PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2010 @ Union Park

I hit up Pitchfork Music Festival this weekend, July 16th-18th, braving extreme heat, humidity and stinky hipster B.O. to enjoy and report back on three days of music curated by the venerable Pitchfork blog empire Armed with an Oktomat and Photojojo's jelly phone filters, I aimed to capture the good and the bad (and the just plain weird or silly) things, bands, food and fashion at P4K. —Katherine

THE ATMOSPHERE:

 

the stuff you don't get to experience even if you were glued to the livestream all weekend

Weather:
Deathly hot and humid at all times, with an occasional slight breeze. Sweat was omnipresent on all bodies, all weekend.

Most spotted fashion trend:
Rompers were everywhere on the ladies of Pitchfork. Not sure how easy it is to pop a squat in the port-a-potty wearing what basically is a jumpsuit, but boy, did everyone look great! As for the gentlemen—is it not all hot and scratchy feeling with such big, luscious beards? They were everywhere!

Concessions:
Star of Siam and Whole Foods were big winners—Star of Siam for offering huge, icy cold smoothies and Whole Foods for discounting their entire menu to just $1.00 per item on the last day of the festival. Nectarines for everyone, I'm buying guys! Chicago Soy Dairy gets an honorable mention also for being icy and delicious in the death heat—honorable mention only because I felt it was slightly overpriced.

Favorite booth at the Pitchfork store:
Pterodactyl Pants Plush takes the prize with their incredibly creative hand-sewn stuffed animals. In addition to crabs, they also sold maggots, perfect for gifting the "dead meat" in your life.

Most bewildering piece of merch:
How can a band like Girls afford to make messenger bag/manpurses with their logo on them? Furthermore, who BUYS these things?

THE MUSIC // THE GOOD

three cheers for the best of the best at Pitchfork!

Best use of a horn section:
Big Boi's entire set—the live horns added a ton of awesome to already great songs like "So Fresh, So Clean" and "Rosa Parks". Big Boi also gets bonus points for using Raekwon's little-kid breakdancers.

Best audience participation:
Major Lazer's Skerrit Bwoy had the crowd doing anything and everything he asked. Hands in the air! Take your bandanna off and wave it around! Fistpumps! He probably could have had everyone barking like dogs.

Best headliner of the weekend:
LCD Soundsystem, and their non-stop dance party. When the disco ball started to lower over the stage during setup, it was like a hipster siren song, beckoning the skinny-jean clad masses to run over and snag a good spot to see James Murphy & co.

Best stage banter:
Beach House, telling the crowd that "If your underwear isn't wet by the end of this song, you need to leave the festival". Sexy!

Best improvisation:
Dam-Funk's crazy made-up-on-the-spot set took me to Planet Dam-Funk, where everyone dances and wears technicolor clothing and smiles all the time. At least that's how I imagine it in my head. If we lived in a perfect world Dam-Funk would poop glitter.

Best one-man act:
While many of you might argue for Panda Bear to claim this honor—although come on, DeRo is totally right on the issue of Panda Bear sucking—my vote is firmly in the camp of Washed Out, who had the crowd in rapture with his psychedelia. "Feels good, feels chill", he said onstage and judging from the crowd's reaction they completely agreed with him.



THE MUSIC // THE BAD

the bad, the weird, the disappointing

Worst new addition to Pitchfork Weekend:
The comedy stage. Lots of great acts were pushed earlier so Eugene Mirman could hold up impossible-to-see visuals printed on 8.5x11 piece of paper. Needless to say no one could see the pictures he was referring to, his jokes fell flat and I spent the fifteen minutes watching his set bitter and grumpy, knowing I could be watching music on the stage instead.

Set with the worst sound:
All of them were equally awful at times. It seemed like Pitchfork was plagued with technical problems this year; an unexpected problem from such a holier-than-thou (or so they are often perceived) media outlet.

Most violent crowd:
Lightning Bolt's fans were was as wild and noisy as their music. I saw a friend emerge from the audience sweaty and wide-eyed, declaring everyone to be a "bunch of shitheads"—himself included. I'm pretty positive that had I ventured any further than just the outermost edge of the crowd I would have taken an elbow to the face—or worse. I am a wimp and a wuss though, so feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

 

Most boring set:
Modest Mouse left concertgoers either snoozing or chanting "PLAY OLD SHIT" as they droned on and on through newer material. Zzzzzzzz and so forth.

Worst set delay:
Sleigh Bells, who deigned to show up on stage twenty minutes after their arranged set time. It wasn't the only time an artist got a late start over the weekend, but seeing as how this band-of-the-month got such a late time slot (right before that night's headliner, Pavement) I expected them to be on time and ready to impress. Not so much.

That was my weekend in a nutshell—how was yours? If you think there's an integral part of Pitchfork I missed, you want to argue with me about Panda Bear, make a case for how those Star of Siam smoothies tasted like rat spit or tell me I'm wonderful, hit up the comments below!