Pitchfork: Sunday, Part II

by dklein on July 24th, 2008

Finally, here is my last installment on the Pitchfork Festival. Although it got rather hot toward the late afternoon, the crowd was eager to see the last few bands, and the definitely did not disappoint.

M.Ward took a break from touring with Zooey Deschanel as She & Him to appear solo at the festival. Even though it was just him and his guitar, he still captivated the audience with his twangy rhythms, superb vocals, and beautiful lyrics. She & Him will be playing at Terminal 5 this Saturday, July 26.

Ghostface and Raekwon completely took over the small stage. Until this performance, I had been impressed with the improvements to this stage, but Ghostface and Raekwon made it clear that they were too much for this space. The sound was muddled and the area was so crowded I could barely breathe. From what I did hear though, they seemed to be in top form.

The next band I saw blew me away: Spiritualized. In my opinion, they gave the best performance of the entire festival. I hardly knew any of their music before the show; I had listened to a few songs off their new album Songs in A & E the week before the show. But after seeing them live, I’m definitely a fan and will immediately go out and buy all their albums.

Another highlight for me was Dinosaur Jr.’s blistering set. Man, those guys have still got it. Even though they reunited almost 3 years ago, I still had not managed to see them live and this was great. Seeing J. Mascis and Lou Barlow together again was perfection.

And last but not least, Spoon closed out the show. I wanted to check out Cut Copy at the small stage, but they were still at the airport when their set was supposed to start! Spoon were solid as usual, though and it was a nice ending to a great two days.