The All American Rejects, The Maine, and Andrew McMahon performed on Wednesday, December 11th to a packed Aragon Ballroom as part of Q101’s annual holiday show, Twisted Xmas. Check out photos from all of their sets below and check out photos from the first night of Twisted Xmas here.
What if you could end your day doing the shit you love with the ones you love? Better yet, what if you could do that two days in a row? For many Bastille fans, they had the opportunity to do just that as they attended the first (and most likely the only) run of U.S. tour dates for the Bastille-adjacent project entitled “Ampersand,” which took place Friday, November 22nd and Saturday, November 23rd at the grandiose United Theater on Broadway (FKA The Theatre at Ace Hotel).
If you want the TLDR version of the concerts, songwriter and lead vocalist of Bastille Dan Smith can sum up the evenings in three points; “For the sake of argument, I didn’t shit myself, I barely talked between songs, and the French was perfect,” he told the Los Angeles theater.
But if you want the longer story, take a walk with me through these songs as I unreliably narrate these gigs.
Stepping back to introduce the Ampersand project, this collection of songs puts a spotlight on Smith’s storytelling craft as he examines the lives of famous and infamous historical or mythological figures. The name “Ampersand” comes from all of the stories on the album being comprised of a pairing and song titles that all include a (you guessed it) &— Take the track “Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her” or “Seasons & Narcissus,” the former of which opens with the question “What if you could end your days doing the shit you love with the ones you love?” to call it back to my introduction.
Ampersand taking the stage
Ampersand came to be a side quest for Smith on what was slated to be a year off for the members of Bastille, so as he began to weave together these stories, Dan enlisted the assistance of other songwriters and vocalists to build out the musical arrangements. Two of those musicians include Moira Mack and Charlie Barnes, so it only made sense that in addition to performing in the live Ampersand band, Moira & Charlie (see what I did there?) opened up the shows on Friday and Saturday night, respectively.
Moira Mack opening up the show
Ahead of Mack’s set on Friday evening, Smith tested out his chops as MC to recall how he’d first stumbled upon Moira Mack on a night out in Los Angeles where he heard her performing a cover of “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding. It’s rare that supporting acts will get a personalized introduction from the headlining performers, so with Dan’s glowing endorsement, I knew we’d be in for a treat with Moira’s performance. Spoiler alert; we got a goosebump-inducing reenactment of the Redding cover that started it all, which really let the soulful and powerful facets of Mack’s vocal abilities shine. However, the rest of her set included her original songs, some of which were unreleased and included one written only days prior to the gig, in response to the devastating election results. In just a short thirty minutes, Moira was able to demonstrate her emotive songwriting and vast vocal range, including silky and delicate falsettos that smoothly transitioned into bolder and richer textures.
Speaking of smooth transitions, the stage was quickly turned over for Dan & Moira to return for the main event, alongside the rest of the Ampersand live band members Charlie Barnes, Merrick Winter, AK Patterson, and Florrie.
Fittingly, the set began with the first track from the album called “Intros & Narrators,” in which Smith confesses he never wanted to be the main character and sings “Maybe to me, other stories are more interesting and maybe to me, they’re a mirror back on everything/So much bigger, bolder, braver than I’ll ever be,” which set up the aforementioned premise of this project in a musical format. Dan addressed the crowd after the introductory song, saying, “This album is a collection of stories about people that I think are fascinating, mostly real, some fictional or mythological,” also pointing out that each person was illustrated on the stage backdrop with artwork done by Harriet Bruce.
In addition to bringing in new live band members and collaborating with visual artists for this special project, Smith has also endeavored into the podcasting realm to provide more context to the Ampersand songs. Entitled “Muses: An Ampersand Podcast,” the show features Smith and co-host Emma Nagouse diving into the background of the people and characters that Dan wrote about, and listeners also get a glimpse into his creative process for each tune. Along with being the co-host of the podcast, Nagouse essentially acted as a muse for these songs as well because she suggested several of the figures for Smith to dig into.
