*View more photos from Pitchfork Music Festival 2011 here*
Music enthusiasts of all ages and social categorizations flocked to Union Park on Friday for the sixth annual Pitchfork Music Festival. The crowd was as eclectic as the music that played: roughly 18,000 people attended each of the three days the festival was put forth.
“I think some people automatically dismiss Pitchfork because they think it’s just a bunch of hipster music, and that’s not true at all,” said veteran attendee, Michael Wallace, 24, of Hyde Park.
Pitchfork offered a lot to music fans this year. There were indie bands, folk artists, rappers, DJs, punk rockers, and virtually everything in between. But what each act had in common was the ability to bring something unique and creative to the table.
“I love going to Pitchfork because it gives me the opportunity to see a lot of talented bands that I might not pay to see at their own show,” said Brittany Squier, 21, a DePaul student who resides in Uptown.
DAY ONE
On Friday the small, more secluded blue stage showcased some of the most talented musicians to perform the entire weekend. Tune-Yards, the third act to play the festival, set the tone for this year’s Pitchfork. Frontwoman Merrill Garbus’s looped tribal drum beats and screams got the crowd hyped. The happiness and raw energy she exerted on stage was so sincere that it caused a contagious smile to be spread throughout the audience. Garbus performed many of the songs that are credited for her rising fame, such as Clothes.” However, for many, the overall expectations of an Animal Collective show fell flat. The stage décor was on par though; it looked like a trippy underwater forest, complete with neon flashing lights.
DAY TWO
Saturday’s line-up was not as solid as the first and last days of Pitchfork, but there was still plenty of good music to scope out. Gang Gang Dance really got the crowd dancing at the main green stage halfway through the day with their electro-trance beats. Indie rock group Destroyer kept it pretty mellow with their choice of songs.
Despite DJ Shadow’s 20 plus years of experience, the sound quality in his performance was disappointing. The beats were too gritty and glitchy for many. This may have come from the frustration DJ Shadow was feeling because the lighting was entirely wrong for the visual experience he had seemingly tried to create.
Fleet Foxes was the perfect way to end the second day at Pitchfork. Remarkably, they sounded even better live than they do recorded. Each member of the band is extremely talented with their instruments, especially since many of them play more than one. Fleet Foxes played a really great mix of songs from both of their full-length albums, “Ragged Wood” and “Helplessness Pitchfork.” Before he began rapping, Tyler said to the crowd, “I know y’all in the back know this one!” OFWGKTA is a group that thrive off of controversy and the fans that love them seem to have some sort of understanding of their humor and ostentatious personas.
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti was by far the most bizarre show of the entire weekend. It was a hot mess. The obnoxiously flamboyant front man deep-throated his microphone headset after it got stuck in his hair and then proceeded to fall over his band’s equipment. Pink mimicked almost every noise of a dying animal and played the air guitar. Pink’s own keyboardist couldn’t help but laugh at his antics, as was the rest of the crowd.
Towards the end of the show two members of the audience began to fist fight, causing everyone around them to ignore Ariel Pink to witness the brawl. The lead singer was clearly offended by this and threw down his mic after screaming obscenities into it then exited the stage, ending their set about 20 minutes early.
Deerhunter was up next on the green stage and was able to keep the attention of their audience much better than the spastic spectacles of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. Pink, the band’s lead guitarist, shredded the chords, while lead singer and secondary guitarist, Bradford Cox, wailed lyrics and strummed along. The bassist, who usually has a cigarette in his mouth the entire show, coolly stood on stage and swayed to and fro as he plucked away.
Australian band Cut Copy performed on the red stage to a large crowd of peppy-looking, spiky-haired fans. The band’s sound is fairly monotonous and sounds as if they were teleported directly from the 80’s to Pitchfork circa 2011. They would most likely feel more at home in a European discothèque.
HEALTH took to the blue stage shortly after Cut Copy did, and their heavy metal screams were a refreshing change of pace from the poppy baritone vocals of the Aussies. They were rock, all rock, and nothing but rock. The bassist was flailing his long, jet-black hair around so much that it was truly astounding his head didn’t fall off. The band went back and forth from playing instruments to creating synth-punk beats and screaming into their microphones. They put on the type of high-energy rock show that Ariel Pink was probably aiming for, but failed due to utter insanity.
The last headlining act of Pitchfork was TV on the Radio, who performed to a dwindling crowd due to the heat, which was still going pretty strong even after sunset. The well-rounded rock band channeled several different genres, stemming from punk rock to gospel soul. TV on the Radio got the crowd rocking when they played their hit song, “Wolf Like