I have never gone to a music festival of any kind. I often see bands play live but the prospect of watching performance after performance while surrounded by sweaty, intoxicated people never seemed appealing. This being said, I have spent the last few years watching the live broadcast of the Pitchfork Music Festival from my home and somehow wishing I was there.
A few months ago, when the line-up was announced for the 2010 Pitchfork festival, I was impressed. It seemed really solid with stand-outs like Beach House and Panda Bear; then I got to the bottom of the list and noticed the word ‘Pavement’ and was immediately floored. Pavement has been one of my favorite bands for many years and I never thought I would get to see them live. I had gone to the Pixies reunion tour in 2003 and I knew that missing Pavement would be a huge disappointment so I immediately bought two tickets. On Wednesday of last week, I found myself hitting the road to make my way from South West Florida to Chicago.
(if you want, you can click on the pictures in this post to make them a little big bigger)
The drive went by pretty quickly and uneventfully with the exception of the creepy motel I stayed the night in while stopped in Orlinda, Tennessee. It was chosen by the gentleman who was driving up with me (he was on a strict budget). The lodge was located next to an abandoned restaurant and an abandoned gas station which had a sign pricing diesel at 97 cents a gallon. The front desk was operated by two Indian women watching Indian soap operas on a tattered couch which also contained two wool socks, a knife and a giant jar of Vaseline. The amazing array of patterns and colors contained within the room’s décor was a bit disorienting but I woke up alive and rested and continued on my way.
After arriving in Chicago, I visited a friend before returning to my hotel to get some of my graduate work done. I picked up my significant other from the airport on Friday afternoon and we walked over to the festival at about 5pm because I wanted to see Liars. I have to say that I am so fortunate to have had her with me and even though she was rarely familiar with the bands I wanted to see, she came along cheerfully and enthusiastically. Now if you are a person like me for whom a festival never sounded like fun, the secret to a great time is to pick a handful of bands that you do not want to miss each day and make sure to see them. That way you are never there so long that you get overly grouchy and ruin the day and EVERYTHING you see will blow your mind. Sunday was the only day we were there for the entire festival and it was REALLY hot outside.
Friday was a perfect start to the festival. By the time we got there it was already cooling off outside and it was not nearly as crowded as Saturday or Sunday. The first set we saw was by Liars.
They put on a fun show. I saw Liars open for Radiohead a few years ago and they really failed to connect with the audience but everyone watching them at Pitchfork seemed to be into it. Angus was a sight to see as he towered above his band mates and spastically pranced around stage in his short shorts. Their music was a lot darker and more intense than anything else I encountered this weekend.
Next up was Robyn, an artist who I was way less familiar with than most of the others at the festival.
Her set was incredibly energetic and charming. Definitely the biggest surprise of the festival for me. Her music was easy to listen to but definitely still had some interesting touches and I look forward to check out the albums.
The final band for Friday was Modest Mouse. We had made our way pretty close to the stage during Robyn’s set and remained there while most of the crowd migrated to Broken Social Scene. I had seen BSS live a few years ago and was not at all impressed. They sounded pretty good from a distance though.
Once it was time for Modest Mouse to take the stage everyone pushed forward and the heat and claustrophobic closeness was hard to handle.
Modest Mouse had been a band that I enjoyed a lot in the past but did not spend much time thinking about presently. I was pleasantly surprised with their set which included brass, woodwinds and banjo in addition to the normal rock set-up. They opened with “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” from The Moon and Antarctica and the crowd went crazy at the chorus. We made our way to the back and enjoyed the rest of the set without being smashed between sweaty hipsters before walking back to the hotel.
When we woke up on Saturday we were EXHAUSTED. There were a few bands I was interested in but sticking with my “handful of bands a day” plan, I decided I was most excited for Wolf Parade, Panda Bear and LCD Soundsystem. We decided to spent the morning walking through the city and sightseeing.
We were actually pretty unsuccessful because it was very hot and very crowded (a theme for the weekend). I did not want to wait in line an hour for the Sears Tower so we instead went to the observation deck in the John Hancock building and the view was incredible.
