Pitchfork Festival 2011

Friday - Walking around, walking around. Nothing much caught my attention until Battles. They are generally instrumental except for a couple of songs where the guest vocalists' heads appeared in stereo on video screens. Thurston Moore played with a band that is not Sonic Youth. There was a harp player, and though Joanna Newsom is my only point of reference, she was no Joanna Newsom. Frankly, Thurston was boring and I wished I were watching Curren$y instead, but my friend is more a sucka for established rock acts. Das Racist didn't do a single thing for me either, but my first great moment was watching James Blake. This would turn out as a better way to make dance music come alive than DJ Shadow. The first night closed with Animal Collective, who, except for one song, played all new songs that struck a balance between the tunefulness of Merriweather Post Pavilion and the dissonance of their other work.

Saturday - Julianna Barwick is the worst version of Enya. Woods was one of the acts I had most looked forward to. They played a fairly straightforward and simple music that I got lost in. I believe this was the third time I'd seen No Age; I don't know how they maintained the level of intensity that they did in the heat. OFF! was a lot of fun, with so many punk veterans. Unfortunately, The Radio Dept. was boring, Dismemberment Plan was goofy, and DJ Shadow was a bust. He has this interesting stage show that would take several sentences to describe, but to work well, it would need to be dark, and it wasn't. Fleet Foxes rose to meet their placement of closing the night (but I think Fleet Foxes and DJ Shadow switching places would have been preferable).

Sunday - So, so hot. The first thing I did was apply sunscreen, and the second was sweat all over, so that I was still burned by the end of the day. The day started with three new guitar-based bands: The Fresh & Onlys, Yuck, and Kurt Vile. All were good. OFWGKTA were potentially the most exciting act of the weekend. Tyler was on crutches, though, and while their set opened with a cheesy but funny acknowledgment of the protesters (against their lyrical content), they really didn't need to go on to repeat "I will slap a bitch." Saw a little bit of Shabazz Palaces, who interest me a bit more at the moment. Hung out in the cooling bus until Kylesa, who did well as the only metal band of the weekend. Deerhunter included a cover of Patti Smith's "Horses" amidst their long psychedelic jams. In a moment of synchronicity, just as I was explaining how great "Young Liars" is, TV on the Radio played that very song, only found on an early single. Their set dug deep into their whole career and even included Fugazi's "Waiting Room." I shouldn't let myself take how great they are for granted.

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