Festival Ratings: 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival
Submitted by greenmind on Mon, 07/31/2006 - 11:54
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- DAY ONE: 7/29/06
- 1:00 Hot Machines (B) - This all-star band of the Chicago indierati were better than the sum of the bands of their parts.
- 1:30 Chin Up Chin Up (C+) - The first band that was inappropriate for the weather. In an air conditioned club I would love these guys (I like their CD a lot) but not so much to get a festival kicked into high gear.
- 2:00 Man Man (D) - Just a really poor quirky band. And they wore offensive fake Native American costumes on stage to boot.
- 2:35 Band Of Horses (B-) - Glad I was pretty much dragged to this band. They were the first to really translate indie pop to rock out for a festival setting.
- 3:30 Mountain Goats (B+) - Who knew Mark Cuban could play folk punk (seriously, look up his picture on the interwebs, John Darnielle looks like Mark Cuban, right down to the bill). If Ani DiFranco was a man and wanted to aim her act at indie rockers and not hippies, this is it. As a reformed male Ani fan (I still like the music but what was I thinking?) this really appealed to me. He can clip a guitar like nobody's business and he's got the quirk rock thing down as well.
- 4:20 Destroyer (C) - Another band for the clubs and not for the outdoor festival. The perfect example of a band that is technically perfect but perfectly capable of boring me to tears.
- 5:10 Art Brut (A) - The performance of the festival (and second to only Bloc Party of all the sets of the two festivals thusfar). The only band that really does the European festival circuit for their bread and butter and therefore understands how it works. Not to mention they were the first real rock band of the day so the rock just cut through the crowd (smaller than it should have been) like a knife. They absolutey rocked it out (and Eddie Argoos went through a dress shirt to prove it) and bantered with the crowd. The version of "Emily Kane" (I'm biased since that's my favorite song of any band that played the whole weekend) involved a monologue about the real Emily Kane and how she actually heard the song and called him (and concluded with him saying, "if you're not with someone, you're not meant to be with them. 'There is a light that never goes out is bull****.'). Someone's little brother discovered rock and roll at the very moment they took the stage. I won't say anything about the other Art Brut cliche but they were the top...
- 6:10 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (B+) - I joked with my sister's boyfriend (who's almost 40 but still in bands) that he should make a t-shirt that says, "I rock harder than Ted Leo" (who's similar in age). But I'm not sure that in reality, anyone rocks harder than Ted Leo. I almost regretted having to watch the second half of their set from the second stage to get a spot up close for The Walkmen.
- 7:10 The Walkmen (B-) - The reality of this band in concert just always lets me down so immensely. They try to duplicate the intensity on the album and almost succeed but just not quite (and who can blame them since I think they might all have blood vessels burst on stage if they tried). This was the best time I've seen them but the grade is lowered that they played about 10 minutes less than they could and left the stage abruptly after ending with "Louisiana." I do have to give this band so many props though for playing the two singles second and third in the set ("The Rat" was 2nd, "Lost In Boston" was 3rd) and getting the hangers on out of their area.
- 8:10 The Futureheads (B) - Pogo, pogo, pogo! That's all that needs to be said about the headliners (but of course I'll say more). Another band who has good reason to be festival regulars all over the world. The most amazing thing is they harmonized flawlessly even in the amazingly hot weather.
- 9:10 Silver Jews (C+) - I call The Futureheads the headliners since a lot of the crowd vacated the premises after they finished. The Silver Jews were good for what they were, a wind down band after the organizers Post Punked the ass off the crowd. Just kind of too depressing.
- DAY TWO: 7/30/06
- 1:00 Tapes N' Tapes (B) - They outdrew half of the bands on the first day right off the bat. I had no idea how much of a darling this band was (I just heard them on KEXP and liked them). They did not disappoint except that their set was only 25 minutes of course.
- 1:30 Danielson (C-) - A really poor man's Arcade Fire. I mean so poor that you can't afford a pot to piss in. But not nearly as dreadful as I expected.
- 2:00 Jens Lekmen (B-) - The music was interesting enough without even the stage presentation. Every member of his band from the horn section to the drummer are female blondes wearing coctail dresses. Holy dear mother of fate! Someone in the group said it best when they said, "he's not a stupid man, obviously."
- 2:30 The National (B-) - The first indie pop band to really translate their sound to the big festival. I guess they're awesome enough to realize other's mistakes.