We made our way back to the hotel to prepare for the festival and then walked in the heat all the way there. My bag was thoroughly searched by an elderly guy and he made us throw out our granola bars. A kind young woman went to rip my tickets and but luckily she actually looked at them and realized that I had accidentally brought a Saturday and a Sunday ticket instead of two Saturdays. I made my way out to the sound of another old guy yelling “NO RE-ENTRY” reminding me that if she hadn’t checked my ticket, I would’ve been screwed both that day and the following day. We took a cab back to the hotel and our driver did a great job of getting us back to the festival in a timely manner. I only was able to catch the end of Wolf Parade though.
It sounded like a good set and it was awesome getting to see Spencer Krug live if only for a little while. On the positive side, this allowed us to be pretty close to the stage when Panda Bear came on next.
The set was beautiful and made up of almost entirely new material. The only old song I noticed was “Ponytail” from Person Pitch. Each song built slowly and deliberately as Panda Bear sang intensely over electronics and gentle guitar. People continually walked away from the stage while he was playing, I assume disappointed that they weren’t recognizing any of the songs.
The day ended with LCD Soundsystem which moved the entire crowd to impassioned singing and dancing.
“All My Friends” was the clear highlight and a huge group of enthusiastic audience members weaved through the crowd in a dancing party line. I would’ve been pretty annoyed by it if I wasn’t so into the performance.
Sunday was the final day of the festival and we knew it was going to be a long one. It was very hot but fortunately there was a cool breeze. The day started with a pretty good set from Girls.
It was energetic and sounded good but it failed to stand out very much for me in comparison to the other sets I had seen.
For Beach House (who have released what is still my favorite album of 2010), we managed to get really close to the stage.
The set was majestic. The songs all sounded superior live to their already great album incarnations. Victoria LeGrand’s performance was passionate and entrancing and the other members of the band seemed to have a good sense of humor and allowed the show to remain relaxed. The crowd watching with us seemed to really love the band and I was even more inspired to revisit their older albums which failed to impress me when I first heard them.
I looked forward to seeing St. Vincent and watched the beginning of the set feeling a sense of disappointment.
There was nothing wrong with the performance but the intricate orchestral flourishes were lost in the open air. They did little to compliment the extreme heat as well and we decided to go find some food and explore the festival a bit. After spending some time in the incredibly overwhelming and intimidating vinyl faire, we made our way to the B-stage to see some of Here We Go Magic. I could not stay there for long however because it was entirely too filled with people.
After some more wandering and watching a few unbearable minutes of Major Lazer’s unending redundancies, we wandered around some more and watched some of Neon Indian.
Their set really bored me but I wanted to see Sleigh Bells and was hoping to get a decent spot. Unfortunately Sleigh Bells was running late. There seemed to be some technical difficulties and the set was at least forty minutes late. I had to leave before it started because I wanted to get ready for Pavement.
While waiting for Pavement I saw the end of Big Boi’s set which seemed to go over really well. I was bristling with the anticipation of seeing one of my all time favorite bands and did not pay much attention to anything else.
Pavement took the stage after an alleged ex-radio DJ angered the crowd by insulting everything about our generation. People were really mad and actually threw water bottles and other objects at him. Pavement though, was one of the best experiences of my concert going life.
I was unable to get some even somewhat good Pavement pictures so this picture is taken from the Pitchfork website:
I knew the words to every song and could not help but sing along but I was not the only one. It seemed the whole crowd had an intense familiarity with their entire discography. They played every song I could have hoped to hear including Cut You Hair, Shady Lane, Stereo, Spit On A Stranger, Range Life, Silence Kit, Trigger Cut, Conduit For Sale, Grounded, Kennel District and more. I could not and can not be happier about getting to see them and that is what this entire festival was about.
I am glad I got to go to Pitchfork Music Festival this year. It was an entirely different experience than watching the live stream from my living room and in some ways it was less comfortable but seeing Pavement made it all worthwhile. If you are planning on going to a festival, I would say that Pitchfork is probably a great choice.
Until next time…
