Written by: David Williams
Chicago is known for having soul-crushingly brutal cold weather for almost 4 months out of the year. From the chest-caving piercing wind to the torrential pounding of snowstorms from time to time Chicagoans can get a little stir crazy with cabin fever. By the time mid-March rolls around people are strutting around their houses from boredom with maniacal looks, and maybe even starting to hear random voices in their heads basically turning into Jack Nicholson from The Shining.
Some of the best music festivals reside here during the summer. The Windy City has something for everyone if you want to go see some of the most popular artists around the world head to Lollapalooza. Is punk rock more your thing? Riot Fest is the place for you or if you’re jonesing for some electronic music then North Coast Festival will fill your needs. One festival that flies under the radar that should be recognized more is the indie-centric Pitchfork Music Festival. The 3-day affair does a terrific job of having a blend of diverse artists crossing multiple genres.
Pitchfork excels at giving under-the-radar artists a platform to reach wider audiences with their festivals. The fest curates acts that push their respective music genres forward with their creativity and innovation making for an eclectic event as a whole.
The inclusivity once again is head and shoulders over a good majority in the live music industry. Over half of this year’s lineup is fronted by people of color, and over half are musical acts that are led by women. The fest's last three events also organized a tradition of commitment to presenting an artist’s first festival headlining performance. This year Mitski was chosen for the honor while the previous slots were filled by Haim and Phoebe Bridgers.
Photo Credit: Ashley Gellman
Photo Credit: Victoria Sanders
The style of the attendees fit with the season seeing with lots of flowery or tye-dye shirts, infrared sunglasses, and jean shorts. The one problem is noticing an unusually large amount of people wearing sandals at Pitchfork. For the love of humanity when did this become socially acceptable to saunter around a music festival in the same footwear as Moses wandering the desert for 40 years? From pure practicality and comfort standpoint, there couldn’t be a worst choice for shoes.
Photo Credit: Pooneh Ghana
The food was pretty standard for a festival most people weren’t expecting to see chef Carmy Berzatto from the tv show The Bear behind the counter frantically shelving out Michelin star quality Italian beef sandwiches. A beverage that had a strong feeling of anticipation from online marketing was the Be Sweet Lager which is a Goose Island collaboration with indie rock star Japanese Breakfast who also is co-headlined that Saturday. The persimmons in the ale make the taste significantly light giving off the impression that you can pound these down under the hot sun like Gatorade.
Dry Cleaning set was mid-afternoon on Saturday. They are a post-punk quartet hailing from South London. The lead vocalist Florence Shaw performs spoken word vocals while the band just completely shreds away making for a uniquely enthralling experience to witness in person.
“Since we’re in the Midwest did anyone go to vacation bible school?” Lucy Dacus said to the crowd while the fans cheer her on she goes on to play her springy autobiographic record “VBS.” She has a gently kind spirit throughout her set constantly thanking everyone for showing up to see the band’s performance. She is a rising star amongst the indie ranks and her show just signifies her status within the top-notch of her realm.
The Michelle Zauner-fronted band Japanese Breakfast put on an electric showcase of talent Saturday evening. To witness how the band’s career has progressed on a much larger scale is a fantastic moment to watch. Michelle’s performance at Pitchfork was a victory lap of all of her successes of the past year from her Grammy-nominated album Jubilee to her New York Times bestseller Crying in H Mart. The biggest surprise on Saturday was when Chicago’s own Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy came out to perform two songs with Zauner on acoustic guitar one being the indie folk classic “Jesus Etc.”
The headliner was the talented, as well as, enigmatic Mitski. Her show is performance art at its highest caliber. She has a way of captivating the audience with her body movements. She has moments when she would throw kicks and punches during a song like she’s in a Karate Kid movie or there were also times when she’s had the ability to contort her body in ways that looked like she was Linda Blair from The Exorcist. Mitski embodied each and every track that played on Saturday night capping off a great day all in all.
Photo Credit: Pooneh Ghana
On Sunday, Noname’s show had little to any rhythm in the entirety of the performance with constant stopping and starting after each and every song while also trying to coach the fans on how to react to her music. There was even a time when she seemed to be workshopping a part of a song with the audience. With her combative attitude in front of her own hometown crowd, she gave off the impression that she would rather be anywhere else just not on stage.
Earl Sweatshirt came lumbering onto the stage with a red raincoat paired with flip flops looking like he was going to go over to a friend's house for a night full of video games and pizza. He had the energy of a guy who suddenly was just woken up from an hour-long nap sleepily moving from side to side. After his lackluster show imagining he will gain new fans afterward that didn’t know him before would be a hard concept to grasp.
Toro y Moi had a refreshingly vibrant energetic set. Frontman Chaz Bear gave a tour de force performance from being on the microphone to playing guitar and then manning the keyboards for the more electronic-sounding songs in their discography. He should have been on the television show So You Think You Can Dance with how effortlessly he moved across the stage.
The legendary hip-hop band The Roots closed the festival out in spectacular fashion. Black Thought had the crowd in the palm of his hand with his stage presence. You couldn’t help to notice how much enjoyment the entire band had been on stage with each other with smiles across all of their faces from ear to ear with every song they performed. Summer of Soul is not only an Oscar-winning documentary helmed by Questlove it’s also what The Roots brought to Chicago.
Pitchfork Music Festival created an environment where artists and fans alike could enjoy the experience of live music together in the Summer.
Photo Credit: David Williams
Photo Credit: David Williams