The Best moments of Pitchfork Music Festival 2023. From Thom Yorke’s crowd mastery to Bon Iver and Big Thief’s serene finale, here are the highlights of this year’s Chicago festival.
Departure from Bon Iver’s Serene Festival
“I know you’re tired,” Justin Vernon said from the stage with the remaining two songs from Bon Iver’s collection to close out this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival. From another performer, on a different stage, those might not be the most promising words, but Vernon’s band – consisting of Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner on keyboards and some drummers – turned the band on Their rock combines ’80s theater and the concept of Auto-Tune into one science. Alumni’s tender performances of “Blood Bank” and “Skinny Love” shared space with the single “PDLIF” at the start of the pandemic, which means please don’t live in fear. “I hope that’s still true,” Vernon declared. It was a warm welcome, decorated with lighting close to another vibrant weekend of live music in Union Park. “You look beautiful,” Vernon said another time. Beautiful, tired, and happy.
Mdou Moctar shreds through space and time
Mdou Moctar achieves a sense of repulsion in his live orchestras – the drum beats seem to sneak up on the tempo, and the bubbly guitar melodies make the sizzling guitar melodies relevant. back – easily overcome language and language barriers. The Nigerian guitarist, songwriter, and bandleader behind Afrique Victime de 2021 and his three-piece band – Mikey Coltun, Souleymane Ibrahim, and Ahmoudou Madassane – resplendent in a brightly colored gown and Tuareg veil white, join the energetic crowd. Moctar has spectators cheering and glow sticks flying as the tempo seems to get faster and faster. For a moment, you could swear everyone was levitating.
Koffee introduced “West Indies” to the West Loop
Despite all of Jamaica’s rich and influential musical traditions, it doesn’t always stand out in the lineup of the Pitchfork Music Festival. It feels like a coup to bask in an early night set up by reggae singer Koffee, whose 2022 album Gifted is worthy of its title. In goggles and an off-season North Face beanie, backed by a full band and bubbly backup dancers, she performed what she considers to be some sort of love song (“” Are you dating? Do you have a festival?”) And undeniable hits like “West Indies” and the pandemic single “Lockdown”. The arms went up and the body trembled so much that a writer holding a notebook had to take a step back.
Jockstrap takes Pop to the mad scientist’s lab
With an 18-member orchestra and a brilliant electronic ensemble, Jockstrap’s debut album I Love You Jennifer B doesn’t necessarily scream “It’s going to be a great live performance.” However, British singer duo Georgia Ellery and fellow producer Taylor Skye have a keen performer behind their quirky pop lights. Not every performer can perform Lizzo with her popular flute, but when Ellery (in sporty yellow lamé) trades her guitar for a learned violin, the crowd on The main stage comes to life. When she starts singing in unfamiliar, out-of-sync languages, it gets crazy.
Lucrecia Dalt’s Bizarre Experience
The 2022 album by Colombian experimental electronic musician Lucrecia Dalt ¡Ay! offers a sci-fi, musical distortion experience she grew up with as a child, but for me, it has a different worldly quality that evokes fall and Halloween. By mid-afternoon, the hottest day of the festival, however, that sunset remained. “Thanks for standing in the sun,” Dalt said, but listening felt like being transported to another solar system.
Radhika Nayar’s Faint Environmental Epic
At the end of an engaging early afternoon performance by Brooklyn musician Rachika Nayar, she introduced herself and her bandmates – singer Maria BC and cellist Issei Herr – using Use colorful slang terms. The moment stands out ironically and is in direct contrast to the icy drones and soaring climax of the film, leaving fans raising their hands to the sky as if it were a revival. Religion in Antiquity. Traces of dreamy IDM have spread.
Big Thief’s calm and beautiful final set
After lightning sent festival-goers temporarily out of Union Park, abandoning sets including those at Snail Mail, Big Thieves leads brought everything home with a laid-back performance, mannerless. (Well, no frills except bassist Max Oleartchik’s outfit looks like a pink mermaid tail.) The band stood in a line, silent, as Adrianne Lenker sang with uneven tenderness. Though the atmosphere was subdued, the crowd perked up as the band played their newly released single “Vampire Empire” and ran through some familiar classics, culminating in Adrianne Lenker’s brother Noah joining her onstage to play the jaw harp for the final song “Spud Infinity.” Peaceful and nourishing, the set was like a candle-lit bubble bath after a stressful day.
Yaya Bey Didn’t Have to Look This Good
Damn! is probably what most of the crowd was thinking as Yaya Bey appeared onstage in an iridescent pink evening gown and electric blue boots, positively beaming with light. Performing joyous R&B, reggae, and soul songs from Remember Your North Star with a band including a keyboard player who absolutely freaked it, the Brooklyn singer-songwriter grooved so hard she had a wardrobe malfunction:
“Now all of Chicago knows I have pretty titties,” she joked. Though Bey delighted in the idea of getting paid amid rain cancelation and called for a general strike—“let me know when the revolution is, sign me up”—she put in the work during this dazzling performance, shaking her ass, leading call-and-response singalongs, and wowing the crowd with her overwhelming radiance.
Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul Brought the Party
Forget the evening trek to Smart Bar; the club was in full force yesterday at Union Park, led by the always witty and electrifying Belgian duo Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul. The lights flicker like a paparazzi camera non-stop; bass vibrates throughout the body; the crowd is turning around and leaving all previous fatigue at the door. If you’re wondering if the hearty laugh at the heart of the duo’s emotional “HAHA” bang will be streamed live or as recorded, it is. And that’s just one of the highlights of a great livewire night where everyone danced cleanly.
Poems of the head of the Black Belt Eagle Scout
At first, Katherine Paul kept things relatively simple for her first Pitchfork gig; she sings indie rock songs swirling about pain, marginalization, and strange longing with a knowing look and a smirk, a few green lights wandering in the background. But as the movie progresses, the guitar sounds seem to become more and more frenetic; Her black hair completely obscured her face as she began to bang her head. It invigorates and purifies, and in a perfect moment, small raindrops fall as she repeats the “earth, water, sky” in the song “Don’t Give Up” as if she wanted so.
Hanging out with MJ Lenderman
The guys rule, and so does MJ Lenderman, who wears a uniform with sunglasses and a t-shirt with a bunch of guys who look like they’re just hanging out in the basement. (One of these people:
Spencer, the drummer son of Jeff Tweedy.) Together they delivered a vibrant, local Southern love song, playing tunes from Boat Songs as well as Lenderman’s new single “Rudolph 슬롯게임 사이트.”