Chicagoist: Final (sweartagod) Thoughts on Pitchfork

guest

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:28:02 -0600

At Pitchfork beer is $4, water is $1 & food is all in the $5-$8 range. All much more reasonable than the Metro or Abbey.

elr

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:08:42 -0600

I always thought that festivals like this were only meant for the very young and the very old and I don't get why so many twenty- and thirty-somethings have been excited about Pitchfork. I mean, if you're young, too young to go to Smartbar or the Empty Bottle to see Of Monteal or Girl Talk or Grizzly Bear or whomever, and not independent or tuned-in enough to make it to the party spaces that Dan Deacon or the Cool Kids play at, I can see you getting excited about Pitchfork (of course these crowds are the only reason package festivals like Warped Tour and Ozzfest can still continue these days). And if you're an older indie rocker, the type of guy/gal that used to be down but has a real job or a family now and can't make it out to shows so often, I can see this show as something really exciting. I just don't get its appeal with anyone inbetween. Am I the only one that thinks that outdoor festivals are terrible? You're out there all day in the sweltering heat with the sun in your eyes. The sound is usually terrible. Everything is overpriced in a way that make overpriced joints like The Abbey Pub and the Metro seem reasonable. The bands are all playing shorter sets, they're harder to see, and for most of the day everybody is too tired/hot/confused by the brightness of the sun to actually get into the music and dance.

Julene McCoy

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:59:07 -0600

Six Most Exciting Bands in America

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:40:04 -0600

that being said, I'm going to put this out there: hipsters=hippies with more trite irony

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:38:00 -0600

making fun of hipsters is like shooting fish in a barrel. However, that doesn't make them any less annoying or hypocritical. p.s. thanks to whomever posted the "that's pretty underground" video.

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:46:11 -0600

"5) re-entry. i don't want to get a bunch of stuff at flatstock and then be stuck holding it all day. even if they had, like, a "merch check" booth or something..." i thought the exact same thing, and thats why i didnt wind up buying something.

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:45:22 -0600

The complaint about the bathrooms seems legit, at least later in the day there were lines. However, they definitely need more ATMs. If you're going to make it a no-rentry fest with 12,000 people, you need more than 4 slow ass ATMs.

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:50:35 -0600

problems, to me: 1) ATM lines. seriously. get a few more in there. 2) side stage, and stupid ways you had to get in there, like that little door-width opening in the fence by the basketball court. 3) no blue line? seriously? and we walked from division w/o an ashland bus ever coming. sucked. out of their control, but.... yeah. 4) not enough garbage cans in well-trafficked areas 5) re-entry. i don't want to get a bunch of stuff at flatstock and then be stuck holding it all day. even if they had, like, a "merch check" booth or something...

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:23:28 -0600

i'm a local attorney who isn't big on the ironic t-shirts and girl pants thing; hardly a hipster by anyone's definition. i went to pitchfork like i have each of the previous years, and i felt they did a really remarkable job. the festival is still one of the best deals in the nation in terms of bang-for-your-buck. no matter what you were into (for the most part) there was something for your tastes. i ate food several times and drank more than my fair share of beer. i never waited in a line for more than 5 minutes. i went to the bathroom multiple times. i never waited in line for more than 5 minutes. most people who faced lines did so because they decided to go get food during peak hours. it's like the old rule of amusement parks; never eat lunch at lunch time, because that's when the lines for the roller coasters vanish. i for one congratulate pitchfork for a great festival. i brought my little brother up from tennessee to attend and we both had an incredible experience.

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:52:16 -0600

Not too mention all that beer you didnt have to wait in line for....

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:40:27 -0600

I agree with the posts concerning choosing the right line and right time for services. On Saturday, I walked up to a beer tent and saw a line of at least twenty people. I walked not more than 50' towards the center of the vendor row and another beer tent had around three people in line. Same for the food. Do you really need a shitty piece of pizza, or could you settle for something else that has a line 1/2 as long? People were acting like Robinson's and Connie's were their only opitons. Maybe they need volunters to usher people a little better, but still the lines were not as bad if you checked things out a bit. The only lines that were inescapabale were the lines for the ATM and toilets. If you needed to pee or get cash at Pitchfork, you were screwed.

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:52:08 -0600

"The sound, the space, everything was wrong." I saw the Field there and that space was perfect for him. But I agree that Girl Talk, Klaxons, etc had no place being crammed in there.

Jonny

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:47:43 -0600

Trolls posting rants against a certain group of people using straw man arguments is so over and done. Seriously, whether it's hipsters or surbanites, it's fucking boring. Get over yourself. As for Pitchfork, the side stage was completely blowing it. The sound, the space, everything was wrong. Girl Talk should have been the headliner Saturday night. Klaxons (and Fujiya and Miyagi) should have been on one of the main stages. I think the festival would be better served by a few less bands and a little more preparation on the sound system. For the third year, there shouldn't be these kind of newbie mistakes.

guest

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:21:50 -0600

Can't wait to see what everyone has to say about Lollapalooza!

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:35:22 -0600

hey, anyone ever run a festival before? i have and it's not easy. how many beer tents do you need? how many toilets? what's the weather going to be like? these are all questions that you start asking 6 months out. very tough to answer them. how do you do sound checks for that many bands? do you think all the bands want to show up before gates open at 1pm? i wish the sound was better, but overall it was a great festival, ridiculous value for the price. friday night alone was what, $15 more than waste of chicago?, which was a rip off even though it's free. i hope they do it again. i miss intonation, we were lucky to have both last year.

