From Flavor Flav to Les Savy Fav

Despite inconsistent weather, this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival was successful in catering to indie afficionados.

The festival is a three-day annual event that takes place at Union Park in Chicago. It is put on each summer by Pitchfork Media, an online music publication notorious for turning underground musicians into illustrious artists.  

This year’s festival featured 40 bands, most of which have found success in the attention they’ve received from the Pitchfork Web site. Tents filled with hot food featured vegan options to appease the indie crowd, and vendors sold homemade clothing and jewelry.

On Friday, July 17, longtime rockers Mission of Burma kick-started the weekend by playing the entirety of their 1982 debut album Vs. Next came a performance by Sebadoh, who performed its 1993 album Bubble and Scrape. The last act was Public Enemy, who performed its 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Public Enemy seemed to be the favorite of the night, performing what Flavor Flav called, at the festival, “the best album of all time.” Flav was decked out in bling and was booed by the crowd for being a reality TV star. However, he redeemed himself by shouting political statements to the crowd. Politics proved to be a popular theme at this year’s festival. Volunteers constantly strolled the park with clipboards, recruiting people to register to vote.

The sun peeked out momentarily during Caribou’s set on Saturday, July 18. Although the band didn’t talk to the crowd between songs as Public Enemy did to excite fans, the performance alone seemed sufficient enough to please the audience. They played a lengthened version of “She’s the One,” adding more than one set of drums to produce a more mature sound.

Experimental noisemakers Fuck Buttons, who received a highly rated review on the Pitchfork Web site for their 2008 debut album Street Horrrsing, cemented that reputation by playing a set that seemed to swallow and envelope the crowd.
Newly acclaimed indie-rock quartet Vampire Weekend were easily a crowd favorite. Listeners happily sang along to their catchy tunes and went crazy when the first notes of their song “M79” rang out. Their live performance was as crisp and clean as on their album and the overall vibe was positive.

Psychedelic rock act Animal Collective ended the day of rain with songs from an array of albums. The band's set included a cover of the Panda Bear song “Comfy in Nautica.” As the sun began to set, their deep tribal sound echoed throughout the park. The band, always an indie-rock favorite, drew the largest crowd of the day. 

On Sunday, July 19, rays of sunshine fell on Japanese heavy-metal rockers Boris. All members had long black hair and scrunched up their faces in fits of enthusiasm. After playing their final song, the drummer jumped over his drum set. He then proceeded to knock off the symbols and dive into the crowd. Although the band experienced electrical problems, people fervently reminisced about Boris’ performance.

Frenzied lead singer Tim Harrington of the math-rock/indie-rock outfit Les Savy Fav bared his pasty white thighs as he stripped out of an outfit that had shiny, red skin-tight pants. Raveling up his microphone cord, Harrington walked amongst the crowd. He danced with the audience, even bouncing his bare stomach against one man. After finishing one of his many paces through the crowd, he was lifted back onto the stage. He stood up triumphantly, covered in mud.

M. Ward relaxed audience members after Les Savy Fav’s performance. The crisp, gentle strumming of his acoustic guitar was pleasant and his voice was hypnotizing. Audience member Adriennce McCann came all the way from Minneapolis for the sole purpose of seeing M. Ward. McCann considered going to Lollapalooza, but opted for Pitchfork instead because of M. Ward’s appearance and the event’s cheap ticket prices: $50 for two-day passes and $65 for three-day passes.

Spiritualized, Dinosaur Jr. and Spoon wrapped up Sunday’s performances and ended the festival on a positive note. 

Although Pitchfork Music Festival may not be for everyone, it adequately did what it should: unite those who share a love for anything indie.