Pitchfork Day 2: Two Kinds Of Charisma

DOOM at the Pitchfork Music Festival (photo by Rachel Goldbrenner)

Day two in Union Park may have started off a little slow, but by the end of the night, it had started to feel like a real event, with a few bands that seemed at home playing to large crowds. I learned a couple of things: Wavves' Nathan Williams can play his guitar even with a cast on his left arm, and Doom can somehow drink water without taking that mask off.

Two sets will stick in my memory. And they came from two bands with very different styles.

 

Pink Eyes, with accessories (photo by Rachel Goldbrenner)

I've already written a little about ****** ** and lead singer Damian Abraham, known to fans of the band as Pink Eyes, but he provided one little bit of stagecraft that goes a long way toward explaining his appeal as a frontman. After watching promotional beach balls dance lazily through the crowd during his band's first song, Pink Eyes stood at the corner of the stage and waited for one to get close enough for him to snatch, at which point he tore a hole in it with his teeth and spit its deflated carcass back into the audience.

That was enough to get the crowd behind him for the rest of the set, and he was happy to step up the antics. He took his shirt off, tore one ball in half and draped it over his head like a plastic beret, and dove into the crowd to berate the audience from close range. The band's three guitarists play densely layered punk rhythms while Pink Eyes roars over the fray, and his performance seems to be about pairing heartfelt lyrics with a sort of rabid vocal antagonism. ****** **'s whole set is a tightrope act of pushing the crowd away to see how hard it'll push back, and for the most part (a few people in the outfield looked like they were praying for the set to end), the band got a sweaty, intense response.

Matt and Kim and smiles and love (photo by Rachel Goldbrenner)

Matt and Kim played later in the afternoon on the festival's rear stage, and incited enthusiasm from the crowd by smiling so widely while they bashed through their keyboard-and-drum anthems that their faces looked like they might break. You walk away from their set with a contact high.

They clearly love making each other happy. When Kim talked about how much she enjoyed seeing Beyonce dance recently, Matt stopped the set and played beats on his keyboard long enough to give Kim a chance to get down before they launched into their next song. I don't know if it's an act, or if they're really so blissful to be performing, but while they're on stage, it doesn't matter.