Pitchfork Music Festivial

[sureshot]

Day 3 (I'm tired and have to wake up early, so this is brief)...

 

Well, the one stage was having major sound issues, that pretty much ruined the entire Pony's set. It was cropping up again during the Junior Boys. Basically the entire left side was cutting out. So that was very shitty and aggravating. (Actually the sound as a whole on all the stages was somewhat questionable). With that said..

 

The Junior Boys are fricking amazing live, despite all the sound issues. I really wanted their set to last all afternoon. Just incredible. Definitely the highlight for me.

 

The Sea and Cake- another excellent set. Nearly flawless.

 

I was worried when I heard Stephen Malkmus was solo, but I was pleasantly surprised. Did a couple Pavement songs as well as his own. I always had this impression of him being kind of a prick, but he was actually very sociable and cracking a lot of jokes. He seemed to be enjoying himself a lot, and the crowd gave him a lot of love.

 

The mini stage was running behind, but I really wanted to see the Field, so I skipped the Of Montreal/New Pornographers. When I first heard his album I didnt really understand all the hype, but its been a huge grower for me. "Sublime" is the best way to sum up his set...an absolutely perfect soundtrack for a sunset. Gave me goosebumps.

 

De La Soul were pretty good. They've never been my favorite rap group (always preferred Tribe), but still a lot of fun.

[WaronWar]

I got back early today (I took the 8:40 train home and then hung out with my friends since most don't like my tastes in music), and I did not see the New Pornographers or the other two closing acts around that time.

 

However, I was there early, and was glad they opened up their gates only 15 mins later than they were supposed to open rather than like Saturday (50 mins).

 

I caught the Fred-Holmberg Lightbox Orchestra which I thought to be rather good. The only two musicians I knew out of the ensemble was Jeff Parker on guitar and Ken Voldmberg (most likely spelled wrong, but I am tired) on sax. They were basically playing free jazz, and I don't think most of the crowd was interested because most were there to get good standing seats of the next band playing. But I enjoyed it.

 

I then got up close for the Sea and Cake, and I enjoyed most of their stuff, but the sound mix was not so good because loud annoying feedback kept occuring. Moreover, the bass was way too loud, which caused it to overplay the guitars. Besides that I enjoyed the set, and watching John McEntire, I think he's a great drummer whether he's doing simple as in his work with the Sea and Cake or harder such as his work in Tortoise.

 

Then I really did not catch anything that intriqued me until I waited to see Of Montreal. I have heard a lot of hype about the band, but I never really saw any shows or bought any records. The only thing I knew is that the singer Kevin Barmes went naked on a stage in New York, I think it was there. Well, I sort of enjoyed the music, but I think there is better dance/rock music out there then this band was. In addition, Kevin during the middle of the set changed into a costume that the character Dr. Frankenfurter from the movie "Rock Horror Picture Show" I believe wore. By the time the set was over, and the band came on again to do an encore of the Kinks's "You Really Got Me," Kevin was wearing nothing, but a black thong. In short, I saw too much of a man's ass for one day.

 

But overall experience I enjoyed at Pitchfork, I thought it to be better than last year's Lollapoolza because one thing water was only a dollar, tickets cost nothing for three days, artists were more diverse (most bands at Lolla were the standard power chord rock band), it was far less crowded, workers cared more, and the audience seem to be more music fans rather than the people that just wanted to show up (though I did meet some people like that).

 

In short, I had a good time for only $ 56 (including service charges) and three days.

[Dr. Steve Brule]

of Montreal was what my weekend at Pitchfork built up to. I was sweaty, covered in glitter and applesauce and did not see too much of a man's ass. I was too busy dancing to take pix, but I'm sure some great ones will get out there. In the meantime, this is a pretty good representation:

 

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=of+montrea...fork&m=text

 

the woman in gold who was dishing out the applesauce is Kevin's wife. Before the show she brought their daughter out who hacked away at the drums.

[Degenerex]

I also had an amazing time this weekend. I won't write a full review, but my favorite sets of the weekend were: Sonic Youth (completely blew me away), Voxtrot, Clipse, Battles, Sea and Cake, Klaxons, Stephen Malkmus (if you get a chance to see him solo, don't miss it), and my MVP for the weekend was Of Montreal. If you've never seen them live, I guess the best way to put it is they put on a Flaming Lips-type set, only with less man-bubble and more man-skin. All in all a great weekend. Glad everyone seemed to have a good time!

[sureshot]

and my MVP for the weekend was Of Montreal. If you've never seen them live, I guess the best way to put it is they put on a Flaming Lips-type set, only with less man-bubble and more man-skin.

