Sezio

Keith and Aimee of Black Mamba and Jamuel Saxon took a trip to the Midwest for Pitchfork's annual music festival.  All sorts of people attend festivals like Pitchfork, and we thought it would be interesting to hear about it from the perspective of two upcoming musicians who would have fit right in had they gotten a slot on one of the stages.  From interesting ramblings on bands to vegan ice cream to insanely long bathroom lines, Milgaten and Sanchez take us through their journey.

We staked our territory on the lawn of union park, shortly after purchasing beer and amazing festival-style vendor food. I had the thai chicken satay. Aimee had the veggie burger. This red blanket would be our island of solace while the realization of the festive day ahead of us began to mentally set in. Plants and Animals could be heard in the distance.



This guy was pretty offended by the sight of post-hardcore band Fucked Up's lead singer Pink Eyes' bare belly basting in the sun. To make it even better, they had it blasted on the Go-Vision. He tried wearing those gigantic glasses to block out the spectacle, but it only magnified the glorious image, permanently burning into his mind's eye.



The Pains of Being Pure At Heart brought their upbeat Ozma / Rentals style nerd-rock to the main stage while brandishing smiles so wide that they made the sun from the raisin bran box seem depressed. Although obviously (and purposefully) angsty, these youngsters definitely made arnold palmers out of the lemons of their lives. I recall telling aimee, "These guys are really cool, but it smells really gassy by this stage". In other news, Aimee thought the guy on the bottom left had the coolest hat ever. Then we got thirsty...



After the Pains were over, Aimee made a point to illustrate the severely under-populated line for bottled water. Surprisingly, most people preferred to simultaneously pound multiple alcoholic beverages instead of properly hydrating themselves in the heat of the day. Tsssk Tsssk Tssssk. Beer wins this round.



It's true! The vegan ice cream @ pitchfork fest is truly amazing. This mint chocolate chip cone of deliciousness took Aimee on a tasty journey all the way to Sweetsville: population = her.



We made our way onto the not-so-secluded side stage lawn, where art-rockers Ponytail were showing everyone new ways to abuse their delay pedals. Seemingly influenced by Deerhoof, this blossoming band merged heaviness and harmony into one big explosion of sound. The crowd got so worked up during their set that it took the festival crew a solid forty minutes to reassemble the barrier.



Once the painstaking barrier reconstruction was complete, we were graced by the presence of San Diego's own Wavves. Shortly after suffering a skateboarding injury leaving his arm in a cast, singer and guitarist Nathan powered through the set with the help of some pain killers. These garage punk newbies' messy jams were loved by some, while others ended up asking themselves why they weren't watching Yeasayer.



The best part about any music festival is the people to bathroom ration. In this case it was somewhere around 1,000,000:1



This is Aimee adorably trying to figure out how many beers she has had. Answer: 1,000,000



The blurriest picture of the day ironically captures quite possibly the day's best act: Beirut. These baby - faced melody masters owned it in front of pretty much every person in attendance. Anytime the band made use of their many brass horn instruments, a high percentage of the crowd would uncontrollably hoot and holler like twelve year olds at a Justin Timberlake concert. This made for an entertaining dynamic in response to such beautiful music. In fact, it was so beautiful that i couldn't handle it anymore. I had to sneak off to witness the "rough around the edges" antics of synth 'n' drum duo Matt and Kim.



Once the effects of being in the sun all day and consuming a multitude of beers and fried foods set in, Aimee and I left as The National closed out the night. This image of Jesus riding a unicorn was the only thing that kept us going on our long journey home.



The next day we got to take the obligatory Chicago tourist picture in front of Cloud Gate, a.k.a. "The Bean".

This final Chicago trip photo (of the tower formerly known as "Sears") goes to show that no matter how tall the tallest buildings gets, mother nature will always be there to ruin your pictures of them.

Love, Keith and Aimee