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:59:38 -0600

Clearly, the problem with the 'hipster' is that it hits too close to home. It belittles the their culture: "let's all drink crappy beer because, you know, its ironic and listen to awesomely original bands that sound just like music did in 1984." And I'm not old and threatened by your crappy music and literally threadbare fashions. The word you are looking for is "contemptuous" or perhaps just "bored."

Bill V

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:57:12 -0600

"Sweartagod", nice. Lots of good times at Pitchfork, also a lot of complaining. I understand issues with long lines for the bathroom and maybe water and beer at a festival (short lines are pretty much the key to a good festival), but people were waiting 30 minutes for a crappy piece of pizza when they very well could have had something else and got back to the music. Seems other comments focused on the people. How they dressed, acted, etc. There are lots of different types of people at festivals and most of them won't be acting or dressing like you and your friends. I think it's time to get over this whole Hipster thing. At some point you were one, are one, or will be one, and I'm not even sure I know what one is :)

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:17:10 -0600

Oh, and Guest more than willing to switch from hipster to Guest's previous suggestion of "douchebag".

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:16:12 -0600

At this point, people have no idea what a 'hipster' is. Hahaha, funny you come dangerously close to using the word "suburbanite" in a rant about labels.

JoeM500

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:49:07 -0600

Great coverage, Chicagoist! I thought the fest went pretty smoothly! I've been to many larger (and smaller) fests that were total nightmares. I never waited more than 5 minutes for the bathroom (you just have to time it right, going between bands on the big stages was your mistake), and the food/beer was much better than most fests in Chicago (goose IPA & cevopcici!). At this point, people have no idea what a 'hipster' is. I'm starting to see that it's the tag being used by anybody that feels old and threatened by things they have never heard of or clothes they haven't seen at their suburban shopping malls. Who cares what people wear or what music they like, you are starting to sound like your parents!

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:37:43 -0600

Person who posted the underground vid and the other "anti-hipster" posters: very funny video but the point of this (and any other live show) is to go see a bunch of good bands and have a good time. If you're so bothered by what someone else is wearing or their hairdo that you can't enjoy some live music and sunshine, perhaps sitting at home with a nice copy of Vogue or GQ or something is more your speed than a music festival.

Tankboy

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:20:46 -0600

As far as getting in, that second entry wasn't open Friday night, so folks can be forgiven for not being hip to that. And I was using those center bathroom lines on Saturday, because you're right that they were shorter, but I still never got in there in under 10-15 minutes.

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:01:38 -0600

FWIW I never waited more than 5 minutes for a bathroom this year. If you went to the middle of the lines they were always shorter and had access to as many as 5 port-a-potties per line. The bathroom was never an issue for me all 3 days at any time. It seems to me all weekend long people were waiting for services (beer, bathroom, food, water etc..) in long lines that if you stopped and looked you could see another drastically shorter line offering the same service not 50 feet away. The worst, and most amusing, example of this is when we showed up around 2:30 on Saturday there was a line to get into the festival grounds that stretched down Ashland and around the corner East onto Lake street. I walked by everyone telling them there was another entrance and no one followed us. And sure enough I walked right up to the entrance south of the Will Call which had not a soul in line. It seem to me like a lot of people were at their first music fest.

Spook

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:52:34 -0600

KRS-One's sister was there! I didn't even know he had a sister! I wish I'd known or I wouldn't have spent all my time at the left center stage listening to the Grape Yoop Yoop Trees. Great Band acoustics, big ups to the key grips! p.s if you see my on the train with my Grape Yoop Yoop T Shirt, say hello if you're like cute in a hipster sort of way, o.k? p.s as a hipster I don't really like Hip Hop, except to like separate myself from the rest of the hipsters, because I'm you know, Um very individualistic, so I shop at Urban Outfitters

Navin

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:35:15 -0600

Blame Yoko One KRS-One's sister? I blame the guys in short shorts.

Tankboy

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:00:01 -0600

That video is pretty underground awesome.

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:53:12 -0600

THIS is why I didn't go to Pitchfork this year. I didn't feel like dealing with dipshits like these: http://video.feber.se/feber/art/24440/thats_pretty_underground/

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:51:30 -0600

Blame Yoko One- she broke up the Beatles AND caused this fest to go downhill.

Kevin Robinson

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:50:21 -0600

I had a lot of fun all weekend, and kind of dug the fancy shmancy micro-brew and the curry stands ($4 for a 312? When they charge $6 for a Bud at The Taste? What deal!) But it would have been better if the bands were scheduled smarter. Like, why did I go from Clipse to Cat Power, to Girl Talk? Or from Of Montreal to The New Pornographers to De la Sol? It seemed like the line up at Lolla last year was tailored so that you could follow a groove. Anyway, just my two cents....

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:36:31 -0600

Last year I drank live five bottles of water per day and never peed.

HeaveMediaLisa

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:22:31 -0600

I blame the nice weather on the longer beer lines. Last year it was so hot that everyone was dying for water, but this year it was so much nicer that everyone just wanted to throw back a few cool ones. I'd put my money on attendance being down the second day, I heard of a lot of people not coming back after the issues with Saturday. despite all the hating on Chicagoist, thanks for the awesome coverage!

Tankboy

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:22:12 -0600

Yes, they did sell 2,000 more tickets this year, but even that leap doesn't explain why it took less than three minutes to get a bathroom last year, and was at time upwards of 20 minutes this year. Though, and I think you mean it facetiously but it actually has some merit, it was frickin' hot last year.

guest

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:19:44 -0600

me wonders if the swealtering heat of last year evaporated everyone's intake of liquid (i.e. pee) and thus the toilet lines were less last year. or maybe there were more people this year. that'll do it.