One of the subject suggestions from Emma was Paul & Eslanda Robeson, which Dan wrote about on the track “Essie & Paul,” and it instantly became one of my favorites from the album. A hauntingly hypnotic strings arrangement acts as the heartbeat of the song’s melody, which conjured up images of a Bridgerton ballroom scene the first time I heard it. (Funny enough, just this week the music video for “Eve & Paradise Lost” debuted, starring Simone Ashley from Bridgerton, so maybe if we’re lucky maybe we can manifest a feature of “Essie & Paul” in the next season). Throughout the show, Smith essentially gave a quick synopsis of each song’s main character— think CliffsNotes version of the podcast—to give some additional context. He introduced “Essie & Paul” by sharing, “This was really hard to write because it’s about Paul Robeson and Eslanda Robeson who were this fucking incredible power couple. Paul Robeson people know as an actor and singer but he was a civil rights activist and his wife Eslanda was his manager and his friend. She was an anthropologist, she was incredible. It’s quite daunting to write about both of them. I knew the song would never be good enough as a tribute to them but I still wanted to write it cause I thought about them a lot.” For the record, I think he did them justice with the song, and the rest of the audience agreed based off the applause that greeted the band at the end of it. Along with his humility, Smith threw in some humor when setting up the performance of the tune, joking “For this song as you may have noticed, we’ve been playing everything live tonight, apart from this one bit on this song that requires a full string section. We just came from the UK and didn’t have the budget for it, so as well as pretending that there was no terrible rambling chats between songs, the other thing is if people ask ‘how was the gig?’ say it was nuts, they had a full string section that came out for one song! I’ve never seen that before, it was crazy!”
Another standout live performance moment occurred earlier in the setlist with “Drawbridge & The Baroness,” which describes The Drawbridge Dilemma from the baroness’ POV. The song features stunning falsetto vocal chops from Smith as well as a crescendoing bridge that were recognized with extended applause and an affirming “you’re amazing!” from a young audience member. Dan described the song as his favorite one on the album but “a fucking nightmare to sing live” which is fair given the dramatic range he exerts for it—hopefully the audience’s reaction makes it all worth it!
As we journeyed through these stories told in song format, Dan continued to share those behind-the-scenes tidbits with the audience about the songs. It turns out that he’s been writing songs since he was 14 years old, and the album’s anchoring track “Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024” was one of his first songwriting attempts brought on by a poem his dad wrote while traveling around the U.S. in 1977. Smith also confessed that he found out he got some of the French translation wrong for the song “Mademoiselle & the Nunnery Blaze,” BUT circling back to the TLDR version of events, “The French was perfect,” according to Dan.
Now, I did mention this was the longer story journey of the Ampersand shows, but I’ll still spare everyone from diving into each and every song included on the setlist and remind you that you can tune into the Muses podcast to hear it straight from the source. The podcast is currently working its way through the Ampersand songs, but Dan did share that there’s an episode in the works about Bastille’s breakout hit “Pompeii,” which the band was able to fit in a rendition of during this run of shows. The Ampersand setlist also includes a couple of other outliers with a special arrangement of 2016’s “Good Grief” and a version of “Orpheus & Eurydice” that was written for the Netflix show Kaos. Rumor has it that a demo of the latter performed by Charlie Barnes & Dan will be dropping later this week so keep an ear out!
The Ampersand adventure concluded with the single “Blue Sky & The Painter,” which is characteristically upbeat in melody and depressing in lyrics, describing the life of artist Edvard Munch. “This is about Edvard Munch and it’s a really happy one to finish on. It’s about his creativity and depression,” Smith told the crowd ahead of the final song.
Both of the Los Angeles concerts were incredible from a musical performance aspect, adding a special depth and richness to the recorded versions of these stories, but what really stood out to me was how Smith seemed even more relaxed and himself between songs. He did share at the start of the show, “What I’ve realized with these gigs is I think it’s because I’m sitting down and I can’t see anything, I find myself talking the most almighty amount of crap in between songs.” Selfishly, I hope this isn’t the only ever run of Ampersand shows because I want to experience the magic of it all again—including the extra comedic banter and charm from Dan. There are a few remaining Ampersand events on the calendar, and I highly recommend trying to snag tickets if you can!
Check out more photos from the evening below and listen to Ampersand here.
The actor/musician brother duo of Nat and Alex Wolff, FKA The Naked Brothers Band, derived their music from a Nickelodeon show that the brothers starred in earlier in their lives.
The pair are currently on tour with Billie Eilish for her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour for a string of dates including the two-night stand in Chicago. Coming from a different generation, I wasn’t too entirely familiar with their music, but was equally excited to see what the Brothers Wolff had to offer knowing that artists put in the effort to choose their openers— I figured Billie had her reasons. I’m grateful for the phrase “ a picture is worth a thousand words” because I feel like my photos captured tens of thousands of words encapsulating the amount of entertainment to duo emitted in just the short time allotted for an opening act.
