This weekend, August 7–9, the Capitol Hill Block Party will take over Pike Street with three days of more music than you can fit into your summer-drunk brain. Allow us to be your pocket-sized pal who’ll tell you where to find all the good shit happening throughout the weekend. We’ve plucked out the dream of the crop, highlighting the acts you cannot miss, plus some tips on where to escape to dark, cool air-conditioning. While you’re at the fest, swing by the Stranger booth to say hi and win some merch! And please, wear earplugs, reapply sunscreen, and drink plenty of water. We love you.
Friday
DON’T MISS!
Dark Chisme
RIYL: Siouxsie & the Banshees, Latin house music, fishnets, The Lost Boys
There are two kinds of summertime people: Summer’s Day people, and Summer’s Night people. Day people are the happy, glowing partiers who embrace the weather, wear swimsuits 24/7, and host poolside barbecues like life’s a Mike’s Hard Lemonade commercial. And if that’s you, I have good news! The Block Party lineup is loaded with artists who’ll deliver a quintessential soundtrack for the season: Disco Lines, Parcels, and Frost Children, to name a few.
But if you’re a Summer’s Night kind of person, the sun-averse goth with an all-black wardrobe and who’d rather blast Siouxsie & the Banshees records in dimly lit basements, then put Dark Chisme on your Do Not Miss list. The local duo—Christine Gutiérrez and Erik “E” Schneider—play bilingual, industrial-kissed dark wave dance songs that pulse like a racing heartbeat. In their single “Dominance of Truth,” synth samples and loops swirl around one another like reflections on a crystal ball—it’s moody, haunting. When listening to “Desire My Soul,” my brain cuts to scenes of The Lost Boys. Dark Chisme are for when the sun goes down, and the vampires come out to play.MEGAN SELING
Magdalena Bay
Main Stage
During 2022’s Capitol Hill Block Party, Magdalena Bay played the relatively small Vera Stage to a crowd of about 200 people. Back then, early hype swirled around their viral single “Killshot” and their debut LP Mercurial World. The Miami electro-pop duo took that buzz and ran with it, putting on an exhilarating show that made every onlooker into a convert. Four years later, their crowds have multiplied substantially. A massive world tour on the strength of their second album, Imaginal Disk, has confirmed what they proved back in 2022: Magdalena Bay are simply one of the best live pop acts around. Their placement on this year’s main stage—on which whole city blocks’ worth of fans will bear witness to vocalist Mica Tenenbaum’s many costume changes—feels more than appropriate. ROB MOURA
Gelli Haha
Daydream Stage
I don’t think you’re ready for this Gelli! Gelli Haha, that is, the monochromatic play cathedral fronted by Angel Abaya, which spews chunks of synth pop, Jazzercise, and confetti. If you’re into things like LCD Soundsystem, the B-52s, Lisa Frank, and ribbon dancing, this is a Certified Must See. Abaya, the human manifestation of red Pixy Stix, leads a whole crew of Hahas—Juju Haha, Jojo Haha, and Sisi Haha—through performances that involve trampolines, parachutes, hula hoops, and more. Watching Gelli Haha is best described as the moment a Pop-Tart jumps out of the toaster: unexpected, hot, eager, nostalgic. They’re moving full speed ahead just like the spaceship they came in on, so see them now before ticket prices for Haha are up the hoo-ha! BRITTNE LUNNISS
Fleetwood Snack
Neumos Stage
No, that’s not a human manifestation of the reflecting pool algae; that’s Fleetwood Snack, Seattle’s premier experimental electronic wizard who performs in a ghillie suit and mashes up keyboard, saxophone, and a collection of seemingly random sound samples to create dizzying beats that are sometimes confusing, sometimes funny, and always entertaining. Actually, ignore all this. If you’ve never heard of Fleetwood Snack, pretend you never read this. It’s best to be surprised. Shun all pretension and expectation at the door and embrace the adventure. MEGAN SELING
Drew Martin
Barboza Stage
A savory-sweet treat from Maui, Hawaii, Drew Martin plays music inspired by nature and the places he calls home in the Mauna Kahālāwai mountains. Combining harmonica, ukulele, Hawaiian slack key guitar, and 12-string, Martin’s one-man show isn’t your average solo performance. He relies heavily on folk and blues to create a cultural experience his ancestors would groove to. The best preview of Martin’s multi-instrumentalism is his 2023 single, “Second Nature.” Martin performs the layers that sweep through the song simultaneously, playing percussion with his feet while plucking strings with his hands and singing, whistling, and whatever other noises and instruments he decides to surprise audiences with. At times, Martin even performs standing on his chair, which makes me both anxious and dazzled! I dare you not to smile in the wake of Martin’s joy. BRITTNE LUNNISS
Saturday
DON’T MISS
Rose Peak
RIYL: Jeff Buckley, Mahavishnu Orchestra, that one polka-dot-covered band KEXP constantly plays
Though they’re all University of Washington students or just out of college, Rose Peak hearken back to rock and jazz’s golden age of complexity: the first half of the 1970s. (My first exposure to their music was an Instagram post in which the young sextet were going through the turbulent convolutions of King Crimson’s apocalyptic prog-rock classic “21st Century Schizoid Man.”) In that era, elite instrumental finesse often translated into big sales, arena bookings, and outdoor festival slots. Now, that sort of music exists more on the fringes, though the ascent of Angine de Poitrine suggests a bigger appetite for weird jazz and prog. Enter Rose Peak.
