- Lucy Hewett
- Tune-Yards
Philip Montoro: In Saturday morning’s recap, I declared that “The festival’s first day belongs to the women,” based on the Reader team’s enthusiasm for Neneh Cherry and Sharon Van Etten. For me the second day was about women too: Tune-Yards and St. Vincent.
Mindful of my role as Beer and Metal columnist, I made sure to try both of Goose Island’s Pitchfork collaborations—a Kölsch called SVE brewed with input from Sharon Van Etten and a pilsner called Recommended brewed with Pitchfork staff. Both are fine warm-weather session beers, but not terribly distinctive. If you’ve got a hankering for something odd and memorable, try the Devon Ave. Pale Ale, made with cardamom, chai tea, ajwain seeds, and amchur (dried, powdered green mango). It’ll be tapped at 4 PM tomorrow.
- Alison Green
- Cloud Nothings
Gwynedd Stuart: St. Vincent’s set was like a fireworks show: the whole thing is great, but the grand finale is the best part. And she did fireworks one better by playing one more song. I didn’t realize I was a fan until I saw her live. Made me long for Kate Bush in the best possible way.
After those two insane hip-hop acts, I was kind of like, “Rock music, psshh.” But then I saw St. Vincent and had my mind completely blown. Robotic, alien, and magical, she gave me goose bumps for her entire set. She kind of reminds me of a female version of Prince: weirdo pop genius and unreal guitar shredder wrapped up in one beautiful package.
- Tomfoolery in the Pitchfork fest crowd
Leor Galil: The biggest surprise of the day is that I stuck around during Neutral Milk Hotel for more than a few songs—they sounded like hot garbage for a few minutes there, but they soldiered through it and my nostalgia got the best of me for about ten minutes. (True story: NMH could light up parties during my college days.) The highlight of my day came more than six hours earlier: the back-to-back performances by Twin Peaks and Ka.
