Chicago’s House of Vans kicked off their summer House Party series with a stacked lineup consisting of Vic Mensa, The Pack and Kami on May 31st. The venue, located off of W. Randolph Street, acts as a cultural hub for Chicagoans and provides a completely open bar with select cocktails and brews provided by Goose Island, Virtue, and Deep Eddy Vodka for 21+ patreons. Although Vans Warped Tour will come to an end this summer, the company continues to live life off the wall with stellar shows, state of the art skateparks, and a flourishing lifestyle brand.
After collaborating with Smoko Ono, Knox Fortune, and other Save Money members such as Towkio, it’s only fitting that Kami would open the show. The unsigned artist donned a orange beanie, making it easy to follow him as he bounced around the stage and eventually into the crowd. Kami hopped over the barricade and into the crowd for his last song, where the crowd politely opened up to host him before hopping back on stage to close out the song. In between sets, Chicago’s premier footwork group Teklife (comprised of DJ Spinn, DJ Taye, Gantman and AD) livened up the crowd with juke and tech house tracks.
The Pack took the stage next, with no other than Lil B. The west coast group opened their set with fan favorite “I’m Shinin” and rotated around the stage for each verse. Concert goers went wild when members of the Pack sprayed the crowd with water at each adlib. Lil B and The Pack kept the mood lifted with tracks such as “Wonton Soup” and “In My Car”, adn then appropriately closes their set with “Vans”.
For the main event, Vic Mensa stormed the stage shrouded in fog and leather. Mensa went on to talk about the album as “for all of Chicago”, including the suburbs and areas not usually included in the city’s narrative. The performance carried on with a mix of songs from his debut album There’s A Lot Going On, The Manuscript EP and second album The Autobiography. Fans jumped at favorites like “OMG”, “Liquor Locker”, and more as Vic stripped down in the summer heat. After the show had ended, Mensa stuck around to meet fans and hit a few tricks while he had the skate park to himself.