Heading into this weekend’s Pitchfork Music Festival, Pavement was the band I was most excited to see, but also the most apprehensive about. As I mentioned in the preview last week, this reunion tour had all the signs of a cash grab, and I was not excited to see a band that has never really blown anyone away live. On the other hand, they are one of my favorite all time bands, with an unbelievable back catalog filled with dozens of half-assed gems. But as I stood in the crowd on Sunday night, I started feeling pretty sure it was going to be a flop. After all, the last three days had included a number of standout performances, including two lively hip hop acts that took the stage just prior to Pavement. Plus, after three straight days in 90 plus heat, I think we were all feeling a little worn down.
But I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder, because as soon as Stephen Malkmus starting belting out the first lines of “Cut Your Hair” all previous reservations melted away. Thus began a set of shambling, imperfect, tossed off and catchy as hell pop shanty bliss. Songs meandered their way to nowhere, ended just as abruptly as they started and often included seemingly tone deaf guitar solos. Supposed second drummer Bob Nastanovich was basically just a hype-man — his main job appeared to be to yell off cue and pound on his tiny drum set with reckless abandon. In between songs, Malkmus often appeared to be a camp counselor trying in vain to keep a group of ten-year-olds on task and serious. It was all so utterly Pavement.
During the ramshackle proceedings, I realized that part of my concern at seeing Pavement was that they would come back and seem completely polished, professional and aloof. But they were none of these. You can’t help but love the humanity that takes place on stage during a Pavement set. The songs all seemed to teeter like they were about to fall off a cliff and then suddenly something would kick in and it all came together for a minute or two of pure rock. And I couldn’t begin to tell you how much fun it was for me to attend a show where I could sing along to every song. It’s been way too long since that happened.
The only downer was that the set ended with “The Hexx,” a song from Pavement’s much-maligned swan song that I can’t imagine too many of the die-hards preferred to hear over the unplayed “Summer Babe.” But that’s just a small complaint. Otherwise, seeing Pavement live made the whole trip worth it, everything else was just icing on the cake. But it was pretty great icing.
Here’s a quick rundown of the rest of my fest with pictures. (Tomorrow Ben will get more in depth with his five favorite moments.):
Friday
I walked into the festival to the light sounds of World’s Tallest Man and never looked back. It was three days of memorable music, intense heat and (style alert) lots of straw fedoras.
EL-P was next and his set seemed pretty well-paced, though a bit early in the proceedings to get many booties shaking.
Liars took the stage with a bang and their set of swelling and purposefully meandering deconstructed rock was an early highlight.
I’m not in any rush to pick up any of her albums, but Robyn had a nice happy vibe that was easy to enjoy.
Broken Social Scene played a typically anthemic set that was heavy on big guitars and a horn section. Some of the songs on the new album didn’t hit as hard as I expected them too, but most of the songs were great — especially the blistering instrumental “Meet Me in the Basement,” which might have been the best five minutes of the weekend.
Modest Mouse didn’t do it for me, but I was lodged in a crowd of kids who seemed to hang on every lyric. Their enthusiasm melted my “middle-aged” hipster angst.
Saturday
On Saturday, I got to the festival in time to see Titus Andronicus. The band left it all on stage with energetic rock n’ roll that felt youthful, but worldly.
Raekwon focused mostly on Wu Tang hits and it seemed a bit like karaoke, since most of the parts were not his own. Definitely seemed like a by-the-numbers performance. (The fact that you can see one of his backup rappers texting in this photo tells you all you need to know.)
The Blues Explosion put on an exciting performance that brought back some great memories. They haven’t maintained quite the blistering live show they used to have (nobody possibly could), but Jon Spencer is still a sight to behold, with his Elvis-meets-Prince persona. I was disappointed to see a majority of crowd ignore them.
Bear in Heaven played a pleasingly wistful set on the back stage that seemed perfectly suited for the setting sun.