The United Center is definitely no small feat to conquer as an opener and I’ve seen many solid openers in the past not make the mark or hold the crowd’s attention, and that wasn’t the case for last night’s performance. That had a commanding presence and easily connected with the crowd, who let’s face It we know had only Billie on their minds. Some of the fans had even been camping out since Sunday and others were still in their tents on a cold rainy Chicago night for their line spot in the morning for tonight’s show. Nonetheless, both Nat and Alex held nothing back and showcased how they’re not only brothers or actors, but also rockstars.
Check out the full gallery of their performance below, and see where you can catch them on tour next here.
On Sunday, September 8th, Good Neighbours made their Chicago debut, performing to a packed room at Lincoln Hall.
Every few years it seems, people go feral for a song that features whistling. You’ve got “Sisyphus” by Andrew Bird, “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster The People, “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John, and ironically another song titled “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. In 2024, we’re still obsessed with a song called “Home” but this time it’s Good Neighbours’ version.
Hailing from East London, Good Neighbours is the musical partnership of Scott Verrill and Oli Fox, who just released their debut single (the aforementioned “Home”) in January of this year and since then, they’ve already amassed nearly 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Thanks to some viral teasers of the song on TikTok, fans were waiting with ears wide open when Good Neighbours finally gifted the universe with their musical releases.
Funny enough, I was over in England for a week in August and I attended Reading Festival the day that Good Neighbours happened to be playing. Unbeknownst to me, I had already heard the smash single “Home,” but went into their “secret set” at the BBC Introducing stage completely oblivious and ready to hear some new music. I left the set pleasantly surprised that I did already know one of their songs (phew, I’m not that old!) and impressed by the rest of their catalog and stage presence. To my pleasant surprise again, I discovered that the band would be making their touring debut in The States just a few short weeks, including a stop at my hometown of Chicago.
Cut to this Sunday night, fans eagerly awaited hearing Scott, Oli and their touring bandmates perform their short but sweet catalog live. The band opened with another one of their singles “Keep It Up,” which will be on their debut, self-titled EP releasing this October. After the opening number, Oli took some time to address the crowd, saying, “We’re gonna be playing a bunch of songs you probably haven’t heard. Most people have only heard that one or the one that comes in a bit.” Despite that disclaimer, many of the audience members did in fact know the songs that were yet to come, including other singles like “Bloom” and “Daisies.”
Even for the songs that have yet to be released, the fans were ready to dance and enjoy the experience. Oli prefaced one of their unreleased EP songs called “Weekend Boy,” saying it’s about being with someone for only the weekend. After they played the song, he asked the crowd if they liked it and was met with affirmative cheers.
Another song that was met with a lot of cheers was Good Neighbours’ cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s hit “Espresso.” Oli explained how their rendition came to be, telling the crowd “Over the last 8-9 months, we’ve gotten to see a lot of the world. We managed to go to Australia earlier in the year, which is a long way, but we did this thing called Triple J where we went in a did a cover. We chose this lady called Sabrina Carpenter…we’re also big stans. She has a song about coffee,” which was met again with very loud excitement.
The fun energy continued to soar as we neared the end of the show, and we circled back around to “the one that comes in a bit.” Before performing “Home,” Oli talked about their incredible whirlwind journey since the start of the year, saying the generous reception to their music has changed their lives. “We were piss poor when before. We still are to be honest…it’s costing an arm and a leg to be here, but we wouldn’t have it any other way,” he shared.
The show wrapped up with “Daisies” and a promise from the band to come back to Chicago soon.
Check out photos of the show below, and be sure to be a good neighbour and support the band by pre-ordering their EP here. You can also see where you can catch them on the road next here.
The legendary Green Day returned to the historic Wrigley Field on Tuesday, August 13th— this time bringing The Saviors Tour with special guests The Linda Lindas, Rancid, and The Smashing Pumpkins.
The Linda Lindas opened the evening bright and early with a short but sweet set that kicked off at 5:20PM and included a handful of their songs, like “Oh!” and “Growing Up.”
The Linda Lindas, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
Up next, Rancid kept the show rolling with their iconic 90’s punk songs. After performing the popular tune “Timebomb,” vocalist Tim Armstrong took a minute to take in the special moment of performing at such a historic venue, thanking Green Day for the opportunity and sharing their gratitude for Chicago. They brought out the Chicago-native wrestler CM Punk to the stage and dedicated their final song of the night, “Ruby Soho,” to him.
