Pitchfork Festival Day 2: On The Lawn

Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett (photo by Rachel Goldbrenner)

Yesterday's shows started at 5 p.m., and the bands were all bigger names, so by the time people got here, they were ready to pay attention to the music. The bands on stage in the earlier part of the day might be lovely groups, like Cymbals Eat Guitars and Disappears, but they're not acts that are going to draw huge crowds into the pit.

Which means a large portion of the audience spent this afternoon camped out on the lawn, drinking beer, sampling the vendors' food and turning their heads from one stage toward the other as the bands switched off.

For your blogger, this means that there are plenty of opportunities to talk to people who won't be mad that you're distracting them or blocking their view with your microphone. I wandered around the lawn while Plants and Animals, ****** ** (French Dip? Fudge Cup?), The Antlers, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Bowerbirds and Final Fantasy played short, mostly sunny sets out over crowds that were, for stretches of the afternoon, bolting toward the trees to get out of the rain.

 

"I'm a little nervous. I don't play these sorts of shows for Americans, or anyone else. So it's kind of nice to have the chance to do this."
Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, after his first song

"We came here to find out about the indie-rock scene, because we don't follow it at all, and music festivals are the best place to find music that you're not used to. We like a lot of jam bands. Umphrey's McGee, String Cheese [Incident], The Dead."
"Plants and Animals are pretty good right now."
Amy Cryer and Jeremy Fraser, Chicago

"The Antlers were pretty poor. We're waiting to see Pains of Being Pure at Heart. We're really looking forward to The National tonight. That's the big draw for us."
Abigail Mitchell, Chicago

****** ** lead singer Pink Eyes (photo by Rachel Goldbrenner)

"We're better than that Animal Collective. Am I right? They just sound like Phish."
****** **'s lead singer Pink Eyes, from within the crowd

"He's a pretty sexy man."
Chris Marquard (from Emmie Magazine, a student paper in Madison, Wisc.), on Pink Eyes, after emerging from the pit drenched in sweat following ****** **'s set.