Pitchfork | Day One

I was in such awe of being in Chicago for this great festival, I didn't know what to do first. I walked around a bit, since I had no desire to see any of the early bands on the main stage. Pitchfork did a nice job of getting food vendors from the city, and props for the $1 water and $2 Fuze. I didn't like how band t-shirts came on sale kind of sporadically, as whenever the bands brought them over.

I started my day off in the Biz3 tent for Chicago's 8 Bold Souls. Kind of neat jazz-calypso type stuff, entertaining for a little while, but can only hold me for so long. The best part was when the trombone player looked like his left eye was going to pop out of its socket.

Man Man put on an outrageous show, dressed in white and war-paint, these guys were jumping all over the stage, using all kinds of crazy instruments, and throwing feathers into the crowd. I'd love to see these guys again in a smaller setting.

Next was Band of Horses, who I was really excited to see. Despite some sound problems, they put on a great set pulling mostly from their debut Everything All The Time. Ben Bridwell has a great voice, and backs it up with great guitar and steel guitar playing. I totally rocked out to these dudes who remind me of one of my favorite bands, My Morning Jacket.

Stayed at the Connector stage for Dan Bejar, a.k.a Destroyer. Mostly songs from Destroyer's Rubies, the set was good, but nothing more than the album. Clearly doesn't like to converse with the crowd, but we love his music.

Skipped out on the end of Destroyer's set to see Art Brut. Easily one of my favorite shows of the day, as Eddie Argos and co. rocked the Aluminum stage with their rock 'n roll British humor. Even jumping into the crowd during "Modern Art," Art Brut puts on an excellent show, and are only slightly annoying at times, although David would largely disagree (Ed. note: what Justin means by this is that David would use a much larger quantitative adjective to describe how annoying Art Brut is). However, their new songs, save for one, were nowhere near the quality of some of the great tracks on Bang Bang Rock & Roll.

I then headed back to the Biz3 tent, caught the end of the Spank Rock show David was raving about, and saw an excellent Matmos set, but you've already heard about how great that was, so I'll spare the details.

As much as I wanted to stay and see Matthew Dear, I had to see the Futureheads. And although I wasn't as close as I would have liked, they put on a great show. Pulling surprisingly slightly more songs from their first disc, the band was tight, and produced a stirring rendition of "Hounds of Love," dividing the crowd in half for the chants. I was surprised at their late set time and crowd they drew, I didn't think these blokes were that popular here in the States.

It was back to the Biz3 tent for A-Trak who was spinning some ill beats and samples. I got my dance on until he ended. I then caught the end of Silver Jews from afar, who really didn't impress me, as they seemed to be very lifeless on stage. I guess there's a reason they didn't start touring until now.

That's Day One. Day Two Tomorrow.