Rancid, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
Next up, Chicago’s very own The Smashing Pumpkins took the stage. Billy Corgan and crew kept up with the theme of nostalgia and 90’s classics, performing so many of their hits in their one-hour set. Fan favorites included “Today,” which got a cheer as soon as the unmistakable opening chords rang out into the stadium, as well as “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and “1979.” Before they wrapped up their set, Corgan took some time to show appreciation for the band’s hometown and Wrigley Field. “Thank you for being with us for 36 years. We used to practice across the street at the Cubby Bear. It only took us 36 years to get here, but we’re so happy. God bless you guys, God bless The Cubs,” he said.
The Smashing Pumpkins, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
After three incredible opening sets, the crowd was warmed up and ready for the main event, but Green Day kept the fans waiting just a little bit longer to get them even more hyped up. As the stage was set and the fans were ready for the band to come on, the epic singalong “Bohemian Rhapsody” played out across the house speakers in its entirety, as fans around the venue were captured for the jumbotrons. During that segment, I spotted some fans dressed as Billie Joe Armstrong in the American Idiot era with red ties and another fan holding a sign that said it was their first concert.
Just when the anticipation bubble felt stretched to the limit, Green Day had one more hype song before they hit the stage— their infamous Pink Bunny mascot came to the stage donning a custom Cubs jersey and danced around to The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.”
Only then as the sun was finally setting, did Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool hit the stage—and boy did they hit the ground running. Right off the jump, the stage production delivered pyrotechnics and elaborate visual backgrounds.
Green Day, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
After opening with the new song “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” we all took a journey back to 1994 to hear the landmark album Dookie performed in full to celebrate the 30-year (!!!) anniversary of those songs. The stage design shifted into a 3-D recreation of the album’s artwork that accompanied the band’s performance of the record in order of the tracklist.
While playing “Longview,” Armstrong took a break to chat to the crowd and say, “Hey, I just realized something. We played with The Smashing Pumpkins, who are from Chicago. Last time we played, we played with the band Fall Out Boy, who are also from Chicago. The next time we play it’s gonna be with the band Chicago!'“ Here’s to hoping Armstrong is able to manifest that line up for the next tour!
As the first half of the set went on, I remained in awe of the elaborate stage production and the band’s never-ending energy— it’s truly a feat how Armstrong is able to keep his voice intact for 2+hours as he continues to rile up the audience between singing over 30 songs. The production elements continuously evolved and remained fascinating, including an inflatable plane that dropped “dookie” bombs into the crowd, pyrotechnics, confetti and video graphics on the big screen.
Green Day, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
Armstrong improvised in snippets of covers of a few other songs as the tracklist for Dookie continued and trailed into a section of songs from the Green Day catalog that don’t fall into Dookie and American Idiot. The mini covers/mashups included “Jack & Diane” by John Mellencamp with “F.O.D.”, “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty before “Dilemma” and “Surrender” by Cheap Trick before “Minority.” Before the latter, Armstrong once again showed his love for Chicago music, saying, “Goddamn there’s so many good bands from Chicago,” referring to Cheap Trick this time.
Another highlight of the part of the show that interluded each album included a special moment with a fan named Bridget. While performing the 2009 single “Know Your Enemy,” Armstrong declared that he wanted to bring someone up on stage, which led to Bridget joining him to finish the rest of the song.
When the time came to transition to a front-to-back performance of 2004’s American Idiot, the stage evolved again to a recreation of the heart-shaped grenade from the album’s cover art. In high school I used to listen to this record on a CD walkman between classes, so it was really special to hear all of the songs performed in full twenty years later. As Armstrong sings in “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” twenty years has gone so fast. Besides getting to hear that lyric during the tour celebrating two decades of a seminal album, another highlight of this part of the show was the entire stadium holding up their phone flashlights for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
Green Day, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
At the end of the American Idiot chapter of the show, Armstrong told the crowd “We don’t do encores because they’re egotistical and stupid,” which got a good laugh from the audience, but that’s a philosophy I can definitely get behind! Armstrong faked walking off stage before starting the instantly-recognizable chords of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” which was the perfect bookend to the spectacle that is The Saviors tour.
There’s something really magical about seeing a rejuvenated production of such nostalgic albums, so if you get the chance to see this show, don’t miss it! See where you can catch the tour next here and tune into the set list below.
Following the first day of Lollapalooza 2024, Faye Webster performed an intimate aftershow at The Vic Theatre, with support from Benét.
After Benét and their band got the crowd warmed up with a mix of songs that had the audience both in their feels and dancing, the stage was set for Faye Webster and her band to close out the first day of the fest.
