DJMonsterMo | 2:58 PM |

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Pitchfork Music Festival Day Three

I again arrived late to Pitchfork and missed Menomena, Junior Boys, and The Sea and Cake. However, there was still plenty of good music to be enjoyed.



I entered Union Park just in time to see Jamie Lidell. Although he was sans band, he was able to keep the crowd entertained with his beatboxing, his pre-recorded drums/guitar/bass accompaniment, and his sampler and effects box bag of tricks. Honestly though, while he does have some soul, after several songs, the performance became rather grating. So I decided to head to the side stage for what was supposed to be the Cool Kids. However, Craig Taborn's Junk Magic was on stage.



I found their eclecetic, free-form jazz to be a little hard to follow and thus hard to enjoy. I'm certainly no jazz expert though. Their last song was pretty good and I think the crowd wanted more of that rather than the unconventional future-jazz played for much of the set.



Next up was dinner, then Stephen Malkmus unplugged. He revisited some old Pavement songs, acoustic style. The set was about what I expected from him, but I was honestly looking for something to avoid a deep slumber after stuffing my face with chicken sausage pita and tabouli. I headed over to the side stage because Cadence Weapon was supposed to be on. But the Cool Kids were performing now since everything on the side stage was basically moved back 30 to 45 minutes.



Their first few tunes were decent; pretty good old school flava. I wish they had a live DJ though. They later busted out some some nice booty-shaking ish, including their song "88".



Next up was the highly anticipated Of Montreal. They played several selections from "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" and avoided their "Outback" song. The visual highlight of the festival was certainly the parade of crazy costumes that they kept bringing on stage including Lobsterman,



a multi-headed Kevin Barnes alien, next to the real Kevin Barnes in female S&M garb,



I don't have a pic of the fake blood drinking. (Don't ask). However, I do have a pic of a sporty Kevin Barnes in football pads and S&M gear...



Next up was The New Pornographers.




I was only 10 people back but the lighting made it difficult to take good pictures. Or maybe my aim was a bit shaky because I was so excited. Anyway, they played a fantastic set that really made my day and really my entire festival. Even De La Soul was feelin' their performance. Carl Newman and really all the band members fed off the energy and made every song extra punchy and lively. They started off with a new one, "All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth". Their set included two selections from 'Challengers' including "My Rights Versus Yours" and the Destroyer cover "The Spirit of Giving", (but not "Myriad Harbour"), and several selections from 'Twin Cinema' including "Use It", "Twin Cinema", "Sing Me Spanish Techno", "The Bleeding Heart Show", and "Jackie, Dressed In Cobras", as well as older favorites such as "Mass Romantic", "From Blown Speakers", and "The Laws Have Changed". There was extended applause and the band decided to come out for an encore. They did the fun and apropos sing-along, "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism".

Decision-time. Klaxons or De La Soul? I had already seen De La Soul before at a fantastic performance in Baltimore. However, I really wanted to see how they rocked a crowd as big as Pitchfork. I thought the Klaxons were nearing the end of their set (but my friend texted me later that they had just started right around 9 when De La started). Oh well, I was not disappointed in my choice of sticking with De La. Btw, I have no idea how they fit the Klaxons fanbase in the small stage area; it must have been quite a clusterf*ck there.



Who's that sitting by the decks? It's special guest, Prince Paul! He DJ'ed for two songs while DJ Maseo joked about his bladder and supposedly left to take a piss. Prince Paul also spit a brief verse before taking a seat. De La did stuff from '3 Feet High and Rising' including "Potholes in My Lawn", "Buddy", "Me Myself and I" (but not "The Magic Number"). Off the top of my head, other songs I remember were "Stakes is High", "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays", and "Oooh" (sans Redman). I thought they were done so I unfortunately left before their encore to beat the "L" logjam. All in all a great festival.

Menomena - Wet and Rusting
Junior Boys - In the Morning
The Sea and Cake - Lightning
Jamie Lidell - Multiply
Stephen Malkmus - Dragonfly Pie
Cool Kids - 88
Of Montreal - Vegan in Furs
Cadence Weapon - Sharks
Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow
The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbor
De La Soul - Buddy

Labels: electronic, hip-hop, indie rock, mp3, pop

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