DJ Mony's Pitchfork Review
As someone who has such diverse musical taste Pitchfork Music Festival can be a big ol’ cup of fresh water. Spanning such a large array of genres over three days with some of the best up and coming and classic artist. The 2017 Pitchfork brought the people the hits! From Angel Olsen to Vagabon, S U R V I V E to Nicolas Jaar, The Funkadelics to Solange. If you were at the fest you already know bands came to give their fans a good time (Tribe)!
Looking back on it now I realize how much of a sensory overload that whole weekend was. Getting the opportunity to see so many of the bands I've been listening to for the past few years was something out of a dream. Like S U R V I V E a band from Austin Texas who helped write the soundtrack to the Netflix series Stranger Things, and performed on one of the smallest stages on Saturday night. The crowd for them was probably on the smaller side for the weekend, but made for a very chill intimate electronic performance. Followed by one of the hypest, “most lit” sets by A Tribe Called Quest. Saturday was a pretty crazy day I got to see Mitski for the first time, and be apart of her Q&A. Where she told everyone to stop being so pretentious about pop music (there was so much more to that). Which was cool to hear from an artist playing Pitchfork which is known to have the snobs of music connoisseurs present (me being one). That same day I was introduced to a cool haired one show man Frances and The Lights who blew me away.
Colin Stetson!!!! If you like noise or any type of ambient music this is the guy to check out. Stetson was the second person to play on Sunday, and oh boy was it dope. Another one man show, just him and his baritone saxophone a drum machine and a loop pedal. So Simple yet so great! Following him was a must see band NE-HI who performed on the main stage, and was also here in Kzoo at Shakespeare's Lower Level a few months ago with a few local bands. Their performance was killer, but the best part was watching the band and the Pitchfork sound crew flawlessly deal with an amp malfunction in the middle of their set. Later on that Sunday I also got to see Pinegrove another Kzoo frequent visitor that not to long ago was playing the Kzoo house show scene. If you know of them you already know they killed it! The bittersweet part of the Sunday was the fact that The Avalanches dropped from the show two hours before they were to go on stage. This did give way to a very beautiful new artist named Jamila Woods who was meant to be on the smaller stage around the same time as The Avalanches. Following Jamila was the great electronic artist Nicolas Jaar who had to of brought some extra sub for his performance because the bass was ah freakin’ kickin’! Then to end Pitchfork we had the new love of my life Solange come out and literally destroy everyone! As of right now at the age of 23 years, she was the best performance I ever seen. There is truly nothing like her stage presence and the skill of her band. I was floored from start to end, and am so thankful to of had the opportunity to see Solange and all of the amazing performances at Pitchfork. Also realize we are in a golden age of music. With so many talented individuals out here trying to get their voice heard. I would like to thank Pitchfork for giving the voice to so many women and people of color this 2017. Here is hoping to more great shows in the future.
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