Pitchfork Music Festival: Paris 2012
Pitchfork’s second annual Music Festival Paris opened its doors on November 1st. The three-day event drew packed crowds at the Grande Halle de la Villette, a cavernous glass and iron former slaughterhouse in the city’s 19th arrondissement. Building on last year’s success, the Chicago-based online music magazine assembled a lineup of over 30 American, French and international artists from across the indie spectrum, from dubstep and aquacrunk to experimental singer-songwriters. The 2012 festival featured a second stage, a third day of shows, and twice as many acts as its predecessor, with headliners including M83, Animal Collective, Robyn, the Walkmen, and Grizzly Bear. Between sets, Parisian and expat hipsters noshed on burgers and fries, snapped photo booth pics, and browsed the crates of LPs for sale.
Captions by Rebecca Appel
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DIIV
Brooklyn-based shoegaze band DIIV was one of the first groups to perform on Thursday, November 1st for the festival’s opening night.
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Z. Cole Smith
Z. Cole Smith, formerly a guitarist for Beach Fossils, founded DIIV (named after the Nirvana song) in 2011.
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Grande Halle
The crowd takes in the theatricality of M83’s set from across the Grande Halle.
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Robyn
Swedish synth-pop singer-songwriter Robyn’s performance on November 2nd was eagerly anticipated. Fans were not disappointed: Robyn brought the house down with a nonstop hour of driving beats and original dance moves.
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La Villette
Robyn’s infectious energy had the enthusiastic crowd singing and "Dancing On My Own" together at La Villette on November 2nd.
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Dance Party
Paris showed lots of love for Swedish singer-songwriter Robyn. The Grande Halle de la Villette turned into a giant dance party during her nearly hour-long set.
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James Blake
London-based dubstep singer-songwriter James Blake played on Pitchfork’s first night. The 24-year-old Blake and his band blasted away the crowd with pounding bass on their breakout hit "CMYK" before turning in a soulful version of ballad "The Wilhelm Scream."
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Brian King
Brian King, on vocals and guitar, and David Prowse, on drums and vocals, performed their hit "The Nights of Wine and Roses," off the 2012 album Celebration Rock, for an appreciative (and moshing) crowd.
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Japandroids
Japandroids, a two-man band out of Vancouver, closed out their two-and-a-half-month Euro-tour with a stop at Pitchfork Paris on November 1st.
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M83
French electro/dreampop band M83 closed out the first night of Pitchfork Paris on November 1st.
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M83
M83 founder and frontman Anthony Gonzalez’s set included "Reunion" off of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
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Sébastien Tellier
No one puts on a show quite like Sébastien Tellier. Arguably the coolest musician in France today (and certainly one of the most controversial) the electro singer-songwriter performed on Thursday, November 1st. Tellier opened his set with a mission statement: "J’aimerais vous plaire . . . je veux que l’amour soit au top."("I want to please you . . . I want the love to be the best.") Alternating between electric guitar and keyboard, the theatrical Tellier punctuated his performance with wisecracks and (mais oui!) the obligatory onstage cigarette break. The crowd went crazy for Tellier’s huge synth sound, but went even crazier when he slowed it down for "La Ritournelle," and "L'Amour et La Violence."
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Animal Collective
Animal Collective’s Avey Tare (David Portner), Geologist (Brian Weitz), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) headlined the second night of the Pichfork festival, on November 2nd.
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Animal Collective
Filling the hall with their unique brand of experimental psych-pop, Animal Collective’s set focused on tracks from the barely two-month-old album Centipede Hz.
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Jessie Ware
Vocalist Jessie Ware performed on November 2nd, Pitchfork's second night, wowing the audience with her powerhouse pipes. The London native's sultry, soul and R&B-influenced pop style was a shift from the electro groups that featured in most of the Pitchfork Paris lineup. Ware closed out her set with her most recent single, "Running."
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The Tallest Man on Earth
Kristian Matsson, the 29-year-old Swedish singer-songwriter, who goes by the stage name the Tallest Man On Earth, performed on the second day of the festival. The quiet intimacy of his folk songs, which Matsson strummed on an acoustic guitar, was a striking counterpoint to the hall-shaking acts later that evening.
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Fans Anticipate the Walkmen
A crowd waits for the Walkmen to perform on the second night of the festival.
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Hamilton Leithauser
Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser gave a raw, emotion-drenched performance.
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The Walkmen
Indie-rock favorite the Walkmen played on November 2nd. The band showcased their decade-long musical evolution with a set that combined the angry intensity of old favorites ("The Rat") and tracks from their nostalgia-laden latest album, Heaven.
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The Afterparty
On the first two nights of the festival, night buses shuttled festival-goers to all-night afterparties at Paris clubbing hotspot La Trabendo.
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Cloud Nothings
Cleveland, Ohio-based indie rock group Cloud Nothings played early on November 3rd, the festival's final night. With aggressive vocals, thrashing guitar and drums, lead singer-songwriter-guitarist Dylan Baldi, Jayson Gerycz (on drums), bassist TJ Duke and Joe Boyer (guitar) built to a wall of sound.
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Death Grips
Mixing hip-hop and hardcore, Death Grips’ MC Ride (Stefan Burnett) and drummer Zach Hill turned in one of Pitchfork’s heavier acts on November 3rd. The group is currently mired in controversy over the online self-release of their latest album.
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Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear, one of Brooklyn’s most beloved indie rock groups, played for an appreciative audience on the festival’s final night. Ed Droste and multi-tasking musicians Daniel Rossen, Chris Taylor and Christopher Bear’s lush vocal harmonies and enveloping sound expanded to fill the entire hall. The band utilized both electronic and traditional instruments on heartfelt renditions of old favorite "Knife," and "Yet Again" from recent release Shields.
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Liars
Liars brought their headbangy noise-meets-dance-punk to Pichfork’s final night. Frontman Angus Andrew, who seemed to play the whole concert with his hair in his face, led the group through a set of older songs and tracks from the dark electro WIXIW, including "No.1 Against The Rush."
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Purity Ring
Soprano Megan James and DJ/instrumentalist Corin Roddick, Montreal-based electro group Purity Ring, played on November 3rd. The band’s ethereal, ambient synth had the crowd swaying. Their hypnotic sound was echoed visually in an almost ghostly set design that featured their trademark interactive lanterns, or "cocoons."
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Twin Shadow
Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr. showed off his Eighties-influenced brand of synth-rock and silky voice on Pitchfork’s third night. Before launching into "Run My Heart," off of his 2012 album Confess, Lewis Jr. asked the audience to take off their shirts – and they happily complied. A hall’s worth of T-shirts spun in the air as the song played.