I just want to start off by saying that I think Pitchfork did a fantastic job organizing this event. A very affordable, two day festival in downtown Chicago is a beautiful thing. Despite the heat and a few long lines, everyone there seemed to be in high spirits. I think this was mostly because of the cost of everything at the festival. Water only cost $1, my fiance and I ate lunch for $10 total both days, and band merchandise was selling at reasonable prices, i.e. ~$10 per CD. It's nice to go to a festival and not feel resentful about getting blatently ripped off.

Along with that, everything went off without delay. I think the longest we had to wait between bands was for Os Mutantes to start their set after Spoon, which was still only like 5 minutes.

Of course most of the bands were great. Liars were probably my favorite, but I have a bias for Liars. The Walkmen were surpisingly good, and I developed a new found respect for them. Jens Lekman and Destroyer, both of whom's music I was unfamiliar with, were also good enough to convince to buy their records.

Anyway, I wasn't going to create a post for the festival but I just thought it was so well done that they deserved a plug. Try to come out next year if you missed it - you won't be dissapointed. Even if you are, it won't set you back two week's pay!

I heard Pitchfork Music Fest was good, but I didn't have the time to go, I was thinking about going to Lollapalooza though.

It's nice to hear that P4K kept prices low and made it a cost-conscious affair. I probably only liked about a third of the bands, but then, most festival shows are like that, right?

Good for them. I got a little tired of their self-promotion, but I'm glad they put on a show for the people...

I agree, the Pitchfork Festival was very good this year. It was great last year under the name 'Intonation' (that particular festival this year was not as good but still enoyable). Liars were great as I thought they would be, and the Walkmen were sloppy but fun, as was Spoon. Two bands that I was unfamilier with before the festival were Man Man and Chin Up Chin Up and both impressed me very much. There is almost nothing disappointing to say about the festival, it was fun from the beginning to the end, and I'm glad I made the trip to attend it.


Oh after seeing Danielson at Pitchfork and tonight in my town, I would reccommend them as a great live band to see if they come to your town on their current tour, their live show is tremendously fun.

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
I got a little tired of their self-promotion, but I'm glad they put on a show for the people...

Yeah, they were definitely pushing the promotion to the annoying point, but at least they came through with something special. Would've looked really bad on them if the festival were a flop, considering the amount of self-endorsing they did leading up to it.

It's their site: they can self-promote all they want. But they worked the Festival into as many 'news' items as they could. I found it annoying, but it sold the damn thing out, so it worked.

quote:

Originally posted by benjiru:
Two bands that I was unfamilier with before the festival were Man Man and Chin Up Chin Up and both impressed me very much.

I'm happy you were exposed to Chin Up Chin Up, they're one of my favorite bands right now.

Same with me for Man man. Even though I liked their debut a bit better than six demon bag, I think they're one of the few bands around now that deserve their hype.

Enjoyed the festival immensely. Only band that disappointed me was the Mountain Goats. Don't know why--I think I wasn't familiar enough with the songs on the set list to fully pay attention in the heat.

Wish I could have saw more of Liars, Man Man & some of the stuff in the small tent.

Flatstock was very neat. Food and water was reasonable. Only time I felt crowded was when I was in the record fair.

First off the festival was great, the atmosphere, the bands, and the crowds. And I liked the mc whos enthusiasm grew on me and I thought was pretty funny.

And I'm glad that pretty much everybody in this forum got it right, considering I felt a lot of people just weren't getting or missed the best performances at the festival. Liars were by far the best playing a legendary/epic set that was just a step above everything else out there. What at first began as a fuck you performance ended happily with the crowd loving and those that didnt get it having left already.

Man Man was also excellent, they won me over and I had never heard of them. The Walkmen were too. And I'm glad you less_success that you liked destroyer, who is one of my favorite songwriters out there who alienated alot of rubies fans I'm sure by mangling choruses and skipping lyrics. Brilliant performance though.

I'm kind of sorry I missed some of the Biz3 performances, like Matmos (walkmen instead) and CSS. But overall I enjoyed the festival. Only things I disagree with people here are Mountain Goats who I thought were good; and Chin Up Chin Up who I thought were kind of weak, they went for that rock groove but just couldnt quite reach it. Jens Lekman's performance I missed but from a distance it looked very entertaining.


Still the most important thing I gained from the festival is the liars are a band to be reckoned with...undoubtedly one of the greatest concert experiences of my life.

Concert event of the year........too bad I'm halfway across the country. Glad you all enjoyed it, and my jealousy will eventually result in your deaths.

The Liars at Pitchfork and My Morning Jacket at Bonaroo. Two sets they lots of people have been talking about this year. It would have been nice to catch one of them.

quote:

Originally posted by Hophead:
The Liars at Pitchfork and My Morning Jacket at Bonaroo. Two sets they lots of people have been talking about this year.

I think the reason people were so psyched about the Liars performance is because Liars are just one of those bands that polarizes. If you don't like them, you're not going to be near their live show, and probably won't even mention it. If you do though, you're going to be up front in a cult like fashion because you love them. All of the weirdos at the festival came out of the wood work and were right up front for Liars, which I thought was pretty cool.

Plus, the energy of their songs really transfers easily to a live setting. I band like Mountain Goats, who also played the Pitchfork Festival, has a lot more work to do to make their live shows exciting. Liars can pretty much come out and just play their stuff and the energy is ready made.

I've never seen MMJ live, but I would really like to. I've heard they're great, and I love their records. I remember seeing them play "One Big Holiday" on Conan it was pretty damn cool. One of my friends went to Bonaroo, but he said he only watched MMJ for like 20 minutes

How did the Liars set list go? I'd be interested in seeing how they mixed the dance-punk songs from "Threw Us in a Trench" with the ambient, trance-like songs from "Drum's Not dead".

I can't remember their setlist, but I don't recall any dance-punk in their show. They were pretty much noise and feedback the whole, glorious, way.

quote:

Originally posted by BContrat:
How did the Liars set list go? I'd be interested in seeing how they mixed the dance-punk songs from "Threw Us in a Trench" with the ambient, trance-like songs from "Drum's Not dead".

There was nothing played from their first album, although the drummer did joke that they were going to play "Mr. You're On Fire Mr." They played two songs from They Were Wrong, which were "We Fenced Other Houses With the Bones of Our Own" and "Hold Hands and It Will Happen Anyway". They also played two songs I'd never heard which I assume are songs for their next record.

The remaning five or so songs were from Drum's Not Dead. They opened with "Drum and the Uncomfortable Can." This was pretty cool because the percussion effect was dead on to the album. Unfortunately no "Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack", but I'm not sure how they do the whole didgeridoo thing live anyway. They also closed with "Be Quiet Mt. Heart Attack!" which I thought was kind of weird since it opens Drum's Not Dead.