Pitchfork Friday Review: Robyn Brightens Up a Slow Day

Swedish dance diva Robyn brought some life to an otherwise slow first day at Chicago's 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival that also featured Modest Mouse, Broken Social Scene and Liars.

Pitchfork Friday Review: Robyn
One of the highlights of Robyn's performance was "Dancing on my Own," and she did just for that for nearly an hour, dancing all over the stage by herself. Normally such behavior comes across as awkward, but Robyn pulled it off, and the crowd (at least those in the front) were right there with her.

She opened with "Fembots," the song with the memorable line, "Fembots have feelings too," followed by "Cry When You Get Older."

Pitchfork Friday Review: Modest Mouse
Robyn's energy was desperately needed because Friday's other acts didn't bring as much to the table. Headliner Modest Mouse was ok but was a bit too sleepy at times. The banjo was a big part of their set, and that was a good thing.

But since this was Pitchfork, the band had to play the "too cool" card and not perform its biggest (only) hit, "Float On." Instead, Modest Mouse closed with a crowd favorite, 'Black Cadillacs." But the best part of that song is the repetitive pounding effect of the chorus lyrics, and singer Isaac Brock sped through them too fast, dulling and weakening their effect.

Pitchfork Friday Review: Liars and Broken Social Scene
Earlier, Liars and Broken Social Scene delivered performances. Broken Social Scene did what they always do, which is play an overrated brand of rock n roll completely devoid of any hooks whatsoever (as you can guess, I'm not a fan.)

I love Liars and their more experimental style of rock, but their music is difficult, and this performance showed it. Every time the fans were really trying to get into the performance, the band would slow things down with a weird, spacey song, losing momentum in the process. They at least deserve kudos for playing "We Fenced Other Houses with the Bones of our Own," a song from They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, an album which earned notoriously pitiful reviews, including a half-star rating from Rolling Stone. Good for the band for not shying away from playing a song from that massively underrated record.

Earlier, hip hopper El-P did nothing to impress, while comedian Michael Showalter delivered one of the more infamous stand-up sets in music festival lore, bombing (in endearing fashion) and then walking off stage early.