WBCR Loves You

Unlike Bebe, I have lost my Pitchfork virginity, and overall I’d say that the second time was a much more enjoyable time than the first.  I knew how this festival worked, I was practically pro, so my anticipation and excitement didn’t come until a few days before we left for the festival, but all and all Pitchfork 2010 delivered.  I admit, getting press passes did add to my excitement.  

My Pitchfork dream was that I would be chatting it up with a cutie from Titus Andronicus or becoming BFFs with James Murphy.  Suddenly, I would look at my watch and realize that I only have five minutes to get to my interview with Why?  I would then sprint across the festival, press pass waving in the wind. Of course I wouldn’t get sweaty and I would look incredibly suave and stylish.  I would reach the press tent, and then wow members of Why? with my charisma.  They would agree to do a free show at Beloit College in the spring semester and bring all of their famous band friends.  Then there is a festival and there’s peace and harmony etc. etc.  

Obviously I exaggerated the power of the press, and my dream didn’t come true exactly.  My Pitchfork reality turned out to be a lot more heat inspired haze images but I did talk to the lead singer of Titus Andronicus sort of.

Day One

We get to the festival around 5:30.  The press entrance is surprisingly low security, they don’t check your bags and assumed that my backpack, filled with water bottles and snacks, was actually filled with cameras and other reporting equipment.  My friend and I tried to find Bebe in th crowd of Liars fans, but to no avail.  We decided to check out what the festival had to offer in areas other than music. 

Pitchfork is really great in helping out local independent venues.  One of the major sponsors-CHIRP (Chicago Independent Radio Project) hosted a record fair and there were booths for many etsy-esque craft stores.  Pitchfork is the only music festival I’ve attended but I’m assuming that Lollapalooza has more corporate sponsors and booths than Pitchfork did.

After our brief exploration, we decided to sit down and wait for Robyn to play. We sat down and the guy next to us  turned around and excitedly proclaimed “I can’t wait to see her! She’s my absolute favorite! I’m going to take soooooo many pictures!” And this is what I truly loved about Pitchfork—the people.  Yes, they don’t dance as hard (but I honsetly think that outside of Beloit, dancing in public, especially with 40,000 other people isn’t as acceptable) and have ridiculous fashion sense sometimes, but overall they are genuinely excited about the music and friendly people. Robyn put on a great show.  The set was based heavily on her new album Body Talk Pt 1, and I still wish my dance moves were as great as hers.  Basically, her performance reaffirmed my wish to be Robyn (every summer I have a dream to be some female performer, last year it was Karen O) aside from her bright pink sunburn.  

I wanted to see more of Broken Social Scene after Robyn, but my friend convinced me to stay where we were to watch Modest Mouse, so I got my Kevin Drew fix via the big screen.  Although I don’t follow the band closely, I was surprised to see that it was such a boy’s club.  Despite their rotating lineup, they only had one girl present. If I remember correctly, when I was really into the band junior/senior year there were more girls present.  I could be wrong though.  I was disappointed that I didn’t get to hear “Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl”, one of my favorite songs by them.

Finally, it was time for Modest Mouse. I am not a Modest Mouse fan and their show didn’t make me one. Sure, I like “Float On”, and a couple of their older songs that I can’t be bothered to know the name of.  I found myself surrounded by people who were excitedly predicting what songs they would play, creating a somewhat awkward situation for me.  I recognized none of the songs they gushed over—I guess no Modest Mouse fans like “Float On”, and I found myself in the type of conversation where its just best to nod my head and go ‘mhmmm’ every once in a while.  Apparently the set was filled with their newer stuff, which no one likes so they we left about half way through (I didn’t get to hear Float On, bummer). 

Day Two: 

I arrive at the festival around 2 PM, with more water bottles than last night.  I immediately headed over to the Balance Stage (the smallest stage at the festival) thinking that I was going to see Real Estate.  I got my stages confused and ended up watching Sonny & The Sunsets. They were cute and adorable, and they fit the ‘chillwave’ or as I like to call it, ‘hipster beach music’ genre that infiltrated Pitchfork this year, although they were more upbeat than say, Beach House.

After Sonny & The Sunsets, Bebe and I headed over to Titus Andronicus.  We had tried desperately to get a station ID from them, since they listed Beloit College as one of their favorite places to play, but to no avail.  Instead we decided to throw a WBCR t-shirt up on stage, hoping to get their a) undying love and affection b)  a shoutout on stage.  We wrapped our beloved narwhal shirt in a note that said “Beloit College loves you! Love, WBCR-FM” and threw it on stage during their first song.  It fell in between some speakers and amplifiers, so no one picked it up during the set.  Their set was fantastic though, I liked them a lot more than I expected to, I wasn’t too thrilled by their rambunctious set at c-haus (oh freshman year…).  Despite the considerably bigger crowd, Titus still performed as energetically as if they were in C-haus playing to 100 people, and the crowd loved it.  They’re already becoming the band that I’ve rediscovered due to Pitchfork.  After the show I yelled at Patrick, the lead singer, to pick up our shirt and he gave me a thumbs up. If that isn’t undying love, then I don’t know what is.

After Titus Andronicus, I headed over to see the Smith Westerns. I’ve never listened to them, but their set was enjoyable and low-key. The lead singer told the crowd to “drink for us, we’re not old enough to drink!” which really blew my mind.  I don’t know what it would be like to be in a successful band before the age of twenty-one, I can only imagine how surreal it must have been.

