pitchfork festival
16Jul08
In a couple of hours I will be hopping on a plane to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival, my third trip to what has quickly become the only summer fest I genuinely enjoy. A whole bunch of 17 Dots folks will be making the trek, including Joe, Amishi and some behind-the-scenesers as well. We’ll be giving wall-to-wall coverage starting Friday of the whole thing (once Joe and I get out of seeing The Dark Knight Friday afternoon).
Flamgirlant started a thread on the eMusic message boards suggesting we figure out a way for all of us to meet up while we are out there. Sounds like a great idea to me. Let’s do our best to use 17 Dots to coordinate, and hopefully we’ll all get the chance to be really awkward in person! Who’s in?
Adamm will be there. My first Pitchfork!
(Actually my first fest of any sort if you don’t count Lollapalooza 1997; which you shouldn’t because it sucked.)
I bought Dark Knight tickets last night for my entire family and I to see on Friday night. I can’t wait.
Have fun at Pitchfork dudes!
So who is here? I went to the Fleet Foxes thing last night. Man, I do not like that band.
God wish I could go, oh well my Recording Studio is going to be a different animal (and my nickname here will change too) by next year’s fest and next years SXSW so hopefully I’ll make it to both then. Have fun dragging Amishi around (and Amishi have fun making Yancey and Joe miserable)
“Actually my first fest of any sort if you don’t count Lollapalooza 1997; which you shouldn’t because it sucked.)”
@Adamm (sadly off subject) 1997 wasn’t THAT bad. . . as long as you ignore Snoop’s crappy performance and the boring Ziggy and the Wailers performance. Tool was awesome, The The was worth it just to see matt’s hat HAHAHA, and I was still really into The Prodigy so it was cool to see HIS (note I did not say their) performance and the Live Guitarist was a HOTTY
Yanc, I just went to the Foxes cryspace. . . er I mean myspace. I guess if some one likes Polyphonic they’d think that Fleet Foxes would be a good opener but, BLEH not for me either . Sorry I stick with Panda Bear for my odd sing-songy music LOL
One More Post, very off topic but inspired by the Link to the Forum Discussion and the changes being made (as yet to be announced by 17Dots?!?!?!) to eMusic. Can we have an extra field in the “leave a reply” section of posts to add our emusic user page so I can add some of you as friends.
I’ve loved hearing from you guys (both official posters and commentors (hehe mentor)) over the last year (2 years???) and really find that eMusic “friends” is sooooooo under utilized. I added Flamgirlant just from that reading that thread and because some of her downloads interested me.
I like the Fleet Foxes CDs — a lot more than I like, say, the new MMJ CD.
I’m flying in tomorrow morning, and hopefully I’ve given myself enough time to get to my buddy’s house, drop off my stuff, then train to Union Park.
Yancey, has anyone decided where they’re gonna try to meet up?
I’s here. Shopping for a rain poncho this morning. Someone played a little fleet foxes for me last night. I wasn’t too impressed.
“welcome to the terrordome” was awesome last night.
I’m pretty sure I was standing behind Amishi and Joe for Vampire Weekend. Were you guys on the VIP platform?
I should have said something, but I was a little shy…
Great festival, though!
Home now, pitchfork was great!
On Saturday I loved:
Icy Demons, Fuck Buttons, Ruby Suns (I was surprised by how much I liked them; I hadn’t planned on going to this one but overheard it as I was walking by and decided to check it out), Extra Golden (loved loved loved this band, heartily recomend this to anyone; they were so good a security guard was dancing to it!).
Favorite moment of Saturday: No Age brought out Abe Vigoda for their last song, which I think was a cover of Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown.
I caught the end of the Animal Collective show and they were also great, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as seeing them in a tiny club a couple years ago.
Sunday:
Boris and HEALTH were both really good, and I loved the Dodos.
Spiritualized flat out killed it dead. I wasn’t even sure I was going to catch their show but was so glad I did. For my money the best thing I saw all weekend; gave me chills on a 95 degree day.
