Fans waited in line outside the Ramova Theatre in the freezing cold, excited to see Earl Sweatshirt and company. Once a historic movie palace, now a hip music venue, fans packed the Spanish-inspired architectural structure from the top floor balcony to the barricade in front of the stage. Before trying to wrestle a good vantage point, it was important to grab a drink or check out the merch tables (yours truly bought Earl’s album on cassette). No time was wasted as the event kicked off immediately with Zelooperz having the duty of getting the show going, and he didn’t disappoint.

The lanky Zelooperz strutted to the DJ booth with an SP404 in hand as fans cheered when he began his set with tracks off his latest album Dali Ain’t Dead. Displaying his storytelling skills, Zelooperz rapped about growing up in a rough environment with “Bebe Kids”. Afterwards, wanting to get the fans riled up, he leapt into the crowd to mosh for the collaborative song with Zach Fox, “Push Me Around”. Definitely a hyped track that you’ll want to bump in some speakers and let out some aggression. The chorus repeats “Bet you a n***a won’t push me around,” getting fans energised and ready to attack any sucker that dares to step out of line. Zelooperz showed range in his character as he performed the amusing track “Tryna Figure Out Where My Phone At?,” “F**k Cigarettes,” the old school hip-hop focused “Jay Jay-Z,” and even hosted a dance competition. Zelooperz ended his set by getting the crowd to turn their phone lights on, making the venue feel like stars in space for his throwback “Satellites”.

After such intensity, things mellowed down a bit when Liv.e took the stage. She had some diehard fans losing their minds when she arrived, even to her surprise, with one fan’s poster reading, “Liv.e is my big gay sister!” She appreciated the gesture. Liv.e certainly has a unique style blending soulful R&B and solid raps with spacey chiptune beats. She even joked, “Don’t act like ya’ll never heard no weird beats before”. Still through all the boops and beeps, her wonderful voice shone through on the jazzy track “Wild Animals”. Earl Sweatshirt chilled on stage the whole time, and it was nice seeing him vibe and truly support the artists he brought on tour with him. Liv.e continued to scat a bit and played some instrumentals, hinting at her 2026 collaborative album with GENA and Karriem Riggins, The Pleasure is Yours, before abruptly leaving the stage without notice.

Nevertheless, Earl Shirtsweat picked things back up, and the fans were ecstatic! He grinned widely, seeing the turnout and began with Live Laugh Love’s opener, “GSW VS SAC”. Earl performed a slew of tracks off the album, including “Static,” “Exhaust,” “Infatuation,” and “Gamma”. It was incredible to listen to how far the quirky kid from Odd Future had morphed into a more complete artist, both lyrically and with the instrumentation. He showcased that growth by performing “Heat Check” off his VOIR DIRE project with legendary producer Alchemist. “The live and die with a smile. Getting fly, watching water rising. Blood on the horizon. Blood spilling out the idol. They try and judge like Simon. Im leaving on a note most highest. Drop the mic like Ryan.” Yet Earl still repped the early stages of his career by taking us back with tracks from yesteryear like “Molasses” and “Molliwopped”.  

People often perceive Earl’s mellow, nonchalant delivery of his lyrics often are perceived as him not caring. That couldn’t be further from the truth. He has worked hard at his craft, continuously developing as an artist and an individual. He simply figured out who he is, and maybe you should too.

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Without a doubt, the first day was the harshest to endure. There were a few moments of peace, but the majority of the day was nonstop rain, but fans embraced the flurry standing out in the open field to support Chicago native Kaina, who came out on stage to thunderous applause. Kaina returned the dedication by singing songs off her latest album It Was A Home, songs like “Apple” made people dance with its groovy retro style while other songs like “Anybody Can Be in Love”, truly showcased her heavenly voice.

Parquet Courts took the stage next. It felt like déjà vu of 2019 when the band played the very same stage at Pitchfork during a thunderstorm, which lead to organizers evacuating the grounds for a few hours for everyone’s safety. At that time I wrote that their rock instrumentation riled up the crowd as if “challenging the gods themselves”, so naturally I was worried that this was going to become a rematch. The storm was still bad but fortunately, no thunder came so we continued to get soaked while watching the set. They play songs like “Freebird II”, but all with a jazzier feel this time. That seemed to please the winds as the rain eased to a halt allowing people could dry off.

