Saturday’s lineup started with Balkan jazz/pop band, Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar, led by the world famous Serbian Trumpet player Boban Markovic, and his son, Marko. The group had already performed at Pitchfork’s preview night in Millenium Park where they were met with a great reception. An untimely rain shower saturated the ground at Union Park making for a grimy, sludgy mess. All of a sudden the numerous hipster girls in knee high rain boots looked like they had the right idea, instead of questionable taste in footwear. Many concertgoers still sore over not having been born in time Woodstock four decades ago smeared the mud on their bodies and faces (No wonder the port-a-potties got so disgusting so quickly!).
Although the rain from earlier in the morning finally let up, the band members for Icy Demons were plagued by sound problems throughout their sound check. Lead singer Blue Hawaii’s (Griffin Rodriguez) mic frequently malfunctioned and many disgruntled audience members left early to catch Fleet Foxes on one of the main stages. However, when the group finally began their set – a jazz and krautrock blend of new and old material – their amalgamation of instruments, musicians and singers brought about an even larger crowd. Despite their earlier problems, the band members seemed to be having fun on stage, especially during crowd pleasers like “Miami Ice,” off of their third album of the same name, and “Spywatchers.” Huddled together in a half-circle, the group frequently jumped around the stage and switched instruments to produce an even livelier show for the animated songs. Although surprisingly short (and lacking one of their better tunes from Miami Ice, “Crittin’ Down to Baba’s”), the group’s experimental aesthetic was a welcome change from the acts that would later take to the stage in Union Park.
Bristol’s experimental noise-pop duo Fuck Buttons, consisting of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, took to the Balance Stage mid-afternoon, performing a number of songs off their acclaimed debut album Street Horrsing (All Tomorrow’s Parties). Although much of the crowd dispersed towards the end of the set–either you like this kind of stuff or you don’t–Fuck Buttons further impressed their fans with African drum rhythms and what can only be described as some sort of monkey-like mating ritual/dance. Only Hung knows for sure if his efforts paid off in the end. Admittedly, Fuck Buttons would sound better in a small dark venue with a certain herbal odor lingering in the air, but in the heat of the afternoon, it was hard not to let your eyes roll back inside your head and fall into a trance brought on by their droning, psychedelic sounds.
Late in the afternoon, a booming bass lured concertgoers from all corners of the park to the Connector Stage, where London’s Dizzee Rascal assailed the crowd with the afternoon’s most in-your-face performance. Rascal verbally dismissed the prevailing indie/folk sentiment of the afternoon, before the magenetic MC pumped his audience full of much-needed energy after a day in the hot sun.
The hype surrounding New York pop-rock band, Vampire Weekend became all the more mystifying when during the first five minutes of their happy-go-lucky, college rock set, you realize that you could easily imagine their music being played on a cruise ship while watching your grandparents clean up on the shuffleboard court. And kids like this stuff? Why? Because singer Ezra Koenig says “fuck” on “Oxford Comma?” Shouldn’t the fact that the African-pop inspired party band penned song about grammatical nuances be the first clue that this group might be a little dull? And after witnessing the band live on Saturday, We still don’t get it. But then again, we never understood the appeal of Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, or Jimmy Buffett either.
Led by enigmatic frontman, Nick Offer, long-running California dance-punk band !!! (pronounced chk, chk, chk, for those who are not phonetically gifted) hyped-up the hipsters at the Connector Stage, while bandana-clad guerilla-like concertgoers playfully chased each other around in a water-pistol war. At the Balance Stage, Athens, Georgia natives Elf Power provided a more laid back atmosphere. Meanwhile, under the trees at the other end of the park, Les Savy Fav’s Tim Harrington was offering haircuts and caricatures for the reasonable price of $2 a pop. While Harrington’s barber skills proved to be questionable at best, his artwork was rather well received. (On Sunday, Harrington had added massages to his list of services, and we hope that the rumors of toe sucking are false, because even the thought of sucking on any of the festival goers’ thousands of hot, sweaty, muddy toes still sounds icky.)
As the sun was setting, rail-thin, long-limbed former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker expertly wooed his audience, oozing a sex appeal that can often be noticeably absent in the indie-rock arena. Cocker’s showmanship and bravado puts him in a class with the likes of David Bowie and Nick Cave, while his rich voice and clever wordplay and stage banter only helped make songs that in another man’s hands would be offensive (“Fat Children, “Cunts are Still Running the World,” etc.), appear brilliant.
Like Icy Demons earlier in the day, No Age faced sound problems before their set began. With a warm-up well into their starting time, the band finally began about fifteen minutes late. However, this didn’t seem to damper the spirits of the large audience. Incorporating material from the more punk-oriented Weirdo Rippers and the group’s latest, Nouns, the band’s short yet sweet tunes like “Here Must Be My Home” and “Miner” were just as fun to watch as they were to hear. A small mosh pit (with the occasional crowd surfer) formed around the front center of the stage, much to the chagrin of the security. One crowd surfer was roughly pulled from the group of fans while still in the air and singer/guitarist Dean Allen Spunt, obviously upset by the gesture, stopped playing in the middle of the set to address security, to the delight of audience members. Overall, despite being a duo, No Age seemed to create an enormous wall of sound, captivating both old and new fans alike.
Accompanied by an artistic light show, Animal Collective put on a dazzling display. Although their beautiful melodies were enchanting, the peaceful set seemed like an anticlimactic end to the long day in the park, especially in light of the raging after-parties and concerts that were soon to get underway. Not so for everyone- a number of listeners were so enraptured by the performance that they began dancing in a circle around a particularly large pile of muddy garbage in the middle of the field.
-Jamie Ludwig and Britt Julious
-Photo by Jamie Ludwig