• the217
• Music
• Three days of music come and go at Union Park

Related Media

Yeasayer performs Saturday at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Photo by Sean Softcheck. (Sean Softcheck)

• See Slideshow (4 images)

Related Articles

• Pitchfork Music Festival 2009: Day one
• Pitchfork Music Festival 2009: Day two
• Pitchfork Music Festival: Day three

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it’s hard to deny the presence of Pitchfork as the Internet’s leading musical hype machine. Best known for its tough-to-top album rating system, the Chicago media outlet has played host to an annual outdoor music festival each summer since 2006. Over the course of three days at Union Park in Chicago, the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival brought an eclectic bevy of artists to thousands of fans in the Windy City.

Friday: While the past two years have found Friday devoted to the “Don’t Look Back” series, in which artists are chosen to play a seminal release from their collection in its entirety, this year, Friday was directed toward the “Write the Night” concept. With “Write the Night,” paying fans were asked to create set lists for the likes of Chicago-based instrumental post-rockers Tortoise, longstanding indie rockers Yo La Tengo, the newly reunited The Jesus Lizard and guitar-fueled Built to Spill. While the artists had little say in the formation of the list, the execution of such sets was the key to Friday’s success. The standouts of the evening were the recently resurrected Chicago hardcore noise rockers The Jesus Lizard. Led by the abrasive vocals of frontman David Yow, the group showed little sign of age as they barreled through crowd favorites like “Boilermaker” and “Mouth Breather.” Despite stage diving and stopping mid-set for a set of push-ups, Yow thankfully left his notorious “Tight and Shiny” routine a notion of the past.

Saturday: The first of two full-day outings at Union Park, Saturday’s list of artists ranged from the multi-instrumental, Eastern-tinged music of Beirut and Cincinnati five-piece The National to noted DJ/remix artist Lindstrom and synth-and-drum duo Matt & Kim. The power of the all-day performance is fueled (and sometimes hindered) by the park‘s setting: cozy grounds with three stages, multiple food and merchandise vendor booths, poster and vinyl fare and not enough portable toilets. Personal favorites of the day were hardcore punkers Fucked Up, an abrasive, yet approachable group led by powerful vocalist Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham. Abraham was a crowd pleaser, ripping plastic beach balls with his teeth and proclaiming that Pitchfork favorites Animal Collective sounded just like Phish. “I hate Animal Collective,” he explained to laughs and cheers from the mostly receptive audience.

Sunday: Bringing the three-day event to a fitting close, it seemed that much of Sunday was spent in anticipation of a pending performance from the always-theatrical The Flaming Lips. With a partial setup on stage all day and fans lining the front railings from the moment the proverbial gates opened, there was a definite buzz in the air for a finale of lights and sound, balloons and dancing frogs. Though a personal favorite of the day was found in recent Polyvinyl Records signees Japandroids, the Lips were the name on everyone’s tongue from start to finish in showers of orange and yellow confetti. Though the set had its pratfalls due to these same theatrics with fewer than a dozen songs being played over nearly an hour and a half, there was a definite unifying momentum behind closer “Do You Realize?” with fans walking out arm-in-arm toward various locations.