Pitchfork Music Festival, Union Park, Chicago, Illinois

Solo and at the last minute, I found a ticket to Friday night of the Pitchfork Festival. Though it had started earlier in the afternoon on a warm July day, I was only interested in the final two acts of the evening. The first was Joanna Newsom, an avant garde folk artist who plays the harp and the piano. I was surprised that she took the stage by herself, periodically switching between the two instruments. Her voice is child-like and ethereal, and she has a strange style of singing, kind of out of the side of her mouth and periodically jerking her head. Seeing and hearing it done in person is enchanting if a bit strange. I was pleased to see her, but I was pretty far back and lots of people around me were more interested in their conversations than the performance. It’s just not the type of music that lends itself well to a festival. It’s quiet and easily drowned out by a large chattering crowd.

The headliner of the evening was Björk. Though I just saw her at Bonnaroo just over a month before, I was somewhat far away and not completely engaged during her set, so I welcomed the opportunity to see here again, when I could get a little closer to the stage and fully immerse myself in the experience. Björk posted a request before the show that she didn’t want any photos taken during the show. It’s distracting, and she would prefer that attendees focus on enjoying the performance instead of trying to capture the perfect shot. Instead, she made photos available on her website. I hope that means that I can post a few as well, giving credit where credit is due.

Björk took the stage wearing a similarly crazy outfit; though this time she opted for a flowing silvery jumpsuit instead of a bubble dress. She still maintained her dandelion headgear and was again accompanied by a choir of 14 female singers. It reminded me of a Jerry Seinfeld bit, “Anytime I see a movie or a TV show where there are people from the future or another planet, they're all wearing the same outfit. Somehow they all decided, 'All right, that's enough. From now on, this is going to be our outfit: one-piece silver jumpsuit with a V-stripe on the chest and boots. That's it. We're going to start visiting other planets and we want to look like a team.'" Other than the singers, she only had a drummer and a guy with a lap top on stage. There must have also been quite a sizable team behind the scenes running the various videos, lights, and projections that were also an integral part of the performance. The overall show was more or less what I saw at Bonnaroo, as much a performance art piece as it was a concert.

Ten of her songs were the same as the previous show at Bonnaroo and in a mostly similar order, though she did throw in a few others throughout and skipped others. I suspect that the show would have ended with a similar if not identical setlist, but it was cut short after “Mutual Core” due to impending weather. Bjork's response to being told that she would have to exit the stage early was, "It's calm.... I don't know. This wouldn't be much in Iceland, I can tell you that much..." The heavens opened up and it poured rain shortly thereafter. It’s a shame; the downpour would have really added to the performance.

Björk Setlist:
Solar Winds
Cosmogony
Hunter
Thunderbolt
Moon
Crystalline
Hidden Place
Heirloom
One Day
Jóga
Pagan Poetry
Army of Me
Mutual Core