Live In Chicago | Rusticate the City
July 22, 2008
I spent this past weekend in Chicago, Illinois for the annual Pitchfork festival, the nation’s best summer music festival. Besides the great line-up of artists, Pitchfork covers all the bases of the top-notch outdoor festival, satisfying a finicky gal concerned with sustainability and quality: a spacious location close to the El train with lots of trees, ample outhouses with handwashing & sanitizing stations, local beer in cups made of corn, no police presence, mud, tons of recycling bins, non-aggressive crowds (except for rowdy !!! dancers), vegan options (see way below)… and babies with ginormous headphones.
The music was, of course, the hot topic and Pitchfork runs its festival seamlessly between three stages. My choices, in between perusing the spectacular Flatstock poster gallery, chowing down and much needed grass sitting:
A Hawk and a Hacksaw: nostalgic for the Elephant 6 purebred, AHAAH fill the spatterdashes.
Caribou: Much better live than in recording: double drummers.
Fleet Foxes: There is something in the water in Seattle that harnesses musical grandeur. I have been humming “He Doesn’t Know Why” for 4 days straight now.
!!!: “Not I, Not I believe me: you have dancing shoes with nimble soles: I have a soul of lead.”
Animal Collective: I like drums. I waited and waited for strong percussion (Grass!) but… it was an avant garde ambient noise night. Meh.
Spiritualized: Arriving to Sunday’s show (Pitchfork’s busiest day) at a ridiculous hour, Spiritualized was the only band I was able to see. Rock and roll means a erratic and grand exit, Spaceman style, with a guitar thrown into the bass drum. Thank you, good night.
A Vegan at Pitchfork:
Chicago Diner‘s stand at the festival made for some easy vegan eats: a sunshine burger and not dog on whole wheat buns.
Chicago Soydairy Temptation also had a booth. Huge cones of vanilla with chocolate chip cookie dough were festival musts both Saturday and Sunday. Yum.
Chad’s not-vegan psychedelic brownie.