Faye’s appearance at Lolla took place in the midst of her “Underdressed at the Symphony” tour, aptly named after the title of Webster’s 2024 album. Right off the bat, I was impressed by the immersive stage production and design for this tour—lighting rigs in the form of washer and dryers illuminated the back of the stage and racks of clothing hung behind them. The real star of the stage design, however, was the giant t-shirt-shaped screen that projected different graphics and videos to accompany each song throughout the set. But wait, there’s more! During the fourth song of the night, “The Right Side of My Neck,” a bubble machine filled the venue with bubbles to give a fully immersive experience of being in a laundromat.
Webster occasionally addressed the audience between songs, taking time to say thank you for being there and sharing that her entire family was in attendance that night, but for the most part she and her band kept the show moving to deliver a polished and seamless musical performance. As the band performed many of the songs like “Thinking About You” and “Lego Rings” from the aforementioned Underdressed at the Symphony record alongside fan favorites from her previous albums, her band sometimes incorporated in a violin or saxophone, which gave a rich texture to the live versions of these songs. It also fit in with the “symphony” part of the tour!
Towards the end of the set, Faye also shared with the audience that it was her drummer Charles’ birthday and the audience chimed in to sing “Happy Birthday.” The show began to wind down with “He Loves Me Yeah!” before the band returned for a two-song encore. As we approached the wee hours of Friday morning, Webster’s show concluded with her dreamy single “Kingston.”
There are few things nowadays that will keep me out past midnight, but Faye Webster’s aftershow was most definitely worth it! Check out photos of the magical evening below and see where you can catch her on tour next here.
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024 wrapped up on Sunday, July 21st in Union Park, drawing another mix of different genres to close out the weekend.
I started my third day of the fest with Model/Actriz’s set over on the Red Stage. Having gone in completely blind to the band’s music and their performances, I was instantly blown away by the intensity of their show. Vocalist and frontman Cole Haden dramatically sashayed around the stage at the start of the band’s set, but within a couple of songs he jumped offstage to join the audience in the mosh pit. Haden journeyed to both the left and right sides of the crowd, getting up close and personal with the spectators. The extravagant performance got everyone rejuvenated and ready to take on the final day of the fest.
Photo by Kenn Box
Jessica Pratt played next on the Green Stage, providing a chilled out, easy Sunday afternoon tone as fans watched on under the blazing sun. “Thanks for standing out in the sun with us,” Pratt told the audience as she continued her dreamy songs.
Photo by Alexa Viscius
Mannequin Pussy tied for my favorite performance of the day, alongside Model/Actriz and MUNA—there’s just something about bands that start with the letter M! Fans gathered around the Blue Stage in anticipation a good 20 minutes before this set was slated to start. As the band performed a set heavily comprised of songs from their 2024 album I Got Heaven, lead vocalist Missy Dabice also addressed the packed audience a few times with captivating stage banter that she delivered in her signature sultry whisper that contrasts with her raw singing voice. “Hi boys, I’m Missy. All the men and all the boys raise your hands. I just wanna see what kind of fucked up men come to a Mannequin Pussy show,” she joked before asking everyone to scream “pussy” as loud as they could. The scream theme returned later in the show when Missy instructed everyone to let out a primal yell. “We’re the luckiest people alive to be able to be together, to be able to be in a place transferring your cathartic pain into something that looks more like community,” she prefaced the group primal scream. There’s a certain controlled chaos around Mannequin Pussy shows, where just as you feel you’re about to teeter over the edge, Missy and the band pull you right back in line. Who needs therapy when you can just go to one of their shows?
Photo by Kimberley Ross
MUNA kept the energy soaring high over on the Green Stage, opening with their singles “What I Want” and “Number One Fan” that kept the audience dancing under the evening sun. The trio of Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson were joined by a couple of live band members to help bring their songs to life on the stage, but the focus remained on the core band members are they bolted around the stage and fed off one another’s energy. Gavin slipped in some funny banter alongside the music, asking the fest-goers if they just fell out of a coconut tree (in reference to the Kamala Harris meme). Gavin also called out the full circle experience for the band when she shared she used to come to the festival during high school. Towards the end of the set, the band tossed out inflatable horses into the crowd during the performance of “Anything but Me,” which was fitting for the part of the show that had a twinge of twang as Gavin played acoustic guitar.
Photo by Alexa Viscius
Brittany Howard closed out the Red Stage with her soulful, powerhouse vocals. Accompanied by a full band, the singer told the audience “I drove through the night to get here and I’m gonna give y’all everything I got!” Howard delivered, giving me goosebumps with her commanding vocals.
