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More Postcards From Pitchfork

By Steve Rhodes

See also:
* Pavement at Pitchfork
* Postcards From Pitchfork

1. “Modest Mouse closed out the night with an amazing show, opening things off right with a superb, near-nine-minute version of ‘Tiny Cities Made of Ashes,’ which sounded almost like an entirely different song,” Dusty of Radio K writes. “The band almost looked like Broken Social Scene up there at times, with up to seven people playing at once – including trumpets, standup bass, an accordian and Brock’s own banjo.
“By the fourth song – a sexily slow rendition of ‘Satellite Skin’ – the crowd was throwing glowsticks and dancing and singing along.
“Other highlights included a Tom Waits-y version of ‘This Devil’s Workday.'”


2. “At least Barcelona’s Delorean worked its own mellow, electronic grooves effectively into a pleasant if not electrifying mid-afternoon trance-out breather,” Jim DeRogatis writes.

“But midway through its set, I was nonetheless counting the minutes until Titus Andronicus, one of those ‘wow’ revelations that blew me away the first time it appeared at Pitchfork in 2008.”


3. “Drawing the largest crowd we’d seen yet at the Balance Stage (the smallest stage at the fest), Washed Out, the one-man act of artist Ernest Greene, put the bustling crowd in a trance with his set of gauzy, layered synthpop,” K.B. writes at Chicagoist.
“On the flickering ‘Get Up’ and ‘You’ll See It’ Greene smartly invited the crowd to clap along and sing on different songs; his small gestures went a long way in keeping the audience engaged while he twisted knobs and switches.”


4. “Major Lazer ramped up the insanity to a ridiculous degree Sunday afternoon, bringing Chinese dragons, daggering, and lung-rattling beats to a stunned but ecstatic audience,” Kyle Ryan writes for Spin.


5. “I honestly don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me that [Big Boi’d] be dipping way back into Outkast’s early catalog, but when ‘ATLiens’ was played right off the bat, I almost died,” Katie Guymon writes at Speakers in Code. “This was the point of the day where all the hipster facades melted away, and people just genuinely got down with their bad selves.”


6. “Canadian indie heavyweights Broken Social Scene opened their set with the soaring anthems that make them a perfect festival act,” Ryan Warner writes for City Pages.


7. Neon Indian also played a late-night set at the Bottom Lounge.


Comments welcome.

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Posted on July 21, 2010