The inevitable 38th edition of Taste of Chicago touched down in Grant Park for five days crammed with food, frolics, music, art, more food, booze, dancing, lounging and, well, more food.
By now this event has become the tradition of Chicago summers, much like the annual blues, gospel and jazz festivals—but with a difference. For years, this festival was hit-and-miss insofar as the entertainment, but after a major overhaul in 2017 it now seems to fire on all cylinders, and that has made all the difference.
This time out there were "must-see" headlining shows ( The Flaming Lips, Black Star, George Clinton, Juanes ) mixed with eclectic selections ( The Martha Redbone Roots Project, Le Butcherettes, Archie Powell and The Exports, Half Gringa and Brandi Carlile ), and plenty of non-musical amusements to keep even the fussiest brat enthralled.
There was an artists gallery ( which featured mural painting by Hector Duarte ), a full-scale puppet and marching band parade, a reworking of Chicago Summerdance ( with a different style of dance featured each night ), a "Taste Oasis" ( which, for $50, offered customers a private bar, food samples, air conditioning and more music ), and a wealth of cooking demonstrations, special promotions, a beer garden, a vodka lounge, a kids section presented by Chicago Parent Magazine and a film archive screening.
It all seems a bit much but the remarkable facet of this particular large-scale festival is that it never feels overwhelming like, say, Lollapalooza or Pitchfork; also, for all the crowds streaming through it, it never stops being fun. At this point it could be safe to say that Taste of Chicago is still one of the most "people-friendly" summer festivals on a large scale. ( An estimated 1.5 million people attended this year. )
As in previous years I didn't eat anything that I didn't bring from home ( Cheesecake, fried dough and vodka in 90-degree heat? Ugh...no. ) and I was there strictly for the music, which I must say didn't disappoint. There were plenty of highlights the entire week but these are the ones that stayed with me:
—Archie Powell and The Exports on the Goose Island Stage. Local snot-rocker Powell and his band whipped through a muscular set of tight wave rock that was often hilarious, frequently sweaty, always thrilling, and insanely passionate. Like Twin Peaks, The Kickback, and Esso Afrojam Funk Beat from last year, these guys deserve a shot on the Petrillo Band Shell stage.
—The Martha Redbone Project and Brandi Carlile at Petrillo Music Shell. Both wowed the audience with an eclectic mix of roots and Americana music which was a bit daring for a large scale urban festival. Still, out vocalist Carlile and her musical partners, Tim and Phil Hanseroth ( chrome domed identical twins who stood at least six foot three ) made a lasting impression with their harmony vocals and yodeling.
—Black Star and Juanes at Petrillo Music Shell. A re-united Black Star ( Yasin Bey and Talib Kweli ) celebrated the twentieth anniversary of their record Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star ( on Rawkus Records ) while smiling Latin superstar Juanes rocked the fest on different nights. One thing could be said for both performers, they demonstrated sheer star power by delivering passionate and precise sets that had the sold out audiences on their feet for their entire sets.
—La Marisoul and her band La Santa Cecilia opening for Juanes. Frontwoman La Marisoul displayed a witty sense of style which was completely unexpected here, and a voice that embraced blues, big band, and soul with sassy finesse.
—Le Butcherettes opening for The Flaming Lips. The wild card on the bill and one of its biggest victories, this set literally upended everything before it and turned this edition of the festival into an explosive freak out. As the front woman for this Mexican punk garage band who've bluntly commented on how women are viewed ( props from previous shows that were excluded here included that blood drenched apron and that severed pigs head and no, she did not pee on the stage this time ), multi-instrumentalist Teri Gender Bender "performs" with the violence of a pagan blood sacrifice and the humor of a demented circus clown. Much of the fun of watching this set was the reaction of the uninitiated in the Petrillo audience ( Le Butcherettes generally play places like Subterranean ); half of this sold out crowd were thrilled while the other half was horrified.
—The Flaming Lips at Petrillo Music Shell. After Gender Bender's opening set, old school glam/art rock pranksters The Flaming Lips were almost tame by comparison. Front man Wayne Coyne, dressed in a steel blue gabardine business suit with purple fur cuffs and a hair do that looked like a nuclear mash up of Albert Einstein and Cruella De Vil wafted out amidst a sea of oversized balloons to deliver a set of old favorites ( "She Don't Use Jelly," "Race for the Prize," "Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots" ), lots of theatrics ( an inflatable three story robot, a unicorn which Coyne rode out into the audience, and of course the orb ), more balloons, and a wealth of good cheer. For all the flash on display here, this gig came off as light, goofy, entertainment which was certainly welcome.
—George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic. With rumors swirling that this may be the last chance to see band leader and funk architect George Clinton live, this show was clearly more festive and explosive then any one of his previous Chicago appearances I have ever witnessed. Surprisingly, though P-Funk has always came off as a mob of performers clustered onstage threatening to evolve into a jolly free for all, this time out they were focused and tight. Clinton acted as the nucleus of this constellation as Sir Nose d'Voidoffunk, old school guitarist DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, and a host of others roared through a set list made up almost entirely of classic funk ( "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker," "Flashlight," "Up for the Down Stroke," "Atomic Dog" ) and one recent addition ( "I'm Gonna Make U Sick O'Me" ). Excepting the rather shapeless ballad "Kandy Apple Red" this show was a non-stop butt shaking free for all ( half the fun of was watching hordes of audience members shake those asses for hours ) and ended the festival on an extremely high note.
With four out of five sold-out mainstage shows, a wealth of food sold and digested by the metric ton ( La Mexicana sold 131,000 paletas, Robinson's No. 1 Ribs sold 35,000 pounds of ribs and tips, Carbon Live Fire Mexican Grill sold 43,000 tacos, while Eli's Cheesecake sold 50,000 slices of cake ), no Rahm Emanuel to boo ( he was in China the week of the festival ) and five days of sunny weather, it would be hard to fault this years edition of the festival on any level. A Taste of Chicago is obviously setting a bar for other festivals to strive for.