Photo by Kimberley Ross
Now, Mannequin Pussy’s show might have been controlled chaos, but Les Savy Fav’s set was pure, unfiltered chaos from the moment it began. Frontman Tim Harrington rolled up on a Lime scooter from the back of the crowd, parting the sea of concert-goers as he rode to the front barricade. From there, Harrington spent only a few moments onstage before he moved on to spend the majority of the show wandering amongst the fans, venturing all the way to the back of the crowd, and having audience members participate in the show as he went along. Les Savy Fav’s show was more of an interactive art exhibit backed by an epic soundtrack.
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Alanis Morissette closed out the entire festival with a setlist packed with hit after hit—opening with “Hand in My Pocket” and winding down with “You Oughta Know.” One of the greatest aspects of music festivals is getting the chance to discover a new act, but fests are best when that discovery is anchored with some veteran performers. It felt truly inspiring and invigorating to get to witness the expertise and finely-tuned craft of stage performance that Morissette and her band have mastered throughout their years of touring and playing live music. Elaborate visual graphics accompanied the tight musicality of Alanis’ performance to elevate the production even further. Morissette and her band also gave a one-of-a-kind performance of “Ironic” at Pitchfork Fest by bringing out the entirety of MUNA to sing the song with her. We love to see a crossover moment! Following the cathartic and chills-inducing performance of “You Oughta Know” that closed out Morissette’s main set, the singer returned for a two-song encore including “Uninvited” and “Thank U.”
Photo by Kimberley Ross
Pitchfork Music Fest returned for day two at Union Park on Saturday, July 20th, with another perfect day of weather and a musical line up that focused on good old fashioned rock n’ roll in the early afternoon and pivoted to pop queens and dance beats in the later hours.
The day began with some local love thanks to Chicago’s own Lifeguard opening the fest on the Green Stage. They kickstarted the rock-focused performances with their grungy, indie sound and had the early afternoon crowd enthralled. As I listened to their set, I overheard an audience member say, “I LOVE Lifeguard! The fact that these teenagers are rocking so hard like a band from the 90’s is insane.”
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Next up, L'Rain, the moniker for artist Taja Cheek, and her band slowed down the tempo and projected a calm demeanor out to the crowd with their ambient, experimental sound that helped get everyone in the right headspace for a full day at a festival.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Another Chicago-based artist, Kara Jackson, hit the Green stage next, and she brought along other Chicago music icons to play in her band, including Sen Morimoto, Macie Stewart and Kaina— all of whom have played past Pitchfork Fests. Kara’s set opened with her popular cover of Karen Dalton’s song “Right, Wrong or Ready” before moving onto her single “no fun/party” from her 2023 debut album. During the second song, Jackson said, “I’ve done this song a billion times in the last year or so. It gets really boring sometimes but I realized it reminded me of one of my favorite other song that maybe some of you have heard before” as she slipped in a snippet of SZA’s “Love Galore.”
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
From there the tempo ramped back up with a slew of bands that all complemented each other’s sounds well. First, New York’s Hotline TNT riled up the Blue Stage, starting off their set telling the audience “Let’s go fucking crazy today” as the band and audience fed off of each other’s energy. Feeble Little Horse followed, drawing in a large crowd over at the Red Stage, especially for the early afternoon timeslot. “We’re so happy to be opening for Carly Rae Jepsen,” the band joked— adding in “And Karly from Wednesday. You should see them too.” Both Hotline TNT and Feeble Little Horse’s sounds had similar grunge elements as Lifeguard.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Before we got to the first Karly of the day, Water From Your Eyes hit the Blue Stage next. Lead vocalist Rachel Brown took the stage saying, “What’s up Chicago? Who likes alternative rock music?” once again keeping up the theme of Saturday’s afternoon line up. Brown also told the crowd that they were currently experiencing a lingering cough following a case of laryngitis, which they chalked up to as karma for sneaking into Pitchfork Festival ten years ago when they were a teenager.
Photo by Kenn Box
Asheville alternative rockers Wednesday, which includes vocalist Karly Hartzman and MJ Lenderman (who actually played Pitchfork Fest last year), hit the Green Stage next. The group amped up the volume and showcased Hartzman’s signature scream vocals as they played songs from their 2023 album Rat Saw God as well as some newer unreleased material. Wednesday’s set also included a cover of “Women Without Whiskey” by Drive-By Truckers.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
As the day slipped into the evening hours, the vibes of Pitchfork crept more towards a dance party, starting with the legendary hip hop group De La Soul performing some of their iconic songs like “Me Myself and I” alongside a cover of “Simon Says” by Pharoahe Monch— the latter of which featured a guest appearance by Monch himself.
