At Pitchfork, Sunday

Sunday there was no rain really at all. The sun was out for most of the day, hot but not unbearable, no complaints at all. Started with Boris, a japanese Hard Rock band. They were awesome. The lady on guitar was really good and it was an updated, cooler version of 80's hair metal. Then they finished a song, stopped and said something pretty indecipherable about the power I think. Pitchfork this year seemed to be plagued by minor sound issues. I think that the small stage started up late and threw some of that timing off, but not sure. Saw Health and they were pretty cool. But the show that may have stole the show for me was Les Savy Fav's set. Right when we got into the concert area, we saw a massage table set up. Some kid laying down with nothing but his Richard Simmons shorts on and this middle aged looking, balding and beer-bellied dude was lubing up the kid with some kind of lotion. He worked him over pretty vigorously. While he was going we realized that it was Tim Harrington, the lead singer of Les Savy Fav. Then onto getting good spots for the show. One of the many things that were great about the concert was the fact that you could pretty much get as close as you wanted if you really wanted to with no real agression or animosity directed at you, or you could stay back and be not as packed in but still have a great view and be relatively close. It definitely seemed like more people this year than last but can't really be sure. Anyway, back to the LSF show. It kicked ASS, simply put. The band was great and Tim Harrington was a really entertaining lead singer. He did all sorts of crazy things that I am sure will show up online all over. I was forced to choose between Ghostface/Raekwon and M. Ward and watched a bit of Ghostface and then watched the M. Ward set. I have really been listening to him a lot and was excited to see him. That crowd was pretty subdued but large and M. Ward sounded great. They have a woman on drums and the other guitar player is a Willie Nelson looking guy who was great on stage. I felt like this show was much too short. Perhaps 6 or 7 songs? I was bummed when they were done. Watched Spiritualized, who sounded great. They had 2 ladies on stage doing sort of soul, gospel backing vocals which really added a cool element to the loud, feedback filled guitar. Oh it was loud too, really LOUD. Sat through A bunch of Bon Iver's set but wasn't too worried about checking him out since I will be seeing him next week at Space Gallery headlining a show. Then was again forced to make a choice between getting good seats for Cut Copy on the smaller stage area or checking out Dinosaur Jr. and after waffling a bit went off to see Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur Jr. was very cool, kind of just tearing through great versions of the songs. Had to choose between going to try to reunite with buddies over at Cut Copy or staying for Spoon and had to check out Spoon, I am a big fan and couldn't pass it up. Spoon was really good and professional, tight, loud but perfectly loud. They played a bunch of songs from the recent album and from a few others. But they seemed to me to just sort of simmer, and then it was over. I bet a show with more time would just be amazing. I was psyched to see what I did though. Spoon didn't disappoint. And that was that. I found out later that Cut Copy showed up really late and only played 4 songs. Supposedly the 4 songs were really good though. I have to give a shout out to my Live From Apt homie Shamala for hangin' and lookin' out for me in Chi-Town (oh to have more time in Dusty Grooves). And Mauricio and his crew in Wicker Park. They sure know how to take care of a fellow and show him a good time. Thanks guys!

I am going to update this with pictures when I get home but for now enjoy this, McCarren Park Pool show July 9th 2006. It doesn't do any sort of justice to how cool the show was, but it was all I could find quickly: