Our Pitchfork-licious Weekend - Sunday

So I had one of my proudest fatherly moments on Saturday night as we were leaving the show. As we were heading up to take the train back towards home, we told Bella that only Daddy would be coming back to the concert tomorrow, and that Bella and Mommy would be home all day. Bella then said "I wanna go to the concert!"

That's my girl.

So I had a good relaxing day Sunday at Pitchfork again, after finding the same shady spot to fend off the sun and heat that was beating on the other festival goers. There was no wait to get in on Sunday, not sure if everyone was groggy in getting up from the day before or something, but that was nice.

The day kicked off with Ohio's Times New Viking, who were pretty good, but make brevity the soul of what they do. When the singer said that the next song they'd do was their longest, clocking in barely at 3 minutes, he wasn't kidding. He also wasn't kidding 15 minutes into the set when instead of saying "we have time for one more" like most bands do, he joked "we have time for 15 more." They could be good in the long run, but they'll have to get past the 1.5 minute song schtick.

After a dull set by the Dirty Projectors, Japanese metal band Boris took the stage ready to rock the gathered crowd. They did just that, proudly being the only band at the festival with a double neck headless guitar and a gong. There was some major electrical problem though, as their sound dropped out about 20 minutes into their set, then worked again for another song, and then was TKO.

The Apples in Stereo followed after an unintentional half hour break in the action, and their sunny power pop fit pretty well with the beautiful midday sun. Les Savy Fav took the stage next, and provided a pretty amusing punk fueled set, with lead singer Tim Harrington proving to be the most lively and amusing presence at the festival, constantly leaping into the crowd, and providing the biggest WTF moment of the weekend by donning a nude bodysuit, to make his antics all the more disturbing on the giant nearby monitors.

In a pretty big dynamic switch, the Dodos followed them, performing as only a duo, but providing some interesting songs via some looped sounds and unique instrumentation. M. Ward then took over on the next stage, starting off solo acoustic and building on from there. His mellow croon was again a perfect fit for the gorgeous summer afternoon in the park.

The probably most anticipated set by the majority of the crowd followed with Spiritualized. The band is mainly one guy, who had a near death experience a few years ago, who has returned with a critically acclaimed album (still have to hear it obviously). I last saw them in 1997 opening for Radiohead in what would be my favorite concert ever, although they ddin't impress me at that show. Time has definintely helped them out, since their Pink Floyd-influenced set filled the park (and probably several surrounding blocks) with a sound that was worthy of the hype.

This was bad news for Bon Iver, a very quiet band playing on the small side stage who were doomed to be scheduled at the same time as Spiritualized. I walked over to the side stage to try and check some of Bon Iver out, but no matter how close I got, pretty much the only thing I could hear was the kick drum for Spiritualized.

Dinosaur Jr. followed on the big stage with a run through most of their songs that their fans were waiting to hear. I wasn't a fan before their set, and I'm still not. I was hoping that Cut Copy was going to actually start at their scheduled time mid-way through Dino's set on the smaller stage, but that didn't happen. Checked the stage again before the final act, Spoon, and still not Cut Copy. Turns out they had some problems at the airport, and their set didn't even start til 9:40.

Spoon closed out the weekend with a good set that jumped around their catalog and didn't just focus on their last two fantastic albums. They had a small horn section this time (unlike Lollapalooza 2007), so I was hoping I'd get to hear some of their great songs like "The Underdog" and "You've Got Yer Cherry Bomb" from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga before I left, but that didn't happen. I hiked up to the train station around 9:40, and was lucky enough to hear "I Summon You" just before my train pulled up.

Again, a pretty great weekend, definitely a good time at Pitchfork. And definitely a very good warm up for Lollapalooza, only 10 days away now as of this writing!