CHICAGO — The Pitchfork Music Festival took over the Windy City’s Union Park last weekend for a discerning three days of good times. Reverb reviewed all three days in full at . Here’s a sampling.
Day 1
The day 1 lineup of Animal Collective, James Blake, Neko Case and more was a nice warm-up for the rest of the weekend, which includes DJ Shadow and Fleet Foxes tonight and TV on the Radio and Health on Sunday.
Friday’s best set was a surprising body-slam from Battles, playing slightly awkwardly as a three-piece but pummeling the afternoon crowd with its twisted melodies and big beats. They even threw the oddball hit “Atlas” into the early set, pleasing fans with a jiggy video display and the shirtless drummer’s too-high crash cymbal.
But Friday was also a hit- and-miss excursion with some disappointments. Das Racist nailed it with “Hugo Chavez,” but everything else we heard was a messy hodgepodge of hip-hop bravado and lackluster rhymes.
James Blake put forth a bold performance in his surprisingly late spot, with two bandmates crafting the trippy sonic wall that backs his otherwise meditative songs. But he failed to bring in the crowd, who went from reverently silent to chatty after Blake launched into a heavy, leady bass line. Even the singer’s revealing (and self-sampled) “I Never Meant to Share” wasn’t enough to connect with the crowd.
“Do you guys wanna hear any songs about rape, incest and carnage?” asked Thurston Moore, the Sonic Youth frontman, playing an early-evening solo set. “We’ll do the best we can.”
Moore’s set was focused and studied, and his band included a violin and a behemoth harp as Moore seemed to read from sheet music. But perhaps it wasn’t the best fit for a festival, as much as the crowd — perhaps expecting something noisier — talked their way through it.
Day 2
Every music festival has its undesirable day, and Saturday was that for Pitchfork. Day 2 was a slow-burning ode to thoughtful singer-songwriters, headliners Fleet Foxes included. And even though there seemed to be a bigger crowd than Friday, it was a distracted audience.
Fleet Foxes threw down the day’s most focused set, a harmony-filled exploration of sunny, anachronistic pop. If you’re into the band’s many charms, it was a lovely collection of songs from their first couple of releases — including the once-ubiquitous staple “White Winter Hymnal.”
After a couple of years of hard touring, road-testing their intricate live show, the band makes it look effortless. And the audience — which was the largest gathered crowd of the festival so far — ate it up. But the sound could have been louder. At times, it was hard to feel the beat if you were standing beyond the soundboard.
The highlight from Day 2 was a body-rocking set from DJ Shadow, who crafted a rump-shaking set from the not-quite-festival-ready Shadowsphere — a partial globe that houses him and his gear. Playing well before sunset in the white ball, the effect wasn’t as potent as it would be in a dark club with proper lighting — something he acknowledged at the end of the set.
Still, Shadow’s mixes and turntablism were masterful, both artful and banging. As he brought his set to a close with “Organ Donor,” he proved his merit as a festival favorite. Whereas mellow sets from Thurston Moore and others fell flat on Friday, festivals thrive on acts that make you move — and Shadow did just that.
Day 3
There was something undeniable and special about TV on the Radio closing out the festival with a surprisingly dead-on take on Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” on Sunday night. You could say that Pitchfork is the little music festival with the big heart, but that’s too easy.
Especially in a year when Coachella is plotting two identical events on back-to-back weekends next April, Pitchfork is a small festival. And that size (and middle-of-town proximity) does bring with it fewer headaches.
But Pitchfork is where TV on the Radio can headline in 2011, and it makes sense. The band preaches quality over quantity, and while that’s defined differently to everyone, it hits more than it misses.
And that’s how we got here — TVOTR’s triumphant, rock ‘n’ roll moment headlining the last night of Pitchfork. The band threw down “Staring at the Sun” and “Wolf Like Me” like the mammoth indie-rock anthems they are, and the group’s unapologetic enthusiasm was infectious. The crowd stretched well past the soundboard, and even though the wind often blew the sound away, it was still a defining moment. For the festival. For the band. For all of us.
Day 3 turned out to be the fest’s most appealing day, even if it was the least musically diverse of the three days. Deerhunter played an afternoon set that included “Little Kids” and almost made you forget about the sweltering heat/humidity. Toro y Moi brought its funky, bassy, harmony-filled indie rock.
Cut Copy outshone the sun as it set in the west with a feel- good set that jumped from “Feel the Love” to “Lights and Music.” The band’s new jam “Blink and You’ll Miss a Revolution” invigorated the crowd with its big beats.
Across the field, the Blue Stage was running late with Health’s soundcheck. But you could still hear Cut Copy’s ’80s revisionism — until the L.A. noise band finally got going. Health is more accustomed to warehouse non-stages than large-scale festival platforms, but the band still stirred up the crowd with noise that was occasionally melodic and artfully perverse.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com; @RVRB on Twitter
