The weather was glorious for the first day of Pitchfork Music Festival 2024. That’s something to be grateful for. Strong performances, that’s another thing to be grateful for. New VIP “tower” viewing areas by the Red and Green stages blocking views from a distance? Not really grateful for those. I suppose if these sorts of inconveniences are what’s required for this festival to survive, then the pain and frustration are worth it. But enough about that mess, let’s talk about the messes that happened on stage. Okay, so there weren’t very many of them, but there was one critical one that made the day just a bit disappointing in my opinion. What was that mess and how did it all turn out in the end? That’s a mystery you’ll need to read onward to solve. Join me as I recap Friday at Pitchfork Music Festival, with all the requisite highs, lows, and in-betweens.
My day began with Rosali over at the Blue stage. While wandering across Union Park I did hear ML Buch performing off in the distance, and it was very synth-y and ethereal. Not quite the vibe I was looking for, but I heard good things afterward! So Rosali’s set felt pretty on par with her records, which is to say her and her band all sounded crystal clear and no wrong notes were hit. Honestly, you couldn’t have asked for much more. Sometimes an artist will offer a different take on the recorded version of a song, which can either elevate it to a new level or leave you wishing it had just been left in its original version. The changes made by Rosali and her band during their Pitchfork set were minor at best, really more like added flourishes to guitar solos and pushing for louder and harder build-ups where it felt warranted. That’s exactly what you should do, and the set was better for it. I walked away very impressed when it was over.
I’ve seen so many sets where it’s just an artist on stage with a DJ playing backing tracks behind them, and most of the time I end up bored. A lot of that dynamic depends on energy, charisma, and just the songs in general. Thankfully Tkay Maidza appears to know exactly what she’s doing, because at no point did I want to leave or for her to stop. Speaking of “stop”, aka the opening word of the classic Pixies song “Where Is My Mind?”, Maidza covered it around the middle of her set with more of an R&B/pop flavor and it worked pretty well! I still prefer the original, but wasn’t mad at her version. “Cashmere” is my favorite of her songs, and it was a joy to hear it live for the first time. The way she kept pretending to take basketball shots during “Free Throws” was charming as hell, and I appreciated the attempt at creating a crowd sing-along during “Kim”. How Tkay Maidza isn’t a bigger star right now is a mystery to me, but if she keeps turning out performances like her Pitchfork set, her fan base should grow exponentially sooner rather than later.
Similar to the whole “one artist on stage with a DJ” challenge I just described, it’s an even bigger challenge to impress me when a DJ takes the stage solo. The idea of watching someone twist knobs and press buttons has very little appeal to me, though wild visuals and elements like flames at the very least give you something to look at. Doss didn’t have any visuals. It was just her standing there, twisting knobs and pressing buttons. It should have bothered me. It did bother me a little, but not nearly as much as it usually does. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t have a clear answer. Perhaps it was the mix she put together, which was smart and selective with its build-ups and drops. Or the fact that she didn’t try to remix a bunch of mainstream hip hop and focused a lot on original material. Whatever the reason, my head was bobbing and my feet were moving. Plenty of others were doing the same thing, and sometimes it’s fun to have a dance party.
I’ll be the first to tell you that billy woods isn’t the most exciting rapper. One of the whole points about rap and music in general is that it doesn’t always need to be exciting. Sometimes it can be introspective and heartfelt and connect with you on a more emotional level other than releasing endorphins into your brain. On listening to the two albums billy woods collaborated on with Kenny Segal, along with his other solo/Armand Hammer material, my expectations for the set were relatively low despite the tracks being uniformly excellent. He doesn’t seem like the type of guy who will speed up or remix his music to make it more palatable on stage. His Pitchfork set with Kenny Segal felt like one gut punch after another, but not in a bad way. woods remained true to the recorded versions, and he worked the stage like someone just trying to get it all out because it was essential for the crowd to hear it. And so we did. And it was great.
At one point during her Pitchfork set, Yaeji talked about the last time she performed at the festival, approximately three years ago. She’s put out an album since then, and remarked that she’s a fundamentally different person now. You could absolutely tell by watching her performance. Where she used to stand behind a table and DJ her set while singing when it was required, now Yaeji just sings. And dances, with two backup dancers in tow. It makes her live sets quite a bit more interesting! The crowd ate it up. I’ve never seen a rolling office chair get used quite the way it did during this performance. The songs also feel more imbued with meaning based on how they’re embodied through dance. It gave me a fresh perspective on her With A Hammer album, which I appreciated. While her classic closer “Raingurl” was somehow omitted from the set list this time, we instead got a brand new song, or rather a dance track that she put together for a compilation or video game or something (I forget). If that’s any indication of where she might be headed next, count me as (still) in.
I did step away from Yaeji’s set for about 15 minutes to give Amen Dunes some love. It did make me wish his set was up against some less engaging competition, because what I saw was pretty damn good. Two songs from his 2018 album Freedom and two songs from his 2024 album Death Jokes were what I ended up hearing. Similar to Rosali, everything was performed at album quality or better. Damon McMahon worked the stage to help crystalize the emotion within his songs, picking up a guitar when it was required. Not much else to say, except that you should go see Amen Dunes the next time they come to your town. I feel pretty certain you won’t regret the decision.