 

See, I've always seen them as all style and no substance. I guess I just don't "get" it.

 

I also don't get the hype for the Klaxons. I was going to stick around for them after seeing the Field, but it took an absolute eternity for their sound check, not to mention it got extremely claustrophobic over by the mini stage after the Field ended. So after waiting around 40 minutes, I ditched in time to catch De La Soul take the stage. Glad I did.

[radiokills]

you SKIPPED the new pornos?

 

what about Daydream Nation and Spiderland??!

[sureshot]

If Neko Case had been there I think it would have been unmissable. To be honest, I had intended on seeing them, but the mini stage was running about a 1/2 hr-40 minutes behind, so by the time the Field ended, their set was already pretty far in.

 

And I was only there on Sunday, so I didnt catch any of the Friday stuff.

 

you SKIPPED the new pornos?

 

what about Daydream Nation and Spiderland??!

[Kyjygyfyf]

this last day was amazing, despite the delays and minor sound problems for some bands, the Ponys included. the best act was by far the new pornographers, and even though they didn't have neko, the girl they had was just as good and her voice sounds almost exactly the same. they tore through great versions of all their classics, use it, laws have changed, sing me spanish techno, bleeding heart show, jackie dressed in cobras, plus a few new numbers from the upcoming lp that really charged the crowd. the second best act was definitely Nomo, the jazz-funk fusion group from Ann Arbor. incredible horn section, all the players were amazing musicians, especially the baritone saxophonist who at one point dropped the mic straight into his horn, unbelieveable. so much energy.

[willywoody]

here's my breakdown on the weekend. too many people . they need to cut it back a couple thousand. as mentioned i heard it got a little scary up front during sonic youth and i experienced the overcrowded conditions up front for dan deacon, at least for a few songs before i bailed as i had a bad feeling something bad was gonna happen. i heard the fencing got pushed down into the adjacent street but don't think there were any serious injuries.

 

slint sucked. and on top of that you couldn't hear them from farther than 30 feet. gza and crew were alright but clipse's performance blew them away. sonic youth was good but really came alive with the encore of more recent material.

 

twilight sad were marvelous and are so young. they could be big. amazing the guitarist doesn't get lost in all that racket he's making.

califone were good but a little ragged and the horn's were a little much.

voxtrot were a big surprise. a lot like the new pornographers with some catchy tunes and loads of energy. was that macca on base?

grizzly bear and iron and wine kind of glossed right by me in the midday heat. like a really strange picnic.

battles were amazing live. they're out there but really talented.

the few songs i heard from dan deacon were whack and if there had been some more room i think the place would've really broken out into full on club dancing.

i wasn't up too close for cat power and the sound wasn't carrying well so i could barely hear her but what i heard sounded solid.

yoko was so much better than i had imagined and when thurston came out it got even better.

 

sunday was a letdown for me compared to saturday but i was a little worn out too. deerhunter were very good but the sunday sound man on that stage really liked his bass which drowned out everything too much. grizzly bear joined them for lake somerset.

the ponys' set was completely trashed by the sound mishaps. first the bass amp went south, then a guitar amp connection, then the entire house sound went down for a whole song song, the lead guitar also went down for a part of a song. yeh, i only flew 1500 miles round trip , thanks sound guys.

i found menoma and the sea and cake highly forgetful but maybe if i was more fluent in their songs i may have enjoyed them better. they are very talented.

jamie lidell was huge surprise. i was expecting lite soul pop songs like that minor hit of his but he added some great dance breaks suited for full on dancing and many in the audience took him up. wonder if his album is anything like that?

i missed most of the junior boys standing in a line but the little i heard was sharp.

malkmus bored me to tears, oh wait that was just the dust from the ballpark in my eyes.

i never thought i'd see the day when 10000 fans went absolutely wild for of montreal. but there it was in the weekend's biggest "rock" moment.

the new pornographers had a lot to live up to following the of montreal spectacle and it took a few songs for everyone to start getting into them it seemed. and when they went into "we will rock you" and followed with some more familiar songs most everyone, even in the back where i was, was dancing.

 

i don't have a tone of festival experience but i did attend acl festival in 2004. i was more able to get up close for bands i really liked at acl and surprisingly the food lines weren't any longer than at pitchfork 2007. i saw and heard more music at pitchfork, though, given the main stages set up.

 

thanks chicago and pitchfork it was a real good time.

