Journey to Intonation
Chicago, Illinois: July 15th-17th, 2005
By Leonid Maymind

5 college kids packed in an old Buick Roadmaster station wagon. Ipods, snacks, sleeping bags, and an unsteady chess set. A journey across the Midwest to the first ever Intonation Music Festival, curated by Pitchfork Media, held in Union Park, Chicago, Illinois.

Roadmaster

It all began in Columbus, Ohio, where I, and four friends began our trek to attend what would turn out to be a weekend of dust, heat, sun, ice cream, toy squirt guns, and music. Lots of music.

The destination was the Intonation Music Festival, the first festival put on by the indie giant www.pitchforkmedia.com. For those unfamiliar with Pitchfork, the site includes album reviews, interviews, track reviews, and anything else relating to the independent music scene and subculture that so many ‘hipsters’ today in the United States are attracted to. Pitchfork has become infamous for harsh reviews, esoteric writing, and enough sway to make or break a band. Their rise has been steady in the past few years, as their site now attracts thousands of visitors daily. The approval of a writer on the Pitchfork staff can raise the popularity of a band so drastically that many criticize the website for it’s long reach.

This phenomenon can be seen in the now well-known Canadian band The Arcade Fire, as well as such indie newcomers as M.I.A. and Bloc Party. When the Arcade Fire came to Little Brothers in Columbus, OH back in the fall of 2004, there were no more than 100 people in the small venue. A little over a year later, in October of 2005, the rock group will open for U2, one of the biggest bands in the world. They have also played every summer festival imaginable (Intonation withstanding) and instantly risen to the top of respectable Merge Records’ bestselling list. Such quick fame was highly unlikely without a 9.7/10 rating from Pitchfork, as well as being rated the number 1 album of 2004 by the website.

So when it was announced in early spring that Pitchfork would be selecting bands to play at a two-day music festival held in the center of the country, it was the next logical step for the media giant in its reign of music-reporting supremacy. Not only would the site choose the bands, it would report on the festival with its entire staff of writers, normally spread throughout the country. Other festivals held in the US in the summer have been known to draw huge crowds, offering attendees a wide variety of music and outdoor fun. The draw of Intonation came with the price: 22 dollars for two days of music and 21 bands. Along with the array of bands, there was a DJ tent and a record sale to keep festivalgoers busy. Hipsters never said they didn’t like value, as long as it’s not mainstream.

With all of this in mind, we drove west to Chicago with fervor in our hearts. The only thing keeping us in reality was the ever-rising gas prices as we sped toward the Windy City. After a few hours spent driving, we arrived at my friend Jamie’s apartment in Champaigne, Illinois, where we were greeted with more college students who we would be going with to the festival tomorrow. The night was spent eating pizza, watching a few Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes, followed by a rush to buy swimsuits and alcohol and enjoy the swimming pool and hot tub in the apartment complex. It was a worthy night to precede the fervent activity that made up the next two days.

Festival Ground

The 10 of us awoke early in the morning to take two cars the hour and half north to Chicago. We arrived at Union Park a few hours before the gates opened at 1 PM, and the locale of the festival was a little disappointing upon our first grand entrance. The park was little more than two dusty baseball fields with two stages set up in the infields. There were also food and drink vendors lining the park’s only cement walkway, which led to the massive tent where the record sale and DJ tent were setup. The only thing that lent itself of Pitchfork’s savvy internet design scheme were large banners hanging on either sides of the stages that announced the lineup of bands for both days.

Audience

The dust right in front of the stages was persistent, but not the only problem that nature bestowed upon the weekend. The dry, thick heat hit us hard at about 1:30 PM on Saturday, and only got worse throughout the weekend. Thankfully, bottled water was only a buck a pop, but there was only one water fountain from which to drink and refill extra containers. Lines for hydration soon wrapped halfway around the park. Shade was also at a premium at Union Park, at least anywhere close to the stages. Shade breaks usually meant resigning yourself from seeing anything happening on stage

AC Newman with Andrew Bird

The way the schedule worked was a band on the ‘Decimal’ stage would play their set, and then five or ten minutes later, the ‘Holiday’ stage would start up. (Note: My good buddy Andrew Gallagher and I inquired politely to several festival volunteers as to why the stages were named ‘Decimal’ and ‘Holiday,’ but we were mostly left with blank stares and shrugs. One lovely young lady did however supplement her own befuddlement with free donuts for us. We never did find out why the stages were named this way. The donuts, however, were delicious). This meant you could either mosey along over to the next stage with the crowds and get a view from somewhere in the middle, or you could park yourself in front of one stage for as long as you wanted and maintain your position and sacrifice seeing the band playing on the opposite stage. For the most part, our group decided to try to snag choice spots for our favorite bands and be content with hearing the others from the cool of the shade.

