What was looking to be a rainy, gray first day for Pitchfork turned quite colorful and heated as crowds stood shoulder to shoulder to see the lively, spirited Carly Rae Jepsen performance, the unique sounds and bells of Shamir and those in the timeslots in between.
This year’s Pitchfork — especially the first day — has held one of the most diverse lineups, covering genres far and wide.  Unlike Chicago festivals Lollapalooza and Riot Fest, Pitchfork’s ground is much smaller territory —giving festival goers a chance to run from one stage to the next with ease.  It’s a festival that feels alive. As the artists sing, the rest of Pitchfork breathes quietly with the endless color of outfits, the tents of food, thrift shops and book shops, poetry and spirit readings.  Pitchfork’s first day offered more than a unique experience, it offered a

Twin Peaks

Kicking off the evening, the Chicago based rock band

Twin Peaks delivered the first energetic and rattling performance of the day.  The band brought the cool to Pitchfork, as the relaxed drum beats met the bassline of some garage punk sound.  Drawing in the first overly big crowd of the day, the young band fit well upon the smaller stage, effectively waking up festival goers.

Twin Peaks remained hardly shy as they rolled and passed out joints to the crowd. And while the rock band were sure enough responsible for shaking up the festival on their feet, a number of their songs felt synonymous with another—the snares and keyboard tunes carrying the same rhythm with each new song.  But as they’re sure to finish their set with “Wanted You,” the band lives the crowd wanting more, but effectively preparing them for the rest of the night.

Carly Rae Jepsen

Probably the most recognizable name on Friday’s lineup, Carly Rae Jepsen— notably known for her break out song, “Call Me Maybe” or ‘I Really Like You’—drew in possibly the strongest crowd, given the festival she’s performing at.  The entire set emphasized one aspect, she’s no longer trying to be the mainstream teen pop star she’d become widely known for.  And it seemed to be working.  The crowd swayed and twirled with every song, and Jepsen showed no signs of slowing down the fun.  A surprise appearance by British singer Dev Hynes — lead singer of Blood Orange, which performed Saturday and also a recent collaborator on Jepsen’s new album— who leveled up the set with his highly impressive vocal range.  As expected though, the crowd hammered away, jumping and swinging to Jepsen’s pop single

“Call Me Maybe,” a song that is not only undeniably catchy, but a true essence of how far Jepsen has come.

Mick Jenkins

Arriving half an hour late, Mick Jenkins stands on stage like a giant to the crowd, his deep voice addressing the hundreds in front of him.  The Chicago-born rapper, shines in his surprisingly short-lived performance — as he brought out the theMIND halfway through the night.  The energy continuously soared throughout the set, with deep and sometimes and sorrowful lyrics mixed with the jazzy beats had fans on their feet — even teasing the crowd with a beginning of Chance the Rapper’s “Grown Ass Kid,” though Chance was not in appearance.  His most arguably popular and powerful song, “Martyrs” left the crowd with what they hadn’t seen all night, the first energetic hip hop performance to wake up those that had falling sleepy from past hour’s overcast grey rain.

The Range

DJ James Hinton, professionally known as The Range, evened the night out as he brought electronic dance music (EDM) to Pitchfork Friday night.  While he arguably delivered what fans were expected, the issue was there weren’t a lot of fans expecting him or present.  Hinton, known for his use of random YouTube clips as audio samples, still brought the remaining crown an energetic and psychedelic EDM set—that was just missing the lasers and smoke to go with it.  The energy was undoubtedly in the crowd, though with just Hinton on stage and a keyboard, it felt as if something was missing.

Shamir

Without a doubt, the best performance of the night belonged solely to Shamir, who brought the sunny fun and happiness to Pitchfork that wasn’t there all day.  Praising the cooler weather compared to last year, Shamir and his band brought the disco of “On The Regular,” the gospel of “Head in the Clouds,” the slow tuned “Darker” and newly unperformed song that had the crowd lit with energy.   Shamir shined in great strength that he and his bands could carry a large crowd, larger stage, and a larger festival.  There is no doubt in my mind, that Shamir will be the one of the favorites of this year’s Pitchfork festival.