Pitchfork Music Festival 2008 Review

This was my second trip down to the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, and I continue to be impressed by the three day celebration. The festival has a very small and intimate feel, even though it has grown to include over 35 acts and 10,000 attendees. It does an impressive job bringing together members from the entire independent art community including musicians, visual artists and fashion designers. The music is obviously the main draw of the weekend, but the generous area set up for tents selling independently made fashion, jewelery and hand printed concert posters is definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.

Before discussing the musical side of things, I must first mention the festival’s highly commendable food selection. I have been to a number of larger music festivals over the past few years, and none of them, including Bonnaroo, can compare to the food offered at Pitchfork, including delicious pad thai, corn on the cob, Italian sausage, curry, and vegan ice cream; all at affordable prices. What is more, beer at the festival was provided by a local Chicago brewery, and large pints of dark or light went for only $4. Pitchfork truly is an entirely independent experience, with no major corporations sponsoring the event or intruding in any way shape or form.

Now on to some of the musical highlights.

On Friday night, Public Enemy performed their classic It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in its entirety and absolutely killed it. The night got off to a poor start with us being hassled at the front gate for bringing in a camera with a detachable lens (hence the lack of photos). But, after some fruitless arguing, we were able to find an empathetic security guard who helped us smuggle in the camera without much hassle. The entire crew was back for the show with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X and DJ Lyod putting on a show for the sold out crowd. The energy was vibrant, and they ripped off all of the songs on the album in order, and despite Chicago by-laws and the threat of a fine, they continued to play for over an hour past the show curfew playing nearly all of their hits. After watching the show, two things became clear when it comes to Flavor Flav: (1) he is a pretty awesome drummer and (2) reality tv and celebrity have caused him to lose his mind.

Saturday started off strong with entertaining sets from Jay Reatard and !!!. Both brought some tremendous energy and the !!! drummer went nuts on a few solos, ending their set with some serious crowd surfing.

Fleet Foxes were also a highlight of the day. Their expansive sound translated well to an outdoor venue and their harmonies soared throughout the park.

No Age, with all of the hype surrounding them the past few months, seemed primed to disappoint, however I was pleasantly surprised by their set. Even in a live setting, the undertones of their pop approach were really able to shine through the layers of guitar fuzz.

Atlas Sound was yet another pleasant surprise. I have been to Deerhunter shows in the past and the antics of Bradford Cox took away from the music that the band was playing, but as Atlas Sound, Cox brings a much more straight forward approach and the music is easy to connect to.

Animal Collective closed the day on the main stage playing an unforgettable set. Despite what I had heard about them not playing any of their older songs at shows, the band played a number of favourites throughout the performance, connecting each song with extended intros and outros that only added to the musical bliss. Fireworks was easily the highlight of the set with Avey Tare screaming beautiful noises, while Panda Bear and Geologist added the hypnotizing percussion and samples.

The temperature reached nearly 40 on Sunday, which made for a long and tiring day spent mostly on a blanket under a tree. A number of smaller, more experimental bands, including HEALTH, High Places and Times New Viking performed and all gave wonderfully heated performances. I was won over by each of them.

I have to mention the King Khan and the Shrines set, which was absolutely out of control with garbage throwing, crowd surfing and remarkable saxophone playing, as a festival highlight. I did not know what to expect going into that set and the band just blew me away with their music and stage performance.

M. Ward, Boris and Les Savy Fav also put on a quality show, but the highlight of the day has to go to Bon Iver. His quiet sound and intimate feel was perfect for the small stage at the festival. It was also interesting to hear his songs really fleshed out through a full band. The sound did not lose any of its intimacy, and only gained strength from the transition to a bigger sound.

A few of the disappointments of the weekend include, the uninspired set from Ghostface and Raekwon, the no show/late show of Cut Copy, the average set by Vampire Weekend, and the absolutely boring festival closing set of Spoon (the eight hour drive ahead of us may have had something to do with this). However, these were only minor disappointments, as the Festival was an overall huge success. I will definitely be up for making the road trip again next year.