You know that old saying “save the best for last?” Well, that was certainly the truth with the final day lineup. The first day was a wash (literally!), but the last day of the festival had more of a hip-hop feel with some solid artists like NoName, Earl Sweatshirt, and The Roots. They too had to deal with the woes of technical issues due to the stormy weather.

Local rapper Noname stepped out on stage adorned in a beautiful spotted blouse spreading positive energy with her infectious smile, the crowd greeted her by cheering loudly. She wasted no time performing “Song 32” – ‘Gave my body to Adam, he told me to lie for him. Apple wasn’t the apple, the truest sin was the pussy’. She tried to get the crowd to sing along with the chorus, but sadly it was hard to hear her pass the photo pit. The crowd chanted demanding the tech personnel to “fix the mic,” which confused Noname mid-track, the sound engineer obliged the crowd applauded. “Can you hear me now?” Noname asked, and fans cheered in collective testament. She rewarded them, with “Diddy Bop” to keep the mood going.

Once Noname wrapped up we all migrated to the opposite stage for Earl Sweatshirt. As the soggy theme continued his set was delayed for several minutes but soon enough it was safe to come out from hiding under trees so we dragged our feet through mud and gathered in the humid air. Earl’s DJ got people moving right away warming up the crowd with “Rain”, a song from Kanye West’s gospel album Sunday Service. It was the perfect song to play after everything we’ve endured. When Earl finally came out on stage fans were excited but were so beat from being wet most of the day it was hard to muster up much interaction. Earl caught onto this quickly, “What’s up with ya’ll Chicago? I know I don’t have many songs for crowd participation but damn”, he noted.

Similar to 2019, Earl made funny comments to an exhausted crowd in Pitchfork inspiring laughs. This time around the energy was different Earl used a more monotone voice chatting with the deflated fans, “Okay that was one song. Now I’m going to do another song” or “Did ya’ll open up the pit to mosh, or is that just mud?” It felt like Earl was simply going through the motions at times rapping “Earl” and “Top Off.” He doesn’t have many hype tracks so his laid-back vibes made it hard for the audience to rev up their energy levels.

Luckily, The Roots were there to save the day. The legendary band was whom most people stayed to see. Blackthought and Questlove are the most recognizable member of the band but like a sure orchestra, it takes an entire team to make the performance outstanding. The Roots lived up to the name by performing a plethora of funky renditions of old-school songs like Kool & TheGang’s “Jungle Boogie” to throwbacks from their own catalog like The Next Movement. Blackthought is a verbal assassin and easily one of the highlights of the entire festival. Performing songs such as “Magnificent” proved that pure hip-hop lyricism still exists when in the hands of a wordsmith. People may have been too tired to dance, but The Roots is such a vibrant force that you couldn’t help but move at least a little. The combination of talented musicians to form this collective was the right way to close out the show.

Overall Pitchfork was a mixed bag but a lot can be attributed to the unfortunate weather conditions. The festival is a staple in the Chicago music scene because it prides itself on bringing together artists from all genres and stature. On top of the bleak weather, artists seemed to struggle with technical difficulties or were tired themselves which made the sets feel a bit flat at times. Regardless of all that, however, fans made the best of the situation and enjoyed the event to the fullest.

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Earl Sweatshirt came up at a young age alongside Mike G, Syd the Kyd, Left Brain, Tyler, the Creator, Domo Genesis Hodgy Beats, and Jasper Dolphin who at the time were known as Odd Future rap collective (O.F.). When the crew blew up with their video “Earl” he was only 16 and that was a lot of attention to ravel in. Some quiet time and a handful of rumors later Earl is in his late 20s, a father, and a solo career performer.

His latest LP, Sick!, is a fresh start to his decade anniversary in the world of music. A lot of “life” went into this album, he told Rolling Stone, and his young son is a part of that influence. Earl has matured and when we saw him take the stage at Toronto’s History this May we saw a whole new man. This Earl was serious, more pronounced, in tight tune with his DJ, and thankful for all his blessings.

