Pitchfork is not perfect. In fact, the music festival located in the gritty Union Park of Chicago was chocked full of mistakes- just about everybody was behind schedule, there was a sound problem at almost every performance, and the food vendors kept running out of french fries (well the last one is a personal issue…what can I say, I love fries.). Grizzly Bear’s performance was full of equipment glitches as a fault of the sound guy, who looked like he woke up that day and decided to be a sound guy (never thought I’d think those guys were intimidating, but after seeing how pissed off they were, I’ve changed my mind); Doom- yet again- sent an impersonator to perform in his place, and Matt & Kim’s keyboard became unexpectedly unplugged midway through a song. One may think all these troubles would be a festival’s downfall, and in most cases, they’d be right. However, Pitchfork is not a regular festival, and the multitude of blunders only gave fuel to the 3-day music fest’s fire. These mistakes allowed the artists to appear at their most natural, something many concertgoers aren’t able to see- Doom’s set turned into an all-out dance party and sing-along despite the absence of the actual Doom, Grizzly Bear persevered through the technical issues and were able to be one of the festival highlights, and Matt & Kim further befriended their ever-loving audience, covering hits such as “Hip Hop” and “Samir’s Theme” during their set (which very quickly turned into a dance party).
Pitchfork gives bands a chance to be messy again, and while many of the noise-pop bands- Japandroids, Ponytail, and others- are used to thriving in a rather stripped and revealing position during their live show, bands like Grizzly Bear were forced to let all guards down (in a truly awesome moment, the band decided to play their hit, “Two Weeks”, without any monitors- which they did flawlessly-and the monitors luckily started working again mid-song). The festival produced some delightful surprises throughout its 3-day streak, one of the best being, well, The Very Best, the collaborative effort between Radioclit’s Etienne Tron and Johan Karlberg
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