Pitchfork Music Festival Entertainment Art Union Park Chicago, Ill. July 13 - 15, 2007

Day one, a collaboration with the UK fest All Tomorrow’s Parties, featured Sonic Youth, the Wu Tang Clan’s GZA and a reunited Slint each performing a career defining album in its entirety.

The members of Slint assembled on the Connector Stage at 6:30pm, just as the remains of daylight were beginning to fade, and settled into the opening lines of “Breadcrumb Trail,” the leadoff track from 1991’s seminal Spiderland. They continued to perform the album track by track to mixed results.

Vocalist Brian McMahan was noticeably hoarse as he attempted to project his often whispered/spoken lyrics across the massive field at Union Park. The band, including original guitarist David Pajo and founding drummer Britt Walford, was more successful as they replicated the album note for note to a (mostly) captivate audience. Moving from midfield to the press area directly in front of the stage (and away from the conversations of disinterested concertgoers) during “Don, Aman,” I was reminded of how magical Slint’s first reunion show a few years back was at the Metro.

McMahan stood entranced at stage left while Pajo and Walford were seated at center stage, each picking sinewy guitar lines, the delicate skeleton of an incredibly powerful song. When security cleared the press area (as they would all weekend after two or three songs), I headed back to midfield and ran into friends. As Slint brought the album-closing “Good Morning Captain” to coda, I realized that McMahan’s voice had cleared. His desperate, repeated refrain “I miss you” rang loud and clear.

Next up was GZA aka the Genius aka Gary Grice, the celebrated Wu Tang Clan MC behind the wildly influential 1995 LP Liquid Swords. GZA, along with several other MCs and a DJ, kept things loose on the Aluminum Stage as he revisited his classic album with a lightness of touch and regular shout-outs to the crowd and his Wu Tang clan mates. Heads bobbed and Wu hand signs were raised throughout the set.

Friday’s headliners, Sonic Youth, launched into “Teenage Riot,” the opening track from their 1988 classic Daydream Nation, as I was enclosed in an especially ripe porta-potty. Hearing one of my all-time favorite songs filtered through thick plastic walls, I was obligated to quickly finish the business at hand and race back to the Aluminum Stage. I moved in close for a ferocious, feedback-laden take on “Silver Rocket” and stayed up front all the way through “Eric’s Trip,” the set’s absolute highlight. Everything about the song came together brilliantly: Lee Renaldo’s off-kilter lead vocal; Kim Gordon and Steve Shelley’s propulsive rhythm attack; Thurston Moore garroting the neck of his guitar with a drumstick—amazing stuff.

A family obligation in the ‘burbs kept me from getting an early start on day two and friends tell me that I missed a stellar afternoon set by the math rock band Battles. By the time I wandered in, the sand from the baseball diamonds was dusting the twilight and Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues were three songs into their set on the Connector Stage. Appearing more confident than her reputation for live performance would suggest, Cat Power led her killer backing band through a fiery version of “Satisfaction” to the delight of a sizeable audience.

I did a quick tour through the WLUW Record Fair and caught up with toy designer Shawn Smith at Depart-ment’s handmade clothing and crafts tent before heading over to the Aluminum Stage for Saturday’s headliner, the legendary Yoko Ono.

Best-known as the widow of John Lennon and reviled by many Beatles fans for her perceived role in breaking up the band, Ono was already an established sound and visual artist by 1961, three years before the fab four hit American soil. Her musical output has influenced countless left-of-center musical acts, including the B-52’s, Diamanda Galas and The Boredoms. I didn’t know what to expect of Yoko Ono, 74 years old, at the Pitchfork Music Festival, but I did know that it would be interesting. Looking dapper in a black fedora, white scarf and sunglasses, Ono stalked the stage like a cat. Her performance—part Broadway spectacle, part spoken word exorcism, part avant rock jam—was fascinating for those brave enough to stick around. She had the audience in the palm of her hand as he welcomed Thurston Moore back to the stage for the “Mulberry Song” and led the chant “War is over if you want it.”

I got a slightly earlier start on day three, arriving as former Pavement front man Stephen Malkmus was performing, and opted to head straight for the food and beer tents. I scooped up a cup of Goose Island and downed a tasty gourmet chicken sausage before squeezing into the press area for Of Montreal’s Aluminum Stage set. The colorfully-attired psych-glam outfit drew a huge crowd. Hand-painted backdrops, pink angel wings, 3-headed monsters and hand-standing mimes all figured into an impressive set that featured giddy versions of "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" and The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night.”

Sketchy acoustics reigned supreme at the fest overall and sound problems were especially apparent during The New Pornographers Connector Stage set. The Vancouver band soldiered on through a set of anthemic power pop but I opted to shop for silk screen art at the Flatstock Poster Convention, scoring a small print by North Carolina artist Casey Burns.

I got to the Aluminum Stage early for De La Soul’s fest-closing performance and managed to watch most of their energetic set from backstage. MC’s Posdnuos, Trugoy and DJ Pasemaster Mase were joined by Prince Paul, who produced the trio’s groundbreaking 1989 effort 3 Feet High and Rising. Eschewing their roles as elder statesmen of hip hop, De La Soul sounded lean and hungry as they performed audience favorites like “Potholes in My Lawn,” “Stakes is High” and “Me, Myself and I.”

Despite the sound problems, long bathroom lines and a few other nuisances inherent to outdoor festivals, I had a good time at Pitchfork’s third go-around. The staffers behind the event brought in a diverse group of musicians and kept the sound connoisseurs buzzing for three days straight.

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