“Toronto, make some fucking noise for yourself, did you know that you’re beautiful, did you know that I love you?” The crowd went wild.

For nearly an hour Earl Sweatshirt, equipped with a towel (the most useful tool in the universe, iykyk), paced around the stage, speaking to the crowd, making small banter with his stage partner, who it’s worth mentioning, was masterfully mixing in throwbacks and fading track like a true scratch DJ. Naturally, we got to hear most of the tracks from Sick! (“2010,” “Lye”) mixed in with his 2018 release Some Tap Songs (“Shuttered Dreams,” “Riot!”).

Action Bronson (born Ariyan Arslani) took the stage shortly after. The massive background screen filled with visuals of dolphins, crocodiles, and occasionally horses. But dolphins, naturally, were the start of this show, however pixelated. A quick Google search will list pages and pages of food articles and stories about Arslani’s phenomenal fitness journey, I guess that tells a lot about our current priorities as a society. In the music world of Action Bronson, however, the big news is Cocodrillo Turbo, his latest 10-track release, an album naturally also themed after a majestic (yet ferocious) animal. Pitchfork called this record a “hallucinatory, fuzzed-out journey into the wilderness,” and you know what, yeah, okay.

“I first came up with this album while in the water. I’ve spent many lifetimes in the water. I’m just a water man. I was born in the water, I’m a water sign” – Bronson shared in the album announcement press release. A lot of this album is about water, but then again, nature is a prominent theme in Bronson’s discography.

This was the most crowded photo pit I’ve been in since before the rona, but everyone was happy to be here, politely navigating the tight space, chasing Bronson around the stage. Bronson went back and forth between Cocodrillo Turbo, (“Subzero,” “Storm of the Century”) and Only For Dolphins (“C12H16N2,” “Latin Grammys”), taking his time with each track, pausing for effect, listening to the room. Arslani is not the kind of rapper to make the photo pit work hard, he likes to stop, and pose, let his fans take in the moment, soak in the statement he just made with a song. People would cheer loudly while he stands still, panning the room with a squinting eye, occasionally sporting a satisfactory grin. This show was a vibe and we’re here for it.

One could say it was an honour to see Bronson perform, he is a workaholic and a man of many projects, so this tour was a special treat for many. Though perhaps a greasy food truck at the end of the night would’ve been a great thematic bonus.

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Draped in dashikis, The Great Black Music Ensemble woke up the sweaty audience with its blasting horn section. The orchestra’s fun, loose freestyle swing kept bystanders alive as the heat beat down on them. It may have been noon, but the soulfulness in the sound was invigorating to hear. Scat lyrics devolved into funky chaos and with a squealing guitar solo, the set came to an end. Standing on the Corner took over the same stage quite promptly. Wearing all white garbs, they did their own jazz rendition. There were over 6 saxophones on the stage with cellos, violins, bassoons, and their own horn section equipped with a French horn solo. We were off to a fantastic jazzy start and it’s only the beginning!

Next up to the left at the Red stage was rapper MIKE taking control of the mic. He was the first artist to truly get the crowd participation going when he asked them to spell his name – M-I-K-E – with him jokingly responding “y’all some real ni**as. Y’all could’ve spelled whatever you wanted.” A few tracks in MIKE brought out King Carter to help perform their song “Run It Up.” With soulful sample-based beats and deep bass in their voice, MIKE and King Carter got the lyrics to match the instrumental as they traded bar for bar.

If bands like The Great Black Music Ensemble and Standing on the Corner provided some classical jazz to appreciate the importance of instrumentation, then Rico Nasty was for the younger crowd to shake their ass and get ratchet too. Rico is a young, talented black queen who is confident and not afraid to share her logic. Adorn in long flattened peach hair and a white Kangol hat, with pants to match, she demanded a mosh pit be opened. The crowd was more than happy to oblige. Her energetic raps accompanied by booming bass kept fans hyped throughout her entire performance. Rico performed crowd favorites including “Key Lime OG”,  “Countin’ Up” and her verse from Doja Cat’s “Tia Tamara.” 