[JeffTweedysFatStomach]

I was backstage and got to see Kevin Barnes during his costume changes and it was so cute how he would run off, kiss his wife and girl, change in a few seconds into his next wild outfit, and come back to say hi to his daughter again. I can only imagine what her memories of daddy will be someday.

[mountain bed]

I was backstage and got to see Kevin Barnes during his costume changes and it was so cute how he would run off, kiss his wife and girl, change in a few seconds into his next wild outfit, and come back to say hi to his daughter again. I can only imagine what her memories of daddy will be someday.

Completely off-topic here...I just wanted to say (given your screen name) if you could make your avatar Jeff's stomach w/ the ciggie in the belly-button (from the IATTBYH movie) that would be AWESOME!!

[bböp]

the best act was by far the new pornographers, and even though they didn't have neko, the girl they had was just as good and her voice sounds almost exactly the same.

 

that's kathryn calder, carl's niece, who has been with them since their tour for twin cinema. i wouldn't say her voice sounds exactly the same as neko's, but she does a nice job filling in on neko's vocal parts when neko isn't with them and she adds other stuff to their sound as well. given neko's solo success, the NPs had to find a way to still be able to tour when she wasn't available if they wanted to continue developing as a band and kathryn definitely gives them that. (her own band, immaculate machine, is pretty cool as well.)

 

i didn't get to see much of the NPs' set yesterday, which was OK with me since i had just gotten to see them in new york on the fourth of july. but for me, the highlights of day 3 definitely were jamie liddell and of montreal. despite the literal crush of people, being close enough to get a taste of the red applesauce being ladled out by the bowlful during OM's set was pretty spectacular. so was their encore of "all day and all of the night."

[sureshot]

Found some clips of the Field...I just didnt want it to end...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFNLdSShmp4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C02HONKmpqM

[LouieB]

My turn......I got out of the third day and went straight the next morning to Rockford where the hotel had no internet. Go figure.

 

Sunday was good too......but I agree with someone about the fact that a few less people could have been squeezed into Union Park. Sunday was relatively hot and the lawn was totally brown and the ball fields like sandboxes. I guess the city never got to water down the park. There were times the crush of people was pretty unbelievable.

 

I was just glad I got to sell records. As a result I got to see one of the guys from Califone browse our crates, I got to browse at another dealer next to Thurston Moore, I got to talk to Fred Anderson who actually seemed to be enjoying himself, I got to talk briefly to WaronWar, and I got somewhere to go hide so I didn't have to sit in the sun all day.

 

Other than that, Sunday was a decent day and all and all I would go again next year. Fred Lonberg-Holms Light Box Orchestra was a large band with Ken Vandermark and Jeff Parker doing fairly free playing. The Pony's were tuneful in a sort of garagey and post punk way, despite the sound problems they were good.

 

Who else did I see?? Oh yea Sea and Cake, who I thought were good, Of Montreal, who's glam prog rock seemed to be okay and the New Pornographers, who were the best group of the day I thought. Who did I forget? Oh yea, Malkus was okay, but I thought he needed a band. De La Soul? Whatever...

 

LouieB

[sureshot]

De La Soul? Whatever...

 

LouieB

 

Come now, you're just going to give a "whatever" to one of the most influential groups of all time? I understand some arent down with the hipitty hop, but still.

[WaronWar]

I got to talk briefly to WaronWar.

 

LouieB

 

Yes, we should have talked more especially more on the subject of music, but I was somewhat out of it because of being tired.

 

Are you going to see Califone at West Festivial because I think that's really the next concert I am going to because I am out of town for a little bit.

[LouieB]

Come now, you're just going to give a "whatever" to one of the most influential groups of all time? I understand some arent down with the hipitty hop, but still.

If you say so......frankly after three days of music, I had no intention of sticking around and seeing them. Maybe you can enlighten me on how they are one of the most influential groups of all time. I heard enough of them to find them pretty standard hiphop/soul/pop and several other people couldn't understand why they were wrapping this thing up. Actually the place was clearing out pretty fast when they came on (which also happened with Yoko since many people had no idea what she was going to do and were pretty freaked out.) What was De La Soul's big hit single (or singles), I can't remember.

 

Yes, we should have talked more especially more on the subject of music, but I was somewhat out of it because of being tired.

 

Are you going to see Califone at West Festivial because I think that's really the next concert I am going to because I am out of town for a little bit.

I hope to, but so much else is going on between now and then. I just realized today that Eleventh Dream Day is playing tomorrow night and I nearly forgot. (Eleventh Dream Day is/was an influential group by the way, maybe not of all time, but certainly in relationship to the Chicago music scene.)

 

LouieB