#ThrowbackThursday to the 2015 Pitchfork Music Festival in words and photos

Sleater-Kinney rages at the Pitchfork Music Festival | Photo by Scott Troyan | scotttroyan.com

Summer once again proved itself to be Festival Overload – most recently, the successful Philadelphia Folk Festival! But right before WXPN hosted its annual XPoNential Music Festival, I headed over to Chicago to celebrate ten years of Pitchfork and their annual summer music festival.

What makes Pitchfork a unique music festival is the broad stroke they use when booking music for their three stages over three days. From the most modern hip-hop, electronic dance and alt-rock to showcasing some iconic “classic” artists from the past few decades. It creates a melding of communities and age brackets that is second to none when it comes to outdoor summertime festivals.

This year was no exception as Pitchfork decided early on that the best way to celebrate ten years was to bring it home with hometown favorites, Chicago’s own Wilco – who easily became one of my highlights for the weekend playing a mix of vintage songs and new material from their latest release Star Wars.

My other highlights was watching Sleater-Kinney come alive on stage, headlining Saturday night.  After several years of having Carrie Brownstein make me laugh thanks to Portlandia (et al), it was refreshing to have her return to her roots with and join Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss on stage to play all of their (and our) favorites!

My overall highlight was Bully – who kicked off the day with loud, in your face, sweaty rock n roll … if you haven’t heard them – they will be in Philly over Labor Day weekend as part of Made In America … plus several of their new videos were produced right here in Philly by Out of Town Films … like this one, filmed at Berks Warehouse in Fishtown section of Philly.

Philly’s own Kurt Vile also performed at the festival, jamming out on three songs for a half hour right after the festival grounds were re-opened due to a thunderstorm. Watch video of Kurt’s set here, and check out more photos from Pitchfork 2015 by Philly photographer Scott Troyan.

For more of Scott Troyan’s Pitchfork 2015 photos, go here.