Pitchfork Festival Report

July 24, 2008 by Nicole  Send to a Friend

(photos from the officious p.fork coverage)

So I’ve been away for the last week, at this little thing called Pitchfork Music Festival. Granted, I know it’s only technically two-and-a-half days, but the boyfriend is from the area so we spent some quality time with his family (including Wii bowling with this Grandma, awesome).

We went all three days and even spent the entire time at Union Park each day – it’s just WAY too much to take in. Also, it was my first trip to Chicago, so why not spend it in a mud-filled infield with kids wearing way too much neon, a sweaty Tim Harrington selling haircuts and Sparks wristbands and Jarvis Cocker?

Now there was much speculation leading into the festival it wasn’t as strong as the last two years, blah blah blah.
But for $65 the festival is WELL worth its weight.

Friday’s

set from Mission of Burma was great in itself. Performing Vs., they set started out playing the four bonus tracks before getting into the album itself. Like their performance at the Black Cat earlier this month, they

Sebadoh was OK, but not my thing and Public Enemy was well, Public Enemy. We spent much of Friday wandering around the park itself, checking out the craft fair and the tent full of merch from various record labels. We found a shuffleboard court and got beat by a pair of girls, losing out on winning a pair of free shoes (damn it) and watched Public Enemy from a far.

I like Public Enemy, I really do, but I’m so burnt out on Flava Flav that he’s just utterly annoying at this point. If he hadn’t done every single reality show VH1 had to offer, I may have wanted to watch their set more than I did.

Instead, I chilled in the back, bobbed my head and proceeded to file out of the park in an orderly fashion before their set of completed. Friday was low key and fairly uneventful. Mission of Burma was obviously the highlight also, getting White Castle on the way home was another highlight. Man, I wish there was a White Castle out here.

SATURDAY:

It rained the majority of Friday night and into Saturday, thus making the place a bit of a mud pit. Great, can’t wait.

We started off our day with Jay Reatard at 1:30. The nice thing about Pitchfork is the stage setup. From stage A you can see C and vice versa, and there are plenty of screens. So if you have a good spot, you don’t really have to compromise it to see something just across the way. Stage B was in the back of the place behind the food and drink vendors and fairly shaded. Not too bad. And most bands got about an hour set. Jay was fun and loud and everything he is in all the photo sets you’ve seen here and abroad.

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS: Jay Retard, !!! and of course Jarvis Cocker. He’s seriously such an amazing front man, er, was for Pulp. And his solo work is just as charming and clever and fun as anything. His rain-thin frame just graces the stage so well. His banter and pointing and high kicks and oh man. Even though we all learned he doesn’t do any Pulp songs, people still screamed for Common People.

SATURDAY THINGS I WISH I HADN’T MISSED: Elf Power and The Ruby Suns, both at the B stage way off away from me. But I managed to get on the rail for Jarvis through some hard dancing during !!! so it was worth it. I also wish we had caught more of No Age.

SATURDAY THINGS I DON’T REALLY UNDERSTAND: Fleet Foxes, like I get they are talented, but I don’t really care for their music and their stage show was bland. Also, high-wasted jean shorts don’t look good on about 99 percent of women. Why do girls want pancake ass, WHY?!? Also, rolling around in the mud. Why do that? It’s gross and I really don’t want to stand near you if you’re doing it, unless your Tim Harrington (more on that in Sunday’s wrap-up). Animal Collective – sooo not my thing. And as always, The Hold Steady. Seriously, h8 the Hold Steady.\

Sunday, the rain clears, a visit to Flat Stock, Cut Copy gets caught at the airport and Tim Harrington gives out back massages. More to come…

SUNDAY

The rain cleared, wood chips and large slabs of plywood were placed where the mud holes had been and the sun was shining. We started our day with Times New Viking. I enjoyed it, poppy, pleasant, and a nice little way to start off the day. Sound was great and the crowd was already beginning to swell for the next act: Boris. I’d never seen or really heard Boris. They practically melted my face off. It was awesome and there was a little boy who couldn’t have been any older than like 8 in a Boris T-shirt, he was on the rail and was super excited – it was adorabs.

Next on the agenda was some discussion as to what we would actually see. We decided to grab a quick lunch and head over to the B stage. En route, I notice what appears to be someone selling stuff off a blanket on the ground. We realize its Tim Harrington, the batshitcrazyamazing frontman for Les Savy Fav. The small crowd looks confused as he yells about how he’s just trying to get his, you know? Spread out on the blanket were some Clif bars, a couple Sparks wristbands, some T-shirts
and a bunch of empty CD cases of the bands playing Pitchfork. He mispronounces The Ruby Suns and Caribou. Finally, someone steps up and offers $2 for a shirt. I really wanted the Sparks wrist band for 25 cents but someone snagged it up. I managed to purchase a bag for $1 before the LSF guitar player hilariously called him out for making money off his swag bag and Harrington scoops up the blanket of goods and runs off. God, I love the Tim Harrington side show.

The LSF live show isn’t much different. In the span of only about an hour, Harrington appeared in red lame leggings, with one leg cut into shorts, a pirate costume, a Sherlock Holmes cape and hat, a nude bodysuit with his internal organs drawn onto it, mud (which he wiped on practically the whole front row), oh and he managed to crowd surf in a garbage can. He was pretty much out of control.
Also caught M. Ward, amazing to see him do his gee-tar pickings live, but I’d just as soon listen to a record. Dinosaur Jr. was amazing and loud and all the things you would expect them to be. Pitchfork also reminded me that I prefer my Lou Barlow harder and louder in Dinosaur.

By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted, my busted knee was about to give and there was no way I could withstand dancing to Cut Copy. So I stood around and waited for Spoon, a choice I had no idea would be awesome until after the show. Apparently Cut Copy got stuck at the airport until nearly 9 p.m. (when they were scheduled to be closing the B stage) and by the time they made it to Union Park they only had time for four songs before curfew. Walking out of the park to the El,
I remember commenting how they much be closing because I heard “Hearts on Fire,” little did I know it was one of pretty much their only songs.

Spoon surprisingly stole the show Sunday night. I tend to think of them as more of a club band with a sound that wouldn’t carry well in a large, festival setting. I was wrong. Britt Daniel was energetic and
fantastic (and dreamy) well beyond my expectations. Also, they brought a horn line, which added a great depth to the show and the experience.

SUNDAY HIGHLIGHTS: Les Savy Fav, Spoon, Boris and all the antics of Tim Harrington in general. I missed out on him giving haircuts and back rubs though. I could have really used a back rub by the end of the second day.

SUNDAY THINGS I WISH I HADN’T MISSED: The Dodos, Cut Copy (but only
sorta) and really really missed King Khan and the Shrines, unfortunately for me, the B stage was running about 45 minutes behind schedule and I needed to scoot myself back over to the A and C stages to get in place for LSF. That $20 bill on the ground in the merch tent is another thing. Matador had coupons that looked like folded $20s on the ground. I fell for that trick on Friday night and then on Sunday in practically the exact same location, some guy picked it up after I saw it on the ground and shrugged it off thinking it was another coupon. Goddamnit.

SUNDAY THINGS I DON’T REALLY UNDERSTAND: The convoluted process of buying things in the homemade/craft fair tent. I would have easily dropped close to $50 had the process not involved finding someone to show them what you wanted to purchase, getting a ticket, getting in a
line off to the side that was 3495738959 people long, paying, then finding that same person again to show the ticket to and finally get
the goods. Ugh.

Overall, I considered it an epic win. I’ll totally go next year.

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