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PHOTO RECAP: Riot Fest 2022- Saturday
ANCHR spent the last weekend at Riot Fest checking out a mix of old favorites and new discoveries. Check out the Saturday photo gallery recap, featuring Bridge City Sinners, Bully, Cumgirl8, Gwar, Madball, Mannequin Pussy, No Trigger, Surfbort, Thick, War on Women, Yungblud, and Yellowcard.
Stay tuned for more coverage of the rest of the weekend.
PHOTO RECAP: Riot Fest 2022- Friday
ANCHR spent the last weekend at Riot Fest checking out a mix of old favorites and new discoveries. Check out the Friday photo gallery recap, featuring Algiers, Alkaline Trio, Bob Vylan, Cloud Nothings, Destroy Boys, Foxy Shazam, Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg, and Wargasm. Stay tuned for more coverage of the rest of the weekend.
PHOTOS: Lord Huron and First Aid Kit at Salt Shed
Lord Huron and First Aid Kit brought a night of beautiful music to a sold-out Salt Shed on Monday night. See the photo recap of the evening below, and see where you can catch Lord Huron on tour next here.
PHOTOS: Here and There Festival with Courtney Barnett, Alvvays, and The Beths
This week the Courtney Barnett-curated music festival, Here and There, stopped in Chicago with Alvvays and The Beths for an unforgettable night at the city’s newest venue, The Salt Shed. See photos of the evening below, and see where you can catch the tour next here.
PHOTOS: The Wild Hearts Tour at Salt Shed
This past week, The Salt Shed hosted yet another stellar evening, welcoming The Wild Hearts Tour—which featured the incredibly stacked line up of Julien Baker, Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen and support from Quinn Christopherson. If you missed out on the sold out show, see the full photo gallery below, and see where you can catch the tour next here.
Live Recap: Fleet Foxes and Uwade at Salt Shed
Fleet Foxes and Uwade performed to a huge crowd this past Wednesday night during the Salt Shed’s inaugural week.
The show was part of Salt Shed’s “Outside the Shed” series— a string of outdoor shows taking place around the venue while the indoor space continues to be revamped. The forecast had been calling for potential thunderstorms all evening, but the musical and weather gods blessed us with a clear forecast aside from a few sprinkles of rain here and there.
Uwade kicked off the evening with a solo support set, warming up the crowd with her stunning songwriting and friendly banter. Her show opened up with her song “Nostalgia,” which the singer shared was the first song she wrote. Uwade also introduced her next song “The Man Who Sees Tomorrow” by dedicating it to her father and sharing an anecdote about him and the creation of the song. Uwade also performed her newest single “Do You See The Light Around Me?,” which was released this year by Sylvan Esso’s record label Psychic Hotline.
The crowd attentively basked in the beauty of Uwade’s original music, and fortunately her set wasn’t the only time we saw her that evening— she returned to the stage at the start of Fleet Foxe’s set to perform “Wading In Waist-Hight Water” with the band. The track from 2020’s Shore features the collaboration between the singer and Fleet Foxes, so it was incredible to hear the song brought to life as the opening tune of their show.
Fleet Foxes’ set took place as the sun began to set, casting a hazy glow on the city’s skyline while the band provided the perfect soundtrack. Fleet Foxes’ frontman Robin Pecknold took the opportunity to share his appreciation for the evening several times throughout the night, but in the very beginning of the show, he told the audience how great it was to be at the venue for the opening week and called out that the weather cooperating.
Pecknold also engaged the crowd in banter between songs, asking “did everyone get a free popsicle?” in reference to the giveaway from Salt Shed, in partnership with Pretty Cool Ice Cream. While the set weaved through fan favorites like “Can I Believe You,” “White Winter Hymnal,” and “Third of May / Ōdaigahara,” Fleet Foxes also incorporated a few covers into the mix, including “Phoenix” by Big Red Machine and “The Kiss” by Judee Sill. Before playing the latter, Pecknold performed the song “If You Need To, Keep Time on Me” on acoustic guitar, accompanied only by Casey Westcott on piano while the rest of the band took a breather. The quieter moment provided juxtaposition against the full band that played for most of the show and included everything from trumpets, trombones and tambourines alongside the more traditional guitar, bass and piano.
