mtvU rounded up blogger Taylor Johnston to report back from the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, which took place the weekend of July 17th. Here’s what Taylor had to say about Sunday’s acts. You can also read Taylor’s review of the Saturday festivities, check out all his Pitchfork photos, and follow both him and mtvU on Twitter.
The Mae Shi
Sunday started out with by far one of the oddest shows of the festival. The band, which were set to break up immediately following the show, have a jittery punk energy that’s very entertaining. Although their sound was all over the place. They did keep the show interesting by roaming through the crowd, bringing fans on stage to sing along during set highlight “Run To Your Grave” and, at one point, throwing a giant parachute in the audience (the kind used in Jr. High P.E. classes everywhere). A sloppy performance but pretty fun nonetheless.
Frightened Rabbit
Although singer Scott Hutchinson told the audience that they had played Chicago more times than their hometown Glasgow in the year, this was my first time seeing the band. While I’ve been teetering on the edge of fandom for this band for a while, I walked away a full-fledged Frightened Rabbit enthusiast. These passionate indie rockers really know how to put on a show. You could feel the emotion in the songs through Hutchinson’s stirring, emotive vocals. The songs ranged from exhilarating rockers like “The Modern Leper” and “Fast Blood” to poignant ballads such as “Good Arms, Bad Arms”. One of my favorite sets of the weekend for sure.
Blitzen Trapper
In Sunday afternoon’s field of indie & punk, Blitzen Trapper’s laid-back southern-fried roots rock was a welcome change of pace. The set was almost completely culled from their latest album Furr, and the Portland band breezed through alt-folk jams like “Sleepytime in the Western World” and “Furr” complete with pretty four-part harmonies and awe-inspiring beards. Having missed out on seeing Fleet Foxes at last year’s Pitchfork Fest, Blitzen Trapper proved to be a formidable replacement.
The Thermals
Going into The Thermals I expected a non-stop whirlwind of fist-pumping power-punk songs, which they definitely delivered, but what I did not expect was a slew of 90’s cover songs ranging from Nirvana’s “Sappy” to Sonic Youth’s “100%” to the classic Green Day anthem, “Basket Case”. The mixture of their own infectious sing-a-long tunes like “A Pillar of Salt” and “Now We Can See” and the fantastic covers made the set easily one of the most memorable of the weekend. Plus, the band is so damn fun to watch. The audience, who spent their time bouncing and crowd-surfing, seemed to agree with me.
The Walkmen
Out of all the bands playing at Pitchfork Festival, I think I’ve seen The Walkmen the most times and frankly they’ve never really impressed me. I really enjoyed the short time I was at their set though. You have to give Hamilton Leithause props for throwing himself into the performance, his dramatic flair was apparent from his classy button-down attire to his electrifying vocal performance. It doesn’t hurt that the band’s new album provides some of their best material ever such as the inspired single “In The New Year”.
Japandroids
I didn’t know too much about Japandroids going into the show but from what I had heard about the Canadian garage rock duo they were a must-see. I was in no way prepared though, for the face-melting awesomeness that these two guys provided. Their set-up was as simple as can be: one dude on guitar, one on drums, and both sang, but I can not overstate how much they tore the place up. They spent very little time chatting (which they jokingly apologized for saying “our banter is usually hilarious”) and focused on rocketing through the songs at a relentless pace. Their high-octane, turned-up-to-11, fuzzy rock anthems like “Young Hearts Spark Fire” sounded amazing and their ridiculously energetic performance (the guitarist leapt between the guitar and drum kit on multiple occasions) had me grinning like an idiot the entire time.
M83
While I’m a fan of M83’s exceptional album from last year, Saturdays=Youth, I’m not as familiar with the band’s earlier albums so I was surprised that their live show was more of a dance rave than the 80’s-inspired guitar-heavy shoegaze of which I was accustomed. Although this made the brilliance of songs like “Graveyard Girl” and “Kim & Jessie” lose something in translation, their prior work which consisted of more club-friendly dance tracks, sounded fantastic and it was obvious that the crowd was enamored the party-feel of the set. If anything, the performance made me want to pick up some early M83 albums.
Grizzly Bear
With Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest being one of most oft-played albums of 2009, I was overjoyed to get to see the band perform the songs I had grown to love. The delicate balance of intimate beauty and thundering emotion in their music may seem like something that would be difficult to pull of live, but the band proved they were up to the task. Grizzly Bear’s gorgeous four-part harmonies and dynamic textures were presented flawlessly in the live setting with nearly every song to a dense, piercing climax. The group’s musical talent was very evident especially in the multiple instruments they took up from traditional guitar and drums to autoharps, clarinets and omnichords and their unique brand of ornate, sublime folk-pop provided oodles of memorable moments on excellent tracks like “Two Weeks”, “Knife”, and “While You Wait For The Others”.
The Flaming Lips
If you know anything about Oklahoma psych-pop legends, Flaming Lips, you know they put on one of the most crazy, visually spectacular, musically overwhelming live shows of any band out there. Take their entrance for example, where the lead singer, Wayne Coyne surfs over the crowd inside a giant space bubble hamster ball. During the set two huge cannons shoot tons (and I mean TONS) of confetti into the crowd and dozens of oversized balloons are bounced around. Extravaganza is an understatement for this band. Even with the visual feast though, they don’t lose focus of the music. They even went as far as playing a setlist that was selected from online requests which included favorites like “Race For The Prize”, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” and the beautiful anthem “Do You Realize”. Being with thousands of people are all singing along to the Lips’ incredibly endearing songs is a moment that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
