Concert Review: Pitchfork Music Festival, Wrap Up

Spoon's misgivings aside, the P4k Festival 2008 was a rousing success. Well booked, well organized and well run, Pitchfork is an anomaly during the summer festival season. It is the festival for people who go to concerts all year round. In my experience, attendees of Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella, and to a lesser extent, Austin City Limits are not hardcore music fans. No judgments: not everyone needs to be scouring around the internet searching blogs for new music. But the way people approach music affects how they behave and what to expect during their festival experience. Perhaps influenced by the high ticket price or camping atmosphere, Bonnapalooza attendees seem more interested in the activities that fall on the penumbra of music listening, e.g., the drugs, the drinking, the general debauchery that accompanies camping with tens of thousands of people enjoying the aforementioned activities. Which is almost understandable: those are massive concerts where unless you wait for hours there is not much to do but listen to music played by people you are watching solely on a television screen. It's not to say that the Pitchfork Festival is a MENSA meeting with live music but the amount of intoxicated revellers are less than you'd see at Studio B on a Saturday night with about eight times the amount of people. The Pitchfork Festival has earned it's reputation as a festival where people can have a beer, be comfortable and check out an assortment of quality bands. The bands play nice long sets (45-55 minutes on the mainstages) and there is never a moment where you can't watch the bands comfortably. Additionally, the three stage set up minimizes set conflicts to a frightening extent.

With that said, some suggestions for next year:

• Go global-er: Considering the overwhelming amount of music that Pitchfork supports of an international ilk, over 90% of the artists performing were from the US or the UK. While it is true (and unfortunate) that El Guincho cancelled, there have been at least three or so break out bands from Sweden (Studio, Tough Alliance, Air France) and countless Norwegian metal, French/German DJs that could have spiced up the affair a little.
• Diversity: More girls/hip hop/pop please!
• Take a few more risks: The Elephant Six old guard might turn on a few old school midwesterner scenesters, but Apples in Stereo and Elf Power are positively finished creatively, and it seems silly to continue to use them as slot fillers.
• Less sensitive boys with guitars/frog vocals: While Bon Iver is an acoustic act that had a certain buzz around him that warranted a second stage performance, bands like the Dodos and M. Ward seemed to go ignored altogether or get dismissed with "good but ya know, not the right setting." Why bother then?
• Lose Don't Look Back or seriously reconsider the bands/artists that are booked. From what I heard, Sebadoh seemed barely stoked to be playing some of those songs (for the first time!) and the audience was just about as nonplussed.
• Get more dance bands and put them on later. It was evident that people wanted to dance this year, a sign of a great concert vibe. But unfortunately only Cut Copy played music with a beat during the twilight hours. In a testament to both how awful Spoon were and how bad people wanted to dance, it was inspiring to watch people literally run to the second stage to get down, especially after 10 hours of music and sun. I would even suggest doing away with Don't Look Back and having a dance night either in the park or at a nearby warehouse.