Japandroids @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2009
I came into the Japandroids’ early Sunday evening set as a big fan of the band’s debut LP Post-Nothing and left 45 minutes later as an even bigger fan. The explosive Vancouver-based duo, whom I had never seen before, ended up playing my favorite set of Pitchfork that didn’t include streamers, giant balloons and confetti. Japandroids, like the Antlers did a day earlier, informed the crowd that the this was the band’s first time playing in Chicago. Also like the Antlers had done the day before, the duo used its first chance to impress the crowd by laying down a staggering performance (though with a slightly different sound). Like nearly all of the B-stage shows I saw, things were running a little late for the Japandroids’ set, but the band didn’t let the time constraints stop it from delivering a staggering performance.
Right off the bat guitarist/singer Brian King informed the crowd that the band would be moving quickly and would be skipping its usual stage banter (which he assured would have been hilarious), and he wasn’t kidding. Over the eight song set the band never slowed down, pummeling crowd with its anthemic, fuzzy garage rock. King, augmented by David Prowse on drums and vocals, tore into his guitar and spent most of the set running around the stage and jumping on the drums when he wasn’t singing. The band’s highly melodic songs, wrapped warmly in a blanket of noise, sounded massive on the warm afternoon. Both singers’ vocals were perfectly mixed to be heard above the explosion that their instruments which really helped bring the band’s songs to life. I was going to put down which songs were highlights, but I literally couldn’t pick any that weren’t.
[Review and video by Josh Keller, photos by Jon Behm]
