This past weekend the first ever Pitchfork Music Festival took place at Union Park in Chicago, IL. LiquidGeneration was on hand to capture the festival in all its "indie-ness," but unfortunately video was not allowed. Sooo instead I'll just have to paint you a picture with my glorious words. Imagine a huge field, 35,000 indie rockers and a 105 heat index. Are you picturing it? Ok, now imagine the smell! It is a well known fact that on the "evolutionary scene chain" indie rockers are only one step above hippies. Well, I witnessed first hand that the only difference between the two are grilled cheese and Phish...I should know as I can do a mean hippie dance. I kid. I am as fake indie as the next kid that was there. The only difference between me and them is that I know Os Mutantes is not that good. On to the music!
Good bands sometimes sound not so good outside, but bad bands, well, they are even worse. There was a lot of music at the festival, what with two stages and a dance tent, but I am going to just give you the run down on what was actually worth talking about. So if you are waiting for me to trash Mountain Goats and/or Liars, you are waiting in vain. (Name the band?)
The highlight of the festival was a performance on Sunday afternoon by the National. It's refreshing to see a band that doesn't have a gimmick, or dress to impress or even have to incorporate "beats" into their music. Instead, the National came out and did what many bands have forgotten how to do and that is play straightforward incredibly well written rock songs. You could feel the energy in the crowd on songs like "Mr. November" and "Abel" and the former left such an impression that people were humming it throughout the day. The only negative in the set, was that the wind came in and blew the sound around a couple of times...but I guess we can't really blame the band for that! The National are the real deal, and are going to be for quite some time.
Two of the most up-beat performances came from a group of Brits and a crooning Swedish song- writer. On Saturday, Art Brut kicked out the jams with a spastic set of punk meets rock meets hilarity. Probably some of the best guitar solos I have heard in a long time. Frontman Eddie Argos makes up for what he lacks in a singing voice with energy and a magnetic stage presence. Can't wait to see them again, only inside. On Sunday, Jens Lekman hit the stage with quite possibly the best looking band of all time. The Swedish singer was joined by an all female horn section, a lovely young lady on bass and keys and a vision of beauty behind the drum kit. The entire band was all in white and Jens crooned and told stories about Berlin, Sweden and coming to America. As a frontman Lekman is as engaging and charming as one could be.
Other highlights of the festival included an early afternoon set by Band of Horses whose mellow harmonies were a perfect start to the day, a Bowie inspired set by Destroyer and a rousing good time performance by the always impressive Ted Leo and the Pharmacists . The biggest party of the festival was a CSS performance over at the dance tent. If you didn't know any better you would have thought that most everyone was going into some type of epileptic heat induced stroke. The indie kids love to dance! The headliners and later bands performed as you would expect with spirited albeit somewhat mechanical festival sets. Spoon and the Futureheads were the best of this group, acting somewhat like the elder statesman of the festival.
All in all The pitchfork Music Festival was an incredible success; it sold out, no one died and they got to do it their way. I was really surprised at how well the festival was organized, and at how friendly everyone was even when they were melting. I guess that's Chicago for you though. My only complaint would be that something this good needs to be moved somewhere a little bigger, as it was really packed. Then again, I guess that's what festivals are all about...meeting sweaty, dirty new friends. Can't wait for Lollapalooza in 4 days!
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