Saturday at Pitchfork Music Fest

July 23, 3:45 PMChicago Live Music ExaminerAmanda Nyren

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Ominous clouds dominated the western sky

Pitchfork Music Fest ended four days ago (an eon in the world of blogging/digital journalism), but I'm here with my account of Saturday's action nonetheless. As they say, better late than never.

I arrived around 1 p.m. with my friend @RCHodgkinson. The sky was half clear, half overcast (as it has been so often this summer), leaving the fate of the day's festivities - Would I enjoy the afternoon and evening in a hipster love-in, enveloped by sunshine, indie music and a sea of skinny jeans? Or would the bitter old lady (I'm pretty sure she's a bus driver) who rules Chicago weather decide to release a torrential downpour? - literally up in the air.

When I wasn't busy monitoring the weather and peeping some of the questionable fashions worn by festgoers, I enjoyed forty minute sets from Cymbals Eat Guitars, Plants & Animals, F*cked Up, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Ponytail, Wavves, Lindstrom, Matt & Kim and The National. The highlights for me were F*cked Up, Lindstrom and Wavves.

Pink Eye of F*cked Up.

Despite my total lack of familiarity with Canadian punk band F*cked Up and general avoidance of hardcore music, I was quickly won over by lead singer Pink Eye's hilarious stage banter (addressing the crowd: "You guys are awesome. You're like waay better than that Animal Collective record, which just sounds like Phish.") and outrageous antics (stealing a beach ball from the audience, gouging it and placing it over his head) as well as the fact that the bassist is a chick who goes by the name of Mustard Gas and never stops banging her head.

Norwegian DJ Lindstrom took the stage in a straw cowboy hat and aviators and despite this rather cliched get-up, proceeded to win my respect. I mean, if you can get a crowd of shoegazing hipsters to boogie, then you absolutely have my respect.

Nathan Williams and Ryan Ulsh of Wavves

I walked into the Wavves set knowing more about lead singer Nathan Williams' infamous stage meltdown in Spain than about the band's actual music. For those of you playing catch up, Williams' cocktail of ecstasy, Valium and Xanax proved disastrous when he hit the stage in front of thousands at Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival this spring, erupting into fisticuffs with drummer Ryan Ulsh and forcing the show to end without ever beginning. Fortunately, the lo-fi duo turned things around for Pitchfork, and even with a cast on his left arm, Williams held his own. I was very impressed by their sound and have been listening to their self-titled album nonstop since Saturday.

Now for the non-highlights. I'll try to keep it brief. Plants & Animals sound best when they're up-tempo, but otherwise they're a bit of yawn. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart sure are poppy and listenable and occasionally recall New Order, but aside from their super-cute girl keyboardist, they might not deserve all the press they've been getting of late. Ponytail's sound  doesn't quite translate to the live arena, but the lead singer amuses with her invisible trampoline and Pokemon-esque yips and hiyas. Matt & Kim are cool (no surprises there) and earned points for gracefully handling an amp-cord-come-unplugged snafu. The National was the biggest disappointment. Or maybe I was just tired. Either way I left before their set ended.

All in all, Pitchfork puts on a great fest with a slew of vendors like CHIRP, Whole Foods, Wishbone, Goose Island and Threadless just to name a few. Unlike at Lollapalooza, the grounds are small enough that you can get from one stage to the other without much hassle. Plus, the minimal security creates an overall relaxed vibe. As Pink Eyes said, "Usually when you play a festival, you get a big list of "Don'ts," but here they pretty much let you do whatever the f* you want." So basically, if the weather holds up, Pitchfork is a guaranteed good time.