Pitchfork Music Festival 2007: Sunday

The Pitchfork 2007 festivities continued Sunday, with clear skies, persistent sun, and, of course, the noise. Highlights included Junior Boys, Jamie Lidell, Of Montreal, and De La Soul’s energetic closer, with special guest Prince Paul.

Deerhunter

Doning not one but two shiny dresses, Bradford Cox and Deerhunter crew opened up the third and final day of the festival.

The Ponys

Though plagued by sound problems that would persist into the Junior Boys set and the rest of the day, the Ponys persevered and put on a solid performance. Without the cloud cover of the previous day, the Aluminum stage was full of dynamic contrasts, all of which made photographing lead singer Jered Gummere problematic, while the rest of the band benefited from the bright open shade.

Menomena

It’s shots like this that make me love the Nikon 70-200VR. The lens is perfect for capturing tight shots of singers rocking the mine, as Menomena’s Brent Knopf does here.

Junior Boys

By the time Junior Boys set up for their set, the sun was just low enough in the sky to brighten up the stage with pockets of full sun. Lighting rigs at the top of the stage caught some of the sun made for a good deal of patchiness and plenty of hot spots during the set. Regardless of these minor misadventures in photography, the Boys brought the block rockin’ beats for the Pitchfork masses.

The Sea and Cake

The Sea and Cake’s drummer, John McEntire, rocking the mirrored aviator glasses, helped out photographers with a modest drum kit.

Jamie Lidell

A sure crowd-pleaser, Jamie Lidell entertained old fans and made new ones with his soulful stylings and mezmerizing use of looping effects. Splitting his time behind his wired deck of man-behind-the-curtain wizardry, complete with a Theremin, and the front of the stage, Lidell was definitely one of the more entertaining performers to photograph.

Stephen Malkmus

Performing solo with just a guitar, Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus performed to a dedicated crowd gathered at the smaller Connector stage, receiving a nice dose of the sweet light throughout his set.

Of Montreal

As the third performance I’ve seen of the band, Of Montreal continued their trend of escalating, over-the-top antics, complete with wardrobe changes and carnival theatrics. Ringleader Kevin Barnes was in top form, coy and flamboyant all at once.

The New Pornographers

While some were disappointed by the absence of Neko Case, fans seemed satisfied with the New Pornographers’ set nevertheles. As with last year’s performance by Spoon in the same time slot, the Pornos’ set was bathed in a nasty orange glow, a small loss for the photography.

De La Soul

De La Soul closed down the party with a lively set, which included surprise guest Prince Paul. Though Union Park’s weekend population was dwindling by the time the hip hop trio took the stage, they wasted little time in whipping the crowd into shape, even resorting to belligerence when there were simply not enough hands in the air.

These are just a few of the images from each performance, but you can check out the entire set for Sunday here:

Pitchfork Music Festival 2007

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under Music Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.