Tag: Jamilla Woods

Day three of the Pitchfork Music Festival started out a bit chilly as the Windy City was living up to its nickname, but we soon got our sweaty groove on thanks to a great set by Chicago house music legend and pioneer Derrick Carter.

For those of you who weren’t dancing during his set, please see a doctor because something is wrong with you.  He put on a house music clinic.  It was a great way to start the day.

We also heard a bit of Colin Stetson‘s set.  He plays this wild, droning, hypnotizing saxophone music that is difficult to describe but quite mesmerizing.  We had plenty of time before Ride‘s set, so we met up with my college pal and his husband again before heading off to do a little shopping and eating.

Ride put on a good set of shoegaze that was a great switch from all the hip hop, electro, and funk we heard during the festival.  Unfortunately, they had a shortened set due to some early technical difficulties, but they played new and old material and blasted all of us with the final song of their set.  It was a loud, distorted, fuzzed-out assault.  “I needed that,” said one man next to me by the time they were done.

Ride did a signing at the record fair afterwards, and I scored a signed copy of their newest album, Weather Diaries (review coming soon).  They were happy to meet everybody, and I’m happy to report they had a long line of fans there.

Mandy caught Jamilla Woods‘ set, which she enjoyed very much, after she’d been moved from the Blue Stage to the Green Stage due to the Avalanches cancelling their performance.  According to their Twitter feed, a family member one of the band members had some sort of dire medical emergency.  My college pal came to the festival mainly to see them, so he was more than annoyed they weren’t playing.  He and his husband learned via a Google search that the Avalanches are about as finicky as Morrissey when it comes to performing.

Thankfully, Nicolas Jaar put on an excellent set of his experimental electro / trance music that was both psychedelic and dance-inspiring at the same time.  At about the halfway point of his set, a guy in front of me turned to his friends and said, “This is the best set I’ve seen all weekend.” and then left.

We split after that, beating the crowds and stopping to meet artist Jay Ryan so we could get one of his posters.  He does really neat and cute art for a lot of bands and other projects.  We already had a Bob Mould tour poster of his hanging in our living room, and now Mandy has a “It’s Time to Read” poster that will go in her office featuring bears, cats, and a wooly mammoth reading books.

I walked out with a new pair of sunglasses and CD’s by Screaming Females, Vacation, Waxahatchee, Tycho, Priests, Slowdive, She-Devils, Ride, and Wavves, and even a cassette by a band called Diagonal.  I’ll have reviews of all this stuff in the coming months.

All in all, the Pitchfork Music Festival was a good time.  We’d go back if the lineup was good and we could stay close to the festival.  As it’s been for the last few festivals I’ve attended, VIP tickets don’t look worth the money.  It’s not as laid back as a Levitation festival, but still fun.  It also could’ve used a little more rock, in my opinion, but it was worth the trip.

Keep your mind open.

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