Pitchfork Music Festival: Sunday
We catch Big Boi, Local Natives, and Pavement on Pitchfork's final day
Sunday – the last day of Pitchfork. Sun burnt audience members slowly trickled into the festival gates ready to submit their bodies to one last day of torture and their ears to more of this year’s brightest acts. We caught some of the best acts on Sunday and got a nice awkward tan line so you didn’t have to.
Local Natives: By the time I reached the Balance stage for Local Natives, the area was completely packed with people eagerly waiting the California act to take the stage. Local Natives is another band that I’ve been hearing good things about but hadn’t seen live yet so they were at the top of my must-see list for Sunday’s schedule. For a band that only has one album Gorilla Manor under it’s belt, Local Natives tore up their live set. Three years of constant performing tends to do that. This isn’t a band that’s going to go nuts on stage (openers Allá punched a hole into their hollow body guitar earlier in the day) and instead concentrate on nailing their performance. Live Local Natives reminded me of Band of Horses but no so much so that they didn’t have their own distinct style. This is a band that works together and plays together 24/7 and it comes out on stage. The five members have a keen sense of where, when, and how to play in their live show and because of their complicated arrangement and three-part harmonies this skill is crucial. The Balance stage was yet again plagued with sound issues which made the band’s spot on harmonies seem less so but the band didn’t let that stop them from pulling out a fantastic set.
Lightning Bolt: College students and “hip” music nerds always say that they “totally get” noise rock. But somehow these same people didn’t seem to get Lightning Bolt’s set at Pitchfork. Lightning Bolt is known as one of the first noise rock bands to emerge in the mid 90s and their fervent non-stop style became the building blocks for bands like Black Dice and No Age. I’m not someone who makes a blanket statement claiming I get noise rock. There are some bands I like and some I don’t. But Lightning Bolt I like. From the moment they hit they stage the duo only stopped about three times. Three times in the blazing heat. And they played with their ballsy, no holds barred attitude the entire set. I understand that this stuff isn’t for most people. Lightning Bolt’s repetitive drone of noise and bass drum made many of the audience defect to the Balance stage for Surfer Blood. But something about their wall of sound makes you want to stay. It’s music that can make you think or make you zone out. Both reactions fit in nicely to a mid-day slot. I’m a fan, but I won’t say that I “totally get it.” I don’t want to be that kind of music nerd.
St. Vincent: Imagine listening to the experiment noise rock of Lightning Bolt and then going to the sweet, delicate music of St. Vincent. It’s a big change. I basically went from distorted guitar to violins and woodwinds, but the juxtaposition between styles was kind of interesting. St. Vincent is an artist whose music can’t be fully appreciated at the outdoor festival because of her heavy use of strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments but her set was still musically appealing. Playing songs from Actor and Marry Me, St. Vincent weaved their musical magic into Sunday’s Pitchfork line-up. Her music is soothing, adorable, enjoyable, but hardly energetic. Going from Lightning Bolt to St. Vincent was like getting shot with adrenaline and then lounging on your couch. I feel like St. Vincent’s set would have gone nicely if done during Lightning Bolt’s time slot. Quirky compositions in the middle of the day seem more appealing than at 5 pm.
Major Lazer: Let me give you a quick breakdown of the things I witnessed during the Major Lazer set: Chinese dragons, ballet dancers, lap dances, a large bottle of Hennessy, daggering, Skerrit Bwoy jumping from a ladder onto a woman, Skerrit Bwoy jumping from a ladder into the crowd, sexy women splashing champagne on the audience, general booty shaking/popping, Diplo in a suit, and constant dancing. Whatever energy was lost at St. Vincent came roaring back during Major Lazer’s set. With Diplo manning the turntables and designated hype man Skerrit Bwoy revving up the crowd with idioms like “Somebody’s going to have sex and get pregnant!” and “I party every day,” Pitchfork’s crowd was shocked back to life. Diplo and Switch are known for creating ridiculous videos for their fictitious Jamaican character and I was hoping some of those visuals would appear on screen. But the menagerie of happenings on stage more than made up for it. The Pitchfork videographers had their hands full for sure. If only this closed out the night…
Big Boi: Pitchfork kept the energy going with Outkast album/pimp of the stage Big Boi. Many concert goers were split again during this time slot, some leaving the Aluminum stage to catch the tail end of Neon Indian and staking a spot for Sleigh Bells. I’m somewhat sad that I missed Sleigh Bells but Big Boi’s set was too interesting to pass up. Big Boi ran the gamut of his discography, doing everything from material from Outkast’s ATLiens to his new solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. Big Boi’s solo renditions of “Rosa Parks,” “ATLiens,” and even “B.O.B” are the closest I’ll ever get to seeing Outkast live. His aggressive lyrical style and commanding stage presence were all over the set. Again, Pitchfork’s sound staff messed up and Big Boi’s vocals were way too soft to be heard over his live band, which really messed up songs like “General Patton” and “Ghetto Musick” where it’s all about the words. But the cute ten year old breakers more than made up for it.
Pavement: I was interested to see how an older Pavement would fare in a young festival. Apparently not too badly. Stephen Malkmus played Pitchfork in 2007 with his solo project so I’m guessing he knew how to please a mass audience of people who are mostly 25 and under. Pavement delivered a tight, concise set that seemed to keep the majority of the audience who came after what I’m sure was a riveting set from Sleigh Bells. But then again it’s Pavement. Of course every indie kid is going to stay for their set! Though Pavement didn’t have the livewire performance that some of the earlier bands had, they still were a nice act to have close out this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival.
Check back on the site for our interviews with Saturday performer Bear in Heaven and Sunday performer Here We Go Magic later in the week.
Posted by Amy Dittmeier on Jul 19, 2010 @ 12:12 pm
