Stuck a Fork In It And It Ain't Done: Public Enemy Still Cooking With "Magnum Opus" It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
MUSIC
Stuck a Fork In It And It Ain't Done: Public Enemy Still Cooking With "Magnum Opus" It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
ALL THE COOL KIDDIES AND WANNABES OF CHICAGO ARE HANGING OUT THIS WEEKEND AT THE PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL, A THREE-DAY ALTERNATIVE MUSIC EXTRAVAGANZA AT THE CITY'S UNION PARK.
By sheer good fortune, Crabby found herself hanging on opening night, where she expected to cut out early after she cruised the crowd, drank a root beer and perused the goodies at the craft tables.
But then Public Enemy took the stage, and Crabby pinched her way to the middle of the crowd where she could partake in the 20th anniversary celebration of PE's widely acclaimed album It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, regularly ranked among the best albums ever recorded. That spot was evident on Friday night as the product seemed fresh picked from the hood, no expiration date evident. Twenty years late, Crabby's gonna have to buy the CD.
Chuck D and Flava Flav, wearing his trademark oversized wall clock (which Crabby swears she saw last week at Target) promised to rock until organizers pulled the plug, performing 45 minutes past the closing time and ignoring 'flashes' tipping them that it was time to end the show.
Yet the group's clearly provocative lyrics -- along with some political verbal bombs thrown in for good measure -- ("Fuck George Bush!" was a recurring theme; and maybe I'm imaging things, but I could swear there was some allusion to Obama as the "coming Messiah." ) seemed to have lost the power that they surely had two decades ago. In the interim, Public Enemy's become a well-packaged product that's easily sellable to the largely white appreciative crowd populating Pitchfork. I guess that means we've come a long way, huh?
Pitchfork continues threw Sunday night with performances by Animal Collective, The Hold Steady, Dinosaur Jr., Spoon, and Cut Copy among others. Tixs are sold out but of course there are those to be had through scalpers. You can catch some of the performances through the festival's live feed here.
