pitchfork

this was the longest and HOTTEST past few days of my life. tuesday, i burned a cd and titled it "pre pre pre pitchfork." then wednesday night we caught the french kicks and phoenix. this was pre pre pitchfork. the french kicks were better than i remember when they opened for the walkmen. phoenix, however, surprised me and were very fun and the crowd was...well, it was like watching a homoerotic man dream take place. i have never seen so many guys dancing with/on each other. regardless, it was unexpected and delightful to my ears. afterwards, we headed north to the power trio's headquarters. but we got kicked off the freeway and took the long, dark, deserted way. we started to scream out of childish behavior at first, but soon those joking screams became genuine shrieks of fear. then seeing a house with candles in every window didn't help. we almost got hit by deer prancing around. betsy was a safe driver and all. she protected us from hitting a little kitty in the road. meow. caitlin was tensing up from all the fog and chose to plug her ears and scream everytime we would drive through any fog. i was in the back and made the mistake of looking back into complete darkness. we kept trying to convince ourselves that we were safe, by pointing out modern cars parked in driveways and fresh trash at the end of those driveways. we had no idea where we were going. we drove through a small creepy town and made a few references to house of wax. not a good idea. then, at the height of it all, a mutha fuckin OWL(!!!!!) swoops in front of our car, sending us all the way up to the highest pitches we could reach. we finally hit town around 3 and got to bed.

thursday, we drove to chicago, hit up an air conditioned joint to eat, then headed to downtown to keep ourselves busy. we entered the unecessarily large gap to find the living things having a show. we got to bed kind of early though.

friday we farted around lincoln park and hung out at panera to stay out of the "hot as balls" weather. exchanging childhood stories was definitely the highlight of it all. we got to the metro for the coo coo pre pitchfork party later that evening. i wasn't really into the joggers. eugene merriman and todd barry were funny, making indie rock references and myspace jokes. voxtrot forced me to shake it a little, but i wasn't as blown away as i had hoped. i think it was just the heat that made me tired all weekend. finally sunset rubdown came out and i was truly star struck. they were just so good. it was something new, different, and just damn good. i haven't enjoyed a live show like that in awhile. and i have this thing that if i know someone else is a bigger fan than i am, i'll let them have it or whatever. so, i stood in the back and didn't fight my way to a better spot and let the overwhelming amount of dudes stand closer to the stage than me. is that really nerdy? don't answer that. luckily, aziz ansari made it to the venue after having a delayed flight and the crowd stuck around to hear what the man had to say. AND! HE! SAID! TO! ME! ROB!!!BERT!!! we hit up taco smell afterwards and got to bed.

IT WAS FINALLY TIME!! i had waited for pitchfork too long and it was finally the day for it to all begin. we headed out and got there an hour later than expected. did you know that there are 2(!!!) ashland stops on the green line? as we were marching with the other indie rockers/hipsters (i felt underdressed) to the park, i recognized three familiar faces. who else, but three members from, the ABCfamily hit, the brendan leonard show. now, to the common man, that means nothing. to me, it was a bigger deal than angelina jolie's baby's daddy. i went over to them to have a little meet and greet and they looked like they thought i was lost and needed directions. but when i brought myself to nerding out over their show, 2/3 of them were too excited. i got a picture and found out that they're doing just fine and graduating college. I STILL LOVE THE BRENDAN LEONARD SHOW!!! there, i said it. and i mean it. so, once we got inside the fences of pitchfork, the three of us ladies were actually silent for thirty minutes in sheer amazement of the dreamy boys (now, i say dreamy boys, considering our alternative taste in dudes). we caught band of horses as we got in, ted leo and the pharmacists, the walkmen, the futureheads, blah blah blah. i forget a lot when its that hot.

day two started with train problems, which was some sort of construction. aka lies. we missed tapes n tapes, but we don't talk about that. we started with the sweedest swede jens lekman. he had a short set, but told a really good story. we strolled over to the small stage to check out CSS (cansei de ser sexy = we're tired of being sexy.....................you would). i'm not going to waste anymore room on them. then came the reason i went to pitchfork... DEVENDRA BANHART!!! i shat myself. twice. it was perfect. i loved his vetiver buddies playing with him. and just when i thought, no he's not a hippie, i saw him live. he talked about how lovely and lucky we all were, and songs being carried by the wind to tel aviv, and gave a big hug to a boy he invited on stage to sing, and he kissed his guitar player, and swung his arms around a lot, and thanked some woman for the stuffed animals that he made dance. i loved every minute of it. i actually let out an excited whine when they played "good red road." he makes me have a really positive outlook on a lot of stuff. he's just a happy guy. he made pitchfork for me. and now i'll stop gushing and blushing over his music. we had to end the day there because after the lack of air conditioning all we wanted to do was go home. we headed back home within half an hour of d-ban. getting back to our headquarters was delightful, but not before stopping at burger king for dinner and a shit load of funny faces. i didn't know making faces could keep us THAT entertained. regardless of how tired we were we still screamed through some fog and even stopped at meijer's at 2 in the AM for some funfetti action, but to no avail. why is that place ALWAYS under construction. caitlin is right, meijer's is so inconvenient for being a place that's open 24 hours. i passed out RIGHT in front of the tv on the floor while family guy was on.

monday was a relaxing day but it was an INSIDE day, where there was AIR CONDITIONING. and that's how it should ALWAYS be when it's that hot out. the drive home was quiet and we witnessed a marvelous sunset. or should i say sunset rubdown (uh, nudge nudge. wink wink). i'll stop. this trip made me realize that there's so much good music out there that no one knows about. let's spread the word. more importantly, i had too much fun with my friends and let's just say, good times to roll on. p.s. i'll be back with pictures another day.