Women @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2009
The first time I saw Calgary’s Women live the band put on a scorching show at Minneapolis’ First Avenue, opening for the mighty Mogwai. It was as if the band was challenged by the prospect of setting the crowd up for the wall of sound they would hear from the Scottish band later in the evening, so Women played an engaging, cacophonous set that left me reeling and completely won over. So, when I saw that Women were playing the Pitchfork Music Festival, I was genuinely excited to see the group again (even if that meant I would miss the remarkable Pharoahe Monch in the process). But unfortunately, this time around the band was lacking in intensity and focus, as it played a rather listless and uninspiring set.
Musically, the band’s performance sounded decent enough, and the jangly guitars and uneven time structure were certainly in full effect though a spark was missing and Women’s performance didn’t really hit home for me. The band played a couple of new songs during its 40 minute set (including an as yet untitled song which the group also played at First Ave), as well as its hit “Black Rice,” during which the band seemed bored to be playing despite the raucous reception it received from the large crowd which had gathered to watch the performance. “Shaking Hands” went over a bit better and found the band settling into its surroundings and beginning to experiment a bit with its sound. “Upstairs” was good, but again it was missing a spark that would have made the song great, which was what I was hoping for. Women is a young band which will hopefully grow into a group that will continually deliver on the promise of its fantastic debut record. But, for this day at least, that promise went unfulfilled during a set that didn’t quite catch fire.
[Review by Erik Thompson, photos by Jon Behm.]
