I’ve enjoyed every Wolf Parade album they’ve released, but man seeing them live just drives home how great that first record and EP are. Hearing “This Heart’s On Fire” and “Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts” were definite festival highlights. But I knew that already. I’ve seen Wolf Parade before and had my mind blown [...]

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When Pitchfork first announced Jon Spencer Blues Explosion would be playing their festival I was like “…huh?” Being of the younger persuasion, I missed out on the height of JSBE’s popularity and only had a loose knowledge of them. But a few seconds into their set, I completely understood why he’d been invited. Even people [...]

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I didn’t get to stay long for the Smith Westerns, but I really liked what I saw. A lot of bands seem to be doing the T Rex thing these days, but their second or third song absolutely nailed it. As I walked away, I found myself hoping that they make an appointment to play [...]

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True to hip hop artist form, Raekwon was a little late coming out to take the stage. Apparently he had good reasons, though: his kid was sick with food poisoning and his DJ’s laptop was pretty much overheating. But with only a slight delay, Raekwon took the stage and gave us one of the best [...]

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I haven’t gotten around to listening to Titus Andronicus’ new record, but that’s #1 on my To Do list after seeing them at Pitchfork. They were possibly the best example from the festival of a band that threw 100% out at the crowd and got 200% reflected back. It’s really hard to say whether the [...]

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I’ve really started to like Kurt Vile in the past year or so. The couple of albums/EP I’ve picked up have been really good. Unfortunately live he seems to sacrifice some clarity at the altar of distortion and it really overpowered. He had a harpist up there, but I don’t think I was able to [...]

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Modest Mouse. Modest Mouse. I’ve had such a strange history with Modest Mouse. They put on a great show the first time I saw them in Louisville, but the 100+ degree heat in the venue kind of blocked out any memories besides my discomfort. The next time I saw them, the show was fairly lame, [...]

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My third time seeing Broken Social Scene played out pretty much like my first — which also took place at Pitchfork. Everyone else seemed to be having a great time, but I couldn’t help from feeling antsy and checking the time every few minutes. The second time I saw them (Lollapalooza) was pretty good and [...]

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Before Robyn took the stage, I told a fellow photographer that I was pretty sure this would be one of those sets where I later listened to more of the band’s music and regretted not being more familiar with them (her) when I saw the show. Two minutes in, I knew that would be the [...]

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