Twenty minutes before The Twilight Sad got the 2007 Pitchfork Music Festival rolling, two lines of 1,000-plus people flooded the gates.

Deerhunter 

Union Park, Chicago, Ill.

On the weekend of July 14-15, anyone in the Chicago area saw an unusual amount of indie kids hanging out in the city, and those riding the Pink and Green lines of the El truly felt their presence. Twenty minutes before The Twilight Sad got the 2007 Pitchfork Music Festival rolling, two lines of 1,000-plus people flooded the gates.

The bands in this year's Pitchfork lineup were lesser known than last year, but in my book, the festival was much more successful and fun.

The Twilight Sad

It was hard to tell how the crowd received this Scottish four-piece. Fans were still piling in and surveying Union Park, while others were giving their fresh energy to the only band playing. Their set was highlighted by the Fourteen Autumns standout, "Mapped by What Surrounded Them."

Voxtrot

After the The Twilight Sad's set, many fans (I was one of them) secured a good spot at Voxtrot while Chicago's Califone opened up the Aluminum Stage. Ramesh rocked a black and white striped shirt, tight jeans and a Vanilla Ice haircut. Of all the performers, Voxtrot seemed to be the most genuinely happy to play. This was one of the most popular performances of the day and deserved a primetime slot.

The obvious favorite was "Start of Something." Songs from the self-titled album sounded a lot better live.

Beach House

The Beach House album took me four tries of listening to appreciate. Live, they put on a nice, soft set that I instantly liked. The Baltimore duo sat down for the entire set, and with the delicate, psychedelic sounds of organ, keyboard, guitar and echo-heavy vocals they did great.

The set opened with "Apple Orchard," possibly their best song, followed by "Tokyo Witch," They played other key tracks like "Saltwater," "Childhood," and "Lovelier Girl," then featured a nice little waltz, and finished with the highlight, "Master of None."

Fujiya and Miyagi

A big wave went to Battles, a band I never got into, so I stuck around to see Fujiya and Miyagi. I felt so-so about their album Transparent Things. I enjoyed "Collarbone" and "Photocopier," but found the rest a little better than filler.

Their set went really well; it was obvious that they are more of a live band than a studio band. The Brighton band is always subtly joking with their Japanese name, porno-sounding grooves accented with a whispering voice, and of course the "Collarbone" lyrics.

A good portion of Transparent Things went over big with the enormous crowd including "Ankle Injuries," "Collarbone," "Photocopier," "Conductor 71," and "Sucker Punch." Just as I was writing "repetitious, one trick pony" in my notebook, they struck gold with a strong finish and met their hype. Not a whole lot of dancing though.

Click here to watch a video of them at Pitchfork 

Professor Murder

Surprisingly, I was able to move to the front row after Fujiya, as many fans traded spaces to go see Iron and Wine.  This was the best Day One experience. Voxtrot was solid and Girl Talk was the best simply by pressing play on his laptop, but Professor Murder definitely exceeded my expectations.

Frontman Michael Bell-Smith looked deliriously happy at his drum station of a whistle, a cymbal, cowbells, and a snare, and the dancing fans couldn't have been more pleased either. Bedded between songs was DJ Sammy. Some of the highlights of their set included "Champion," "That's How They Getcha," and "Free Stress Test," their best live song, with Bell-Smith on keyboards (video of this performance). 

There was a bit of a lull in the late afternoon. Oxford Collapse sounded pretty good and Mastodon played on the main stage, but I opted for a knockout basketball game, a little four square and loaded up on some free Fuze.

Clipse started up at 7 p.m. and fans went wild for them. Hearing rap was a nice twist.

The Virginia-based brothers weren't shy about tooting their own horn, proclaiming their Hell Hath No Fury as "the hardest record out" and "the number one (number seven by Pitchfork's estimate) album of last year." The group kept the energy up the whole hour.

The brothers got everyone to shout back lines like, "We Got It For Cheap." Each song ended with the sound of guns.  Being able to see Clipse's excellent set, which I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, makes a good case for the benefit of festivals. 

Cat Power

Wedged in between Clipse and Girl Talk, Cat Power's set seemed a little out of place, although the album art to The Greatest would suggest differently. Chan Marshall had to overcome some sound issues in the beginning, but her voice was top notch.  Sadly I left early to get over to Girl Talk. She opened with The Greatest, and for the first five songs at least stuck to her mellower tunes

Girl Talk

Greg Gillis (of Girl Talk) started at 8:30, and his slot conflicted with some woman named Yoko Ono. Luckily I had a press pass and got up right up to the stage because fans went thousands deep outside the gate, and there were an estimated 200 non-festival goers lined outside the festival grounds. Gillis was in street clothes before putting on his suit, then getting shirtless by the end of the night. Gillis danced around, and fans were allowed to get on stage as well. Gillis still had a lot of work in layering his music and it was timed to perfection. Not much was exchanged verbally, just 50 minutes of non-stop mash-ups with newly acquired Lil' Mama, Avril Levigne, Jackson 5, Clipse (and a whole mix of bands from Pitchfork), Hurricane Chris, Teenage Wasteland, TI, and so much more new stuff that I didn't bother writing anything else.