The Chicago audience sadly missed out on the performance of Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name,” which a fan in the front had requested after seeing them cover it earlier this tour. Pecknold joked with the audience that they couldn’t perform the song because Christian [Wargo]’s mom was in attendance that night.
The evening wrapped up with an encore that once again featured the vocals of Uwade, providing a full circle moment to a wonderful night.
See photos of the show below, and see where you can catch Fleet Foxes on tour next here.
PHOTOS: MUNA and Meet Me at the Altar at Thalia Hall
Last week, MUNA performed to a sold out Thalia Hall for a Lollapalooza after show, also featuring Meet Me at the Altar. See the photo recap of the evening below, and see where you can catch MUNA next here.
Live Recap: The Wombats and Last Dinosaurs at House of Blues
Lollapalooza week kicked off with some pre-fest after shows, including The Wombats and Last Dinosaurs on Tuesday, July 26th at the House of Blues.
Last Dinosaurs is an Australian rock band, consisting of Sean Caskey, Lachlan Caskey, Michael Sloane, and Dan Koyama. The band warmed up the crowd for The Wombats, joking that it was fitting because “The Wombats are near and dear as an Australian animal.” Throughout their set, I noticed many fans throughout the venue singing along to songs like “Zoom,” “Apollo,” and “Italo Disco,” which the band introduced by saying “If you have any Italian descent, this one goes out to you.” Last Dinosaurs has a new album coming out November 4th called From Mexico With Love, which you can preorder here.
Next up, The Wombats took the stage to a very packed venue of fans ready to dance and sing along to their entire set. The trio consisting of Matthew “Murph” Murphy, Tord Øverland Knudsen, and Dan Haggis had toured earlier this year in support of their fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not the World, so it was fitting that their show kicked off with two newer songs from that record— “Flip Me Upside Down” and “This Car Drives All by Itself.” From the get-go, Murph and Knudsen unleashed their infectious energy, bouncing around the stage as they played. Before transitioning to a throwback track “Moving To New York,” Murph told the crowd that he “wished this song was about Chicago,” but nevertheless, the Chicagoans still went wild for the song, making the House of Blues floor literally shake from all their jumping.
The set continued to weave through The Wombats’ expansive catalog, including a few songs from 2015’s Glitterbug. As a preface for “Pink Lemonade,” Murph said “I sing a lot about fruits… lemons… this song is the first one about a lemon tonight. The pink lemon.” The other lemony song is of course “Lemon to a Knife Fight,” which comes from 2018’s Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. The band’s good humor came through several other times during the show— about half way through, they broke out into an impromptu muzak tangent, which got a loud reaction to the crowd. “That’s very kind of you, you did not need to applaud for that,” the band replied.
The evening truly felt like a much-needed escape from everything going on in the outside world, and Murph further facilitated that release by asking the crowd to raise their hands and give him an “end of the world scream” before the performance of “Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)” from The Modern Glitch.
The Wombats played their hit “Greek Tragedy” as their “pretend last song” before returning for a 3-song encore that pulled from songs old and new. During the official last song “Turn,” even people in the way back of the venue were dancing with massive smiles on their face. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again— it’s literally impossible to be sad at a Wombats show.
See photos of the evening below, and see where you can catch The Wombats on the road next here.
Live Recap: Pitchfork Festival 2022 Day 3
The third day of Pitchfork Festival took place on Sunday, July 17th, with breezy and cloudy weather conditions to go along with all the chill vibes.
I began my day catching a set from Taja Cheek, AKA L’Rain, and the beginning of her set featured a calming reset for all fest goers. Cheek asked everyone in the audience to take a deep breath and close their eyes, saying, “this is the only time in the history of the world that all us will be together in this space.” It was the perfect reminder to be more present with current experiences, and felt like the Calm app IRL. For the remainder of the set, Cheek’s silky smooth vocals and chill energy kept the vibes going.
