Pitchfork Day 2

Continuing my review of the Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, IL, July 29 & 30:

Sunday was a little different. Most of the friends (including my cousin) that I knew from Saturday were not going on Sunday. I was, however, more excited for Sunday's lineup (beyond the Mountain Goats on Saturday) and I got going early.


Fortunately it was cool and stormy. If those clouds had been over Phoenix that early (noonish) we'd be in for a downpour; as it stands I felt some drops a few miles North but at the festival we just had some clouds (yay for shade) and cooler temperatures for the first hour or two (it was about 73 F at this time.)

My extra tickets went very quickly (I could've sold twice as many at twice the price) and I actually waited in line to get in. Doors opened around 12:30 and I was going to wander a bit when I remembered that I had not brought enough shirts to have a clean one for the plane ride (only 16 hours off, at this point) so I got a Mission of Burma one and headed to stage C and chatted with someone I met Friday and waited for


Tapes 'n Tapes. They actually started a few minutes early, even with the odd intro from their internet marketing manager (actually pictured! wearing a suit jacket.) He commaneded us to blog about and post pictures from the set. This included threats ("If you don't I will kill your dog... if you don't have a dog I will hurt the weakest member of your family" [paraphrased]) which was kinda funny... because, I mean, if you're not on the internet for ridiculous threats then for what? (Continued: and if you're not on the internet, how do you know about Tapes 'n Tapes/Pitchfork/the music festival?)

There was music too. I like their songs. Their set was good. Nothing killer (ha!) but a good start to the day.


Danielson was up next on stage A. It's achronological to compare Sufjan to Danielson but that'll work for most people (Sufjan got much of his musical sense/ideas playing with Daniel Smith's series of "Danielson..." bands.) Only there's none of the slow, soft folk and Daniel's voice is more Coyne than Stevens. So big, bright, poppy and full of orchestral color. They played a good set consisting mostly (if not entirely) of songs from the excellent Ships.

I saw them in Phoenix on what was actually a hotter day, in a packed venue without air conditioning... I spent half that concert outside (where you could hear near as well) and I left this one early, to get a good spot for


Jens Lekman. He was funny, telling amusing, aloof stories and playing lovely chamber pop songs. He had a full backing band, complete with people playing sax, trumpet and trombone which was great for songs like "You Are the Light." I wanted to leave early but didn't.


I still was fairly close for the National. The park was starting to fill up but the stages were not yet packed tight. The National had a violinist with them and all but two of their songs were from Alligator. Matt Berninger managed the crazy screaming climaxes of songs like "Mr. November" and "Lit Up" as well as I could've imagined. They were a clear highlight.

I met up with a friend at the start of the National and we headed over to the labels tent (where he worked the previous day.) It was surprisingly cool so I stuck around and browsed. This was basically outlet stores for Sub Pop, Absolutely Kosher, Southern Records and other indies.

OK, I looked it up. It was called the WLUW Record Fair. Yeah, I forgot, they also had a good deal of used vinyl and CDs from various vendors (they offered to hold the vinyl if you wanted though I saw several people carting records around the park.)

I had glanced at the Biz 3 Stage (where CSS and then Cage were playing) but it looked to packed for me to try. Liars were the mainstage band and I wasn't too upset about missing them.

After the record fair we wandered around Flatstock for a while. They had some interesting posters but what was best about that was the shows they advertised.


Aesop Rock & Mr. Lif were the next artists I caught. That was nuts. They did my some of my favorites like "11:35" and "No Regrets." And they did Lif's songs too, like "Brothaz" and "Phantom." DJ Big Wiz (or something, I forget/don't care) did his own scratch solo from scratch... which turned out almost entirely differently than the one he had done in Phoenix the previous Monday. I considered leaving early (they were my number 2 artists for Sunday) but I'm glad I didn't as they closed with "Daylight" which got a great response.


I ran over to stage C for Mission of Burma. A no-nonsense set of the old hits ("Academy Fight Song" and "That's When I Reach For My Revolver") and second-incarnation tracks ("The Enthusiast" and "2wice.") The music was strong and hard and driving.

After Burma I was hot and tired from the jumping. I went and got some Phat Thai and sat in the shade. Devendra Banhart (not picutred) was on the mainstage and though I like his music I'm a little sick of him. He was at ArthurFest (saw the whole set), he was at Coachella (saw a few songs) and he was here (saw almost nothing, sort heard from afar most of the set.) The noodles were good, though. I ran into another friend from the day before and we sat in the shade and chatted and relaxed before heading out for


Yo La Tengo. Buy this point there were many more folks around to be waiting at the stages and we ran into some other folks who were getting ready to leave. Anyway, Yo La Tengo. They played mostly songs from their upcoming album I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass like "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" which is about 12 minutes and loud and droney and poppy. Most of the new songs sounded kinda light, though and I wasn't entirely pleased. I'll bet they are another band that really should be seen in a small little dive or something.

I forget what I did next. I might've used the restrooms (I brought my own sanitizer for the second day) and gotten some water. I dunno. Not a fan of Spoon (not pictured) so I took


pictures of the grounds and the crowds and


myself (go Tigers!) and got in a good spot for


Os Mutantes. I was not very familiar with them. They sounded like fun sixties semi-psychedelic pop with lots of orchestral color. They had two drummers (both playing kits, even.) There were a lot of people there. There were even a few crowd-surfing.

Eventually I got home. I even slept for an hour before walking to the L stop and riding that for half an hour and waiting in the airport for my sold-out 5 am flight home. I read Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan and listened to music (not pictured.) Eventually we landed and I took a shuttle van to my parent's house, got my car and drove home and then sat around for a bit before falling asleep around 9 am.