Sleigh Bells Make Chicago Scream at Pitchfork Music Festival

Posted on Jul 19th 2010 10:30AM by Garin Pirnia
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Daniel Boczarski, Redferns

As the sun dwindled on yet another balmy day in Chicago at the Pitchfork Music Festival, noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells made a jam-packed crowd of thousands wait in anticipation because of sound issues. As a result, Derek E. Miller and Alexis Krauss had to trim their set down to 30 minutes, but lucky for them, most of their songs were terse anyway.

While Miller played the guitar, Sleigh Bells' only onstage instrument, Krauss came at the crowd like a caged animal unleashed from its cage. On fiery opener 'Tell 'Em,' snappy drumbeats gave way to razor sharp guitar noises, flashing strobes, thundering beats, machine gun noises and Krauss abrasively yelling at the crowd, "What's up, b----es?" After playing 'Infinity Guitars,' Krauss said they needed a minute to fix another glitch. This didn't sit well with the audience, but when the problem was fixed, she yelped, "You guys want it louder?" The audience cheered in unison as the music boomed even more forcefully from the speakers.

Halfway through their 10-song set, the band played the titular track from their debut album 'Treats.' Near the end of the song, Krauss perched herself atop a speaker and invited the crowd to scream with her. She shrieked, the crowd immediately squealed back at her, and they did it all over again after she yelled "one more time." The band covered many genres like rap on 'Infinity Guitars,' metal on the Black Sabbath-like 'Holly' and indie-pop on 'Riot Rhythm.' Krauss continued her spastic antics, speeding through 'A/B Machines' and 'Kids' and telling the crowd how amazing they were.

Sleigh Bells eventually announced they only had two more songs left and railed through the minute-long 'Straight A's' and their most familiar song, 'Crown on the Ground.' By this time, a lot of the crowd had fled to see Pavement's headline set, but the true fans stuck around to witness Krauss hold the mic towards the audience and jump into the front row. When she got back onstage, she profusely shouted, "Thank you, Pitchfork!"