The rapper gave an affectionate shout-out to the rowdy fans yelling, “There’s some beautiful bitches in the crowd!” She knew how to command reactions from her loyalists like a boss. Rico Nasty had the party juking making her set the wildest of the day. And if you weren’t going crazy in that mosh pit, then simply put: you a lame.

Across the field in the far left, Earl Sweatshirt walked on the Red stage to thunderous applause before yelling out: “It’s hot as hell out here Chicago for no reason!” That made the exhausted crowd laugh at their own misery and come alive to rush to the stage. Now sporting long dreadlocks, Earl has come a long way since his time with Odd Future and his rhymes reflect his growth. Throughout the set, the Chicago-born artist cleverly blended rhymes with menacing beats from Doris. The instrumentals are haunting, the bass bumps loudly, and Earl’s style is nasty as expected. The bass booms so hard that it can be difficult to listen over the vibration. Nevertheless, Earl kept his composure as he bobbed along with fans to keep the tempo flowing. He himself looked exhausted from the heat but pushed through with jams like “Molasses” and “20 Wave Caps.”

A rapper who had some of the most talked-about moments last year on this stage was Pusha T. From his self-proclaimed “album of the year” Daytona to his ongoing feud with Drake escalating in his controversial song “Story of Adidon”, it’s hard to argue Pusha T isn’t the best rapper alive right now. He reminded the crowd, as much when he entered the stage with Al Pacino’s Scarface theme song as if stating that the world is truly his. The Clipse artist started off with an acapella for “ If You Know You Know” before the beat dropped. He gave a shout-out to those who supported him throughout his years with Clipse to G.O.O.D music. He performed Clipse’s “Grindin” as well as his feature verse on Kanye West’s “Runaway.” The crowd toasted empty water bottles to the douchebags and scumbags that we know because we’ve all been there.

The fans erupted once the beat dropped for the modern classic “Lamborghini Mercy.” Being a man in demand King Push had to do Daytona tracks like “Santeria” to remind those who forgot how great it is: “Of all the things I’ve ever paid for. Know that it’s no price tag when I wage war. It’s no more to pray for, n**** get preyed on. Darken my doorstep, they told me the day’s gone”. To prove his love for Pitchfork, Pusha T performed his verse from, Chicago native, Chief Keef “Don’t Like” to get the crowd juking.

The band that most people endured the most blistering heat for was HAIM. Amazingly the sun finally went away once the group of sisters took center stage for a three-part drum intro. Afterward, they traded their drumsticks for guitar picks as they sang along to “Falling.” The vivid red screen engulfed the singers, as they sang in unison for an epic performance of “Don’t Save Me.” In the middle of their performance, Alana Haim admitted she recently turned 30. To celebrate with the fans the band did a beautiful rendition of Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and “And I Don’t Want To Wait.” If that wasn’t good enough they also debuted a new song “Summer Girl” to go with the season. HAIM ended their fantastic set with a banging drum outro.

All in all, it was a successful first day at Pitchfork. Yes, the scorching sun felt unbearable at times. Here’s a special thanks to Pitchfork officials for providing ample amounts of water bottles, ice, and A/C buses to keep everyone hydrated. Even artists themselves struggled with audio difficulties as they battled the heat to perform so much so that they most often commented on the temperature, which made fans chuckle at their sanity. But we were all experiencing it together. No one can look cute while melting in 100-degree weather and so we all sacrificed our well-being for the love of music. It may have not been the best decision but there were no regrets.

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Earl Sweatshirt’s new video, “Nowhere Nobody,” delivers dense imagery to explore personal themes of gender and race. The video contains clips from seven of his songs from his latest album Some Rap Songs. The album and video continuously ponder the phrase “imprecise words,” a sample of author James Baldwin who, like Earl, questions the potency and accuracy of language and the responsibility of artists in society. Acknowledging his own subjectivity and the limitations of language, Earl creates an experience full of visual allusions and metaphors to investigates the relationship between life and representation.