I also got to meet Yancey and Joe, which was cool, (and spotted Amishi).
Great weekend.
Oh and I forgot Atlas Sound put on a really good show; another one I was surprised by how much I liked it.
Though I would’ve liked to have met some of y’all eMu folks (and Julia Stiles), it just didn’t happen (probably because I didn’t get a VIP badge…). Saw a lot of good music, though, and some that wasn’t so good. To review:
* Jay Reatard was funny and loud.
* Caribou absolutely slayed, especially for 2 in the afternoon on the first day of the festival (this was one of the best-sounding acts I’ve ever enjoyed at an outdoor festival — and the musical highlight of my weekend).
* Fleet Foxes sounded great from where I was, walking over to get some food and maybe catch some Fuck Buttons.
* Fuck Buttons were perplexing.
* Dizzee Rascal seemed unusually angry, especially at a festival where anger (despite the rain and mud) was in very short supply.
* Vampire Weekend sounded exactly like you’d expect Vampire Weekend to sound, which delighted the kids who bought their ironic hipster t-shirts at Old Navy.
* !!! turned in my second favorite set of the weekend — they are so much better live than on record.
* The Hold Steady sounded as good as ever.
* Atlas Sound’s last song (which is all I heard) made me wish (a little) I’d watched that set instead of The Hold Steady’s.
* Jarvis Cocker made me want to run up on stage and punch him. I couldn’t get to No Age quickly enough.
* No Age inspired the kid-friendliest clap-along mosh pit I’ve ever seen. One of my friends managed to lose his shoe in it, retrieve it, and put it back on — without missing a single clap.
* Animal Collective really impressed me, but I may have been perched too far away from them to get the full impact of their surprisingly good (to me, anyway) set.
I was exhausted on Sunday (too many bands Saturday followed by bourbon and a 45-munite wait in the rain for a cab at 5-Star afterwards), but I felt like I needed to use my ticket:
* Dirty Projectors sounded fine from afar — by which I mean “as I descended from the subway platform.” For me, though, DP is a one-song-and-I’m-moving-on type of band. That voice just gets to me.
* High Places was absolutely in the wrong place at the wrong time — especially with loud loud loud Boris spilling out into everything from behind me.
* HEALTH made absolutely no sense in this setting, either.
* Apples In Stereo bucked the trend of bands that shouldn’t be performing in the sun in the middle of a hot summer day — they are exactly the kind of band that should be playing in the sun in the middle of a hot summer day.
* King Khan seemed amusing enough from the beer line.
* Les Savy Fav crossed the point between where “they were a bunch of jokers in a band” to “this is how they make their living” some time ago, and it shows.
* The Dodos sounded better on the big stage than several other “established” acts did — and demonstrated they could very well be the big breakout band of this festival.
* M. Ward played what sounded like the exact same set he played I saw him perform at the World Trade Center a year ago (less a drummer), and he seemed just as eager to finish his contractual obligation and get off the stage as soon as it was over.
* Spiritualized is one of my favorite bands, but I was getting SO tired of the sun. So I took in the first few (excellent) songs of their set from too far away before retreating into the shadows under the trees in anticipation of Bon Iver.
* Bon Iver was way just too quiet for this setting, though I think he’d have done well on the big stage (like the Dodos) after sunset, when his fragile sound wasn’t being drowned out by another act.
* Dinosaur Jr. was awesome for the first several songs of the set. I left early to see Cut Copy, though.
* Cut Copy didn’t show up because their plane was delayed. So Bradford Cox, a drunk King Khan, and the Ponys drummer scared me (and lots of other people) off with a horrible Bo Diddley rendition instead.
* Spoon nailed it. But then, they always do.
I should point out the sound at this year’s festival was superb — far, far better than it was when I attended two years ago. Also, the proactive mud and water management (vacuum trucks sucking up puddles, wood chips dumped on mud patches) was both effective and impressive. Especially for the price, you just can’t do better than the Pitchfork Music Festival. That gang has really figured out how to do the whole outdoor festival thing. I can’t wait to go back again.