Pitchfork Music Festival - Day Three 7/15/07 via Stacy
Source: morecowbell.net
Day three of the Pitchfork Music Festival found me a bit tired and pretty much ready to go home. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been so busy with other things back home, or because the festival itself was so tiring. I was, however, looking forward to checking out both Of Montreal and The New Pornographers. As both of these bands were bigger draws, they were scheduled for later in the day. Also because I’d met the members of Deerhunter on Day two, I wanted to check them out.
Interesting is one way to describe Deerhunter. Disturbing may be another. Ok, maybe it’s just not my type of music, and let me tell you these are some of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet… but it’s just not all that thrilling to me to listen to someone softly scream into a mic and have that looped over and over, while later adding some vocals. The sound at the festival has been less than stellar and I believe that also added to my apathy towards this band. I couldn’t even remotely understand any of the words coming out of lead singer Bradford Cox’s mouth. I don’t believe this was solely his fault, but then again, I’m not a sound tech, so who knows. I was left mystified, but also couldn’t decide whether or not I’d be willing to see them at a better venue. I guess time will tell if and when they ever get to Minneapolis.
Deerhunter
Next up were The Ponys, and again, sound was messed up. They got through one song, but things were not connected correctly and equipment didn’t work. The only saving grace at this point was guitar player Brian Case’s son Asher. He looked to be about two years old and wore big read protective earphones, while carrying drumsticks. Someone from the crowd yelled, “Let the kid play drums!” which made the entire band laugh. After fixing the sound (finally) The Ponys kicked out their own style of rock, and I enjoyed it, but wasn’t blown away yet.
Menomena
After the Ponys I headed back toward the other main stage (there are two) to check out Menomena. I’d seen them at SXSW this March, and thought they were pretty great. I don’t know if it was the heat or the crowd or what, but I decided that while Menomena is good on CD, I don’t think I need to see them live again. At this point in the festival I was feeling like there wasn’t much I was seeing that interested me and I was a bit bored. My friend Dave Loomer from HowWasTheShow.com was in the crowd, so I met him and headed over to get some free water & juice from the press tent and check out vendors.
One thing that I really enjoyed about Pitchfork is that the vendors and sponsors were there, but they were unobtrusive. There was a large double tent filled with both craftspeople with their original items to sell (think homemade stationary, clothing and jewelry along with random odds and ends), and indie labels like Sub Pop and Suicide Squeeze. The labels had CDs to sell, free buttons & stickers and various other swag. There were also numerous vinyl vendors and you could pick through old ZZ Top, Beatles, and Rolling Stones along side new albums by Voxtrot, Califone and other more current music. It was a pretty neat vendor area and I spent a bit of time checking everything out.
Minneapolis’ own Aesthetic Apparatus represents
Dave and I hit up the food tents. Most beverages were reasonable for a festival of this sort – beer was $4 and water was kept to an affordable $1. The festival also allowed patrons to bring in their own sealed, bottled water and provided drinking fountains. They did not want any dehydration here, which is admirable and unheard of in my opinion. Food, on the other hand, was a little nuts. I mean, maybe it’s because the festival is in Chicago, but $5 for a corn dog is a lot. Yikes! Whole Foods also had a tent with fresh fruit and veggies, chicken salad, and little Lunchables-esque packages.
After my break from the monotony, I went to check out Jamie Lidell. I didn’t know anything about Jamie, but was not very excited to see him appear in a gold lame turban with long strands of confetti flying about. However, once he moved up to the mike he had a smooth, pleasant voice and I was pleased. It was, unfortunately, a bit like karaoke as Lidell was the only human being on the stage, but had backing vocals piped in electronically. I moved on after shooting his show.
The Cool Kids were next and I’d heard from other festival-goers they were a stellar group and should be checked out. The stage they were on was the smaller side stage that’d been overrun by Dan Deacon the day before and so today the press/photo area was much more restricted and security was tight. They were also around 45 minutes behind. I freaked a bit since timing was crucial for photographers (they only allow you to shoot the first three songs from the photo pit, so if you miss it, you’re SOL), so I headed over to see Stephen Malkmus, former Pavement member. Being a good Minnesotan, I couldn’t afford to miss him. Malkmus was wonderful and it was the first time I could really sit and sigh over someone on day three of Pitchfork. I was never a huge Pavement fan, but I have a few albums and always enjoyed what I had. His set was a bit mellower than I think some would’ve liked and I heard comments that he was a bit “boring” from a few audience members. Well, it was just Malkmus and a guitar at this point, but I completely fell in love with his set – and he did play a few Pavement tracks too, by the way.
Stephen Malkmus
Having finished shooting the first three songs of Malkmus, I jetted back as fast as one can toward The Cool Kids, weaving through blankets, chairs and large groupings of people playing water tag. I arrived as TCK were one song into their set, but found security had changed their minds and wouldn’t let photographers into the pit at all. Gah! The large grouping of photogs took turns craning their necks and exercising yoga skills to get a few shots from some bad angles. I decided that I was over it and moved back to the main area of the park.
Next up was Of Montreal and I had heard great praise from Neil, whose opinion I usually trust, so I headed over to their stage. Of Montreal lived up to their hype and it was probably the most interesting and entertained I’d been all weekend. They started things off with a Darth Vadar-costumed man crossing the stage, and one guitar player with giant pink-feathered wings and 3-D glasses. Huh. Throughout the set various other characters joined the set, including a person dressed completely in black spandex and a gold face. Of Montreal was fun and danceable and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as did the crowd. I saw one guy jumping about two feet in the air over and over just bopping along to the music. Wonderful.
Of Montreal
After Of Montreal I jetted over to the other band I was looking forward to seeing, The New Pornographers. Again, I’ve only heard a few tracks, but found them extremely wonderful whenever I’ve gotten a chance to listen. They definitely seemed the most mainstream as far as sound and their vocal blend was pleasing to the ear. They weren’t especially exciting to watch, but that didn’t matter much. It was all about the music here. I was sad when the photogs were moved from the pit, and wanted to stick around to see more, but such is the life.
The last band of the day was De La Soul and, really, I only remembered them from the late 80s/early 90s. I guess they’ve actually put together quite a few albums since then, but it’s just not my kind of thing. The show started with only one member on stage, playing slices of various cuts from other larger 80s/90s hip hop acts like Tribe Called Quest. It took a good 10 minutes from the beginning of the set before the other members even appeared on stage. Once they did, the crowd, which was much larger than the one for Yoko Ono the night before, screamed, chanted, and waved their hands in the air. It was a lot of fun and I was glad to see so many people excited to be involved. You could hear the crowd from the show over a block away, which always means a good time.
Crowd at De La Soul
Overall my experience at Pitchfork was positive, but the music selection for me was very hit-or-miss. I suppose it’s supposed to be like that though so that there is greater mass appeal, which is fine. For only $15 a day, crowds were treated to a diverse lineup of bands from all genres and all ages. There were plenty of other activities, including phenomenal people-watching, to partake in, and one could always find something to do if you didn’t like even one of the two bands on stage at any given time. Beyond the sound problems, Pitchfork was run like a tight ship and they deserve kudos for that. I look forward to seeing what they bring us next year. Cheers to the Pitchfork Music Festival 2007!
You can check out all of my Pitchfork Music Festival photos by clicking here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnconcertphotos/collections/72157600849619693/
