The Pitchfork Music Festival: B-

Two years ago, I went to the original Pitchfork Festival (when it was called the Intonation Festival). The one day I went was a terrific experience, despite the 95 degree heat, as a laid back crowd of folks got to hear a great variety of music for a very low price. This year, the festival got more ambitious. They added a Friday night bill, curated by All Tomorrow's Parties, featuring three artists doing full albums. The two main stages now had video screens. And there was a new side stage for smaller acts, used on Saturday and Sunday.

You might think more would be better, in a fest where a three-day pass cost only $50. However, two things stood out about the festival that kept it from being great. First, there was the sound. It was not very good. One thing that I fondly remembered from the 2005 festival was that from most parts of Union Park (which is a fairly typical Chicago park, with two softball fields, a pool, etc.) you could hear the music pretty well. This year, the sound was erratic.

On Friday, the sound was poor. This victimized Slint, whose quiet music was so much quieter with the lousy P.A. But even Sonic Youth wasn’t even close to loud enough. The promoters recognized this and had a new system brought up from Champaign, Illinois in time for Saturday. But even the new system was far from perfect. On one stage, speakers would go out from time to time. During Cat Power's Saturday set, she frequently apologized for the sound. And the side stage was a disaster -- the sound set up was amateur, making it hard to hear unless you were within 20 or 30 feet of the stage. This ruined the Oxford Collapse's set for me, as I could tell they were rocking out, but I couldn’t get close enough to share that joy.

Rumors abound that the Pitchfork people skimped on the sound this year in a cost-cutting effort. These rumors were flying on gapersblock.com, an indie Chicago news and culture site. And I spoke to a good friend of mine, who heard that a soundman from a local club received a desperate call seeking help on Saturday morning. The folks behind the fest really need to resolve the sound problems for next year's festival.

The other noticeable difference was the size of the crowds, and, to a degree, the behavior. They sold 13,000 tickets for Friday night and 17,000 for the other two days. My understanding is that sales had previously been capped off at 15,000. You wouldn’t think 2,000 more people would make such a difference, but it sure seemed to this year. Moreover, there were a lot of people who brought blankets and chairs and camped out, which was not so prevalent when I went two years ago. On one hand, I can understand the need to sit down for a while during the weekend shows, as it can be a long day in the sun. On the other hand, the middle of the park was congested, and getting around was made more difficult by people who parked their blankets, etc. wherever they felt like.

And I should not be surprised that the folks who treated the fest like a campsite seemed to have a lot less interest in the music. This made some sets difficult to hear if you couldn't get close (of course, the inadequate volume exacerbated this problem). One set that was bollixed by yappers was Iron & Wine. Even though the band's newer material has more percussion and is a wee bit more forceful, it still floated away from the position me and my friends were at. This wasn't the only set where I noticed a lot of gabbing, making me wonder why these folks bothered to show up at all. I’m not sure what can be done about the babbling squatters. It might help if they banned chairs or designated areas for people to spread out. But I'm not optimistic that either will happen.

Despite my gripes, I still enjoyed the festival. The hook is still the fact that you can see a bunch of music for a low price and get exposed to new things. As long as I see a few things I like, hearing some stuff that doesn’t do much for me isn't such a big deal. The highlights for me included Voxtrot, whose take on '80s jangly Brit pop was fun and they looked like they really enjoyed it; Menomena, mixing rock and Krautrock and jazz and funk and other genres in a very engaging way; and Fujiya and Miyagi, who overcame the lousy sound on the side stage and blended Kraftwerk, Krautrock and R & B into a very nifty concoction.

Sonic Youths performance of Daydream Nation was marred only by the fact that it wasn’t loud enough. Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore were wonders -- they have played together for so long and sometimes they blend, sometimes they clash. Either way, the interplay is something really special to experience, especially in service of such great songs. Not to slight Kim Gordon, who still is a charismatic figure, and Steve Shelley, who is so great on drums. This was really a can't miss proposition, and I'm so glad that I saw it.

I also have to give props to The New Pornographers. Despite the absence of Neko Case and Dan Bejar, they put on a nice hour full of hooks. I’m still undecided on their new album, but the songs they played at the fest sounded as good as the well selected tunes from their first three releases.
Beyond those acts, it was a mixed bag. Stephen Malkmus played solo acoustic, which was risky in a big festival environment. I thought that he came off better than would be expected. Still, the format was limiting. Moreover, he was joined by former Pavement bandmate Bob Natstanovich on drums for two songs. Just having the percussion lifted the energy ten fold and the two Slanted, Enchanted tunes they did were excellent. But the set wasn’t quite a winner.

The Sea And Cake were competent but dull. GZA, who played Friday night, demonstrated why so much hip-hop is limited live. Pre-programmed backing tracks sound tinny, the bass drum overrides the sound anyway, and the raps tend to be rushed. It=s hard to be engaged. I only listened to a little of The Clipse, but I thought their set had similar problems, although they really worked the crowd.

And soft music is pretty much death in this setting. I already mentioned that Iron & Wine’s set was defeated by talkers. Cat Power only fared a bit better, though I dig her smoky voice. I also have to report that she's developed a little bit of stage presence, though her outfit made her look like Sporty Spice.

I did not stay for Yoko Ono on Saturday night, opting to check out a Frisbie record release show. But I spoke to Matt Berlyant of bigtakeover.com, who told me that the park cleared out during her set. Matt enjoyed her avant-garde music and noted that Thurston Moore joined her for some songs. What was disturbing is that some of the folks who stayed decided to heckle Ono. Not that she heard any of it, but there is no need for that at a festival that is supposed to celebrate so many different types of music.

I'd give the festival this year a B-minus, which would have gone up one or two notches had the sound been better. As the Cubs fans say in Chicago, wait ‘til next year.

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