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Pitchfork Fest began the descent into evening by journeying into pop music for my favorite set of the day from Jessie Ware. The singer and her band brought a full production packed with choreographed dance numbers and dazzling outfits. Ware herself donned a sparkling jumpsuit featuring cape sleeves and sequins that radiated from the evening sun, while her backup dancers also sported vests bedazzled in sequins. While Jessie showcased her flawless vocals and diva-belting abilities, she also connected to the crowd with her humbled and hilarious stage banter. “This is my favorite city in The States to play,” she proclaimed as she continued to shout out some of her long-time supporters from Chicago by their first names. Ware’s dancers shone as they did flips and lifted the singer up, but Ware also made sure to include the fans in their choreography as she performed her song “Beautiful People.” Everyone got into the crowd-participation dancing as Jessie told everyone to “stand up, turn around, take a bow.” The singer even joked that security could join in. As I’ve mentioned, several of the artists performed covers during their sets today—and who doesn’t love a good cover during a festival set? Jessie Ware’s show was no exception as she performed a rendition of Cher’s hit “Believe,” jumping down from the stage to sing with fans along the barricades.
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Meanwhile Bratmobile kept the rock presence alive over on the Blue stage. They brought their riot grrrl songs like “Brat Girl” and “Panik” to the fest. True to the cover-song theme of the day, they also performed a cover of “Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Carly Rae Jepsen flipped the switch back to pop over at the Red Stage, entering to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and rocking a sparkling sequin dress. Jepsen’s stage backdrop consisted of a disco ball screen that changed colors depending on the song. Jepsen also set up her songs with some fun stage banter, saying “Are you guys ready to run away with us tonight?” before her hit “Run Away With Me” and joking that she sometimes forgets the words to “Call Me Maybe” so she she’d need the audiences help singing along. The crowd happily obliged to singing and dancing along, and Jepsen also came down from the stage to sing with fans along the barricade.
Photo by Daniel Cavazos
The dance party wrapped up the second day of the rest with a headlining set from Jamie xx.
Photo by Kimberley Ross
Check out highlights from the first day of the festival here and stay tuned for the final day.
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024 returned to Union Park, kicking off on Friday, July 19th. Although we’ve had storms and heat waves in Chicago in recent weeks, the weather forecast looks great for the entire weekend, and fans were able to start the weekend of festivities with sun and comfortable temperatures to go along with the day-one lineup that included everything from the lofi and laidback Black Duck to amped up electronic acts like 100 gecs and Jai Paul to the soulful rockers Black Pumas.
Around 5:15 PM, DJ and singer Yaeji kicked off the dance party that bounced between the Red and Green stages for the rest of the evening. Flanked by two backup dancers, Yaeji glided across the stage, singing her bilingual lyrics of English and Korean words. A highlight of her set included her most popular song “Raingurl” that features a hypnotic beat and had the whole crowd moving in unison.
Meanwhile over at the Blue Stage, Amen Dunes, which is the musical project of singer-songwriter Damon McMahon, held down the experimental indie rock quota of the festival for the day. The band’s set included a handful of new songs from the album Death Jokes that just came out in May 2024, like “Purple Land” and “Exodus.” Fans also got to hear some familiar favorites like “Miki Dora” from Amen Dunes’ 2018 album Freedom.
Photo by OK Pedersen
Next up, 100 gecs cranked up the energy ten-fold, drawing in a massive crowd to join their rave mosh pit. The duo Dylan Brady and Laura Les kept the crowd smiling and dancing along with their quirky lyrics and outlandish electronic tracks, opening up the show with their song “Dumbest Girl Alive.” Les and Brady also did a great job at setting up their upcoming songs with their witty stage banter—before playing “Frog On The Floor” the duo told the audience to “look to your right, look to your left, now look down and make sure there’s not a frog on the floor!” They also asked the crowd to cheer if they’d ever had a tooth pulled or lost a tooth, adding “let me hear it if you’ve ever gone -1 on a tooth” before they performed “I Got My Tooth Removed.” In addition to all of the dancing I witnessed during 100 gecs, I also spotted my first crowdsurfer of the day during their set.
