Tom Lynch

Also celebrating an anniversary are the owners of the Hideout--husband and wife Tim and Katie Tuten, and twin brothers Mike and Jim Hinchsliff--who have co-owned the Hideout for a decade, and whose now-famous block party turns 10. "For the first years it was just for all of our friends and families," Tim Tuten says. "It was like having a big barbecue. That's what it was like. Like, `Yeah, let's just have a big barbecue.'"

The Tutens had been patrons of the bar for ten years before it became available, scooped it up when it did and turned it into a venue for their beloved alt-country, but also kept the neighborhood bar attitude and ambiance. They had the first block-party celebration over Labor Day that year, and it kept growing and growing.

"In our third year, we moved out to the street," Tuten says of the party. "We just had a tent on the street and about 500 people came. Members of Wilco played, some other bands, and we just did it like that, under a tent for the next couple years. Then it just got bigger and bigger, friends told friends, it kept going, we started making posters for it, promoting it and stuff like that."

Tuten believes this year's partnership with Touch and Go is a perfect fit. "It was a perfect coincidence," he says. "For the last couple of years, we asked Calexico and Ted Leo and Shellac if they could play. There are so many Touch and Go bands that we love. We thought it might be just a little thing."

Then it blew up into a whirlwind, three-day affair. "Corey was like, `Do you think we can have every band?' Katie and I were thinking that that would be coolest thing in the world. `Do you mean any band?' I asked him. `Like Scratch Acid?' He was just like, `Well, we'll ask them.'"

Tuten says the business ethics that Touch and Go and the Hideout uphold are the same. "Corey just picks bands because he likes them," Tuten says. "There's a handshake deal. At Hideout we do the same thing...a lot of bands that play here, they know they can make more money at a bigger venue. But they play here anyway. I wish they could make more money. The pinnacle for us is when one of those bands plays Metro. We get really psyched about that."

(2006-08-29)

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