Pitchfork Music Festival, Day 2 | Chicago, IL

So we spent this past weekend the same way we spent it last year; at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. We skipped Friday's performances of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, GZA's Liquid Swords, and Slint's Spiderlandto check out Chicago and play tourist. But Saturday we were there at the start. Here's how it went down:

I started the day off with Chicago's own Califone. They put on a wonderful set of folk/rock/experimental, through which Wilco comparisions can easily be made, from the band's sound down to Tim Rutili's voice. The band also brought a horn section with them which added alot to the band's sound. A great early surpise from a band I was not familiar with at all.

I then camped through Voxtrot's set to have a good spot for Grizzly Bear, and I wasn't disappointed. The band, pulling mostly from their latest effort, Yellow House, was fantastic, harmonizing their ghostly voices while floating through strange song structures. The cover of "Deep Blue Sea" was great, as well as their own songs like the wonderful "Knife," which many of us couldn't stop singing the whole weekend.

From GB I ran over to the other stage to try to get somewhat close to Battles. While I hadn't heard much of their music, and was slightly annoyed by Tyondai Braxton's vocals on "Atlas," I had heard good things about their live show, and this was affirmed. The band ripped through songs new and old, and was quite tight musically, as both Braxton and Ian Williams played keys and guitar simultaneouly, Helmet drummer John Stanier ripped it up on drums, and Dave Konopka followed suit on bass and guitar. While technical difficulties midway through the set did kill a little of the energy, the band brought it right back when they went into "Atlas." Easily the best performance of the day.

I then rolled over to the Blanace Stage, which was the tent last year, and housed a sick collection of mostly electronic artists. This year, the tent was gone, and the Balance Stage features a few of electronic artists, but mostly smaller bands, like Profesor Murder. Yet another Brooklyn dance-punk outfit that seems to love playing music, the band was quite entertaining as Michael Bell-Smith, banged away on two snares as he yelped along. At times I found it to be kind of annoying and campy, and I think I enjoyed their between song music than their actual music.

After finding the shortest line for food, I made my way over to the main stages to check out Clipse. Hell Hath No Fury was one of my favorite records of 2006, and Malice and Pusha T didn't disappoint. Pulling mostly from the latest album, Clipse shared their stories about the coke game and uncomfortably ended each song with an explosion followed by gunshots. They also did a few mixtape tracks and the track that started it all, "Grindin'". An energetic performance from two fellas who probably didn't know what Pitchfork was until they reviewed their latest album.

I regretted opted out for Cat Power and quickly rushed back over to the Balance Stage to try and get a spot for Girl Talk during Dan Deacon's set. Deacon always plays on the ground, so I couldn't see a single thing. He sounded alright, but was cut short due to so many people at the stage it was causing a fire hazard. The threat to do the same to Greg Gillis was given before he started, but that didn't stop people from cramming in to see the king of laptop djing. I was about halfway back from the stage, and the sound system was terrible, and I could barely hear Girl Talk's crazy mashups. I could see the giant inflatable spider entrance on stage, and people throwing confetti and spraying silly string. Grizzly Bear made another appearance as Ed Droste provided the vocals for Girl Talk's remix of "Knife." Quite a party for anyone up front, but massively disappointing for everyone else who could barely hear the music.

While a great day ended poorly, Day 3 would really bring the noise...