The dissonance between different forms of representation in this piece speaks volumes through the beautiful work on screen. During the song “Red Water,” a mother paints a ceramic baby green in a crib in Earl’s home before the landscape changes to what appears to be an art gallery. Juxtaposing personal life with a capitalized spectacle in a gallery creates tension. At this point a message flashes on the screen, “a CDC report in December 2013 found that black fathers were the most involved with their children on a number of measures of any other group of fathers.”

The visuals of the mother and child with this message force the viewer into a state of contemplation. The message does not relate to this child. The personal truth does not sync with the public’s. The dissonance in understanding serves as a catalyst to show that these dissonances are real and impact the forming of identities all the time. Whether it is race being portrayed in certain ways or gender, these dissonances in ourselves can cause many struggles. In this case, for a single black mother and child, as well as how they are seen.

Understanding that art and representation serve as some building blocks in the way we understand ourselves and the world around us, Earl attempts to find a true ethos of identity. This is incredibly difficult, for the fact that all representation has been manufactured by someone.  Earl peels back ivy off a black body with ceramic white hands searching for something natural amidst all the representation, as well as he is finding a ceramic body under the ivy, something unnatural underneath the natural world. This distinction between natural and unnatural is, of course, a man-made construction the same way art is, and race or gender. Whiteness is as much a construction as blackness – a construction that cyclically defines themselves in relation to the other, the way Earl’s hands control the white ceramic hands that clear the ivy that reveal the body.

As much of a construction race and gender are, that is not to say that representation is not important. Quite the opposite. Earl handles these issues in such an eloquent way that shows a genuine approach to his message. One example of this is during “Azucar.” Earl and a woman looking similar to Earl are mirroring each other inside Earl’s home. When the lyric, “There’s not a black woman I can’t thank” comes up, the environment switches to the gallery in which Earl is standing in front up with the two women of the video sitting with their backs to the camera. This juxtaposition between the private and the public shows just how phony the art world and the world of representation can be by having the woman he’s thanking watching him like he’s a spectacle while they are not worthy of any representation. At this point, another message comes across the screen informing us this is, “an a-solmenic portrait of a black woman with whom you engage in mutually tempered pushback.” This caption further pushes the viewer to investigate beyond representation. What was once seen as a boy and girl mirroring each other could now be seen as an argument. The two sides of representation arguing and competing for dominance of rhetoric.

Earl constructs his art to have these modes of representation compete to the point where the viewer must look deeper than what is right in front of them. Earl takes these perspectives of whiteness and blackness, male and female, and turns them on their head to reveal to the fragility of these structures. Our history has become as permanent as ceramic sculpture, but with the proper push and pull, these structures that form us can shatter leaving room for us to rebuild and re-understand ourselves and the world around us. Earl Sweatshirt or should I say Thebe Kgositsile is an artist that isn’t afraid to create a language that can change the world.

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The grand daddy of indie, Beck, opened up with “Devil’s Haircut” shredding notes from a fluorescent guitar. With geometric numerology playing on the screen the crowd dove right into the set. Beck knew exactly where and who he was playing to and he gave us the hits. All of the hits. With no breaks between songs there was complete fluidity. When the band played “Loser” a scream erupted from the crowd with at least three generations singing in unison, solidifying the reason why we were all there. Each song is different: funk, soul, rock, dance. Beck definitely has a gift for giving a musical whiplash in really a good way.

It’s a common knowledge in Chicago that by law all outdoor concerts must finish by 10pm but Pitchfork sometimes gets away with a late call. Beck’s band asked the crowd to defy? While my mind wondered into all sorts of law breaking actions Beck went into playing “Sexx Laws” – so much for walking on the wild side. The band finished up with “Where It’s At” making it a perfect evening of the first day.

The next day, in true hip hop form, Pusha T came out on stage about 30 minutes late. His rhymes hit so hard that even the bitty babies by my side were bopping along. Pioneer of coke rap is truly cerebral.

When the neon tribe of tUnE-yArDs took the stage it was obvious they see themselves just as much performers as they are musicians. Playing a good combination of WhoKill and Nikki Nack. Personally, Nikki Nack is a little too experimental for me. I feel WhoKill has far more of a dance vibe. She did recreate Gangsta sonically and verbatim, how it appears on the record, which is seriously impressive.

