The Leader

Issue date: 8/30/06 Section: Music

There is almost something romantic about some 36,000 music fans burdening through the sweltering heat and rubbing their sweat-soaked bodies together all to catch a glimpse of some bands that most of the planet has probably never heard of. Ok, so maybe it isn't all that romantic, but Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival is as much of a thrill as any other music festival in America. With a lineup as illustrious as Woodstock for those in the know, Chicago's beautiful Union Park endured temperatures well over 95 degrees with the heat index, or in layman terms, fucking hot.

The festivities were arranged by Pitchfork Media, the mega-popular independent music website that is known just as much for its absurdly difficult rating scale (C'mon, guys… over 100 possible ratings?) as it is for its excellent coverage of the independent music scene. The impressive roster of bands coupled with an extremely modest price tag ($20 for a one-day pass and $30 for a two-day pass) made the festival that much more attractive. This isn't to say that Pitchfork is the poor man's Lollapalooza, far from it. Bands such as Spoon, indie rock veterans, Yo La Tengo, Band of Horses, Art Brut and Devendra Banhart, to name a few, offered two full days worth of music geek paradise.

The great dilemma facing any music festival attendee, however, is the question of which bands to see and who you will have to miss in order to see them. Facing an indie nerd with the task of choosing between watching the Mountain Goats or keeping that perfect spot near the stage for Destroyer is like forcing a parent to tell their children who their favorite is. Thoughtful choices and no regrets are the only solutions.

Day one started off properly with Chicago's own Chin Up Chin Up as one of the festival's opening acts. The real theatrics didn't begin, however, until Band of Horses took the stage early in the afternoon and played a brief, but intimate set, culminating with their best song, "The Funeral." Front man Ben Bridwell made plenty of witty onstage remarks, at one point asking an audience member, "got any weed?"

Destroyer took the stage near 5 p.m. with a totally bummed out looking Dan Bejar leading his band through a set consisting mainly of songs from Destroyer's Rubies. Bejar's artsy, but still melodic, pop dirges beg the question "what the hell ever happened to convention?" with a somewhat lackluster performance of "European Oils" as its answer. The Walkmen delivered a solid performance despite the absence of one of its members. Singer Hamilton Leithauser poured all of his energy into every alveoli-bursting note, leading to standout performances of favorites, notably "What's In It For Me."

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