Pitchfork Music Festival Recap - Day One
Written by: Josh Skarda, Jonathan Joseph | Sep 1, 2024
JOSH: We attended this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago as press, something that was a pipe dream for me until just a few weeks ago. This was the first live event that our station has ever covered as media, and we’re incredibly grateful to have been selected to attend such a prestigious festival. A thrilling weekend ensued of knockoff Brat merch, live music from all across the genre spectrum, and hours spent under the Chicago sun. Enjoy our recaps of the dozen-plus performances we caught, accompanied by photography from yours truly.
Angry Blackmen
JONATHAN: Chicago-based rappers Brian Warren and Quentin Branch are the two halves of Angry Blackmen, who were easily in my top 3 Pitchfork sets. Their take on hip-hop is refreshing and angry, mixing harsh electronic production with aggressive vocals. A combination that is almost integral to alternative hip-hop, it’s eclectic and jarring with so much to say. I loved hearing “Stanley Kubrick” live, off of their 2024 record The Legend of ABM. This song brings together mind-bending production centered on harsh beats, coinciding with Warren and Branch taking turns spitting heat. Angry Blackmen was an exciting start to Pitchfork, and I can’t wait to see them again.
JOSH: Angry Blackmen’s set this weekend was my first exposure to them, and I’m happy to report that they killed it! It was especially cool to see a local Chicago group play such a big stage in the city, and to a really engaged crowd too. Jonathan is right – I think that fans of more experimental and industrial rap will find a lot to enjoy here, but I found Angry Blackmen’s on-stage energy a lot more compelling and natural than other artists in their lane. Early afternoon sets can sometimes feel meandering or unengaging, but this group broke the curse and opened moshpits as early as 1:45 PM. Good stuff.
Tkay Maidza
JONATHAN: Tkay Maidza flew all the way from Australia to perform at Pitchfork, and Chicago was thankful. Her blend of soulful pop with hip-hop made for a lovely performance. Maidza brought so much personality to her performance, wearing a stunning all-black outfit that personified the mystique of her music. Her songs are conducive of hip-swaying, atmospheric in an ethereal way.
JOSH: Zimbabwean-Australian rapper and singer Tkay Maidza was one of my favorite new discoveries in preparation for the fest, and she didn’t disappoint when it came time to take the stage on Friday. Her bubbly, happy-go-lucky stage presence paired nicely with the frenetic buzz of her sound, a stylistic melting pot with hints of Azealia Banks and Missy Elliott. She blazed through highlights from her diverse catalog, spanning neo-soul, industrial rap and trip-hop – but my favorite part of her set had to be the back-to-back onslaught of “24k”, “What Ya Know” and “Ghost!”, three of her funkiest hip-house bangers.
Doss
JOSH: This was a quick Josh side quest – even though I had to leave Tkay Maidza a few songs early, I was bent on catching Doss, a DJ and producer hailing from NYC. It was a tough decision, but it paid off – her set was some of the most fun that I had all weekend! As the beats kept rolling, the crowd (a glorious smattering of Chicago rave kids) continued to lose themselves as if her set was never going to end. There wasn’t a single lull in energy for 45 minutes straight, as she sped through bass-heavy, four-on-the-floor house jams like nobody’s business. Doss may have cultivated the best crowd of the entire weekend, a group who seemed genuinely unconcerned with anything besides dancing with each other to blog house bangers. I think that’s beautiful.
100 gecs
JONATHAN: 100 gecs was an amazing performance to catch. I was a little worried that there would be technical difficulties, as they haven’t had the best track record for things not going wrong at festivals, but their performance was pure unadulterated fun. Gecs played hits from both 1000 Gecs and 10,000 Gecs, songs like “Money Machine” and “757” had the whole crowd losing it. Gecs live is a necessary experience for any eclectic music-loving nerd such as myself. It’s maximalist in such a purely internet way, every single one of their samples is full of obscure references to all kinds of popular media. Not to mention the fact that their music is a balancing act between emotionally captivating narratives to a “Frog on the Floor.” It was a blast belting my heart out to 100 gecs.
JOSH: 100 gecs came through with the stuff of dreams for the festival’s chronically online audience, and naturally, we had a blast. After following them for over half a decade now (yeesh…) it was truly surreal to see them play their hotwired hyper-rock for an audience of tens of thousands at a prime late afternoon slot. I understand if you don’t quite *get* 100 gecs, but on this muggy Friday afternoon in Chicago, they were the center of the universe. “Dumbest Girl Alive” was the only song in the world that mattered, until “Hollywood Baby” was, until “Money Machine” was, et cetera. Everyone at Pitchfork who saw Gecs had an opinion about them, and I think that was what they aimed for.
Editor’s note: special shout-out to the couple with two younger kids who were having the times of their lives next to us at the barricade. Gecs are for the children.
Jai Paul
JONATHAN: The only bad thing about this performance was that it ended. Jai Paul was incredible to see live. Unfortunately, I had to split my time between him and Jeff Rosenstock, as they were on at the same time – but what I saw was amazing. Paul played hits from his record Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones), songs like “Jasmine” and “Crush” had me captivated during his set. His backing band was incredible, making the electronic-based production come to life in a series of soul-healing songs. Ending his set with two of my favorites, “Str8 Outta Mumbai” and “BTSTU”, Paul brought it all to Pitchfork. It was incredible seeing an artist with so much loss in their career not only manage to reclaim their art, but push it as far as possible. I can’t wait for Paul to come back to the U.S. so I can catch him again.
JOSH: Spoiler alert, but this was my favorite set of the weekend and it wasn’t even close. Those who read our preview know that Jai Paul is my favorite artist of all time, and he’s defined my relationship with music since I first discovered him in high school. The elusive artist has performed less than a dozen times in the U.S. over the past few years, and from the photo pit I listened to die-hard fans at the barricade speculate whether he would even show up to his own set. But he did, and now I can die happy.
I could try all day, but I just can’t put into words how surreal it was for me to experience these songs live. Everyone near us in the crowd seemed so genuinely grateful to see such an enigmatic artist in the flesh, unsure if any of us would ever be in his presence again. The lyrics to his penultimate song, “BTSTU”, cut especially deep for me this time around. “I know I’ve been gone a long time, I’m back and I want what is mine”. It felt like Jai was reclaiming the music that threw him into popularity so many years ago, and that he’s finally at a place where he can make peace with the art he’s created in the past. Closing with fan favorite “Str8 Outta Mumbai” was an inspired move, a euphoric send-off to the best live show I’ve ever experienced. If there’s any good in the world, I hope I can catch him again someday.
Jeff Rosenstock
JONATHAN: After meeting him in person before the show, I knew I had to catch as much of Jeff Rosenstock’s set as I could. Rosenstock brings so much energy to all of his shows, getting on stage and screaming your heart out is a hard thing to do well – but Rosenstock pulls it off like it’s nothing. I was able to catch “Festival Song” off of his second album Worry, which was a funny song to hear live at a festival, as the whole song is a critique on the consumerism plaguing the music industry. Alongside the fact that he openly called out Pitchfork Fest for taking merch cuts during his live interview, he made for a stellar punk set. I only caught some of his set, but what I saw was fiery and wild. It’s a shame I missed him stage-diving with a saxophone, but there’s always next time.