the people that like music and value how they spend their concert money. If the lineup isn’t great they might find another festival or other shows to spend it on. The other 50%(I also don’t care about the other 10%, because they make no sense) however don’t care. They might complain about it, but they will still buy a ticket because their friends did. Some of these people are also music snobs. They will buy a ticket just to tell you that last year’s lineup was better. Assholes.
So, is Capitol Hill Block Party made for the bros? Or is it made for the music lover? Because despite it not mattering that much CHBP, normally does a pretty great job booking and puts names on their lineup that are the indie music lovers wet dream and then end it with some broey af.
Let’s look at a couple of acts from last year’s lineup. We’ll start with Angel Olsen. She has a beautiful voice, gorgeous songwriting and is an NPR-loving music bloggers favorite first date artist. We move from her to two of the headliners last year. A$AP Ferg and Rocky. I love B4D BITCHEZ as much as the next person but like unless you were one of the 300 white males screaming the N word with Ferg you may not have had very much fun, AND THAT’S OK!
Now, let’s look at this year. FEMINISM, YES! Girlpool, The Flavr Blue, Broods, Chastity Belt, Thunderpussy, so many great and powerful women fronted bands. But then they ended the festival with Ratatat two slightly outdated white dudes playing one instrument each while lasers and video kept us all entertained.
This conversation is also leaving out the great local booking that Capitol Hill Block Party does, which is much more quality than a comparable fest in Treefort Music Fest that happens in Boise every year.
So who is CHBP for? Everyone? No one? Idk man.
Marcus Shriver | You Tablecloth’s First Date | KXSU Reporter