Pitchfork Saturday

Saturday's line-up looked to be kinda weak. It was. Most of the acts I wanted to see were playing on the Balance Stage, or "B" Stage, and the "B" Stage sucked arse. The sound was pretty awful for the most part, and the viewing area was just way to narrow for most people to get a good glimpse. Throw in a few trees along Ogden Avenue, and it further complicated things.

Matter o factly, I missed two acts that I'd have liked to at least check out on the "B" Stage, Dan Deacon and later local Pittsburgh-er Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk, simply b/c I was tired of fighting the crowd to get there.

Here's who we did see...

Califone was nice...


Voxtrot. Almost sounded like a mixture of Ted Leo & Joe Jackson. Looking back at it, probably my favorite of the day...

Beach House. Dreamy. Perhaps not a great "festival band", but lovely none the less. I think I'd prefer a nice Pinot over a Goose Island IPA when listening to Beach House...

Battles. Why the f%$k did I not check out Battles?!?! From our view of the jumbo tron where we were sitting...it appeared to be good times. And I missed out. Speaking of jumbo trons...what a beautiful addition to Pitchfork Fest. Bravo!! Moving on...

Fujiya & Miyagi. Groovy. Wish we had more room. Wax on. Wax off...

Iron & Wine. I heard someone say if you want to kill the festival atmosphere, have Iron & Wine come play. OK...I'll admit I've listened to a little Sam Beam and Iron & Wine, usually during more somber moods. At this point in the day...it just wasn't doing it for me. Then came Mastadon. Wow. Talk about a punch in the face.

Somehow we made it back to the "B" Stage for Professor Murder. It was even more crowded. But good times for what it was worth. Make sure to check out the tune "Free Stress Test" (see July 6th post for sampling) It's a hit, I think...

Then I dragged a couple of friends back for the Oxford Collapse. "These guys are good...come with me!! You don't wanna miss this!!" Two songs in...they left. The sound system BLEW!! After a bunch of others left, we were able to move closer, and it got better. Trust me!! It got better, I'm telling you!!!

At one point...I'm not sure of the song, but they broke into "Tusk" from Fleetwood Mac. That was fun. Here's some video we took:


What else was there...oh...Cat Power. Eh. Enjoy some of the tunes, but again, not the greatest "festival act," let alone a headliner. Jess was able to snap some off of Chan, but she got booted from the front for using the flash. Hehe :)

And then came Yoko Ono. Only 3 people stayed to see Yoko. I was not one of them. And that's all I've got to say about that.

Overall, with some of the sound problems and limited size of the Balance Stage, probably not the greatest of days musically. Some would say it sucked, and I wouldn't argue that. Still a gorgeous summer day, not too hot, some drinks were consumed, friendly chat was chattered. I'd do it again.

Oh...and Dads who bring their kids to the rock show...rock.

For the rest of the pics from the fest: GO HERE!!!!!