Pitchfork Festival 2021: Saturday Recap and Photos
Saturday afternoon at Pitchfork Festival 2021 began with more incredible performances and beautiful weather. Read up on our highlights from the festival’s second day below, and revisit our favorite moments from the first day here.
Bartees Strange
Bartees Strange is an artist I (very) regretfully had been sleeping on until catching his powerful performance at Pitchfork Festival this year. After playing in other projects, Bartees Strange began as a new solo endeavor for musician Bartees Leon Cox Jr. in 2017. Strange’s music refuses to be pigeonholed into one genre, and instead pulls in slices of rock, jazz, and hip hop. In 2020, he released a diverse debut album called Live Forever, as well as an EP of covers of songs by The National. The festival set included his take on the popular The National song “Lemonworld.”
Bartees Strange played his set with such a sense of conviction, pouring his entire heart and soul into his vocal performance and overall stage presence. I had the chance to see him play a festival after-show on Monday night to a packed crowd at the Empty Bottle, and it felt like we were all witnessing his dreams come true in front our eyes. Strange put on such a polished, yet raw and humble show that it was impossible not to become an instant fan.
Divino Niño
If you read our recommendations on must-see acts at the festival, you’ll know that Divino Niño was already at the top of the list for this weekend. Even though I had high expectations and I’ve seen them many times before, Divino Niño’s Pitchfork set exceeded those expectations by a landslide.
Thanks to the strong chemistry between band members Camilo Medina, Javier Forero, Guillermo Rodriguez-Torres, Pierce Codina, and Justin Vitorri, the group had an unwavering air of confidence and ease surrounding their festival performance on Saturday afternoon. Divino Niño is a project founded on happenstance, as Medina and Forero met as children in Columbia and reconnected in Miami as teenagers, before ultimately beginning to make music together in Chicago during college. From the poise and commanding stage presence that Medina, Forero and their bandmates demonstrated during this show, it truly felt like everything was as it should be during those moments.
With so much turmoil happening in the outside world, Divino Niño’s set provided a much needed escape and a chance to dance away our worries to the sound of their dreamy, psychedelic pop tunes.
Waxahatchee
The soothing escapism continued later on Saturday evening with a stunning set from Waxahatchee, the project of singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield.
Crutchfield and her bandmates took their places on a stage decked out in roses, in front of a dreamy, cloud-filled backdrop that donned the name of Waxahatchee’s newest album, Saint Cloud.
Waxahatchee is one of those tried and true artists who consistently delivers incredible performances, and their Pitchfork set was no different. Like many artists at the fest, Waxahatchee was performing new songs from their 2020 album to this audience for the first time, so the set relied heavily on Saint Cloud songs, like “Fire” and “Lilacs.” Crutchfield and her band also sprinkled in some older gems from 2017’s Out in the Storm, like the crowd favorite “Recite Remorse.” The show wrapped up with a cover of “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” by the great Dolly Parton.
Ty Segall & Freedom Band
Before Ty Segall and his bandmates began officially playing, they had to wrap up some last minute soundchecks. Even with the minimal and quick riffs they ran through during this final soundcheck, the anticipation and eagerness already palpitated throughout the crowd.
When Segall and the band began shredding through their psychedelic, garage rock songs for the full show, the energy from the crowd became even more electrifying and added to the overall experience. Segall’s extensive catalog of records are great to listen to at home or in the car, but nothing compares to the magnitude of the live show. Throughout the set, we got to hear some newer tunes from the 2021 album Harmonizer amongst other classics like “Squealer” and “Finger” from earlier albums.
Angel Olsen
One of the best aspects of concerts and festivals is the sense of community behind them. While most of those community vibes happen among festival attendees, there’s also the collaborative element between the artists that you can only fully experience in a live setting.
Angel Olsen’s set that took place just after sunset had one of those moments, when Sharon Van Etten made a surprise appearance to join Olsen in performing their 2021 duet “Like I Used To” and close out the set. Prior to the special closing moment, Olsen kept the large crowd hooked with her ethereal vocals and witty stage banter. Before playing her hit “Shut Up Kiss Me,” Olsen joked with the audience that she was going to be trying out a brand new song she and the band had never played before-- which only piled on the excitement from the crowd when they recognized the opening lyrics of the tune.
St Vincent
Saturday night at Pitchfork closed out with a full-blown theatrical production from St. Vincent. The headlining set began with backup dancers and singers gracing the stage in 1970’s disco style garb, with Annie Clark (AKA St. Vincent) making her grand entrance shortly afterwards.
The entire stage setup and groovy costumes of Clark and her band truly felt like a trip back in time, continuing the theme of escapism during the festival’s second day. St. Vincent’s beautiful and charismatic performance of course included songs from the 2021 album Daddy’s Home, but the earlier half of the set called back to a lot of earlier material like “Birth in Reverse” and “New York.”
View more photos of the festival’s second day, including Horsegirl, Bartees Strange, Divino Niño, Amaarae, Waxahatchee, Ty Segall, Kim Gordon, Angel Olsen, Jamila Woods, and St. Vincent below, and stay tuned for Day 3 coverage.
