Still so hot. Still so sweaty. Still no air-conditioning. I up and showered as fast as I could so we could head over to Union Park for the Intonation Festival. We got our one-day passes. Sunday’s line-up was pretty weak anyway, touting only Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof (who I’ve seen) and Les Savy Fav. Instead of lining up right away we went to Jeff’s place but he was not around. We got a good look at a silk-screening place called Crosshair who Jeff is friends with, though. Jeff had mentioned that there is a massive “scene” surrounding the poster and silk-screening businesses in Chicago, as evident by the sheer magnitude of posters this place had covering the walls. The building was a decrepit warehouse that seemed perfectly fit for art and music folks to congregate.
We got in as a band called Head of Femur were finishing their set, and I positioned myself directly up front for Pelican on the main stage. They were exactly what I expected, loud and sludgy and great. I took a variety of photos that I’ll just stick right here:
Laurent
Trevor
Laurent, Larry, Bryan
Full band
Trevor
Laurent
Larry
Trevor
It was fucking hot out so IIII (who picked up a nasty farmer’s tan and a burnt neck that hurts like hell) skipped The M’s to do some crowd watching, and made my way directly to the stage where Jason Molina and Magnolia Electric Co. would be. I could still hear A.C. Newman’s set. They put on a great show, but I was more interested in MEC. Their set blew me away and pretty much ended my day because everyone was relatively uninteresting. Jason dedicated a song to “The three soldiers Chicago lost on Thursday” (Michael, Doug and John). It was either Farewell Transmission or the one that came before it. Even Tortoise didn’t intrigue me. I wasted the rest of my pictures on Magnolia.
I’ve got plans to speak to Mr. Molina once his band returns from their European tour. Trevor moved to a farm in one of the Virginias or Carolinas, so he was spending the rest of the day with family and friends and I did not want to impede on his time so we’ll set something up in the future. The concert left me burnt and tired, so I drove to my cousin Mim’s in Highland Park, we had dinner with the daughter, son-in-law, and their two children, then I finally got to sleep in a real bed again.
I’ll leave you with TWO video clips of Magnolia Electric Co. performing:
St. Louis tomorrow.
