Recap: Pitchfork Music Festival 2017 [Day 1]

(LCD Soundsystem)

Having never been to Pitchfork Music Festival, I was excited to get in and find how small the park is that the festival takes place in. Being able to go to all the stages with such ease was just fantastic and made photographing the festival a breeze. The lineup for Pitchfork is always great and this year was no different. With a heavy dose all weekend of local acts, rap, and women taking control of the stage, this festival does everything correctly.

The day started off with a wild set from Priests, who will soon enough be on everyone’s radar. The four-piece moved through their set like a tornado and took care of everyone in their path. If you like grungy punk rock Priests should be on the top of your list to see before they move in to bigger venues. Following her was Dawn Richard and her beautiful set of hip-hop and r&b. With back up dancers in tow and a band that was on fire, Dawn impressed the fairly big crowd at the Blue Stage early on in the day. Hiss Golden Messenger’s easy-going indie folk came next before Vince Staples had the crowd moshing and going wild once he went into his Gorillaz collaboration “Ascension.”

(Vince Staples)

One of the biggest surprises of the weekend followed with William Tyler, who surprised me with a set of jammy tunes with stunning musicianship. The last thing I thought I’d see at Pitchfork was a jam band in hiding, but there it was and it was fantastic. Thurston Moore Group came on next and showed that rock and roll isn’t dead. He and his group tore through their set, with Thurston telling funny stories and anecdotes between songs. The man can still make your jaw drop with his guitar playing.

(Dirty Projectors)

Frankie Cosmos followed with a tight set of indie rock while Danny Brown was his usual energetic self all over the stage. Dirty Projectors started off slow and stopped the momentum that Danny Brown created, but by the set’s end they had captured some of that spark back and left the crowd wanting more. Arca was having some production delay, but that didn’t stop him from getting the crowd into a fever pitch. Closing duties for day 1 was LCD Soundsystem and they did exactly what you would expect. This is not a knock on them as they are absolutely in the groove right now. James joked with the crowd throughout the set and it will never get boring watch people with the one-two set closing punch of “Dance Yrself Clean” into “All My Friends”.

Find photos from all the acts we caught on Day 1 of Pitchfork posted in the gallery below.