Day Party Crawl
By Darcie Stevens, Fri., March 16, 2007
Pitchfork Day Party
Emo's, Friday, March 16
Welcome to the battle of hype vs. hope. As the reigning queen of band-breaking, Pitchfork blasts into SXSW with a lineup strung with lights. Instrumental Montreal post-rock outfit Do Make Say Think opened up the ring with a set of metal riffs conjoined with trumpet blasts and waves of calming inertia. The Pipettes: all hype. Like the Spice Girls doing a Fifties revue, Brighton, UK's manufactured girl group is a cutesy cocktail of sugary, loosely choreographed polka dots. Marnie Stern equals guitar karaoke via iPod, bless her heart. Like a Sunday morning daydream, Baltimore duo Beach House shone with heartbreaking songs that rolled in with the tide. Toting a full band, RJD2 opted for funk over electronics, and Portland, Ore.'s Menomena was hypnotizing but better on album. Girl Talk might be king of the mash-up, but Gregg Gillis put on the best show of the day, and Swedish bad boys with good hearts, Peter, Bjorn & John, set the sun on power pop with punk overtones, like Oasis without the drugs.
