Netherfriends at Pitchfork Music Festival 2010: Live review
Photos: Chandler West
The Netherfriends are not from the Netherlands. Nor are the Netherfriends a league of super hero friends committed to fighting evil in Chicago. Instead the Netherfriends are actually one man, Shawn Rosenblatt, who is responsible for creating the music. The friends are comprised of a group of musicians who come into play when the Netherfriends are booked to play gigs. When this happens, Rosenblatt's friends join him on stage to fill in on other instruments. This style of playing makes for more of a surprise, because you never know who's going to show up to play.
In one of today's opening slots at Pitchfork, Rosenblatt brought on two other musicians, or as he calls them "hired gunz", to play with him. The mercenary musicians joining Rosenblatt provided just the right amount of energy to get the festival going. But it wasn't the type of energy most would think of to start a music festival, it was, like their music, more subdued. The Netherfriends were clearly stoked to be playing Pitchfork, but didn't let it go to their heads, which is a good thing. The group ran through an almost non-stop set playing their own brand of indie-pop/garage rock with some interesting instruments and vocal effects to boot.
Half way through their set, Rosenblatt stopped to make a confession, "I had nightmares last night five people would be standing in the crowd. That was a close one." Close one it was not, as the set neared an end, plenty of people had streamed over to check the group's psychedelic tunes.
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