photo by robert loerzel. check out his whole, awesome pitchfork photo gallery here.
There was a point during Night 1 of the Pitchfork Festival where I realized that I had just watched Yo La Tengo, was currently watching Jesus Lizard, and was about to go watch Built to Spill. This made me wonder if my plane had skipped decades, and I had somehow ended up at a festival in 1997.
Thing is: I’m on the older side of the Pitchfork demo, and so a night featuring Yo La Tengo, Jesus Lizard and Built to Spill suits me just fine. Owing to the vagaries of air travel I completely missed Tortoise, who opened the night. In truth, I also missed about 3/4 of Yo La Tengo: I was still waiting on line to check in when the light, gorgeous strains of “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House” started floating my way. I got inside in enough time to see them tear through a fierce, spirited, endless version of “Moby Octopad” and a cheery run through “Sugarcube.”
Friday at Pitchfork followed the theme “You Write the Night.” Fans were asked to vote on setlists, and the bands accordingly played the most popular requests (although Jayson & I think there was some vote-rigging on Built to Spill, but I’ll leave that to him). I am apparently in the vast minority on 17 Dots, but just seeing the Jesus Lizard on stage was enough for me — they could play whatever the hell they wanted.
Needless to say, they did not disappoint. David Yow launched himself into the crowd within the opening seconds of the set. He spent the rest of it stalking around the stage, alternately goading and rousing the crowd. “We’re going to be playing the Metro around Thanksgiving,” he said at one point. “So if you’d like to see us there, in a more intimate environment, you should feel free to demand a full refund on your way out tonight.” The songs were tense and angry as ever, losing none of their feirce snap and howl. It was a thrill to hear large throngs of people bellowing back the words to “Mouth Breather” (it even appeared to please Yow himself), and their set seemed to get more threatening as it progressed — great swipes of guitar and Yow’s awesome, ungodly yelp.
He also told a joke about the hygeine habits of dogs that I won’t print here.
I’ll leave Built to Spill to Jayson but, suffice it to say, this year’s festival is off to a roaring start.
For those of you who can’t make it — they’re streaming select performances live here. It will be well worth tuning in.
I had never listened to Jesus Lizard before last night. At one point, they started a song that sounded for all the world to me like “Comedown,” by Bush. I mentioned this to the person next to me. They were amused, probably more at my expense than at my witticism. Yeah.
I am pretty amazed at Doug Martsch’s ingenuity that he managed somehow to squeeze in a long, boring jam into an (otherwise amazing) REQUEST-ONLY set. But more on that later today, after I manage to recover 35 percent more of my humanity than I am currently in possession of.
Yeah, that wasn’t Moby Octopad, that was Pass the Hatchet, which I have a hard time believing beat out classics like Motel 6 or Big Day Coming. People SHOULD have requested refunds after Yo La Tengo’s set — Built to Spill may have tweaked a vote here and there, but YLT completely ignored them. Four new songs? C’mon.
the jesus lizard is amazing. amazing. amazing. i’d give almost anything to get slapped in the face by David Yow’s junk. 17dotsers are a bunch of squares, that’s all. as far as the “comedown” comment…. yeah i’ve got no memory of how that song goes. sorry. probably a safe bet that much of the jesus lizard’s demographic doesn’t either, as they were listening to the jesus lizard instead of bush when bush was bush. sounds like an epic night, all told.
uh, p.s.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu9lUbf5GQ0
“nice shot, dick!” classic.