Danny Brown did us all a treat by having his producer, Sky Walkr, on stage with him who quickly got the crowd hyped up with a “TNGHT” beat.  When Danny finally got up on stage he was steezed to the dome. Literally, he has teal colored hair. His whole set is a dance party fueled by joints and beers. Smokin’ and Drankin’ y’all.

Now for the best 45 minutes of the weekend, and maybe the year – Annie Clark and St. Vincent absolutely stole the entire weekend right under from every body’s feet. To no one’s surprise Annie Clark hit the stage dressed as a blend of a Geisha Robot and a hunted vixen. At times she is coquettish and demure (but than again, she has been referred to as the darling of indie rock) and other times she looks like she can eat you alive. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Miss Annie Clark is the baddest bitch on six strings.

Clark opened with “Rattlesnake” and from there on we were taken on a ride. During “Cheerleader” like most people in the crowd I was covered with chills. When “Huey Newton” started, to date is one of her best solos yet, boys and girls alike were losing it left and right. Annie invokes Beatle-mania like screams in the crowd. For “Bring me Your Loves” Annie and her keyboardist broke out into a synchronized dance that continued into “My Lips are Red” which quickly turned into a psych rock freak out: Annie is trashing and riffing on the shoulders of a security guard burying her face into the crowd screaming “CMON!” After hopping back on stage she flang her guitar off with an emphatic ‘fuck’ and collapsed in passion on the ground. We think she’s done, but the song isn’t over. Clark was revived by a beautiful white guitar finishing out the song. This is a set that will be referred to for years, zeitgeist in motion.

Neutral Milk Hotel was a good way to come down after Annie’s jolt heated up the festival goers. The set started with favorites like Holland and King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1 &2. And they of course serenaded us with “Aeroplane of the Sea.” Neutral Milk Hotel has a tendency to turn the crowd into wild spurts of jubilation and then bringing them back down into a syrupy stupor – great way to close out Saturday.

Sunday begun in the beautiful reprieve hat is the Blue Stage. The natural shade from the trees makes it a good place to take a breather. Speedy Ortiz was the first set of the day fronted by Sadie Dupuis. The crowd is head bopping and shuffling but you can tell the weekend is starting to wear on us.

Next up were DIIV, the musical equivalent of marathon runners. They never put down their instruments,  the sound was ubiquitous, and throughout the set they played some new tunes which were pretty well received. DIIV finished their set with Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” which in reality is more like Bob’s Lyrics put to DIIV’s melodies.

Probably one of the more rare performances of the weekend was Earl Sweatshirt who had cancelled his entire tour except for Pitchfork. Once he came out on stage it was obvious why – Sweatshirt is ragged from the fame. Skinny and over-worked he’s definitely ready for a break.

Pitchfork 2014 was everything I hoped it would be and some stuff I didn’t want (but scars are sexy right), the breeding ground for the best band T-shirts around and one of the only places in Chicago where you can find Sleater Kinney vinyl. Until next year kiddos.

See more photos from Pitchfork here.

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The Dead Prez group established the slogan for hip hop: “One thing about music is when it’s real they be scared.” It was important of course for The Governors Ball to nod to how historic New York City has been to the creation of hip hop, even if the lineup was overwhelmingly from out of state.

In addition to social commentary, there’s something unique about starting out young. Day 1 saw the glorious return of Outkast in what has been their reunion tour of festivals this summer, Day 2 was the hailing of Childish Gambino the alt rapper turned James Franco of rap, and Day 3 was left to the young guns of Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator to explore what the scene means.

Tyler, the Creator is an outspoken kid. In 2013, the Museum of Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, had an exhibit on the history of the music video, and tucked away a section for controversial videos. The youngest entrant and the most up to date was Tyler’s video for “Yonkers.” A year earlier, he made homophobic comments about Tegan and Sara. There’s volatility and passion, but there’s also a lot channeled into creativity.

