This last weekend I was fortunate enough to go to Chicago to attend the Pitchfork Music Festival. The festival has been going on for several years now, and features performances by many of the elite indie bands of the day, handpicked by Pitchfork Media staff. I thought I'd give you a rundown of the concerts I was able to see, and my thoughts on the festival.Day 1
The first night of the festival was put on in collaboration with All Tomorrow's Parties, which is a UK based company that puts on concerts around the world. The highlight of the night was Public Enemy, reunited to perform their seminal album "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" in its entirety. What we witnessed was what Britt Daniel would later describe as "insane," which I couldn't agree with more.
The performance did not get off to a good start. There were two major issues. Firstly, Chuck D's mic was not working properly; his voice was all muddled and quiet. Secondly, Flavor Flav was not present. As you can imagine, this significantly took away from the first song they performed, Bring the Noise. The mic was replaced and Flavor Flav found his way to the stage, and they continued the set. Things first got awkward when, between songs, Chuch D berates Flavor Flav for "leavin' me hangin'" on Bring the Noise. Flavor Flav pleads with Chuck that he was backstage and that they shouldn't have started the set without him. Neither Chuck nor Flav seem like they're too fond of one another.
The next incident made things worse. In between songs, Flavor Flav takes a minute to thank the audience for making him the number one reality show on TV. Why he felt compelled to bring up his reality TV career at what was supposed to be a night honouring one of the greatest rap albums ever made is beyond me, but he crossed that line, and the Pitchfork crowd called him on it with resounding Boos. Flavor Flav did not take it well. I thing his response was something like this:
"You think you can boo me? Fuck You! You think you can fucking boo Flavor Flav? You should be booing your fucking spouse!"
Ugh.
The performance continued, interrupted only by Flavor Flav calling out one of his bandmates for lip-syncing and then clearly lip-syncing himself, among other cringe-inducing antics, like Chuck D leaving the stage, clearly disgusted with Flav's behaviour. Despite all this, there were some high points, when Public Enemy broke into Louder Than a Bomb, people actually starting to rock out, which was surprising.
The whole show seemed a surreal: A rap group that reached their artistic peak nearly twenty years ago performing racially charged songs in front of a bunch of white upper middle-class twenty-somethings who really know nothing of the struggles on which the songs are based seemed wrong. I know I shouldn't assume that a white upper middle-class twenty-something can't appreciate the message of the songs, all I'm saying is that it was a weird vibe, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way. I'll stand by my preconceived notion that it's never a good idea to see artists performing past their prime.
Day 2
Saturday was jam-packed with great performances, so many in fact that it was almost impossible to take in everything you wanted to. The first act I saw was Fleet Foxes, which is a great new band from Seattle that plays a unique brand of harmonious folk-pop that combines early Simon & Garfunkle or Beach Boys vocal harmonies with backwoods instrumentation. The songs are melancholy and catchy crafted with pop sensibility. I really enjoyed their performance. They went on right when I got there, and I'm proud to say I didn't even try to grab a beer before they went on, just in case I got stuck in line and missed a song.
The next performance of note was Vampire Weekend, which is a band we all remember from last fall when they became the biggest band in North America overnight thanks to internet hype. I enjoyed their songs, but wasn't blown away. They did play a few new songs which sounded pretty good.
The next band we watched was definitely one of the highlights of the festival, and that was The Hold Steady. They went on at 7 in the evening, which meant the sun was still up but the crowd had been at the festival sufficiently long enough to be in "party mode". If you've ever heard the Hold Steady, you know that they have a knack for writing party anthems, and the fist pumps were flying. They played a lot of older stuff, which I don't know as well as the new album, but the set was still amazing. At one point the lead singer Craig Finn said to the crowd "I hope you guys are having as much fun as we are!" which sort of summed up their performance.The final performance of the day was Animal Collective, one of the most original bands out there and also one of the best. Their music was accompanied by a trippy light show which was quite impressive. The only problem with the set is that they had to follow The Hold Steady, after which I was understandably a bit burnt-out. Music festivals are hard work.
After the show we went to a festival after-party at Bottom Lounge on West Lake Street to catch Jay Reatard perform. Their set was good, however, after partying all day it's hard to rally for yet another concert.
Day 3
I'm not going to lie, Sunday morning was a painful one. Despite the collective pleas of our festival-weathered bodies, we headed back to Union Park on the El train, determined to keep having a great time. King Khan and the Shrines, a band which has been receiving a lot of media attention as of late, went on shortly after we arrived. They've got a sort of retro funk/soul sound which is complimented with an amazing/manic stage presence. Although the set sounded great, it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and I was not quite ready to rock out yet.
The highlight of the afternoon was Brit-rockers Spiritualized. I've been listening to the new album Songs in A&E quite a lot lately and they even opened with my favourite song You Lie You Cheat. The set seemed almost medicinal, wiping away the crowds hangovers with soothing melodies and soundscapes.
As the day was ending, I was finally feeling normal again and ready to rock out to the grand finale: Spoon. If you haven't heard Spoon's album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga from last summer then you're in for a treat. I had posted up near the front of the stage during Dinosaur Jr.'s set so I was right in the mix. They played alot of older stuff but the new songs they played were accompanied by a full horn section which sounded amazing. A fitting end to an epic festival.All in all, the festival was pretty fun. I had never been to Chicago before, and it's definitely one of the most interesting cities in North America. It was fascinating learning about the architecture and planning of the city, other cities could learn a lot from the approach they've taken to urban design. As for the festival itself, it was fun being in the hotbed of the indie music scene. Though much of the time I felt like I wasn't cool enough to be there (which was definitely true), I was able to pick up a few of the newest trends that are making waves in the hipster scene:
1. Bike hats: you remember those little hats that competitive cyclists wear? Those are cool now. Pop up the brim for added irony.
2. Cut-offs: Obviously prompted by the trend-setting ways of Tobias Fuenke, cut-offs are back, and not just jean cut-offs, any old pants can be turned into cool shorts. One favourite was cut-off skinny jeans, if you're going for that painted-on look.
3. Sparks Energy Drink: I don't know if people actually liked this stuff or it was just clever marketing. This stuff is a 6% alcohol caffeinated drink that looked like nuclear waste and tasted worse. It's going be huge.
4. Being Rich: Apparently being rich is cool again. Having vast amounts of disposable income to spend on clothes, records, concerts tickets, drinks and sushi from the Whole Foods tent seems to be quite popular again. So, if you were concerned that being rich was going out of fashion, rest assured that its back. Don't be afraid to dip into that trust fund.
Well, I think that's it for now. If you have the chance to go to Chicago for whatever reason I would highly recommend it. And if you're going to a festival soon, remember to stay hydrated, eat vegetables and go easy on the Sparks.
