Pitchfork Music Festival: Friday
We catch Broken Social Scene, Michael Showalter, and Modest Mouse on the Friday line up
Admist the blazing heat, scantily clad ladies, and earnest bloggers Pitchfork's fourth year in Chicago's Union Park went underway. Friday's schedule was a mix of comedians and musicians, the first year Pitchfork has created a line-up like this. With so many great musicians it was hard to choose what to see. But somehow we managed. Writers Amy Dittmeier and Dominick Mayer tagged teamed the festival to bring you your Friday coverage.
El-P: Brooklyn-based MC El-P (real name Jaime Meline) isn't exactly a rapper's rapper. His freewheeling prose owes more to the cadence of slam poetry than it does to fellow state native Jay-Z. Over the years, his work with Company Flow and his time on his own Definitive Jux label have shaped an entirely different sect of the underground rap movement. It's always disarming to hear his off-beat, revisionist version of a hip-hop verse, which is why the Pitchfork crowd by and large met him with abject confusion. Aside from a few brave hipsters grooving along to the gigantic beats, most were just waiting for Modest Mouse later on the Aluminum stage. The set itself was good but not great; before the set, many of P's fans were anticipating some of his more warp-speed, tongue-twisting verses, which he didn't quite stretch into. That being said, El-P is a natural showman and brought along a full backing band, one of whom jumped up front and center for a keytar (!) solo. The crowd finally came alive for his big finale, a loud and triumphant rendition of "The Overly Dramatic Truth" from his essential 2007 record I'll Sleep When You're Dead. Overall, though, the set was heavy on darker, grittier tracks that few people were ready for at 4:30 in the afternoon, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. (DM)
Liars: Where I thought most of Pitchfork’s audience couldn’t wrap their heads around El-P lyrical attacks, I encountered a completely different demographic for Liars. The Brooklyn art punkers have a style that can reach out to every pot head, hipster, and indie kid in the crowd with their raw and bombastic style. Lead singer Angus Andrew, doning a Men at Work shirt which I can only assume is him repping is Aussie roots, commands the stage with the slow swagger that all great punk front men should have. That lazy sway, that screeching voice, that crazy electronic toy Andrew plays with on stage. It’s a vibe that anyone can get down to. The band played an assortment of songs from their discography but mostly kept to their latest albums Sisterworld and Liars which represents a newer side of the band since they started ten years ago. Their set will probably be the only one at the festival with a mosh pit…well except for maybe Modest Mouse. More on that later. (AD)
Hannibal Burress: Local native and current "Saturday Night Live" writer Hannibal Burress seemed more than a bit taken aback at the beginning of his set, which opened Pitchfork's first-ever comedy stage. His jokes are definitely broader than some of the alt-comedy that would follow him, but his keen observational style definitely lends itself to the Balance stage, hidden away in a grove of trees. (Brief digression: How the festival coordinators though putting Sleigh Bells back there Sunday night is mind-boggling; there is just not enough room.) Riffing on everything from his love of video games to the idiocy of drivers' ed tests, Burress has an affable, mellow stage presence that clashes wonderfully with his often incredibly vulgar punchlines. Even when the Liars set started to drown him out, he took it in stride: "I'm going to start the most obscure beef ever!" (DM)
Wyatt Cenac: Mercifully, although Cenac is best known for his work on "The Daily Show," his set mostly stayed away from the easy political jokes he could have easily coasted on. This isn't to say his set wasn't designed to provoke, though. Cenac is an excellent standup comedian, but also a surprisingly abrasive one. At one point, he entered into a lengthy bit on YouTube commenters and a certain well-known racial epithet used as a term of endearment regarding a kitten that had some of the audience squirming more than a bit. It also didn't help that, again, Robyn's gigantic pop synths were digging into his set. That said, Cenac's set was exactly what many were hoping a comedy stage at P4k would be, hilarious and strange and a bit confrontational all at once. (DM)
Michael Showalter: You've probably seen Showalter at some point even if his name doesn't necessarily ring a bell. He's worked as a third of the Stella comedy troupe, played Doug and a million other characters on the seminal MTV show The State and played the camp counselor who wants you inside him in Wet Hot American Summer. With that kind of a pedigree, expectations were fairly high for his set, which is why what actually happened is such a head-scratcher. Showalter is known for his awkward, stilted comedy, and at the beginning of the set it seemed like that would be what was coming. However, sad realization slowly set in, and soon the crowd started to quickly dissipate as they realized that this wasn't bizzaro alt-comedy, but rather a talented comedian having a really (really) bad night. He was clearly overwhelmed from the start, given that Broken Social Scene was playing at the same time and a couple thousand people still showed up to watch him. His bits were mildly amusing at times, but overall the set was a drag, and it's a shame to see a man of his myriad talents have a rough night on a stage so huge. (DM)
Broken Social Scene: My dad never had a “mid-life crisis.” He never bought a convertible or tried to date younger women. Instead he started listening to indie music. He’s the man responsible for turning me on to Death Cab for Cutie, the Decemberists, the Flaming Lips, and Modest Mouse. But it felt good for me to show him something for once. During Liars my dad asked me “What do Broken Social Scene sound like?” I struggled for a response but settled on “They’re the pinnacle of indie rock.” I really can’t think of a better description. Broken Social Scene is everything a indie rock band should be. I myself am a casual fan of the band. I respect what they’re doing and listen to them every once in a while. Their set didn’t really inspire a change in my opinion. The band is a collection of great performers, so of course their set was well executed and entertaining. But live they don’t offer much more than what you can hear on one of their albums. Before you Broken Social Scene fans bombard me with hate mail, this isn’t a bad thing! There are bands that are better live and there are bands that are better on album. Broken Social Scene is one of those bands for me. Their live show doesn’t offer anything more exciting than listening to You Forgot It In People does. Now BSS fans, if that doesn’t agree with you let the hate mail fly. (AD)
Modest Mouse: Remember when I said Liars would be the only band with a most pit? I was wrong. Modest Mouse fans apparently mosh and jump and throw elbows into people’s faces. I never really thought the music of Modest Mouse would do that to people but I was sorely wrong. These people are apeshit about what these Seattle natives do. I’ve heard mixed things about Modest Mouse’s live show but their set at Pitchfork was pretty incredible. There was banjo solos, a stand-up bass, strings, horns, lights, glow sticks. There were more glow sticks than a hippie festival. Modest Mouse mostly played tracks from their latest two albums Good News For People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Though the former album didn’t impress me as much as their previous work, songs like “Dashboard” not only got the crowd pumped but were great live tracks. Where BSS is a band good on record, Modest Mouse is a band good live. Issac Brock’s quirky and awkward stage personality fits their music perfectly and adds a certain adorable element to their live show. All you naysayers about Modest Mouse’s live show should watch their set at Pitchfork and have their opinion promptly changed. (AD)
Check back on the site for our interviews with Friday performers Wyatt Cenac and El-P later in the week.
Posted by Amy Dittmeier on Jul 17, 2010 @ 9:21 pm
