Pitchfork Fest was light on legacy acts this year, but the Roots closed out the festival like old pros, playing their hits (yes, “Seed (2.0)” is still unstoppable), mixing in some hearty covers (including Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” crossed with Outkast’s “SpottieOttieDopaliscious”!), and never flagging during 90 minutes of action. De Casier’s 2021 album Sensational rightfully established her as a critical darling stateside, and her live show more than did justice to the project my dad believes that she “needs a few more upbeat dance numbers” in her set, but until then, “Busy” got the boisterous crowd up and moving. “That was accurate,” he said after seeing the Denmark native spin her sensual R&B stories over programmed synths and live percussion. Prior to Erika de Casier’s Sunday afternoon set, I described her sound to my dad as something resembling Janet Jackson’s ’90s output. His one note? Too many props, from an oversized clock to a silly string can, which my dad thought were “not necessary.” I couldn’t disagree more - more fun props at pop shows! Magdalena Bay make rock-solid alt-pop with energy to spare, and my dad got into the groove along with the rest of their impressively large audience to the rubbery “Secrets (Your Fire).” “Their songs had driving beats that were very danceable, and their vocalist was high-energy,” he said. Plus, plenty of oooh oooh’s to sing along to!” “They’re a really excellent band with a strong leader and material. My dad, by no means a chillwave connoisseur, was up and shimmying - how can you not during songs like the riotous set-capper “Freelance”? “This was a party set,” he said.
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Let’s kick off this playlist with a late-festival groove: as the sun set over Union Park on Sunday, Chaz Bundick and his Toro y Moi cohorts seized the opportunity to throw down within a lineup that was relatively light on dance acts. Here are the 15 songs that highlighted my dad’s 2022 Pitchfork Fest and his commentary for each, followed by a handy playlist for listening at the end. With that in mind, turning the highlights of Pitchfork Fest 2022 into an interactive, dad-endorsed playlist made sense as a means of capturing the moments of a weekend brimming with memorable music. My dad absorbed a wide spectrum of previously unfamiliar acts and left mostly impressed… even when the noise messed with his late-sixties flow. But more than perhaps any other Pitchfork Fest, we were laser-focused on the music - discussing the high points of each set, often after swaying, head-nodding and clumsily dancing. Sure, the festival’s atmosphere is half the fun: the technicolor outfits and hairstyles, the gonzo t-shirt slogans (top prize this year goes to the twenty-something rocking the “I Love My Penis” tee), the too-crowded record fair, the left-field brand activations (a Philadelphia Cream Cheese pop-up? Why not!). So returning to Pitchfork Fest this year with my dad, who was dutifully taking notes in his little pad during every set we caught over the weekend (July 15-17), felt like a warm blanket, even during a rain-heavy and mud-caked year like this one.
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The last time we had set foot in Union Park, “Old Town Road” was the biggest song in the country, Joe Biden was still debating Kamala Harris in presidential primaries, and even the fest’s most in-the-know hipsters hadn’t heard of Covid. Touching down in Chicago this year, it felt like a lot longer than three years had passed.
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Yet the pandemic wiped out Pitchfork 2020, and we couldn’t make it to Pitchfork 2021 since it had been bumped to September last year. My father and I had attended seven Pitchfork Fests together between 20, heading to Chicago’s Union Park from the northeast nearly every July and covering the indie-music Mecca side-by-side.