Panda Bear played a bold, but meandering set that seemed much more suited for a small fans-only show than the giant festival atmosphere. His hushed, going-nowhere guitar parts were occasionally punctuated by loud ear splitting noises. It kind of sounded like a high school kid noodling in his parents’ basement. Though I have purposely not read any reviews of the show yet, I’m guessing this is a set a lot people are calling overly self-indulgent. I do not disagree.
Panda Bear’s dismal showing played right into LCD Soundsystem’s hand though, as main man James Murphy had thousands and thousands of music lovers ready for some fan-friendly dance music. And boy did he and his band deliver. The set was heavy on up-tempo sing-a-longs and Murphy’s devil-may-care attitude, but the party seemed to completely focus on the moment when he sang the ode to a lost friend “Someone Great.”
Sunday
Sunday had by far the best lineup on paper, and it turned out that way as well. I arrived during Beach House, a band whose sound I did not expect to work in the festival setting. However, their slow, hazy pop perfectly suited a slightly humid afternoon.
Whoever made the schedule the weekend did a nice job of shifting sounds and tempos throughout the stages. But by far the best was the transition from the subdued tones of Beach House to noise-rock chaos of Lightning Bolt. Unlike Beach House, the drum-bass duo played hard and loud and felt like getting hit in the head with a shovel, but in a great way. After the initial jolt to the system, I had a hard time keeping up with the impressive noise they were making. Better suited for a small club.
On the back stage, Local Natives had a good-sized crowd swaying to their heart-felt pop.
Later Surfer Blood’s big guitar rock sounded great, but the band looked mostly bored doing it. They might need to liven things up a bit if they want to grow their audience.
Back on the main stage, St. Vincent had a tough act to follow if she was to out noise Lightning Bolt. She did a smart thing by putting her quieter songs at the beginning of her set and building to her more abrasive/rocking songs. I thought she put on a good show, but others who had seen her before felt she’d been better live.
Major Lazer brought the entire festival to a stand still with an electronic party mix of Jamaican dancehall songs. Their jawdropping stageshow included Chinese dragons, ballerinas, ladders, Hennessy and lots of highly sexualized dancing. It was super fun to watch the rapper Skerrit Bwoy go bananas while Diplo pumped anything goes samples. I have to admit that by the end I got a little bored when it basically deteriorated into fifteen minutes of dry humping.
Big festivals always create hard decisions with overlapping bands. From overheard conversation, it appeared the most difficult for most people was whether to see Sleigh Bells or Big Boi, slated for the same time slot. I chose Sleigh Bells since they were most buzzed about band of the festival going in. And it seemed like a good choice as the mostly young crowd was absolutely giddy before the set started. But the first couple of songs had horrid technical issues, including a very quiet mix. This did not suit Sleigh Bells’ big beats and even bigger guitar noise. I knew I’d made the wrong call. When I heard Big Boi’s “The Way You Move” in the background, I made a beeline to the main stage to catch the end of his set. As I was leaving, it sounded as if Sleigh Bells were getting louder and the tech crew was solving some of their sound issues, so they may have righted the ship.
I only caught the very end of Big Boi, but I heard good things from those who saw the whole set. My friend wanted me to point out that it was totally ridiculous for Big Boi to show his music videos on the big screens surrounding the stage, as there was a huge segment of the crowd who couldn’t see the stage and would have preferred to see the actual performance they came to see.
Overall, I have say it was a fantastic weekend. Almost everyone who attended seemed to have a great time. The prices were not out of control, the food options were good, the beer lines were short and there were well-placed Port-a-Johns throughout the festival grounds. And, if anything, there was too much good music to see.
(I had a lot of fun being in the photo pits for the first time ever. Photographers are mostly very nice people, but there were a couple who have pretty sharp elbows and were not afraid to use them. Note that due to the photo queuing policy for the headlining acts that required meeting up 30 minutes before bands started, I decided not to take any pictures of Pavement, Big Boi, Modest Mouse or Panda Bear so I could enjoy music. Sorry about that.)