Pitchfork Music Festival 2010 – Saturday

Posted by stereo/pirate on July 27, 2010 · 4 Comments 

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With such an amazing first day and night of Pitchfork Music Festival, I was curious if it would be possible to have even more fun with Saturday’s STACKED line-up. Of course these were not my first words of the day, as I was woken up by the licking of a my buddy’s dog as he was trying to share the couch with myself for a nap. Pretty solid way to wake up in Chicago after an awesome evening of drinks and music in which the memories seemed to disappear upon awakening.

After finally getting up and about for the day, I managed to hop on the L and catch the train to Union Park for Day 2 of my musical-vacation-weekend getaway. Dealing with the typical and expected lines to get into the festival for the day, I finally managed to enter in time to catch the tail end of Free Energy. For the few songs that I managed to see, I was quite intrigued with their music in the live setting which managed to provide a much-needed jump start to my long and exciting Saturday afternoon.

Free Energy provided a great start to the day, which I then followed up with catching Real Estate on the Connector stage. I had the opportunity to see these guys a few months ago and ended up having to miss out due to school conflicts. Finally able to see their music live, I was very impressed with how they are able to push out so much energy and dynamics in the sounds coming from their stripped down instruments. Although I wish I could have seen more of Real Estate, I was suffering from so much anxiety and restlessness waiting for Delorean to start that I had to leave and make sure I could get a good spot for the Spaniard’s 2:30 Aluminum stage set.

I feel like it is important to disclose that seeing Delorean live was my number one goal for Pitchfork Music Festival 2010. Now granted, there were MANY other amazing bands that I was dying to see as well (see Modest Mouse, LCD Soundsystem, Broken Social Scene, etc), yet Delorean has taken over my record player and iPod for the past 4 or 5 months. It all started with their most recent album Subiza, where I fell in love with “Stay Close” and was blown away by the crafty sample use on “Simple Graces.” Using the internet as my handy partner in crime, I then moved onto their older discography which just brought about more respect and admiration for the Spanish disco synth-pop band. Although Delorean has gained an enormous amount of success in recent months due to their popularity on internet music blogs such as Pitchfork and Stereogum, they still have yet to receive the accolades that are due their way.

Check out a video I shot of Delorean performing one of their hits “Grow” off of their newest album Subiza, Live at Pitchfork Music Festival 2010!

Admittedly, it was hard to follow up Delorean’s performance with any type of music. After their sick set of up-tempo pop sounds that kept myself dancing amongst a sea of young adult music lovers, I managed to move on and catch Titus Andronicus pumping out the noise on the Connector stage. Having to take a break for some much-needed Heinekens and festy-food, I caught a bit of Dâm-Funk waiting on Raekwon to hit the stage.

“Cash Rules Everything Around Me
C.R.E.A.M.
Get the money
Dollar, dollar bill y’all”

It’s kind of hard to fully explain how pumped I was to catch Raekwon in concert for my first time. Growing up and listening to Wu-Tang like every white suburban kid did, I have always been a fan of the “Shaolin” clan and its fire-spitting members: RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killer, U-God, Masta Killa and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard (R.I.P.). Of course there is nothing like seeing all of the Wu-Tang Clan together, but all of these lyrical beasts can still spit dime verses over all of their classic hits.

Although it seemed like Raekwon‘s set would never end (and I had no problem with that), the music finally had to be cut so I took the opportunity to go and check out a recent-favorite band of mine, WHY?. Bringing an almost Talking Heads-esque quirkiness to their indie rock sound, the guys of WHY? are able to create a fresh blend of music that keeps you constantly on your toes.

At this point in the early Chicago evening, I wanted to head over to the Connector stage to be able to get a good spot up front for Panda Bear. Also known as Noah Lennox, Panda Bear is best known for being a member of the indie music phenomenons Animal Collective. On the verge of his most recent release Tomboy, Panda Bear played a set stock-full of up-and-down rhythms, beats, and sounds.  To much praise, someone was able to record the audio from Noah‘s set and hosted it on the Collected Animals forum. Check out one of the highlights of Tomboy entitled “Slow Motion” along with the amazing song “Surfer’s Hymn.” Be sure to give the tracks a listen and download the entire Pitchfork Music Festival 2010 set here.

MP3 | Panda Bear – “Slow Motion” [Live at Pitchfork Music Festival 2010]

MP3 | Panda Bear – “Surfer’s Hymn” [Live at Pitchfork Music Festival 2010]

Panda Bear provided all of the mind-blowing sounds needed for me to wrap up an incredible day seeing nothing but amazing live music in downtown Chicago. Yet the evening wasn’t quite over yet, as LCD Soundsystem was about to finish of Saturday with one of the best live music performances I have ever experienced. Playing everything from “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House” to “Tribulations” to”Losing My Edge” to their recent hit “Drunk Girls.” Every song seemed to bring more and more energy, leaving myself and the monstrous crowd of people dancing until the music stopped and we were kicked out of Union Park.

And once again, as soon as the music started it all ended in an instant. Due to my lack of hospitality options I was unable to stay Saturday night and partake in Sunday’s amazing day of music, but I still was completely satisfied with two days of seeing some of my favorite bands up-close and live.

Pitchfork.com,
Thank you.

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