Pitchfork Music Festival 2010: Day 2 review
Video produced by Kevin Pang
First prize for the day’s most grossly inappropriate outfit goes to Jon Spencer of the Blues Explosion, who wore skin-tight leather pants for his late-afternoon set Saturday at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park, and soaked right through them. Now that’s either complete irrationality or complete dedication to the rock, and this day needed a lot of both to survive it.
Day Two was even hotter than Day One at Pitchfork, and the heat gripped the festival like a noose in the afternoon, perhaps explaining why there were only a handful of truly standout sets.
Titus Andronicus delivered monster anthems at the height of the midafternoon meltdown. Jon Spencer made it seem like 1995 all over again. And, by gosh, was LCD Soundsystem something else. If this is indeed James Murphy’s last go-round with the band, I will never forget the moment “All My Friends” rolled over me like a big wave illuminated by a crescent moon and a disco ball.
Thanks to my dedicated colleagues Bob Gendron (BG) and Andy Downing (AD) who contributed to the hour-by-hour account of the day’s events below, along with yours truly, Greg Kot (GK).
1:03 p.m.
"I hear frequencies in the back of my head," proclaims Netherfriends leader Shawn Rosenblatt, whose band's reverb is up so high it seems that his vocals are completely separate from the Chicago group's ramshackle pop. The echoes provide an interesting sonic illusion, a good thing, since Rosenblatt doesn't have anything of importance say. Percussive songs randomly stop and start, and wordless vocal harmonies spring up like a Jack in the Box. At times, the psychedelic choruses resemble the singing of Whoville residents from Dr. Seuss' "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." Netherfriends score big on the cute factor but lack memorable material. The trio's set doubles as band practice in a basement where anything goes. (BG)
1:10 p.m.
Philadelphia quintet Free Energy has a vintage look — think Stillwater in “Almost Famous” — and an equally vintage, if not-all-that-memorable, sound. It's clear the band members have absorbed plenty of T-Rex and Thin Lizzy, and their youthful enthusiasm fuels mindless dance-rock nuggets like “Bang Pop” and the shimmying “Free Energy.” On the latter, drummer Nick Shuminsky pounds his cowbell so hard that I half-expect Will Ferrell to dance out from the wings in his "Saturday Night Live" “more cowbell” getup. What singer Paul Spranger lacks in natural charisma (his stiff delivery on the strutting “All I Know” keeps the song grounded), he makes up for in genuine excitement. At times it sounds like the ever-grinning Spranger's stage banter has been penned by some combination of Jeff Spicoli and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: “Sweet!”; “That's so cool!”; “This totally rules!” (AD)
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