Stripping, crowd-surfing, and record-breaking round out Day One of the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival
By Selena Fragassi
Published: July 18th, 2009 | 3:15am
It was a perfect night for “Autumn Sweaters” at Day One of the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. Both the unseasonably crisp, 68-degree weather and predictably breezy and effortless set of Yo La Tengo provided favorable conditions for the hundreds of indie scenesters who flocked to Chicago’s Union Park for the abbreviated night, featuring four of the biggest names of the weekend: Tortoise, the Jesus Lizard, Built To Spill, and the aforementioned New Jersey trio, who added an uplifting note to the dark chords of sky threatening to break beyond the stage.
Singer-guitarist Ira Kaplan and wife, drummer-vocalist Georgia Hubley, melted the stage with a searing chemistry that was lustfully completed by the ménage à trois of bassist James McNew. Although the speaker system had numerous kinks, the sounds that could be ironed out were worth the strained ears, with airy melodies that danced around Kaplan’s hard, fast, and out-of-control guitar playing. Twirling his instrument around in his nimble hands like a possessive bandleader, he marched on to glory with tracks like “Autumn Sweaters” and “Stockholm Syndrome,” which offered a glimpse into McNew’s vocal stylings.
It’s just a shame that the audience wasn’t as enthralled. Instead, they chose to focus on beach balls and baby dolls rather than the three multi-instrumentalists who juggled and shared keyboards, percussion, and guitar — an odd fact considering that the first night of Pitchfork, dubbed “Write the Night,” was devoted to audience you-call-it setlists. However, throughout the placid set, Yo La Tengo proved itself to be much more suited to intimate club spaces. Most notably as the group let a last-minute jam session linger on end, which actually became more repetitively boring than impressing.
On the way across the park to the Jesus Lizard’s anticipated return, there were just as many side attractions — if not sideshows. While some Pitchfork attendees bobbed for free merchandise in giant cardboard boxes, others lined up at the World Record–breaking booth to try and set records for such enthralling titles as the “Highest Number Of Consecutive David Lee Roth Kicks.” And still others took carnival-style pictures next to a caricatured cardboard cutout of Michael Jackson sacrificing baby “Blanket” to the wind.
It was the perfect set-up for the Jesus Lizard, who received a die-hard welcome after returning to its hometown stage with the original lineup after a 13-year-long drought. Singer David Yow was clearly the biggest freak of the night, at times baring his bloated belly, at others hula dancing or tuning imaginary knobs, and at his best: crowd-surfing through a mob of people who almost dropped him to a surefire future of even more head problems. “Thanks for your support,” he said sarcastically as he straddled a security guard to jump back onstage and de-robe yet again, pulling his local Hot Doug’s T-shirt over his head like a nun’s habit. Although the Jesus Lizard has aged considerably, the members proved they are still capable of pulling off a prime rock show as Yow screamed and whined his way through noteworthy numbers like “Bloody Mary,” “Fly On the Wall,” and “Monkey Trick.”
The last act of the night was also the biggest letdown — if not also the hairiest group to take the stage. Built To Spill’s catalogued history was lost on the crowd that stood in front of Pitchfork’s Friday night headlining act. Scruffy lead singer Doug Martsch wasted minutes of dead time tuning his whiskery guitar for unending jam sessions and road-rambling music that was stuck in an identity crisis of psychedelia and roving mix tapes. Dressed in his white T-shirt and baseball cap, he looked less like a rock star playing Pitchfork and more like a farmhand who should be holding a pitchfork. As he shook his leg incessantly to each new track, barely moving from his stronghold place in the center of the stage, Martsch was more than built to spill over, leaving a puddle of mess that was swept up with the clean finish of the night’s other hot acts — even if the weather didn’t play along.
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For more photos from Pitchfork Day 1, visit Venus Zine’s Flickr page
READ MORE OF VENUSZINE.COM’S 2009 PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL COVERAGE
Issue #35
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