Pitchfork Music Festibal - Day Two - Stage B

Note: Lightning's Girl is on vacation so until she can come back and tell you about her trip, I'm filling in with my visit to the Pitchfork Music Festival - Derek Sunshine

Its all about Stage B.

Union Park is split by a city street with the large stages (A & C) standing amidst 4 softball fields. Across the "street" (where the food vendors are set up) is Stage B. Stage B gets the lesser known acts, but it's also a nice relaxed place to listen to music. That side of the park is largely tree covered and has its own beverage stands. So for a good portion of the day, Stage B was the place.

I got there early, but didn't really catch anything good until Jay Reatard short but explosive set. Caribou put in a good set. The Fleet Foxes didn't sound so compelling for a live set, so we went to Stage B.

On B, the Icy Demons were wrapping up a very good dance oriented set. After them came the Fuck Buttons. They put on a solid set of groove-oriented noise (or noise-oriented groove?) that became perfect for drinking beer amidst the trees in a park. We hung out for the Ruby Suns and a good portion for Elf Power's set. I was tempted to stay for the rest of their set, but we went to see !!! instead. We were rewarded for our journey - they put on a great dance-oriented set.

We then returned to B for Extra Golden who were grooving solidly. Atlas Sound put on a great set as well. It was just Cox (no backing band), but he sounded great. Again, it was more drifting, floating music - good for drinking beer in a park. We stayed around Stage B for most of No Age's set then caught the last half hour of Animal Collective. AC was good (they had a great light show), but I heard from folks who stayed that No Age was pretty amazing.

So, while I've enjoyed the big sets that I've caught on the main stages, I've made more discoveries at Stage B.

Weather Report

It rained a lot yesterday morning, so there are some areas of the field that are mud. A small band of concertgoers who mistakenly thought they were at Bonnaroo decided to cover themselves in the mud. However, urban mud is a whole different deal from country mud. It's a dull grey color and I'm sure it has its share of nastiness. The sun did come out later in the afternoon, so the day overall has been really nice.