The band members’ intellectual ambitions skew higher than most. Saxophonist Aadithya Manoj and bassist Packard Stephenson are pursuing degrees in computer engineering; drummer Aiden Chan’s studying biochemistry; vocalist James Eberle’s working on an architecture degree. Keyboardist Andrew Atkison and guitarist Marko Vidich’s educational backgrounds are unknown, but they’re phenomenal musicians. The latter guested with Nile Rodgers and Chic at Paramount Theatre in May.
Rose Peak’s self-titled 2024 debut album is a fine display of soul-jazz-inflected psychedelia and dynamic blues rock à la the Allman Brothers Band, but they made a serious advance with this year’s follow-up, Brothers. Inspired by the improvisational zeal of much ’60s and ’70s music, Rose Peak de-emphasized Eberle’s Jeff Buckley–esque vocals and honed their chops to a Mahavishnu Orchestra–like velocity and virtuosity. But they don’t ignore music’s potential for bodily pleasure and mysticism, as the flamboyant funk of “That Thang” and “Speak of the Devil” and the devotional “The Light We Share Forever” and “Brothers” prove. Rose Peak are one of the rare Seattle acts that could play Bonnaroo and Earshot Jazz Festival. DAVE SEGAL
Momma
Main Stage
Momma’s Welcome to My Blue Sky is a quintessential summer album, perfect for those bright days of racing down the highway with your best friends in tow, off to lie in the sun and discuss the same things you’ve gone over a thousand times before. Fronted by Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten, the Brooklyn-based band sounds like it should be part of a soundtrack to an early-2000s high school movie. The song “I Want You (Fever)” strikes a cinematic chord with the lyrics “Pick up and leave her, I want you, fever.” It’s got a hint of grunge with its heavy guitar, but swirls of pop and shoegaze set it apart. Fans of Soccer Mommy or Snail Mail should not miss this set. GRACE MADIGAN
Kenshi Killzzz
Neumos Stage
One of the best parts of Block Party is getting to discover artists in your own backyard. There’s plenty of opportunities for that this year, but one of the performers you’ll want to be sure to catch is Kenshi Killzzz. The Mercer Island High School grad dove into music and released her first EP when the pandemic hit her senior year. Now, after a three-year break from putting out any full-length projects, Kenshi Killzzz is back with He Rules Us All, an album featuring singles she dropped during the hiatus along with previously unreleased tracks. Expect lo-fi vibes with R&B and jazz-infused vocals. And peep her music videos with stellar visuals—they will convince you to make room for her in your packed Block Party schedule. GRACE MADIGAN
Rochelle Jordan
Daydream Stage
It took a full 15 years for British Jamaican house artist Rochelle Jordan to break out of the IYKYK crowd and into a wider audience. Even when 2021’s Play With the Changes seemed like it could be her moment, she was still playing Barboza to a half-full room. Then Through the Wall dropped last year and everything really changed—her return to Barboza in 2025 was, much deservedly, sold out. It would be a dismissal to call Jordan just a house artist. Fifteen years is a long time to hone your craft, and her craft combines infectious four-on-the-floor grooves with a singer-songwriter’s approach to storytelling. You come out of a Jordan show feeling purged: sweaty on the outside, self-empowered on the inside. ROB MOURA
Sunday
DON’T MISS!
Henry Mansfield
RIYL: MUNA, rollerskating, High School Musical, therapy
If you’ve ever cried in a high school theater practice room after auditioning for the spring musical, this one is for you.
