The second day of the Pitchfork Music Festival pulled out all the stops. The day started out hot and sunny as Japanese pop band CHAI took the stage. The adorable four-piece girl group have been interviewed as saying they want to “take Kawaii back” and redefine the definition of Japanese cute culture.
While they didn’t speak much English, and the audience clearly didn’t speak Japanese, both the band and the crowd were smiling during their entire set. As their set came to a close, they each put on colorful cloaks and danced to a techno song that kept shouting “We are CHAI!” Every moment of their set was wonderful, and they fit in perfectly with Pitchfork’s crowd.
Parquet Courts had one of the most intense and energetic crowds of the weekend. Bassist Sean Yeaton continuously made amazing faces and poses as their lead singer Austin Brown growled into the mic. During their set, fans were moshing and crowd surfing while taking photos on disposable cameras and throwing their gym shoes in the air. As photographers took a break before the next set, I heard Brown say “well folks, looks like Mother Nature is going to cut our set short.” No one knew quite what was going on, until a delightful British voice came on over the speakers, letting us know that big storms were coming. Somehow, a few of us made it to a bar nearby before it began pouring, but we were bummed that both Kurt Vile and Amber Mark’s sets were cut from Saturday.