Photo by Kimberly Ross
Violinist and singer-songwriter Sudan Archives as well as DJ and producer Jai Paul kept the dance parties going at the Blue and Red stages next as we got into some of the final moments of the day one.
Jeff Rosenstock and his band closed out the Blue Stage with my favorite performance of the day, which began with the song “Chop Suey!” by System of a Down playing over the speakers until Rosenstock and his bandmates took their places onstage and finished out playing the song live. From there, the set launched into a feel-good rowdy rock set that was a nice change of pace from the heavily electronic-based music on the lineup. While I spotted one or two crowdsurfers earlier, there were too many to keep track of towards the end of Jeff Rosenstock’s performance— including Jeff himself jumping offstage while playing the saxophone. While the crowd might have been rambunctious, Rosenstock made sure to encourage everyone to remain respectful, asking everyone to say hi to their festival neighbors and keep it a friendly space for others. “Make it a habit throughout the weekend, and if throughout the weekend some fucking dumb dipshit person starts groping the person next to you, and starts getting in their space, just gather the nice people around you and push that person the fuck out of the way so everybody can enjoy the weekend.”
Photo by OK Pedersen
As the sun began to go down, Black Pumas began their soulful rock and roll headlining show over on the main stage to wrap up Friday’s festivities. Their show opened on a high note-literally- as lead vocalist Eric Burton showed off his silky and dynamic vocal range. Burton also took the opportunity to connect and get close to the audience, hopping down from the stage to join the fans on the barricade as he serenaded them. The Black Pumas’ performance made for a great way to ease into some of the more pop-heavy performers that are slated for the rest of Pitchfork Fest.
Photo by Kimberly Ross
Keep an eye out for highlights from Saturday and Sunday of Pitchfork Fest.
This past Friday night, Winnetka Bowling League performed a sold out show at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, drawing in one of the largest crowds I’ve seen at this venue.
The band’s current tour is in celebration of their debut album Sha La La, which was just released on May 31st this year, so it was fitting that the setlist opened with the title track of the record. In the song, lead vocalist Matthew Koma sings about a string of past phases and simpler times that he misses like “our feed before it was political” and “the world before it was polluted with space cowboy billionaires,” so it was fitting that the stage was decked out with old box tv sets and nostalgic candy machines.
Before they got too far into the set, Koma took some time to address the crowd, saying how special Chicago is to them. “We don’t say that to all the girls, ok? It’s the first place that we came to on one of our first headlining tours, and it was our first show that we ever sold out. It made us think we should keep doing this,” he said, before dedicating the next song “On The 5” to their OG fans.
The setlist featured a lot of the material from their debut record, but similar to “On The 5,” the band sprinkled in plenty of other songs from the full WBL discography. In addition to plenty of music, the band also delivered a lot of laughs between songs, which was fitting because one of the opening acts was actually a stand up comedian named Caroline Baniewicz.
Ahead of playing “Come to the Beach” Koma told the audience about his experience with his BetterHelp therapist while he’s on the road. “We’ve been working on communication because I can communicate pretty well through songs, but in real life when it comes to confrontation I kind of take side streets, so we’ve been working on that. You wait for an opportunity in real life where you can apply what you’re talking about on BetterHelp. So a couple of weeks ago, there was this guy on Instagram who kept commenting on all our videos and kept kind of saying ‘fuck you.’ He said other stuff but every time I read it, it just said ‘fuck you.’ I thought I’m gonna come back with a quippy reply, and then I thought about my BetterHelp guy and how he wants me to be more direct. So Sam [Beresford] and I were driving to the airport and Sam found his home address and his phone number, and I said I’m just gonna call him and be like why ‘fuck you’? Then I fell back into the old habit and I signed him up for the US Army. Anyways, I think there’s a misconception that if you go to therapy, you have to stop being an asshole and I’m just here to say you can still be a piece of shit. That has absolutely nothing to do with this next song.”
The show continued with more great tunes and quips from Koma, including another story about a recent trip to CVS ahead of playing their song by the same name. After both of those stories, I definitely think that BetterHelp and CVS should sponsor the next WBL tour!
As the show began to wind down, the band played one of their newer singles called “This is Life,” which was a collaboration with Medium Build and Dawes that they released only a few weeks after Sha La La came out. Koma continues to be one of my favorite lyricists and the band flawlessly brought Winnetka Bowling League’s songs to life during the show at Lincoln Hall, so I hope they continue to consistently deliver new material and bring it to the stage.
If you get a chance to see the tour, don’t miss it. You can check out photos of the Chicago gig below, and see where you can catch the tour next here.
