The final day at Pitchfork Music Festival was a wonderful culmination of the entire weekend. Following in the riot grrrl vein from Sleater-Kinney last night was The Julie Ruin, led by Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. The Julie Ruin managed somehow to be even more energetic than Sleater-Kinney’s performance. They completely embodied the power of feminist punk.
I had to cut short my time watching The Julie Ruin, though, in order to catch Madlib and Freddie Gibbs perform, predominantly from their recent album together. I didn’t listen to a lot of Freddie Gibbs going into this festival, but his stage presence was commanding and his rapping was fantastic, all spun over Madlib mixing live beats. The two artists are extremely talented and were a force to behold.
After Madlib and Freddie Gibbs finished their set, Courtney Barnett began her performance. Barnett’s style was a little wild and a little rough, but in the end, it was solid Australian rock. She also gave voice to what most of the festival attendees were thinking: even by Australian standards, it was a ridiculously hot day. With only a slight breeze now and then and the July sun beating down, the crowds were roasting.
Jamie xx provided a departure from the earlier hip-hop and rock with one of the best electronic sets I’ve ever seen. He had total command over complicated tracks, and the crowd was loving it. Daytime electronic acts are difficult for me to photograph, as there’s no light show to compliment the artist basically standing behind a mixing table, but it was fun to just relax for a moment and enjoy the music.
Caribou continued Jamie xx’s vibe, but had the strange bonus of playing essentially electronic music with four live musicians. Their methods, including more pieces of hardware than I could ever hope to identify, were almost more interesting than their music itself.
Finally, the festival returned to the hip-hip scene for good with Run the Jewels, a duo comprised of Brooklyn-native El-P and Atlanta’s Killer Mike. The two shifted constantly from goofy antics to hardcore, aggressive rap. They played off each other’s presence seamlessly, while picking up verses back and forth. They set the vibe perfectly for the final headliner of the festival, Chicago’s own Chance the Rapper.
“Every year we get to do one festival, one show in Chicago,” Chance said, “and I can’t even see the back of this crowd.”
The field in front of the main stage was packed to the edges. In celebration of his hometown show, Chance pulled out all the stops. He performed with the Social Experiment, featured Donnie Trumpet on several songs from his new album “Surf,” and brought numerous guest artists to the stage. The enduring theme of the show was of Chicago as a community.
