The great hipster melee that is the Pitchfork Music Festival was held over the weekend in Chicago. And reports are that hometown heroes Cut Copy provided one of the highlights of the fest. Just.
Still promoting their
In Ghost Colours LP and set to play the high-profile slot of second last on the last day of the fest - sandwiched between Dinosaur Jr and Spoon no less - the band were already much anticipated. According to US blog
Stereogum however, anticipation turned to disappointment when the band didn't show up for their set time.
In the meantime, a group of hastily coerced indie musicians filled in for the missing Cut Copy, jamming until finally announcing that the band had arrived and would be on stage in five minutes. Writes
Stereogum:
"This is when what remained of the audience lost their shit. By the time
Cut Copy started playing, the crowd had swelled closer to it's original
size...and threw flowers at the stage, screamed like they were seeing
the Beatles/Timberlake, dancing in a huge undulating throng.
"There are a lot of festivals. There are a lot of bands playing these
festivals, but maybe not as many different bands as you'd hope
considering the amount of festivals (breaking news: festivals lineups
are getting really repetitious...). Now and then, though, something
transcends the ho-hum everyday and simple mechanics of these events.
That's what happened when Cut Copy dug into their abridged, but tight
and exciting because abridged, set: All the disappointment and pent up
energy that seemed like it would find no outlet was transformed into a
bouncing mass. Were they good? Yes. They were good at Coachella
too, but this time there was an urgency that didn't exist last time.
They were obviously feeding off the amazing energy coming from the
crowd and vice versa."
The response didn't go unnoticed by the band, who posted on their
blog the next day:
"We are truly sorry about this, but the short set we were able to pull
off before the noise curfew was thrilling for us. Those of you who
stuck around energized us, and your seemingly never-ending hollering,
foot stomping and whooping for an encore (we sadly couldn't provide due
to city ordinances) will stay with us forever."
"EnergiZed"? They
have been in America too long. Cut Copy get a chance to redeem themselves when they return to Chicago as part of their 19 date tour with fellow antipodean dance kings The Presets in September. Not to mention the other 15 dates they have through Europe and Mexico in the lead up. Seems like all that
hard work is paying serious dividends.