- 3:30 Liars (F) - Wow. This set was so funky bad that it made the festival smell like someone knocked over the port-a-johns. The proliferation of Nine Inch Nails t-shirts around the grounds was enough to start singing, "one of these things is not like the other," about the lineup. Just noise, noise, noise pollution.
- 4:20 Aesop Rock/Mr. Lif (D+) - By this point, I think I was in hades. Nothing ruins a Chicago festival like a rap act screaming, "throw your hands up" a ton. About the only thing redeeming about this set was that I realized if Aesop Rock (the fat Beastie Boy wannabe) ever walked into a real rap concert, he'd get his ass kicked. At least he had Mr. Lif there to vouch for him. Mr. Lif has nice dreadlocks. There was also a brief turntablism session mid-set which was kind of interesting.
- 5:10 Mission Of Burma (B) - A set so loud that it drove half of the crowd out with hearing damage. At least I hope they left because it was too loud because this set was pretty flawless as far as performance went. The only problem was that the band is in their 50s and the weather seemed to turn them into wax figurines. They joked that they weren't used to it being so bright when they played. I think it was also a little more outdoors than usual. This second fact may have been a good time since Mission of Burma has been known to make heads explode with their volume. I actually fear seeing them indoors somewhat now.
- 6:10 Devendra Banhart (F) - About the only thing missing from this hippieorrible set was Devendra breaking into a Phish cover. But he seemed about to a few times. His band was a bunch of idiot dirty rockers who are stuck in the 1970s (much like a lot of the crowd). This man is everything that's wrong with the indie rock scene rolled into one craptastic package!
- 7:10 Yo La Tengo (D) - Following on the heels of the smelly beaded one, Yo La Tengo decided to jam out on one song for 15 minutes of their set. I got bored and walked away before they finished (so thanks to my friend Kyle for the report). Four songs in a set near the headliner? Whose brilliant idea was that?
- 8:10 Spoon (C-) - I'm biased because I think Spoon is one of the worst bands on the planet. I would seriously get more enjoyment out of being Clockwork Oranged to Dave Matthews than have to endure this band in concert. But I did stay in the general proximity of the stage to hear their minimalist pop stain for a time and get a couple pictures. It was the least headache inducing I've seen them.
- 9:10 Os Mutantes (C) - Good for what they are. Another hippy band. But at least these aren't hippie revivalists but the real thing. They were danceable enough. I was just glad I missed half their set watching Diplo do a DJ set on the third stage. Sadly that was the third best thing about the waste of $15 that was the second day of Pitchfork.
Author Comments:
The Pitchfork Music Festival took place in Chicago, Illinois on July 29th and 30th, 2006. A spinoff from the Intonation Music Festival (of which Pitchfork used to be a sponsor before a major spat) which took place in June, Pitchfork is a festival dedicated to showing off indie bands that regularly play Chicago club and bar venues during the winter.
It's also a place for hipsters to gather and show off who has the stupidest looking oversized sunglasses and the most idiotic ironic t-shirts.
Pitchfork has only two main stages right next to each other. This is actually every band that graced those two stages.
Links to pictures will follow as soon as I get a chance to crop them.
Danielson was my favorite performance of the festival, but I love them anyway.
Seems like you didn't have that great a time.
I had a good time in general, I just should have left after Mission Of Burma.
But much like bad movies, I'm a mascohist. ;)
seems like perhaps you hadn't listened to some of the bands before buying your tickets and attending the festival.
I had listened to all of them - but not really in-depth (except for The Walkmen who I love). So, yes, it wasn't the kind of festival I was really ga-ga about.
Didn't attend, but we're completely on different sides of the fence when it comes to the Walkmen and Spoon. Actually, it appears I'm a little closer to the middle than you are on both extremes of love and hate. Walkmen are just OK in my book, and Spoon writes some of the best pop singles I've heard. Perhaps it's just a matter of style.
I'm waning a bit on the Art Brut love. Again, the live show probably would help, but I can't help thinking that this record isn't going to stand up over the years.
Would've given my right arm to see MoB though (no takers). Does that mean I'm getting old?
I kind of went over the top on whole love and hate thing. I don't like Spoon but I just ignore them. I just think they're an average band with a ton of hype around them (I kind of think the same thing about Broken Social Scene).
I know the Art Brut album won't stand up over time. But I think it will always have a cult following just because it has the most pure British snark in one album since the heyday Public Image Limited.
Mission Of Burma was the entire reason I went to the second day. In case you couldn't tell, I'm not the biggest fan of indie pop on stage (though I'm fine with it recorded).