Pitchfork Music Festival 2007 [Friday; 7/13] Rating: 8.7

1:52 PM EDT on July 14, 2007

There's a vague subtext of "Us and Them" at most concert festivals: like, you know more than half the folks you brush elbows with at Bonnaroo have never heard of the Hold Steady, and most definitely will not be dancing it up next to you at Hot Chip. Not so at Pitchfork Music Festival, a now three-day affair in Chicago's Union Park; it's the indie-rock all-star game, a magical place where the deification of Dan Deacon and Deerhunter means that a dude like Bradford Cox is a bona fide celebrity. This is our first year here, and unlike the last installment's sweltering cesspool of sweat and humidity, the air is refreshing, sun or shade -- which meant the air was right for three of the greatest records in hipster history.

Day One of the 'Fork Fest was a three-band affair; in conjunction with the now-international All Tomorrow's Parties people and their Don't Look Back series, Pitchfork corralled scene legends Slint, the Genius (or GZA to his friends), and the evergreen icons Sonic Youth to perform their masterworks: Spiderland, Liquid Swords, and Daydream Nation, respectively. Cool thing about seeing full albums: No need to stress about taking down the setlist. Even cooler thing? Three sets of bomb tracks and classics, front to back.

A crowd jester got the festival going by yelling "Play something new!" right before Slint pushed into "Breadcrumb Trail," but that wasn't what anybody wanted yesterday. Spiderland's hushed whispers/post-rock dynamism wasn't the jolt folks needed to feel the festival flow right off the bat, but hearing the record was a massive thrill: Pajo's harmonics searing their way through the heavy-crashing sludge, Brian's "I miss you"s on "Good Morning, Captain" as angry and desperate as they were in '91. Dude needs closure. GZA's set started about five seconds after Slint took their bow (different stages, naturally), and the Genius wasted no time letting Chicago know he was missing a Wu-Tang show in Amsterdam to unsheath his Liquid Swords. "Make me work for my money." And he did, prowling the stage with a posse five-deep, getting the kids to put their "W"s up, shouting out to ODB on the encore with "Shimmy Shimmy Ya." The Wu-Tang Clan plan on reminding you that they ain't nothing to fuck with, bringing a new album this fall (Eight Diagrams).

Last up was probably our most anticipated: Sonic Youth. Daydream Nation. The MC jokily introduced the set as a "middle-aged riot," and Thurston, Kim, Lee, and Steve blazed their way through everybody's-favorite-album with the sort of whiplash cool that defined the epochal LP. Voices in check, guitar heroism on high ... worship was in order. At some point during the set, out in the crowd, we ran into Britt Daniel -- he was amazed by his enjoyment of the youth. (Also, he says "hi" to you guys and told us the proper way to say the new record: GaGaGaGaGa, like a machine gun fire. Britt said he couldn't believe how big a deal the album name became. We laughed, he didn't. Don't think he was kidding.) The Youth closed out their show with a three-song encore of Rather Ripped jams with Pavement's Mark Ibold (Malkmus is here, too, just wanted to note).

So, Day One in a nutshell: Perfect weather, perfect albums. Of course, not everybody was happy (surprised?). Reader Nix wrote in right after the show with a colorful complaint:

I just left Pitchfork Music Fest's opening night and I have to let you know - the audio SUCKED. the crowd was screaming "TURN IT UP" and "LOUD-ER!" during both GZA and Sonic Youth. Hopefully before tomorrow and Sundays shows, they do some better sound checking. That was the worst concert I've ever heard - it would have sounded better out of my old 20" tv. The only good part of the day was when 10 bats flew out of some trees in Union Park and started doing acrobats during GZA's Shadowboxxing over the crowd's heads.

So soundguy, there's your constructive criticism for the day. Turn it up, and if you can,unleash more acrobatic bats. We're running late for the Twilight Sad, so we're out the door. Have fun with the pics, and more from today's killer lineup soon.

SLINT