Each band was introduced by the local Chicago poet Thax Baxter, who seemed to be a legend among the locals in attendance. His poems used the themes of the band’s name and music to create a short, detailed visual image before he shuffled off stage with a wave of his hand. I managed to get a word in with him later in the festival and I can attest first-hand that he truly is an interesting character.

Thax Baxter

As for the music itself, the overall quality of sound and performance was far above average. There was a wide variety of musical styles that relieved the festival of the potential monotony that seeing five or six indie rock bands in a row could have. The southern rock of Magnolia Electric Company contrasted well with the post-rock of Saturday’s headliner Tortoise; the quirky folk-rock of Sunday’s headliner the Decemberists was a nice change of pace from the blistering rock of the Wrens and Les Savy Fav that had come before. The crowd drank up the catchy dance-punk that the Thunderbirds are Now! spewed out just as much as the highly original style of arresting post-punk of Xiu Xiu. Seeing Canada’s Broken Social Scene play an incredibly strong set was only outdone by Andrew Bird, the virtuoso violinist/guitarist/singer/songwriter/whistler who stretched his own compositions on stage with his jazz-informed drummer Kevin O’Donnell scooting right along. Other favorites included pop wonder AC Newman, off to a shaky start with an out of tune guitar, but then recovering magnificently. His set included a duet with Andrew Bird somewhere, which I somehow missed. Was I talking to you, random 18-year-old hipster chick, at the time? You said something about your gay friend and then dragged on a cigarette while reading the Economist in one of the best conversations I’ve had about heat/high school in my life. I may never know.

    
Andrew Bird

The fact that the performers were so numerous sort of made the whole two days blur together. At one point, I forgot if I was watching the Wrens or Magnolia Electric Company. Another instance on Sunday afternoon, after a few intense hours in the heat, I heard the first few bars of an Out Hud song and was convinced the Faint had somehow made a surprise appearance at the festival. I must admit some bands completely slipped through the cracks. I do not remembering hearing a single note of the ‘instru-metal’ rock outfit Pelican, nor did I pay much attention to the beats showcased by laptop whiz Four Tet. I don’t see how watching anyone fiddle around on a computer is cool. By Sunday night, I was packed in the front row of the crowd watching Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav strip down to tiny red shorts, pour beer over his head, belly, and down his pants, and recline on an air lounger on-stage, while his band calmly broke down into tightest set of rock the festival had yet seen. Their set was only enhanced when Harrington went out into the audience with mic in hand and made everyone settle down before the security gate was pushed over and the cops would be forced to pull the plug.

Wrens

With such a diverse, talented lineup, the Intonation Music Festival did not disappoint. The weekend went over with no major technical difficulties and no security snags. The 90-degree weather perhaps put some of the 15,000 audience away from the stages, but there were enough brave souls ready to weather the sun in order to get a look at Dungen, who had come all the way from Sweden, or to try to catch some of the Go! Team’s energy, hailing from the UK. As Andy and I sat in the backseat of the Roadmaster recounting the weekend Monday morning headed back east, he noted to me that as tired as we were, the memories of that weekend of the summer would still be the ones we were telling all our friends about once the first week of classes came around.

Broken Social Scene

Full Lineup:
Saturday: Head of Femur, Pelican, the M’s, AC Newman, Magnolia Electric Company, Four Tet, Broken Social Scene, the Go! Team, Prefuse 73, Death from Above 1979, Tortoise.

Sunday: Thunderbirds are Now!, Dungen, Xiu Xiu, Out Hud, The Hold Steady, Andrew Bird, Deerhoof, The Wrens, Les Savy Fav, the Decemberists.