“Block Party” is more than a slight misnomer for the thing that’s starting on Capitol Hill in just about four hours. Don’t expect to find your neighbors grilling hot dogs in the street. Instead, inside the walled-off two block section of Pike Street between 12th and Broadway you’ll find a rare commodity in this era of overwhelming summer music events: a relatively inexpensive small scale music festival with outstanding talent on multiple stages. From mainstage headliners to opening acts in satellite venues to afterparties, there’s far too much to keep you occupied during the one and a half days. It’s more like a month of shows you’d like to see crammed into a single weekend.

Honestly, even if you used a random number table to plot your course it would be hard to go wrong. As far as I’m concerned, the only critical mistakes would be (1) not going and (2) not seeing Girl Talk while you’re there. In a infinitesimal section of Feed the Animals running from Cheap Trick into Jimi Hendrix over Yael Naim and through Eminem, Gillis has given us one of the best and most entertaining minutes of knowing cultural commentary we’re likely to hear all year. And that is just one among dozens and dozens. Set loose among and outdoor crowd, it has the potential to be the smartest sweating you’ll experience all summer.

Here’s the whole schedule [stranger]. But because we can’t resist telling you how to spend your time, a few recommendations from your pals at Metblogs. Start ginning up excuses to get out of the office early because there are highlights from start-to-finish. See you there!

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