10 Thoughts About the 2018 Pitchfork Music Festival

I attended the Pitchfork Music Festival the weekend of July 20-22 2018. I had these thoughts about the event…

1. Kudos are once again due to the festival’s organizers for once again staging a fantastic festival. They improve something about P4K every year, and this year was no exception. This year they moved the beer ticket section and concessions out to the edge of the festival grounds made it much easier to get to and from the Blue Stage. Little things like that make a huge difference.
2. Diversity absolutely rules. In terms of uplifting cultural experiences, Pitchfork was a nice oasis from the sh*t-show that is life in the U.S.A. in 2018. In important ways, it was the opposite of a Trump rally. I’ve seen the future of America, and was in the Black and Brown faces of the audience members.
3. This isn’t a complaint, but I couldn’t help but notice that the ratio of no-bra-wearing women to bra-wearing women in the general audience was at an all-time high. We cis hetero males notice these things. Is there an apparel shortage I wasn’t aware of? Should I be concerned?
4. The food and cider I consumed over the weekend was delicious. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason this year, something about Connie’s Pizza just hit the f*ckin’ spot!
5. I have to say I found myself somewhat underwhelmed by this year’s music lineup. Part of it is my personal tastes - The dearth of Metal, Hardcore, and Dance bands on this year’s schedule was noticeable to me. Sometimes you just need to get your ears blown off or shake your butt for half an hour to get through those summer afternoons.
6. That being said, there were, as usual, tremendous sets to listen to this year. The big winners for the weekend for me were Chaka Khan, Natural Information Society, Noname, Open Mike Eagle, and This is Not This Heat.
7. Chaka Khan was fantastic. There has been talk about how her voice isn’t what it once was, but she made up for it by bring an amazing band and group of backup singers who did a lot of the musical heavy lifting. Everything they did was on point. The two guitar players tore it up, too. I was sad I had to choose between watching this set and Japandroids on the Blue stage, but I made my choice, and I’m glad I did.
8. Lauryn Hill was just OK. I respect the place The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill has in the history of American music, but I’ve never been a massive fan of it. The running joke was how late Hill would be taking the stage, if at all (it’s kind of what she does). The thing is, starting a set late at Pitchfork is deadly, especially if you’re the last performance of the weekend. Chaka Khan had set Hill up beautifully with a fun, high-energy lead-in set, but the crowd lost momentum during the 20+ minute delay waiting for Hill to take the stage. By the time she got to her biggest solo hit “Doo-Wop (That Thing)”, the fest crews were already turning up the street lights and breaking down the other stages “Closing Time”-style. Better timing on Hill’s part would have turned a merely good set into a great one.
9. Rappers need to stop giving orders to audiences. I just wanted to throw this one in. It’s why I can’t stand most live rap performances. Rappers who spend half their set yelling at the audience to “Get your hands up!” and “Make some nooooooise!” need to just please stop.
10. I’m already looking forward to next year. This is the 14th event Pitchfork has run at Union Park (including the 2005 Intonation Festival, which they curated). I’ve attended 12 of them. When you get older, you’re supposed to grow up and out of music festivals. I’m still waiting for that to happen for me. This festival in particular remains an amazing place to hear new and old artists and bands you didn’t know you liked.