Pitchfork Music Festival-Day Three 7/15/07 via Neil
Source: morecowbell.net
Day three of Pitchfork started off quite a bit smoother than yesterday. No figuring out where the hell Union Park is, no around-the-block lines and no late gates. When I arrived at the festival on a much sweatier, less breezy, Sunday afternoon, there was already a sizeable crowd sporting sunburns and tan lines from Saturday, inside waiting for the first band to hit the stage.
That first band was Deerhunter and they started the day off with a bang. Fronted by the errierly pale, slender, Bradford Cox, he preformed wearing two shimmering dresses, lipstick and rosary beads. Each of the members of the band looked like somebody who belonged in attendance at Pitchfork. Deerhunter’s stage presence is subtlely perverse, but in a way that works. With powerful, agressive choruses and ghostly vocals, the crowd, which was surprisingly large for 1pm, was instantly into it. Their billowing, noisy, psych-rock was a stellar, inspiring way to kick off the final day of the festival.
Menomena kept things rolling with their quirky, innovative indie-rock. The Barsuk Records trio of multi-instrumentalists’ set was plagued by sound problems (a sad issue for the entire festival) but they did their best despite the issues. Drummer Danny Seim was a shining light. His catatonic, urgent playing are a real treat to witness.
The Canadian duo, Junior Boys’ super sexy futuristic songs were brought to life by the addition of a live drummer. Aside from vocal duties, Jerermy Greenspan trades off handling the bass and guitar while his partner makes sure that the beats and midi synths are in place. Junior Boys make music that gives you the feeling of crusing through space watching galaxies soar by. The band, while not exciting to watch by any means, had the crowd shakin’ and moving to their funky grooves as the blazing sun beat down on us.
Lets take some time here to discuss fashion at Pitchfork. Most of the crowd was wearing what you would expect a person to wear to an outdoor, day in the sun event, but this isn’t any festival, its Pitchfork. I will refrain from using the term “hipster” or “scenester” because at least for me, the definion of both has been blurry for quite some time, but I will just say that there were some extremely interesting fashion statements going on today. For the guys, it was ironic T-shirts, oversized, plastic sunglasses and tight pants that weren’t quite long enough. As for the ladies, as long as you aren’t matching you were pretty much in. Weird tights also were seen often. For both genders, you can’t go wrong with neon colors. Make sure you check out Stacy’s photos for some examples of some of the more radical fashion statements seen this weekend. I was more concerned with staying cool rather than looking cool.
Expecting to catch “The Cool Kids” I headed over to the ‘Balence’ stage only to find that the stage was running an hour behind schedule. Luckily the act who was playing (Craig Taborn’s Junk Magic) was an amazing experimental jazz quintet. Even more importanly, local hero and my absolute favorite musican, Dave King was sitting behind the drumkit. In my personal nirvana, Dave King is playing drums in my bedroom every morning when I wake up, it just puts me in a better mood. The band consisted tenor sax, violin, bass, a concophny of keyboards, and the 800 pound gorilla playing drums (with his electronic Halloween, Alaska setup nonetheless). The band’s thirty minute set was basically a jam session as each member of the band squirmed around violently, for the 500 or so people watching. Unfortunately, most of the crowd was there to see local hip-hop rather than avante-garde jazz.
Craig Taborn’s Junk Magic
And local hip-hop was delivered as soon as Craig Taborn’s group of Jazz heads cleared the stage. It didn’t take long for the Cool Kids to have the thrilled hometown crowd eating out of the palms of their hands. The emcee duo bring an old school (skool), non-threatening flavor to the stage and spin rhymes about ice cream and still wearing a pager, rather than bling and drugs. Baby-face “Mikey” is the star of the group, his flow and wit are outstanding, especially when you take into account that he is only 19 years old. The Cool Kids pride themselves on writing entirely original material using no samples. With hip-hop heavyweights such as Flostradomous and Kanye West on board with the Cool Kids, make sure you keep your eyes out for them in the future.
The Cool Kids
If you’ve never seen Of Montreal live, you might be asking yourself “I wonder what this is going to be like”, but for those of us who have seen Of Montreal live, it is simply a question of “what is going to happen THIS time”. As one of the final acts of the entire festival, expectations were high. The band did not disapoint, taking the stage dressed as if they had come straight from a costume party at Richard Simmons house. Their disco-pop songs are simply the soundtrack to what is taking place onstage. From a ten foot tortise mascot, to a foxy-brown look-alike aiding a different mascot spoon out body paint and handing it to the crowd, while smearing it on herself, I dared not look away in fear that I would miss something. The songs on the band’s setlist came mostly from their 2007 release “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?” Frontman Kevin Barnes is the mastermind behind everything Of Montreal and his genius (madness?), seems to be growing. Of Montreal is a band that I want to see continue with their current success, just to see how far they will take their incredible stage show. Of Montreal put on a show that was easily the most entertaining of the weekend.
Of Montreal
As the sun set in Chicago sunday night, the New Pornographers took the stage and flew though crowd pleasing set of perfect power-pop gems, and their clap along anthems took center stage. Sadly, Neko Case and Dan Bejar, were unable to play sunday night. Their charisma and clout were missed but keyboardist Kathryn Calder took over Case’s vocal parts wonderfully with her spot on voice. Looking over the festival lineup and judging by the buzz around Union Park over the weekend, I would say that the New Pornographers were the band that most everybody had on their “Must See” list. Onstage the band was relaxed and enjoying themselves and shows that they were touring veterans and why they are one of the headliners on one of the most important festivals in the nation.
The New Pornographers
An early monday moring departure, and writing this article forced me out of the park a few songs into De La Soul’s set, but the Hip-Hop legends had the crowd celebrating the end of a successful weekend in Chicago. We couldn’t have asked for better weather and the festival seemed to have gone quite smoothly. I enjoyed many different styles of acts this weekend, no other festival can boast the kind of versatility that Pitchfork brings, and that is something to be proud of. With such a well run, peaceful, and efficient festival, I am already looking forward to next year. I think ill pack sunscreen this time.
The Ponys
The Sea and Cake
Jamie Lidell
Stephen Malkmus
De La Soul
