In our download-obsessed culture, music has increasingly become a private experience for many people, and it is exciting to be a part of a large-scale event such as the Pitchfork Music Festival, which lends itself for communication, sharing, and “Dude, have you heard this yet?!?”
One of the Pitchfork Music Festival’s greatest triumphs is highlighting an independent-minded culture that goes beyond music with volunteer-staffed info-booths run by social action groups and non-profits, DIY clothing and gift vendors,
The Flatstock art exhibit gathers some of the most innovative concert poster artists in the business, not to mention the CHIRP Record Fair, where independent labels from around the country, record stores and collectors are able to sell their wares.
The focal point of this community, needless to say, is the music itself. But despite high pre-fest anticipation, and a wide-ranging cast of talent that combined emerging artists with long-time favorites including iconic Sunday-night headliner The Flaming Lips, as often as not, many would-be extraordinary moments were marred by sound problems or obscured by the claustrophobia-inducing crowds in the moderate-sized Union Park.
Although there was still plenty of fun to be had, it seemed likely that many artists that might blow someone over in a club setting had the odds stacked against them.
Friday night boasted a stellar lineup including the ever-eclectic Tortoise, prolific indie-rockers Yo La Tengo, a reunited Jesus Lizard making their first hometown performance in years, capped off with a headlining performance from Built to Spill, all performing sets hand-selected by their fans.
It was clear that the night would belong to the Jesus Lizard from the first moments the quartet appeared on stage and front man David Yow advised the crowd to “ask for a full refund at the door on the way out” before jumping into the audience. The chaos continued to ensue, with Yow swimming on top of the audience, and ended with Duane Dennison writhing on the ground as if in the midst of an electrical shock.
It was a hard act to follow, and though Built to Spill valiantly delivered their melodic, swirling rock’n’roll, they couldn’t match the adrenaline rush of the Jesus Lizard.
On Saturday, Montreal trio Plants and Animals’ anthemic indie rock that gave way to afrenzied drum-beat down set a high bar for the remainder of the day, while in the shade of stage B, The Dutchess and The Duke’s organic folk pop provided a perfect backdrop to an alternate summer afternoon in a park.
Performing as a quintet, the group closed out their set with a rousing rendition of “I Am Just A Ghost.”
Toronto’s Fucked Up continued the festival’s tradition of placing the only near-controversial band (outside of the Jesus Lizard) in an early afternoon set on Saturday; a slot taken by Boris in 2008, and Mastodon the year before.
On top of that, the band had the bad luck of being plagued with terrible sound. If there were any sounds coming out of Ben Cook’s microphone, they were inaudible, which meant that a LOT was lost in the translation of songs off of their latest album, The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador).
Despite it all, they still gave one of the more memorable performances of the day. Damian Abraham chewed holes through roughly half-a-dozen corporate sponsored beach balls that came his way, tearing open a hole in a large blue one and shoving his head inside (still singing, of course), crowdsurfing (later admitting “I thought I was going to die”), and ranking the crowd a 9.9, “better than the latest Animal Collective record,” and “better looking” that the last festival crowd they played for in Slovenia. Now that’s appreciation.
Mid-afternoon brought equally ear-drum puncturing vocalists in classically trained violinist Final Fantasy (who would have seemed more appropriate for a formal concert setting than an youthful festival), and X-Ray Spex channeling art-rockers Ponytail.
By the time Yeasayer took to the Connector stage at 5:15, the field was uncomfortably packed.Thankfully, their show, which featured a fair helping of new material, provided a welcome distraction.
The Black Lips and The National were the choice of headliners for the evening, of which The Black Lips were the natural way to go for those looking for a good party, considering past antics like guitar-smashing and peeing in public.
Aided by a small swarm of audience members onstage, The Black Lips were an entertaining way to cap off the day.
On Sunday afternoon, feel-good indie poppers The Thermals may have won “PFork Fan Favorite,” if such an award existed. Their many 90s covers, including Greenday’s “Basket Case,” seemed to be a cop-out for a band that is adept at writing catchy pop-punk songs in it’s own right. The fact that the crowd ate it up seemed to indicate that the Pitchfork Festival has shed it’s “hipsters only” reputation.
By the time the Walkmen began their set just a hair past 5pm and trendy French poppsters M83 started setting up shop at the Aluminum stage, many had started saving their place for the night’s headlining performance from The Flaming Lips, lawn chairs and all.
Over at the Balance Stage, Vancouver garage-rock duo Japandroids were undoubtedly one of the most promising emerging bands of the weekend, performing songs off of their debut full-length Post-Nothing with a fervor that re-energized the audience out of a mid-afternoon slump.
Japandroids: “The Boys are Leaving Town”
Following, was an equally upbeat performance from Brooklyn’s indie-darlings The Vivian Girls.
Although Mew will be opening for NIN on their European tour, for many at the festival, the Danish glammy prog rockers were the sleeper hit of the evening with rich, full sound, and energy, rounded out by Jonas Bjerre’s soft vocals.
The Flaming Lips made a grand entrance through a projection of a woman’s psychedelically animated nether regions (very Monty Python!) and proceeded to enamor the audience with a carnival-eqsue atmosphere, with clouds of confetti, balloons, and singer Wayne Coyne walking on top of the crowd in his giant hamster ball.
Their set of fan favorites and spectacular the stage show was a memorable way to end the long weekend.