Half-way through the set, we made our way over to Wolf Parade.  While waiting for them to start, we made some new friends in the crowd.  The main points of discussion were: how awesome Naperville is (haters gonna hate, but I love that city), how much Indiana sucks, the downfalls of being short at concerts and whether or not we were going to stay around for LCD Soundsystem or Panda Bear. Finally, Wolf Parade started.  They were another band that I felt that I should like, but actually didn’t really like (much like the Decemberists) but their set convinced me otherwise. They were high energy and the crowd loved them.  Many of their songs were off of Apologies to Queen Mary and their new album Expo 86.  

Finally their set was over, and I was able to push to the front for LCD Soundsystem.  My friend left me for a spot with considerable more breathing and standing room, and I began to make new friends.  Everyone was so close to one another that it formed a sense of instant comradity. I ran into several people that I had stood next to after the concert, and exchanged awkward smiles and waves.

Finally, it was time for LCD to begin.  He began with “Us V. Them” which got the crowd dancing and he didn’t slow down until his final song “New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down/Empire State of Mind.” Despite rumors that this is his last tour and that James Murphy was completely burned out, he seemed anything but defeated, he was energetic and maintained a sense of humor about the whole situation (He forgot some of the lyrics to ‘Pow Pow’ and improvised on the spot). By the end of his set I was soaked from a combination of water and sweat (to keep the fans cool, Pitchfork Volunteers would periodically hand out water bottles or just spray water over the crowd).  Instead of being tired from a day in the hot, hot sun and for dancing for more than an hour, I found myself energized and ready for more.

Day Three

The day that we finally got to use our press passes had come—we had three band interviews in less than an hour.  I waited nervously in the press tent hiding from the rain and waiting for Bebe.  I felt like an imposter—here I was with a lowly college radio station, while there were reporters from much bigger organizations and stations—WXRT, Time Out Chicago, Stereogum etc. Finally we were able to meet Bear In Heaven, Local Natives and Here We Go Magic.  BIH and LN were nice but kind of busy so we didn’t get to chat much.  Jen from HWGM complimented us saying that “we seemed really cool.” I don’t know about Bebe, but I find its always nice to have my coolness validated from a member of a somewhat successful indie band. 

The first band that I really sat down to watch was Best Coast. I admit, my research was lacking when I came to pitchfork and my knowledge of Best Coast was limited to a) The lead singer was dating Wavves b) she did a song that I liked with Kid Cudi and the pudgy member of Vampire Weekend  and c) a vague knowledge of the chorus of “Boyfriend.” I found her set to be similar in energy to Sonny & The Sunsets, laid back, poppy beach songs.  We ran into more Beloiters, including an alum in a folk & blues tshirt from 2006, which added to the jovial atmosphere.

After Best Coast, we went to see Girls.  I would not consider Girls the type of band that I’d want to pay to see in concert, and I found their set sort of boring.  The band livened up considerably for one of my summer jams “Lust For Life” and I wished they had shown the same energy for that song for their whole set. 

After Girls, I was finally succumbing to heat exhaustion. I had to find some shade to sit down in.  This is much harder than one would think.  I ended up wandering around the booths some more, and catching the beginning and end of Local Native’s set. I liked them a lot more than I thought I would.  My favorite part was when they played a cover of Talking Head’s “Warning Sign.” I would have preferred a Talking Heads song that was more well known for a potential sing-a-long, but I guess “Once In A Lifetime” is a bit too new wave for the band.  

I ended up listening to a bit of Surfer Blood as well.  I left after a bit because of my worsening heat headache, and went in search of peace and quiet.  Unfortunately, this was hard to find.  Of course, two of the heaviest bands playing this weekend—Lightening Bolt and Surfer Blood, were playing at the same time.  I took respite under a tree wishing that I hadn’t lost the last of my earplugs.

I was relieved when St. Vincent came on, excited for some softer music while I ate my dinner and people watched.  Her set was enjoyable but I left after a couple of songs in order to see Neon Indian and Sleigh Bells.  Neon Indian was a lot of fun, there was dancing and singing and most importantly shade.  He was late starting, which put the rest of the bands on the Balance Stage behind.  Neon Indian did have some of the most enthusiastic dancing of the weekend.

Finally, it was time for Sleigh Bells.  Unfortunately, they were my biggest disappointment of the weekend. They started twenty minutes late (which was unwise because they were competing with PAVEMENT) and their sound was horrible. To make matters worse, I was up front, stuck behind a girl who wasn’t dancing, but rather cleaning her glasses. I left after one song to stake out my place for Pavement.

I got about 50 feet away from the stage for Pavement.  My view would’ve been perfect if Pavement fans weren’t so tall.  Unfortunately, the girls directly in front of me weren’t letting anyone in front of them so I had to constantly crane my neck for alternating views of the stage and big screen.  Pavement had a false start when a DJ came out to “explain the historical context of Pavement” but instead ended up insulting the crowd by making the mistake of thinking he was at Lollapalooza and then trying to connect Lolla with Pitchfork and then stating radio was dead. Which was really appreciated coming from this member of the radio industry.  Pavement came on and delivered.  Their set relied on old classics, a lot of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and there was a great energy from the crowd. There wasn’t much (if any) dancing, but hearing 40,000 + people sing-a-long to “Gold Soundz” is something to be heard (which you can! We’ll put up audio!).

Overall, Pitchfork was a fantastic experience. I’m not sure if I’ll want to experience it again a third time, but despite the heat, WBCR arose victorious from its three day adventure.