Chicago. Pitchfork. Union Park. Spoon. Cut/Copy. Vampire Weekend. The Hold Steady. Fleet Foxes. Animal Collective. Spiritualized. Dinosaur Jr. No Age. King Khan and the Shrines. The Apples in Stereo. Atlas Sound. Caribou. Jay Reatard. !!!. Ghostface and Raekwon. Bon Iver. Extra Golden. Fuck Buttons. Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. The Dirty Projectors. The Dodos. Bon Iver. M. Ward. Dizzee Rascal. Les Savy Fav.
I am just now piecing together the weekend that was Pitchfork Music Festival at Chicago’s Union Park last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Considering it was my first time attending the three year old festival, all I can say, is, well…wow. With a mission statement “To do the right thing: That is, to create a reasonably priced summer music festival that provides an overwhelmingly positive, comfortable and fun festival experience for both attendees and musicians.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Just take a look above and check out the well-chosen group of artists playing. There was on more than one occasion an almost coin toss when choosing between what bands to see. The toughest moment of the weekend was choosing the last show between staying for the end of Spoon’s set or going to see Cut/Copy, who finally got to the festival at the last minute. Lets just say I made a solid choice and having “Hearts On Fire” be the last song of the night was epic to say the least.
Oddly enough, one of the most interesting things that I was exposed to this weekend had almost nothing to do with actual music, other than transport us to see music. We took something called the Megabus up to Chicago for $22.00 a person for a one-way ticket. Just a little background about myself, one of my ultimate hell scenarios would be being on a Greyhound bus that never actually reaches its destination, it just drives aimlessly around the country in circles forever. This was nothing like that.
The weekend started out with my first exposure to Millennium Park in downtown Chicago. Heralded as on of the most sophisticated outdoor concert venues in the United States, the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavillion was nothing short of amazing. The sound was exceptional and we opted to sit on the lawn, which was well taken care of and was reminiscent of your favorite childhood blanket. This environment, mixed with a perfectly cool night with a warm breeze and the Fleet Foxes playing their well-crafted reflective songs live, created a moment where time seemed to stop, just for a few collective minutes.
The next night, Friday, was dubbed “Don’t Look Back,” in which Pitchfork teamed up with All Tomorrow’s Parties to bring in a few choice past influential artists and have them play their most definitive album in it’s entirety. This year was Public Enemy playing “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” Mission of Burma playing “Bubble and Scrape” and Sebadoah playing “Vs.”
Maybe it was because I did not have tickets, or maybe because I was not that familiar with any of these artists, but I chose to skip this part of the festival. But I had a good plan up my sleeve of what to do in place. I would do my own Chicago-style Myth busters. But instead of some outlandish science experiment, I would do my own social experiment: Can I find a PBR at every bar down Division Street in the Wicker Park area? This can also be used to bust the myth that everything is “Soooo expensive in Chicago.”
Armed with our host Alexis, we hit the streets.
Rainbo. Adobo. Innertown. Happy Village. Mac’s. Gold Star. Rite Liquours. Zakorane/Czar Bar. Phyllys’, Double Door. Debonaire.
Out of the 11 bars we went to, only one did not have PBR, which was Zakorane. This was because it was an old school Polish bar and they did not have actual PBR, but happily gave us something that was similar in price and taste. The majority of places had $2, $3, or $4 PBR’s in either draft of bottle form. Myth busted. Most unique spot award goes to Rite Liquors, which was half traditional liquor store/half standard creepy old man bar. Weird, but in a way that is worth checking out.
Saturday’s Pitchfork festivities kicked off with catching Fleet Foxes again. I don’t know what it is about these guys, but they are captivating live. We waked over to the far (B) stage and caught the end of Fuck Buttons and The Ruby Suns. Honestly, I did not know much about The Ruby Suns, but I would rather go see a random band that I knew very little about than watch Dizzee Rascal scream incoherently into a mic. Once is enough for a lifetime. Good set, but I was preoccupied by checking my watch in anticipation of Vampire Weekends set at the main stage.
Now, Vampire Weekend brings up quite a bit of debate among educated (and some not so educated) music lovers. There are two sides of the spectrum when discussing this group. Side A is that they are a listenable, upbeat group who were influenced by Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and inspired by Afro-pop beats. Side B thinks they are a bunch of pretentious wannabes who ripped off “Graceland” and are a result of Blogosphere-hype bullshit.
I had never seen them live, but loved the sound from the second I heard it despite what any pretentious, too cool for this planet/universe, here is my 2 cents though you didn’t ask for it Rad Chad had to say. But honestly, this was the make it or break it moment for the band in my mind. The result? Killed it. They looked extremely comfortable on stage and commanded a full crowd with nonchalant enthusiasm as if they were playing a house party for their close friends at the best summer barbecue ever. Check out the refreshing mud pit that emerged during the middle of their set.
Next was another group that I was excited to see live, The Hold Steady. They are really a group that has grown on me slowly and have gotten better and better every time I listen to them. It is straight up badass guitar rock, and they are not hiding it. Just as I expected, they rocked and I walked away with a smile on my face.