The two collaborated on their Governors Ball performance adding a needed touch of youthful insanity that was missing the previous two days. The audience was encouraged to participate, and Tyler and Earl were in full connection mode with the audience. Connecting with the audience and checking exactly where they were, Tyler called out the VIP attendees who got to fill in the stage early, performing his standout “Yonkers” for the “working class.”

Earl Sweatshirt was in similar form. Each of his songs was polished rapping over classic beats. It’s dismissive when critics argue against the stereotype that hip hop creates. Hip hop does not promote itself as the only path for success for black Americans. Hip hop isn’t perfect and battles with misogyny but it’s still the most American genre, and often finds its focus on social change.

If you arrived early enough to cop a view, Cayucas also broke away from the rest of the day’s performances. Whether name checking themselves in a song, or just thrilling the audience with light and danceable pop music, Cayucas are brilliant craftsmen of the summer jam. They round out the energy emanating from the hip hop thread.

In all three days there was something to look for and enough to dig into. If you’re not listening to more bands after Governors Ball, you aren’t listening.

See more photos from Governors Ball here.

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In an immediate break with the preceding paragraph, I’m going to compare the guitar sound on Wavves’ latest album Afraid of Heights to The Pixies and Nevermind. Whether Nathan Williams and his buds are toying around with early ‘90s vibes or fudging with distortion-heavy bedroom recordings, Wavves carve out a distinct album sound – one that proves difficult to recapture onstage. The damp fuzz that usually hangs over his albums evaporated in the afternoon sun, and the 20-foot stacks poured out track after track of nondescript guitar tone.

Listening to music is fun. However, the experience improves exponentially with each added serving of distilled alcohol. When a tall can of Bud – North America’s most ubiquitous beer – goes for $11, exponential growth tends to lag, and fun plateaus around “a pretty good time.” So when Earl Sweatshirt grumbled, “It’s okay to have fun guys,” two songs into his set, our answer was, “Thanks Fun Police, but my grandma only gave me a $50 bill in my birthday card this year, and I’m trying to stretch it all the way to 11pm. It’s 6:30 and I only have $18 left.

Beer gripes aside, Earl pounded out a minimal, grimy mix of RZA-inspired beats and Eminem-flavored darkness to an appropriately mellow audience. Playing between Palma Violets and The Gaslight Anthem wasn’t quite the right musical fit either. When his set was over, I thought to myself: “Earl needs a crew and a light show. A tiny little guy in a white t-shirt just yelled at 10,000 of us for 45 minutes on a sunny day.” Long story short, when it’s beautiful out, people have trouble listening to anything that isn’t “In The Summer Time,” so kudos to Earl for getting half of the crowd bobbing. The elements of summer were against him.

I mentioned the late ‘70s, early ‘80s puffing a cloud of smoke over the festival’s proceedings, and sartorial choices aside, the era hadn’t really made an impression until Girl Talk took the stage. The common gripe with Girl Talk is that “he’s just playing other people’s songs.” The trick to getting everyone to relax and enjoy 45 minutes of unbridled, idiotic fun is to warm them up with records like Paul’s Boutique and Odelay – reminders that we’ve been listening to collages of “other people’s songs” veiled as albums for almost 25 years. Personally, I find Girl Talk to be the opposite of Wavves: impossible to listen to on record, but unstoppable in a live setting. People generally want to hear the hits when they’re at a concert, and Girl Talk plays everyone’s hits. Channeling the spirit of my 53-year-old mother, his set began with AC/DC and was peppered with menopausal classics such as “Love Shack,” “Sweet Emotion,” and “Jessie’s Girl.” I’ll always vouch for his ability to evaporate music snobbery and force everyone to enjoy Alan Thicke’s son and The Breeders back-to-back.

Capping off the evening was Phoenix, our era’s version of Supertramp. Always catchy, always easy on the ears – they served as the perfect nightcap. Their huge catalogue tends to bleed from song to song as a result of a collective tempo, and at times it felt like I was listening to a 15-part Rush track without the complex time changes. However, their light show and accessible arena rock had girls hoisted atop many a shoulder and served as the perfect metaphorical bookend to a festival whose most successful vibes felt like they were curated by my mother.

See more images from Grove on our Facebook page.

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