Both the temperature and anticipation were probably the highest for Pitchfork’s third and final day in Union Park. Partner an ungodly heat index with Sunday as the first festival day to sell out, and you have the setting for OFWGKTA’s first official Chicago show. We arrived in time for their set, opened by Hodgy Beats and Left Brain, who form the grop MellowHype. After some general raucousness, Tyler, The Creator hobbled onto stage with a broken right leg and was confined to a metal stool for a majority of the show. Regardless, the roar of “Golf Wang” chants from the massive crowd gathered at the Red Stage kept the vibe intense, sticky, and heated. As more OF members poured out for various tracks from the crew’s discography, Hodgy and Tyler were eventually turnt up enough to crowd surf, broken limb and all. Some smart-talk to antiviolence protesters and comic banter to the crowd kept a lot of people laughing and entertained, possibly just enough to take the edge off of the more graphic topics being rapped about (smacking, killing, and/or raping bitches).
A different mood was in store from Seattle duo Shabazz Palaces, the other Hip Hop act booked for Sunday. Fronted by former Digable Planet member Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler, the group definitely had heads nodding back and forth at Pitchfork’s coolest (trees = shade) stage. With the sun’s rays beating things down, it was difficult to find an excuse to leave the Blue stage for anything other than a new Heineken. LA electronic artist Baths spazzed out on his instrument and vocals, and Toro Y Moi followed up. Chaz Bundick keyboarded Toro Y Moi through a lively version of “New Beat” to open their set, while both acts kept the energy levels high for the entire affair.
The Red Stage then began to fill with fans from various walks of life, all looking to dance to Australian psych-rock band Cut Copy. One of the highlights of the weekend, Cut Copy’s mastery of party-starting was clear within a few beginning chords. Leftover OF fans around me started cooking and shouting “Swag”, while others jumped around or waved their arms, dancing frantically. It was beyond awesome. Anthems like “Lights and Music”, “Take Me Over”, and “Hearts on Fire” truly feel alive in uninhibited environments like this.
Cut Copy played before the day’s headliners TV on the Radio, who had an equally as engaging set as Fleet Foxes from the night prior. TVOTR blistered the Green stage with Dear Science build up “Halfway Home” and wound their way through songs from each of their albums. To be honest TVOTR has so many killer tracks that it all melded together into a brilliantly orchestrated greatest hits session. It was a performance that punctuated a strong close to Pitchfork Music Fest 2011.
