Pitchfork 2008 / All Hail the King of the William Randolphs

FRIDAY

Collected the girl and drove up various streets and expressways until we got to Union Park, slite bit west of the Loop, and found a nice space under the Lake Street El - two blocks from the park. Very afraid of all the storms and drang, we brought along our rain gear. However, except for -no, no excepts - there was no rain. So much worry that we'd be wet all wkd.

We got in during the beginning of Mission of Burma's act. Wasn't that interested, but politely listened. We got connected w/ the crew pretty soon - there was hero of the wkd William Randolph Heurst w/ his new female. There was Treats, Guitars, Gunnars, Jenke, Chartmen, and Dragon. There also was Chicken Balls, who was w/ us the wkd for maybe 10m during P.E. The 16th Couple. Finally,we also got Balz.

Watched Sebadoh. Again, good, but looking about, idle chatter w/ the boys and girls, watching, etc etc etc. more held my interest. The old Q joke that Lou Barlow looked like Blackie came up -as it did when Lou reappeared w/ Dinosaur on Sunday came up.

P.E. was great. Live rap is always a trick. Many terrible performances have I seen. But this was deeply enjoyable - some parts more than others. So, y may have read my plea to consider "Fear of a Black Planet" the better LP than "Nation of Millions" -they performed that LP and it only sometimes rocked. Good throughout, but not spectacular -except for my two faves on the LP : "Caught can I get a witness?" and "Night of the Living Baseheads". the latter was one of my most enjoyable moments of the show -and @ my age and cynism, all I expect from concerts these days is maybe a moment - 5-10 seconds please - but we got a whole song and more this nite.

After "Nation" was done, P.E. played a bunch of encores - and this was the best part of the show. Best moment -maybe of the whole wkd -was their first encore, "Welcome to the Terrodome". Wow what a great song - and they have kicked it especial other times I have seen them live - but what got me was this tiny little subtle almost hidden bass - three notes that kpt repeating, punching its way to the front of the mix to the beat - wondrous little bum -bUm-bum . Also, live drums and guitar really make the difference than rapping to a backing track. "Fight the Power", "Shut'm down", "911 is a joke" were all fantastic.

Great start. Like last year, it seems that Friday nite Pitchform is guys nite - @ least for my crew. As Dragon said, however, Pitchfork is very little about 'guys' - most concerts it's the proverbial(sic) 'Sausage PArty' - never so Pitchfork. I won't go on about it, but sheesh........ The crowd as a whole is always fantastic. There 's always a great vibe, friendly people, smiles and helping hands, etc... Surely when they talk of the festivals that Jesus went to in Jeresulam (esp in gospel of john- sorry-) back in the day they must have all been like this.

SATURDAY

No Gf for this day, instead it was Niece.1 to the fore. She'd wanted to see Spoon on the Sunday, but took the ticket for this day when it was available. She's pretty open minded and thought it was cool to go see such an event. And, yes, when I told her about Chuck D. and Flavour Flav the nite before, she exclaimed :

"Flavor Flav was in a rap band??"

So, we got there after we wanted -well, I wanted -and missed whatever band Big John told me I'd like (Titus Androticus). I have learned to listen to the SXSW crew on music because even though these guys are,well, not university punks anymore- they still have a real good grasp on the bands that were paying there. Treats, Gunnars, Chartman, Joker, Guitars - I bet they have actually seen 70% of the acts already live. Since I have not listen to most of the groups before, I lean on them a lot.

But there we did, and it was Caribou that was playing -and they were fucking great. GREAT!! For us all is that new excitement on finding something new that kicks, and it washed on me well standing there sweating off to the side. Didn't get to hear all of the set -we were late - but loved what i did. Need to hear these guys more.

Met up w/ the crew @ The Fall Back Position under the tree's. Since we know maybe 20 people going and many babies, the more responsible people in the crew showed up early and claimed the same spot - more or less - that we had last year. So nice - always frenz sitting, kids bopping about, dump yr gear and check out that band and then meet back here for whatever. So nice to have that shaded area under the tree's. I think it was Joker and Ocean that established the area this day.

Who went? Yesterdays crew (no running into Balz or Chicken Balls) were repped, w/ Neice.1 replacing Gf. More women - ladies Ocean and (shoot -what the hell is her nickname? Ms. Treats, fer now) Ms. Treats. still more to come later.

Watched a bit of lots of groups. Fleet Foxes, Fuck Buttons, Ruby Suns, Vampire Weekend, and the Elf Power. All were pretty good, but none super special. The band I wanted to see best - never before, I admit - were !!!. Again, pretty good. Nowhere near Caribou -new faves, and Big John can y cut me a disc?- but both they and the audience were loving it.

