Pitchfork 2022

First Pitchfork = Great Success despite the shit weather. I would take hot and sunny over rainy and gloomy, but I am glad I was prepared with my rubber boots and umbrella. And at least the weather didn't cancel any acts.

Pros of the fest: Easy to get to via public transportation, cheap drinks, really awesome local craft vendor and print vendor fair, small enough to be able to get to the blue stage back to the red/green stages really quickly.

Cons: Not many food options, which caused the lines to be really long at all the food vendors past like 3PM, would have preferred more local food/drink vendors, no caffeine anywhere except soda, which was hard to come by.

Top 5 of the Weekend:

1. Japanese Breakfast - I want to be Michelle Zauner when I grow up. Jeff Tweedy coming out to do Jesus Etc. was epic.
2. The National - My first time ever seeing The National so I'm really glad they played a greatest hits set. Definitely the most emotional I got this weekend.
3. Toro Y Moi - Thank you to the lovely man who started the follow-along dance party to the back left corner of the sound booth. Like 50 people joined along and mimicked whatever moves he was doing for like the last 3-4 songs. It was probably the most fun I've had dancing with a group of strangers in years.
4. Magdalena Bay - I would listen to Mica read the owner's manual of a lawn mower.
5. The Roots - The most perfect way to close out the fest with just a solid jammy set that got everyone dancing.

HM: The Armed ("Is it a requirement to be buff as hell to be in this band?"), SPELLLING ("Music for epic fantasy video gaming"), Parquet Courts ("Is Parquet Courts a punk jam band?")

Also great to meet you Nathan Fieldcяab, good to see you again pmo and fuck you shuck.

I’m a huge fan of this fest. I’ll probably attend in some capacity every year. It’s easy to get to no matter which way you take to get there. I usually drive in from the burbs because finding parking beats taking the L back to Rosemont, and I always find reasonably-close, free parking. It’s a chill, easy layout. Takes a minute to walk from one end to the other and despite that, sound bleed isn’t really an issue when scheduling is done right. I usually enjoy the sets I see here and every year there is some one I see who I never heard of that stuns me. This year it was Xenia Rubinos. The Blue Stage is one of my favorite festival stages. I’m definitely on board for more food vendors. Do they really need so many poster tents? My take aways:

SOTBH rocked harder than I expected.

Loved the vibe the rain created.

Indigo de Souza seems like a genuinely good person.

I didn’t know anything about Camp Cope coming in, but I thought they sounded really good and their lead singer was very charismatic and had a great voice.

I was expecting more from Parquet Courts. They were solid, but I was hoping for them to go a little harder, I guess. Black and White was fun.

Wandering around the grounds and listening to Spiritualized was a trip.

The National were really good. This was my first time seeing them (I think). When Matt walked through the crowd, he walked right by me twice.

I was impressed with Jeff Parker’s group. His daughter, Ruby, was highlighted as a vocalist and the entire group was clearly proud of her. That was cool. I wonder if it was one of her first or biggest performances to date?

CupcakKe has more talent than she let off. She stuck really hard to the hyper-sexualized gimmick, which is fine, but her songs have a lot of range too, and I wished she showcased that more.

The Armed were amazing. Best show of the weekend, and probably the best I’ll see this year. When that jacked, long-haired bohemoth first jumped into the crowd using the full-on belly flop technique, I just about lost it. Then he got up and body checked me and then made a loop through the crowd. It doesn’t get any better than that. supЯefan, I must’ve been pretty close to you.

Dry Cleaning was the best follow-up to The Armed. Super calm, but flawless execution.

Magdalena Bay is a super-fun band, that makes super-fun music, and put on a super-fun show. I left after them because I am traveling this entire week for work, and needed to put in QT time with the family.

Sofia Kourtesis was a lot of fun. She let her frustrations from the issues she had getting into the country out on stage.

Injury Reserve were as good as you’d expect them to be.

So glad shuck hit me up while I was killing time waiting for Earl and we caught Xenia. One of my favorites from the weekend.

It started to rain moderately hard while we were heading over to Earl. I fumbled around with a pancho that shuck had to help me put on while he was getting soaked.

We met up with stlallison and caught Earl. Earl was fine but the company was better.

10/10 would do again.

The FOMO was real. This really was the year I should have made it back to this fest. My fiance's bridesmaids settled on that weekend for her shower, and she wanted me there to bring flowers and load the car.

Maybe next year... It's been since 2015, and I'm itching to get back. It sounds like it was really great, even with the rain.

I should say the bands I liked were really good but for whatever reason I felt like there were longer periods I was bored during compared to last year. I think a lot of that has to do with 2021 immediate post-shows coming back novelty but also I think this festival really benefits when it has a lot of electronic music on the lineup??

Edit: though the 2021 show rush really affected this year’s lineup too. Lucy Dacus has done 2 big shows in Chicago in the past 12 months, Japanese Breakfast did 4

I think a footwork inclusion would be a nice addition to the lineup every year. RP Boo for Jay Electronica was fun as hell in '21.

She was fun and just glad to have made it. As mentioned they had visa issues and at least it was resolved. Still under attended per say.




They had a couple years when they booked a footwork dj early at blue. It was packed.