In my preview guide for Friday, I made some offhand comment about how 100 gecs like to wear costumes or funny hats on stage. Perhaps that’s only when they’re in the mood, or perhaps they’re just tired of that shtick. There were no hats or costumes for their Pitchfork Music Festival set, just t-shirts and shorts. Oh, and Dylan Brady wore a baseball cap. None of that matters anyway, because the music was the focus. They were pretty much bouncing off the proverbial walls right from the start, opening with “Dumbest Girl Alive” and sending the crowd into a frenzy. People jumping around and shouting along with the lyrics like it was their all-time favorite song (for some, it may have been). They were careful to spread the “hits” across the set list, so “ringtone” was in there, followed a couple songs later by “Hollywood Baby” and then “The Most Wanted Person in the United States” a couple songs after that. “Doritos & Fritos”, “Money Machine”, “800db cloud” – they were all there. It was a blast to watch them run through it, despite a very minimalist setup and basically doing karaoke to their backing tracks. I’d only complain if it wasn’t a good time.
I couldn’t stay away from Sudan Archives if I tried. It’s been two years (and three Chicago performances) since Natural Brown Prom Queen came out, and at this point any additional shows in support of that album are just a victory lap. So Brittney Parks was out there on stage, dressed in a full body suit, singing with a microphone attached to her ear and playing the violin with reckless abandon, as one does. “NBPQ (Topless)”, “OMG BRITT”, “Home Maker”, and “Selfish Soul” all continue to impress, though none of them hit me quite as hard as they used to. Maybe I’ve heard them too many times, or maybe Parks was a little rushed/distracted/tired and couldn’t quite give it the same energy she normally does. That’s not a real complaint though, because she sounded good on all fronts. She closed out her set with a new song that was very beat-forward and dance focused, which if that’s the direction she’s headed in, I’m excited to hear what’s next.
For all the hype built up around Jai Paul‘s performance, his first in Chicago, the entire set felt a little…underwhelming? I suspect the mix was to blame, because Paul’s vocals were absolutely buried by the rest of his band. Yet no other artists on that stage had a similar problem during the day, which makes me believe it was a purposeful artistic choice rather than a failure of some sound technician. Actually, I heard there were similar issues at many of the other Jai Paul performances. That’s disappointing and frustrating. Maybe Paul doesn’t have the confidence to let his voice be front and center, though there were a number of times where he’d hit and hold certain notes to such an impressive degree I wished it were a little louder so I could appreciate it more. Paul’s stage presence also leaves something to be desired, but that’s the sort of thing that takes time and a lot more shows to fully develop. At the moment he’s still pretty new to performing. As for the songs themselves, it was wonderful to hear a bunch of Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)tracks, especially “100,000”, “All Night”, “Good Time”, and “Jasmine”. The good news is the set did end on the right song, “Str8 Outta Mumbai”.
Had to drop in and visit with Jeff Rosenstock for a small piece of his set, which of course wasn’t nearly enough. The crowd was large and a good chunk of it was moshing and jumping around to almost every song, as it should have been. At one point Rosenstock played a saxophone solo in the middle of crowd surfing, because why not? He kept commenting how insane it was for Pitchfork to have him playing at the festival, and was unsparing in his criticism of a branded Nespresso lounge area in another part of the festival grounds. Oh yes, he also griped about how Pitchfork was taking a 20% cut of any merch he (and all the other artists) sells at the festival – I don’t blame him for being upset about it. Yet the raucous performance continued unabated, and I for one loved hearing “Festival Song” at an actual music festival for once. There was laughing, there was crying (I saw one person shed a tear…or maybe it was just dust in the eye), and there was righteous anger. Everything you need for another classic Jeff Rosenstock set.
The first thing I noticed about Black Pumas‘ headlining set was how few people were standing by the Green stage one minute before it began. I have mightily struggled to find good sight lines for almost every headliner in the past, the crowds being so thick you could barely make it in front of the sound board, even if you arrived 15 minutes early. But I walked straight up to the front barricade for Black Pumas. If there ever was a sign they were a bad fit for this festival, that was it. And if Pitchfork was betting this type of act might attract more ticket buyers, they bet wrong. Yet just because a bunch of people didn’t stick around for Black Pumas doesn’t mean their performance sucked. In fact, it was remarkably good. Really the burden lies on singer Eric Burton, who has an excellent voice with excellent range. He hit all of his notes and then some, but if you’ve listened to a Black Pumas record then you already knew that. It’s still impressive to hear in a live setting. He was also very charismatic, frequently jumping off stage and going out to the barricades to be with the people. At one point I watched him wipe his sweaty face with a towel in the middle of a song, then nonchalantly toss it out into the crowd like someone was desperate for that souvenir. Outside of Burton, the rest of the band are rock solid musicians. I do think their songs leave much to be desired and they could be making so much better music with the talent involved. Perhaps at some point they will. For now, they have earned my respect for knowing how to put on a real show.