But the second act of the day was another rapper, Dizzie Rascal. Niece.1 had never seen a live rap act and wanted to experience it, so we walked over. Vey dansable beats, and the rapping was great, Like any good rap show, there were lots of call and responses or repeated chants. sound was good, and the audience loved it. Oi Oi Oi and lots of great stuff. And, no backing group - here was a case when the group could pull it off. Great audience.

Niece.1 and I had to leave early to catch the Fire home game. No Jarvis Cocker.

Sunday

This day was characterized for me w/ constipation. A tad dose, not the Aztec Sacrifce system when a priest reaches into my intestines and grips the fuck out of them evilly causeing me such pain - but it was a mild grip. I will tell you that my enjoyment for the day faltered @ this constant source of discomfort. If I may talk about defication for a bit (and all I'm writing inside these parantehesis is he he he he he....), all I needed was one grand ruch and push and the rest of the concert would have been mine. So, I kept going into the blue plastic porta shitters, spread paper on the seat, and trid my best to sweat it out. Horrible. Hours of trying, and finally a little relief. enough to keep me in the game. Wasn't settled until the next day. I blame it on the heat and Matt Jenke the day before.

Base camp immediaetly. Additions. Gf. Balz came back to us. And Vampire, Sunshine, and Vamp's siblings and their sig others showed up. No Ocean or Ms. Treats. finally the advent of Snowden and his new Sally. Not sure why they missed the first two days - maybe it's the (although they are not a new couple, I do not think they have spent that mush extended time to-gether) 'new couple deal' - for what, they had something better to do than this?? Just kiddin'. Dragon had spottd him, and later Lazers and outoftowner showed up. The crew the same otherwise.

I would spend most of my Sundayfork hanging in basecamp. Standing too long just made me sickish. Not too bad, but enough to wan to rest after a few minutes. Again, the glories that got to the park first and set up basecamp should again be glorified - camp was more or less equdistant from both main stages and were a great place to chill but still enjoy the show. I did.

But I did get up. Had to eat, and went to Robinsons to get more ribb sandwiche. It took forever tostand in line (10m), and then Gf's burger was not finished, so we had to stand near the hot grill - for TEN MINUTES - to await that.

Base Camp to eat half a what i got, drink water and coke, and try to shit it out. Only the lattter was I not able to accomplish.

Treats for the day. Wanted to see "Apples in Stereo", and they were good. Didn't get into Les Savy Fav that much, and missed Ghostface Killah and Raekwon except for wind blown bits that came over to us. I was saving myself.

Spiritualised, one of my toppermost favourite live acts ever, was a group I got up to see. I lasted the 15m and had to go back. Ive heard em better before - I have heard God speaking to me through them, live, before - but this was not one of those times. Sure, :Shine a Light" sounded great, but it's been better. Cometo-gether was a better fit for the fest. But Jason looked and sounde great.

And Dinosaur. Basically the last act for all of us. GThey palyed an hour, and I had the runniing joke inbetween each song "Ok, 'Freakscence' on three. Ready? ONE TWO THREE". I thought I was clever, as did vampire.

Did they play "freakscene"
Y.
Was it ther best song?
N.

That was the Green Mind Lp's track.... whats its name? When it came out way back when, I was going out w/ a pretty and we hadn't yet. I remember way back then that line - I call it "Baby why don't we?", or, rather, "Baybeee why-ount-weeeeeeeee? Baybeee why-ount-weeeeeeeeeeeeeee? why-ount-weeeeeeeeeeeeeee?" , although I fully realise that the lyric mite actually be "Baby wowee!". Nah -that would be criminal. That would be like calling for Barabas. But I danced along w/ that song, out in the open, shameless in my enjoyment, freed enough from the gastronomics...... and it was my favourite musical moment of the show. Beat PE's bass.

Just. Didn't. Want. It. To. End. Ring a doorbell in yr mind. Wowee!! You don't live there anyway. You won't see me...........................

Joker, eyes closed on the matt, enjoying. Dinosaur boys getting closer to the band for a better expericnce. Vampire and I jumping up, when, finally, they played "Freakscene".


And so, the wkd ended. Always sad when the little community comes to-gether, spends a wkd to-gether, and enjoys. We hung and talked after Dinosaur, but we started to clean up while half listened to Spoon

So, each day I got something musically I loved. PE Caribou and dizzie. And spiritualised and Dinosaur. each day great. Now, the wait for 2009. Bless you wiliam randolph.