Seattle singer and keyboardist Henry Mansfield leads a delightful crew of queer misfits who pride themselves on making you dance with radio-worthy riffs, charming lyrics, and masterful instrumentation, all delivered with a good dose of camp. His shows truly are all about the experience. Case in point: He hosts an annual prom, complete with tuxedos, gowns, and decor; for a recent show, titled Lover Boy, Mansfield established a breakup hotline, and he played fans’ voicemails about messy splits during the set; and to mark the release of his single “Bend Your Knees” (which is about falling in love on roller skates), Mansfield visited all 17 roller rinks in Washington State.
The group also features Nikhita Sheller (saxophone), Dylan Walsh (guitar), Sunny Radford (trumpet), Kevin Silveira (bass), and Alex Roemmele (drums), a collective of seasoned musicians who excel at establishing group catharsis. You have more time to work on the emotion behind a performance once you’ve got technicalities down, and that’s one of the reasons Mansfield’s shows are so uniquely cinematic. In a sea of SoundCloud sad boys and MacBook pop stars, Henry is bringing back musicality, and there’s something romantic about the results. The heartache, the choreography, the fishnets—the drama of it all would make a theater kid gasp. So if you like MUNA, the Last Dinner Party, or Grouplove, get your ass to that barrier—and don’t forget the glitter. BRITTNE LUNNISS
Wet Leg
Main Stage
When a band achieves a smash hit out of seemingly nowhere, there’s always the chance the short-term success curdles. They run the risk of being branded as a flash in the pan, stricken with the terminal diagnosis of “one-hit wonder” or, worse, labeled an industrial plant or psyop. I don’t see that happening for British group Wet Leg, whose devastatingly simple “Chaise Lounge” made them indie rock stars and Grammy nominees within three years of existence. Moisturizer, the 2025 follow-up to Wet Leg’s self-titled album, did what every good sophomore album does: It zeroed in on the band’s strengths while expanding their use cases. Expect the group to surge through cuts from “Pangetout” to “Pokemon,” and for the city to experience a registerable earthquake when they inevitably launch into the song that started it all. ROB MOURA
Haute and Freddy
Main Stage
You couldn’t dream up a better fit for the current iteration of Capitol Hill Block Party than Haute and Freddy. Ostentatious, campy, and deeply queer, the Los Angeles duo of Michelle Buzz and Lance Shipp make music that thrives on a crammed dance floor. Into the cauldron they throw 1980s effervescent synth pop à la Pet Shop Boys with 1780s sartorial choices and stir it around until it theatrically boils over in a glittery ooze. Theirs is music for bruised souls willing to, per the title of their biggest song, “dance the pain away.” If this describes you, you might want to consider costuming up for this one—shoulder pads, frilly sleeves, and face powder are a must. ROB MOURA
Thrill to Chill
Did you soak up too much sun? Can you not handle accidentally getting elbowed by one more person trying to meet up with their friends who are supposedly saving a spot for them in the front row? Here are a few nearby spots to run to if you want to cool down, rehydrate, and reset your nervous system.
NEKO Cat Cafe
NEKO Cat Cafe will be open during Capitol Hill Block Party weekend, and they take day-of appointments, so if you find yourself burning out (or burning up), just stroll just a few blocks down Pine Street and settle your system with some sweet cat snuggles and a variety of drinks and snacks, including kitty macarons and CBD-infused sparkling drinks. It’s the purrrrrfect escape. (Haha, sorry, I had to.)
Narwhal
Downstairs from Unicorn on Pike Street is Narwhal, an air-conditioned, windowless haven glowing with neon lights and arcade games including Skee-Ball, pinball machines, and a claw machine loaded with stuffies and dildos. What more could you ask for?
Porchlight Coffee & Records
Embrace all things analog at Porchlight Coffee & Records on 14th Avenue, where yes, they offer coffee and records, but also a collection of cute greeting cards, point-and-shoot cameras, and film. They even have a drop box, so you can send your film off to be developed once you’re done capturing this weekend’s memories like it’s 1982.
What You Can Bring to Capitol Hill Block Party
YES
• Empty reusable bottle (no glass)
• Handheld umbrella & personal misting device
• Non-transparent bags that do not exceed 12” x 12”
• Sunglasses, sunscreen, hats
• Cigarettes, disposable e-cigs, & vape pens
• Chapstick and gum
• Sealed Naloxone/Narcan
• Point & shoot cameras with non-detachable lenses
NO
• Outside food & drink
• Weapons or projectiles
• Drugs or drug paraphernalia
• Cameras w/ detachable lenses
• Drones
• Fireworks
• Personal shade structures or tents
• Coolers or chairs
• Pets
• Hula hoops or inflatable toys
• Cans or glass bottles
• Wagons, bikes, carts, skateboards, rollerblades
• Selfie sticks, GoPro sticks, tripods
