Winners & losers at a sweltering Pitchfork
How do you fry 18,000 hipsters per day over an entire weekend? Last week's seventh annual Pitchfork Music Festival at Chicago's Union Park had the answer, as capacity crowds endured punishing heat while enjoying more than 40 acts. Chicago-based DJ Chrissy Murderbot echoed the sentiment of his peers on being pegged to perform the taste-making webzine's popular three-day fest. "I'm excited as hell about this shit!" he beamed on Saturday. Here's a rundown of the winners and losers of Pitchfork 2011.
WINNERS
- OFF!: "We're kind of an odd flavor at the Pitchfork party," former Black Flag/Circle Jerks frontman Keith Morris, 55, quipped during his new hardcore band's ferocious show. He's right: Too-cool youngsters could learn from OFF!'s fervor.
- Fleet Foxes: As dusk fell Saturday, a sprawling audience grew intimately silent as the Seattle-based folk rockers wowed with gorgeous harmonies and moving crescendos.
- Also: Neko Case, No Age, TV on the Radio.
LOSERS
- Animal Collective: Critics have always dogged them as a glorified jam band, a charge AC's aimless headlining set on Friday did nothing to disprove.
- Ariel Pink: Fresh off an onstage tantrum at Coachella, junkyard popper Pink stormed off 15 minutes early on Sunday following a gargled, stumbling set.
- Also: Woods, Cut Copy.
OBLIGATORY ODD FUTURE RECAP
With multiple groups on hand to protest the L.A.-based rap collective's glamorization of rape and gay slurs, the buildup to Odd Future's show was marked by controversy and anticipation. The crew took the stage to an ironic spin of Bob Marley's "One Love" and proved merely above-average in spite of the hype. Their punk rock energy and potential was evident, but a mantra of "kill people/burn shit/fuck school" (from their song "Pigeons") will only carry you so far.
- Jay Boller
New changes on Eat Street
Matthew Bickford and Mike Ryan, co-owners of Be'wiched Deli, have been on the hunt for a second location. But instead of a Be'wiched 2.0, they're launching Icebox, which Bickford describes as a 200-seat "listening room with food and drink." A tentative November opening is planned at the storefront that was most memorably home to Sindbad's Cafe and Market (2528 Nicollet Av. S.).
Music lover and techie Brian Liebek will handle the booking, while Bickford and Ryan will manage the food. "We don't anticipate any exact crossovers from Be'wiched, although we're not going to stray too far from the core, either," said Bickford. "But we like to procure and smoke meats, so sandwiches will have a good representation on the menu. We'll flush out salads a bit more, and try and do handmade pastas and seafood, some of the things we can't do at Be'wiched."
Meanwhile, Northeast Social co-owners Joe Wagner and Sam Bonin are taking their act to the former home of Taco Morelos and the Caterpillar Lounge, and launching what they're currently calling the Eat Street Social Club. "But we've tossed around Whittier Social Club, too," said Wagner. "We want to embrace the neighborhood."
Northeast Social chef Geoff Little will develop the American bistro-style menu, and French Meadow vet Fernando Silva will run the kitchen. The bar's classic-cocktails-with-a-twist will be created by mixmaster Nicholas Kosevich of the former Town Talk Diner. The plan is to serve weekday lunch, daily dinner and weekend brunch when the restaurant opens in mid-September.
- Rick Nelson
Kieran Folliard: End of an era
Kieran Folliard has left the building. One of the most famous faces in the Twin Cities bar scene says he has sold his stake in the four pubs he co-founded: Kieran's Irish Pub, the Local, Cooper and the Liffey.