MAJICAL CLOUDZ

July 18th - Pitchfork Music Festival Pre-Party

I arrived in Chicago around 5:30pm local time. I took the CTA to to the Hard Rock Hotel, where myself and other festival-related people were staying. I slept for half an hour, shaved, and then headed with Matt to Lincoln Hall where we were scheduled to be soundchecking at 9:30pm.

When we arrived the early show, featuring Savages, was just about to wrap up. I only saw the last few minutes of the Savages set. My impression: it was fast, tight, loud, and entertaining. It felt like a very well-practiced attack of sound.

We soundchecked quickly in a few minutes after the stage was cleared off. Afterwards we did an interview with a girl named Cher from CHIRP Radio, a local independent radio station.

We began the show by singing the Canadian national anthem.

When we started the show it felt slightly uncomfortable. We hadn’t practiced in a little while because I had been away. The show itself was an unsual one — we were the only band performing at a “pre-party” for the festival. My assumption was that it would primarily be a meet-and-greet for the journalists and music-related people who came in early for the festival. But it turned out that many of the people there were young people unaffiliated with the festival who were simply interested in seeing us play.

The set started off jokey but became more serious after a few songs. I applied purple lipstick while singing “Notebook” and I invited a young audience member onstage to dance with me during “Mister”. I threw my shoes at the wall during “Childhood’s End”. When we played “Bugs Don’t Buzz” we asked that the lights be turned off completely, and then as the song progressed much of the audience sang along. At one point (for the first time ever in the history of our band) I passed the mic to someone in the front row, who sang most of one of the verses.

We finished the set with an acapella version of “What That Was”.

After the show I hung out in the front and talked with some people who had been at the show. Since they were underage they were then asked to leave, so we all went outside to the street to talk.