This past weekend a few of my friends and I traveled down to Chicago for the annual Pitchfork Music Festival. We had no idea what to expect, due to never being to a music festival before, so I’m pretty sure we were all excited to see a bunch of our favorite bands play it up.
We arrived just as some dark clouds were forming and sure enough, it rained. Scratch that. It poured. Thankfully, the torrential downpour only lasted about 10-15 minutes and ended about 5 minutes before the first acts broke out their instruments and jammed away. The first two acts that played were Alla, an alternative Spanish trio, and Cave, a throwback psychedelic rock band. Both of the bands, I later found out, were local Chicago bands which is nice of Pitchfork to get some bands out into the open more. But we were unfamiliar with either, so we decided to stake out a good spot before the hoards came.
The earliest act we wanted to see was the lo-fi pop awesomefest Best Coast, who played after Cave. We wormed our way through the crowds until we got a pretty decent distance away from the stage. After a bit, Best Coast came on and slathered the audience with their dreamy pop hits. It wasn’t the same as the recordings because Bethany’s voice wasn’t delayed with the live mic, but the songs sounded just as good and energetic. They played a great set and finished with my personal favorite of theirs, “When I’m With You.”
We stayed at the same stage for the next performer, Washed Out, the one-man glo-fi band. I hadn’t heard much of Washed Out before, but one of my friends really liked his material, so I thought that would be enough for me to stay. Before this, though, I got hit in the face by a stray full water bottle that people were throwing out into the audience because of the heat. It also hit a guy that I was standing next to by bouncing off my head and hitting his, but we’ll get to him later. Washed Out started his set and I started to really enjoy his chill beats and synths that he was laying down. Like I said, very chill.
Next up was one of my personal favorites, Beach House. I had already seen them before when they opened for Grizzly Bear back in September, but this time they were performing tracks from their new album, Teen Dream. Which is so far my favorite album of the year so far, so you should go pick that up right away!
We got a pretty good view of Beach House and we could hear them perfectly. Victoria Legrand’s voice is one of a kind, and it melts my heart with her crooning melodies and emotional output. Her hair is also amazing. Their set was probably my favorite at the festival, and we didn’t even see the entirity of it, because we had to rush over to Local Natives, who were pretty much playing the same time as Beach House. This angered me, because those two bands were some of my favorites of this year! What are ya doin’, Pitchfork?
As we reached Local Natives, we all realized that it was unbearably hot and humid out. As the crowd packed in around the stage the more hot and uncomfortable it got. It really impeded our Local Natives watching experience, but they put on a wonderful set with spot-on vocal harmonies and a lot of really good energy, keeping the crowd in good spirits despite the heat. We only caught about four songs, but it was worth it.
After Local Natives we had a well needed break for food, water, and shopping. The festival had a diverse array of food choices and I thoroughly appreciated that. Water was also abundant, which was universally appreciated. The vendors selling band merchandise and other assorted apparel was very nice as well. One stand was selling $1 records! I’m still amazed that I didn’t buy at least 10!


















































