Day One of Pitchfork is done and under the belt, and miraculously enough it managed to stay dry for the entire evening. As I’m typing my recap of last night’s events, I’m not too excited to get out there for Day 2 in the rain, let’s hope it dries up soon!

Friday consisted of Mission of Burma, Sebadoh and Public Enemy all participating in the Don’t Look Back series, with each band performing track-to-track cuts from their albums Vs., Bubble Scrape, and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back, respectively. While I will admit I do not own a single one of these three albums, I had spent the majority of yesterday morning catching myself up to speed with my homework and checked each album out.

I was bummed to miss Mission of Burma’s set, but I arrived at Union Park with just enough time to catch the last half of Sebadoh’s set, which was pretty rockin’. These dudes took me back to the early/mid nineties sounds of alternative rock, and it was a pretty nice soundtrack to the humid, sunny afternoon. You could tell they were getting a little ticked and annoyed though when the Bomb Squad, who opened up for Public Enemy on the adjacent stage started breaking in with their scratches and Bomb Squad chants. “One more track from us, and then Bomb Squad,” Barlow injected into the opposite crowd—to which Sebadoh busted into some squealing guitar action and Barlow sniped, “Burn!”

Soon enough, the eager crowds got what they came for—and I’m not necessarily referring to the Bomb Squad—although they did an okay job of pumping up the crowd, we could tell something else was putting off the Public Enemy set. That something else, just happened to be Flavor Flave. After the set could be put off no further (city park curfew and all), Chuck D and the rest of the Public Enemy crew busted onto the stage complete with the military men choreographed back dancers. Playing It Takes a Nation. . . in completion, the record started off with sirens and all as Chuck D then burst out into “Bring the Noise,” sans Flave. I heard Flav’s rhymes, but saw no goofy jester with a clown bouncing around.

After “Bring the Noise,” Flav finally bounced on stage, as Chuck D berated into him, “Where the fuck was Flave? How could you miss Bring the Noise?” To which Flav replied that he was bringing his family in or some other excuse about coming in the back gate. I’m still not sold on whether that was a gimmick or Flave’s as ditsy as his persona on TV. Once the two MC’s sorted out their set up, Chuck D and Flave dispersed random “trivia” facts to the crowd, including that this is the 20th anniversary of it Takes a Nation, and that this was the first time playing the record, track for track, cut for cut in the U.S. and then livened up the crowd asking, “What better place to start than Chicago?”

Chuck D and Flav kept the crowd conversation and banter flowing, and I couldn’t help thinking Chuck was the bigger brother figure to the attention deficit ridden Flav. At one point Flav tried to pimp out his new reality show, thanking the crowd for making him number one in reality TV and whoring out the new time slot and days of whatever new crap he’s gotten himself into. This generated a large collection of boos to which the defensive Flav cried back, “To all you fucking booing out there, you ain’t nuthin but a bunch of fake ghosts, booooo—that’s what you call your spouse, you call your spouse your boo, not me!” as he then continued to proclaim that “Public Enemy, though, that’s my real love, that’s my first and my last love.” Chuck D then jumped in to the rescue as the team transitioned into “Terminator X.”

The set ended up being off the chain, better than I had even anticipated. The energy was raw, and the crowd was eating it up—busting out signature 80’s pump up dance moves and moving along as one big party. The odors of sweat, beer, cigarettes and mostly overwhelming, marijuana hung over Union Park in a giant cloud as America got its first consecutive taste of It Takes a Nation. . . live.

Good times were had and I managed to sneak off onto the Pink Line as PE closed out the set with an additional track or two after It Takes a Nation’s closer “Party for your Right to Fight.” I’m sure some of you were there, anyone know what tracks those were? Are you willing to stand in the rain for Day 2?