With locations in Brooklyn, New York, Chicago, Illinois, and London, England, the House of Vans, an indoor skate park that converts into an art gallery and music venue, proves that the Off the Wall culture exists beyond a shoe brand.
Vans, conjured by native East Coast brothers Paul Van Doren and James Van Doren, and Gordon C. Lee, opened their first store in Anaheim in 1966. In the 1970s, Mark Van Doren’s then 13-year-old son, James, designed the original Vans skateboard logo in Costa Mesa, Calif. Since then, the brand has grown into a worldwide phenomenon among several generations, from Baby Boomers to Millennials. Vans are the Air Jordans of the skating world.
Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals at Chicago’s House of Vans. Photos by Daniel Boczarski.
Between its Chicago and Brooklyn locales, the House of Vans hosts a series of free-to-the-public art and music shows during the summer known as Vans House Parties. The parties attract urbane city dwellers who love free music and booze, but also appreciate the skateboarding culture for its punk rock anti-establishment sentiments and positive communal vibes. The house parties tend to showcase myriad musicians and singers, some known for their longevity (Charles Bradley and The Breeders) or niche audiences (Converge), others for their youthful careers (Julien Baker and BANKS) or hard-to-pin-down sounds (The Internet and Anderson .Paak).
Artist Anderson .Paak, hailing from Oxnard, Calif., headlined and curated the Chicago house party on July 25th, where concert-goers, waiting for the show to start, wandered the West Loop warehouse sipping on free beer and custom-mixed cocktails, playing a virtual skateboarding game and taking photos behind several art installations. Singer Kadhja Bone, who guests on .Paak’s 2018 album, “Oxnard,” opened the show followed by a set from .Paak’s band, The Free Nationals.
.Paak performed the single, “Bubblin,” the song “Glowed Up” from Kaytranada’s album “99.9%,” the NxWorries hit “Suede.” (.Paak is one half of the hip hop duo NxWorries), along with tunes—which infuse rock ‘n’ roll, hip hop, soul, funk, dance and R&B—off his four studio albums: “Malibu,” “Venice,” “Oxnard,” and “Ventura.” Aside from his stellar drumming chops, .Paak possesses boundless energy that fuels his expansive vocal phrasing (Tupac Shakur would be impressed) and charismatic dance moves (James Brown would be thrilled)—essential elements for a remarkable stage presence.
Backed by The Free Nationals, Jose Rios (guitar, backing vocals), Ron Tnava Avant (keyboards, backing vocals), Kelsey Gonzalez (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Callum Connor (DJ, drums, backing vocals), .Paak moved back and forth from behind his drum kit to center stage, depending on the song. Seeing that .Paak’s musicianship is primarily rooted in the drums is what perhaps gives the grooves in many of his songs such sublime heft and depth.
It seemed appropriate for .Paak to perform “6 Summers,” a song with the opening line, “Trump’s got a love child and I hope that bitch is buck wild,” in a city that essentially kicked the President out of town by shutting down one of his campaign rallies in March, 2016.
.Paak just could be one of those artists whose trajectory is nothing short of meteoric, and some in attendance might one day remember this house party as a highlight of their concert-crowd memories: “I once saw Anderson .Paak in a Chicago warehouse,” just as one might recall: “I first saw James Blake at the Troubadour covering Joni Mitchell and she was there!” or “I was at CBGB in 1978 when The Police took the stage.”
The Lazy Sway 