P4K – Saturday’s High Notes

Although we’ll be providing a more thorough review post-festival, tune in at the end of every day for our P4k High Notes feature to get a rundown of what we’re loving at the festival!

Hear! Hear! (Our favorite sets of the day)

This might be the easy pick, but it’s also the undisputed best of the day. For Saturday’s headliner, we were able to experience the return of Jamaica, Queens legends A Tribe Called Quest–a set that left me utterly speechless and truly inspired. In their first real live performance without Phife Dawg, Q-Tip made touching use of a spare mic during every one of Phife’s verses, hyping the crowd to pay respect to the 5-foot assassin. Joined on stage by frequent collaborator Consequence and sometimes-member Jarobi White, Tip and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammed ripped through their extensive and dynamic discography to bring the jazz to Union Park. Coupled along with some light beatboxing and audience back and forth, this was a set for the ages. – Andrew

I admit to bias in this selection but Mitski’s set lived up to everything I wanted for her and the audience. Sometimes I forget that while her career is taking off wildly, the singer-songwriter is still breaking through to a larger audience. There was a large chorus of her audience singing back every word but there was an even larger amount of Pitchfork attendees gaining exposure to the songstress and drinking in every word with the highlight of the set being the epic sing-a-long to ‘Your Best American Girl.’ Mitski maintains epic control of her live mix, which allows her to produce a slightly more bare but still incredibly full version of her recorded material. Mitski spoke sparingly during her set, reminding her audience that beer is not water but also taking a moment to thank the audience for letting her achieve her childhood dreams, getting slightly choked up in the process. -Kara

Dropping the Mic (The Day’s let downs)

George Clinton is a bonafide legend and deserves to be at the top of musical royalty as history would see. The set that he puts on with the rest of Parliament Funkadelic is one filled with awe and pure musicality that only a veteran can really show, but for their time at Pitchfork, it felt a tad flat. There was a clear imbalance between the sound coming from the stage and the energy seen, as most instrumental passages sounded slightly muted and wrongfully stripped of their usual abandon. The audience, however, didn’t seem to mind one bit (and rightfully so!), as the house was still brought down in spite of this unfortunate handicap. -Andrew

I admit to not being as familiar with the typical live approach of most artists performing on Saturday and every set I caught was wonderfully executed. No complaints here! -Kara

Ear Candy (what a treat! our unexpected loves)

When you come out on stage crawling and demonically screaming, that’s a pretty good indication of the set you want to produce. For LA-based Cherry Glazerr, that meant one of high power, groove, and a load of stage antics via their front-woman Clementine Creevy–coming across as one of the more enjoyable and engaging young musicians to play the fest. Cherry Glazerr play a nice mix of CA surf rock and hard punk, so it was interesting to hear them tow the line live and truly nail their set. -Andrew

I’m going to double down on Andrew’s choice of Cherry Glazerr here – Clementine Creevy’s stage presence brought a new energy to the festival, with no holds barred aggression topped with the cherry (ha!) of a giant, explosive, “Fuck you!”, as the first words spoken on stage. As much as Creevy is performing, there is an apparent catharsis behind the act of playing these songs live. – Kara

Airing of the Grievances

If you followed WRBB on Northeastern snapchat, you’ll remember that we got kicked out of the photo pit for the Parliament Funkadelic set–which is understandable since we now get to say we’ve felt the rock star, fuck-em-all attitude of George Clinton. Other than that, it was incredibly hot, which demanded a lot of hydration and towels in between running from set to set. The most demanding and exhausting day so far. -Andrew

I was sadly unable to see PJ Harvey’s set due to festival wear and tear but hearing what I did was wonderful. -Kara

Foodie Fights (the best of food/drink for Friday)

After shooting for Saturday, Kara and I headed to the Lincoln Park institution Allende for some amazing and cheap Mexican food. There is nothing more magical than a al pastor torta stuffed to the brim, but it somehow exceeded with no up-charge for avocado. With top-notch salsa roja to boot, there’s no wonder why Allende holds a steady stream of patrons until the early hours of the morning. –Andrew

Wow Bao pork buns are a magical lil treat, perfectly suited for a festival setting. Me and my hot asian buns ??? – Kara

*Bonus Crowd Eavesdropping*

Jeff Rosenstock announcing his festival rate and proactively apologizing for whichever Pitchfork employees loses their jobs for bringing him out.

Pics of the most visually decadent sets!

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