Although we were still tired from the previous night’s festivities, we made sure to get to Union Park early on this day. We got there early enough to see New Jersey buzz band TITUS ANDRONICUS on one of the two main stages (the “Connector” stage). I wish I could say that I can see why Pitchfork gave them the coveted “Best New Music” title, but I just didn’t hear it. They definitely have energy and enthusiasm, but not much else about them appealed to me.
Right afterwards, JAY REATARD (the reason we wanted to get there early) started playing on the other main stage (the “Aluminum” stage). It started raining during his set, but it didn’t matter. In fact, it might have even made it that much more intense. Of course, seeing Jay and his bandmates at an outdoor festival can’t possibly compare to the aural devastation he’s able to inflict on every club he plays, but it was still great. I think that my buddy MIKE BENNETT became a fan, too. You can read his review of days 1 & 2 here, by the way.
After Jay was CARIBOU back on the Connector stage. Just like their show earlier this year at Johnny Brenda’s, it was great. It was like someone put the acid in the ‘60s sunshine pop and added dual drumming along with other rhythmic, electronic elements as well. The overall effect was a lot like late ‘60s psychedelia at the point where it started to head towards prog, though it didn’t feel retro, either. It was still raining during the first part of their set, but after a while it let up and the weather wasn’t an issue for the remainder of the day. However, the mud pits created by the combination of the dusty field and the rain would make for some entertaining sights later on in the day.
Up next were FLEET FOXES, the critical darlings of the moment. First off, they sing beautifully and they evoke late ‘60s/early ‘70s groups like CROSBY, STILLS, NASH AND YOUNG and THE BEACH BOYS (without sounding too much like either) because of the 4-part harmonies. The instrumentation takes a back seat to the vocals in this group and that’s fine, but I wish that the material was more memorable. At times, the overall effect was like watching and listening to a school choir, albeit a very talented one. So yes, I don’t get the hype, though they weren’t bad by any means.
After taking a break from watching bands in order to get some food and look at records and what not, the next band I watched was !!! I’d never seen them before and they were great. They play high energy dance-punk not dissimilar from THE RAPTURE or any number of early ‘80s New York bands on Ze or 99 Records. Although I really wanted to stay for their entire set, we left in the middle of it to check out EXTRA GOLDEN on the side (or “Balance”, as it was called) stage.
Fortunately this year the Balance stage has been completely redesigned and it’s in a nicer, shadier and much roomier spot in the park. The sound is also thankfully much improved. I remember us walking out on FUJIYA AND MIYAGI last year after a few songs because we could barely hear them and it was incredibly frustrating. This year, however, was a completely different story and Extra Golden were fantastic. Hailing from Kenya as well as Chicago, they played what to my ears sounds a lot like Afrobeat, though the Kenyan musical traditions they reference are of course different from those of say, Nigeria or Ethiopia.
I watched most of their set and then headed back to the Aluminum stage (or as close as I could get to it) to watch THE HOLD STEADY, who we’d just seen a few weeks earlier opening for DEVO. I found a great spot right behind the soundboard where I could see all the action on the stage and they sounded great. If anything, they were way tighter than the fun but sloppy and drunk performance they put on last month at Festival Pier (the aforementioned show opening for Devo).
They also drew an absolutely massive crowd, apparently much bigger than the crowd they drew at the 1st Pitchfork festival several years ago.
After The Hold Steady’s set, I turned my attention to the Connector stage to watch JARVIS COCKER. Simply put, he was great. For whatever reason, I was expecting a mellower show full of piano ballads and what not, but instead what we got was a ranting, witty British guy fronting a snarling post-punk band, not too dissimilar from say, THE FALL. Of course this was right up my alley. He played virtually the entirety of the first solo album Jarvis, including the hidden bonus track “Running the World” which he debuted on his MySpace site a few years ago. In a nod to Chicago’s musical history, he covered the house classic “Face It” by MASTER C & J for his encore and stated that Chicago was the birthplace of house music.
As Jarvis was performing “Face It”, I ran back over to the Balance stage to catch NO AGE, who I’d really wanted to see. We saw them play a terrific show back in February mere blocks from our apartment, so it was cool to see them over 600 miles away from home. As a side note, I just discovered from a quick Google search that the actual distance between Philadelphia and Chicago is 666 miles. Now I can’t get IRON MAIDEN’s “The Number of the Beast” out of my head. Anyway, back to the review. Despite numerous sound problems (Fleet Foxes also encountered some sound issues earlier in the day, but otherwise, the sound was great all 3 days!), No Age were great. When I got there, they’d already started playing and we heard songs from the early singles compilation Weirdo Rippers like “My Life’s Alright Without You” and “Boy Void”. For me, though, the highlight was hearing songs from their new full-length album Nouns. “Sleeper Hold”, performed after some sound issues were resolved, was particularly vicious, and “Brain Burner” was great, too.
At this point in the evening, I was absolutely exhausted. I wanted to see ANIMAL COLLECTIVE and the 5 minutes or so that I heard sounded good (and interestingly not too dissimilar to mid ‘70s PINK FLOYD), but I wanted to eat and go back to the hotel much more as my feet hurt so much that I could barely stand up.