The night rounded out with a group that frankly I did not want to see. It was not that I did not want to see the band themselves; it was just that I did not want to see them for the first time in a festival environment. I have always kind of had a love/hate relationship with Animal Collective and I did not think it was fair to see them live for the first time on a huge stage. I always envisioned seeing them in some dank and dark hole in the wall venue.
Their set was probably one of my largest surprises of the day, because I loved it. Maybe I had had a few too many IPA’s or maybe it was the cool breeze in the air, but I had one of those moments where everything around me seemed to freeze. Many tracks translated quite well to a large stage and the lights on stage gave me a vague reminiscence of Radiohead in St. Louis.
The crowd leaving was like a sea of clever graphic tees, cut off Jorts and Parliament Lights. We hit the Cobra Lounge and saw some random Chicago three-piece whose name I never remembered. All I remember is that the lead singer had a Cobra (as in Cobra from G.I. Joe) tee on that looked for real vintage and not like some bullshit reprint. Nice. Cool spot.
We were lagging a bit Sunday morning and missed the first band I wanted to see, King Khan and the Shrines. I asked around and from what I gathered the show was awesome, absurd and raunchy all rolled into one. I think I even heard something about “titties bouncing” being talked about onstage. Oh well, you can’t see everything.
We had originally wanted to see Ghostface Killah & Raekwon, but there was a schedule change and we ended up catching the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. I was glad I had the opportunity to see them. It was a cool mix of laid-back West African songs mixed in with some higher energy original songs. When they covered New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle,” I was officially impressed and it was probably one of the better covers I have ever seen of one of my favorite songs of all time.
Ghostface Killah (Killer?) & Raekwon were expectedly legit and they commanded respect from the stage. Probably one of the more absurd moments of the festival was right after when Ghostface gave the standard serious shout out to everyone in the struggle, the system, etc. etc. Some sweet Bro behind me screamed “Fuck Yeah!!” like right after he was done, which made me openly laugh out loud. That is really one of the moments where hip-hop does not translate. I have an inkling that many of the attendees at Pitchfork probably cant really relate to any sort of “struggle.” Unless you count not getting their parents’ rent check on time (which sucks).
Next I made my way to Spiritualized. I have also never seen them live and got what I expected. Their monumental, chilled out sound translated well as a main stage act and it was nice to kind of lay low and take a breather. We caught about half of their set and made our way down to Bon Iver, mostly because I knew they were on before Cut/Copy. Many of my friends really rep Bon Iver, so I figured I could check it out, I just honestly really knew nothing about him. It was laid back, but by this point I had Cut/Copy on my mind.
I would have to say that seeing Cut/Copy was probably in my top 4 bands to see while I was at Pitchfork. They have only played in Chicago on one other occasion, in which tickets sold out immediately and they had to book a second date, which sold out as well. We slyly and slowly moved our way up as close to the front row as we could get. Most of the weekend I had been checking out sets from the middle to back of the crowd, so I could move around faster and check out more sets.
“We apologize, but Cut/Copy is stuck at the airport and trying to get here as soon as possible.” Time goes by. People start leaving. Spoon is just starting up. The lead singer of King Khan and one of the guys from Atlas Sound are onstage for an impromptu collaboration trying to keep people at the Cut/Copy stage. After one song I decide to head over to Spoon since I have never seen then live either, oddly enough.
So now Spoon is basically commanding the attention of the entire Festival and I realize that Spoon really is one of the best bands around right now. Consistent discography. No gaps or low points. They also exist in a weird zone I call “The Gap.” The Gap is the line between super heady music lovers and that first ring right below standard Top 40 only awareness. It is the type of band that brings people together. You won’t hear any of the all too common, “It’s not as good as their earlier stuff” or “They have totally sold out.” Spoon. Great live.
Then it happened. Word got around that Cut/Copy just got here and were hurriedly setting up so they could salvage any time that they still had. Cut/Copy vs. Spoon as the ending act. Fuck.
Roll the dice and take chances! That was the mentality as we ran down to Cut/Copy. Most of the crew I was with had seen Spoon live before and I was able to catch their first three songs. Spoon will probably be back in the Midwest soon. Cut/Copy, probably not.
We got there just as they were starting up. The crowd was pumped and people were pouring in from all over the place. It was really impressive to see a crowd that was so dedicated to the band that people were rushing down when they took stage, even though they had like 30 minutes left to play. “Lights and Music” started up and the crowd exploded. This was probably the liveliest show I saw all festival by far.
The set ended with “Lights and Music” to a pumped crowd demanding an encore, which never came, which we were pretty sure was due to city law.
Wow. We spilled out onto the street and made our way to get one last piece of pizza from Pizza metro before going to wait for the 12:00 am Sunday morning mega bus to come pick us up. The Megabus back was fairly filled with people who obviously stepped up and stayed to catch the end of the festival. As I was sitting in my seat on the bus, knowing that I had to be at work in less than 7 hours, I realized that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than right here and now.
I would like to thank the beautiful trio of Alexis, Jordan and Christa for putting us up for the weekend and Brian and Michael for making sure we stayed on track during the days and helping with the final Cut/Copy vs. Spoon decision. Well played. Having a good group to show you around in a foreign city is worth its weight in gold.