Next up, Chicago’s own Kaina took the Green Stage and continued the breezy tones. “I’m from Chicago and this is my first time playing Pitchfork. I’m so emotional to be here,” Kaina told the audience. L’Rain’s set earlier had featured a saxophonist in the band, lending a soulful touch to her music— and the saxophone trend only continued with Kaina’s show. Her band features fellow Chicagoan and multi-instrumentalist Sen Morimoto, who played the sax during Kaina’s Pitchfork debut. The show featured some of Kaina’s newer music from the 2022 album It Was a Home, as well as a few from her 2019 album Next to The Sun. Kaina didn’t let her set end without giving props to her bandmates— “Pitchfork, please give it up for the band, these are my best friends,” she said.
Sunday was the day of the festival where I was least familiar with the artists on the lineup, so it was my day of discovery. One act that I experienced blindly was Sofia Kourtesis. Kourtesis is originally from Lima, Peru, but based in Berlin, Germany and her music captures a perfect blend of her hometown and current base by blending EDM sounds with Lantinx flare. Her set was at 2:45 PM but it felt like we are all in a nightclub in Berlin with the amount of bass and beat building she did in her performance. The crowd was very into her performance, and Kourtesis returned the enthusiasm by saying “We had a very hard time coming here, but to see your faces makes it worth it.”
Next up, I caught a few minutes of Injury Reserve on the Red Stage, and it was another first-time discovery for me. The hip hop group from Tempe, AZ is composed of Ritchie with a T and Parker Corey, and the duo performed their set on a hazy, fog-filled stage.
BADBADNOTGOOD unfortunately had to drop off from the Sunday lineup due to illness, but we got to experience Natural Information Society in their place. I saw the ensemble recently open up for Kurt Vile at Thalia Hall, but they switched it up at Pitchfork Festival by playing one long piece for the entirety of their set. The band set up included brass instruments, woodwinds, and of course— a saxophonist! Sunday’s line up was essentially “more saxophone!” instead of “more cowbell!”
Noname was up next back at the Red Stage, delivering another dose of hometown pride to the festival ground. Noname has played that same stage at Pitchfork Festival before, but this was definitely the most packed I’ve seen the audience. Fans were loudly screaming her lyrics back at her, and it was obvious Noname was very appreciative of the support. Her set also had a guest appearance from rapper The Mind.
After almost a full day of no rain, the clouds eventually opened up and we got a brief shower of downpour that had some fans scattering towards trees and the record fair tents for cover. The rain also caused a short delay for the next sets from Earl Sweatshirt and Tirzah, who played at the Green and Blue Stages respectively. Lots of fans stuck it out and rejoiced when Earl Sweatshirt and his DJ finally took the stage. Earl Sweatshirt kept the chill vibes going, telling the crowd he came out in flip flips. Despite being laidback, he did try to rile up an empty spot in the crowd, but realized there was a huge mud pit that prevented everyone from packing into that section.
Toro y Moi closed out the Red Stage with some funky, electronic-based grooves. The set started out kind of slowed and subdued, but continued to pick up to a point where the whole crowd was dancing along. Setlist highlights included “The Difference” and “Ordinary Pleasure.”
The Blue Stage wrapped up for the entire weekend with a delightful set from Cate Le Bon. Le Bon put on a very polished and serene performance, which included songs like “Pompeii,” the title track of her latest album, and fan favorite “Moderation.” Her band also included a (you guessed it) saxophonist, bringing the daily sax count up yet again.
The Roots closed out the entirety of Pitchfork Fest 2022 with a bang, bringing their feel-good tunes to the Sunday evening audience. Their set was a non-stop medley of dance-inducing grooves— from the performance of “Jungle Boogie” at the start of the set to “Move On Up” at the end, they kept the hits coming. Their set also featured a guest appearance from Hannibal Buress, who had done a DJ set in the new Zelle tent earlier in the weekend.
See the full photo recap of Sunday below, and make sure to revisit the day 1 and day 2 recaps.
