Whenever I listen to “Red Eyes,” one of several perfect tracks on the War on Drugs’ most recent album, Lost in the Dream (Secretly Canadian), I imagine how thrilled main man Adam Granduciel must have been after he wrote the dusty guitar lick that opens its chorus. His simple, skittering lead, backed by what sounds like a symphony of synths, makes for a beautiful wide-screen hook—and it hasn’t lost an iota of its luster in the six months I’ve been obsessively spinning the record.

Both the War on Drugs and the Guitarkestra play on Sat 9/6 at the Hideout Block Party & A.V. Fest—Krakow and friends open the day, and Granduciel’s band headlines. This reliably good-vibes-intensive music festival (now in its 18th year, and its third as a collaboration with the Onion‘s A.V. Club) kicks off Fri 9/5 with a bill highlighted by indie powerhouse Death Cab for Cutie and goth-­country geniuses the Handsome Family. Other acts worth seeing on Saturday, the fest’s final day, include the Dismemberment Plan, the Funky Meters, and Mac DeMarco. —Kevin Warwick

All right, there you go: 2008.

And that was the first time our label had seen us play. It was so fucked up. We were touring. It was like a six-day tour. The bottom of my Volvo was falling off.

I mean, I love Robbie [Bennett] as a piano player and keyboard player in the live context. I also played about 90, 95 percent of the keyboards on the record. It doesn’t mean that live I need to play the keyboards. Live, Robbie gets to reinterpret those hooks and the sound that comes naturally to me. It’s almost like my sensibilities in the studio shape Robbie’s sensibilities live. It’s what you try to develop in a live band—a similar, shared sensibility. That’ll be something I’ll have to think about when I make the next record. Because now we definitely for the first time are a full-on, live act. You know, like an “act” in quotes.

I noticed a lot of Leslie on this one.

Fri 9/5 Death Cab for Cutie, Hamilton Leithauser, Handsome Family, Bad Luck Jonathan featuring Jon Langford, 5 PM

Sat 9/6 The War on Drugs, Dismemberment Plan, Funky Meters, Mac DeMarco, Sylvan Esso, Valerie June, Empires, Plastic Crimewave Vision Celestial Guitarkestra, 1 PM

Hideout $39, $65 two-day pass All ages