Sunday, the final day of Pitchfork, arrived with a lot of anticipation. It was the only day of the festival to sell out. It was also the day of the festival with the fewest lower-rung up and comers. It was also the day of the much-hyped performance by Odd Future. It would be a tale of two festivals.

Beginning the moment the gates opened, people massed around the Red Stage, 3 hours and 20 minutes before the LA Rap Collective would take the stage. Chants of “Wolf Gang!” and “Golf Wang!” and “Kill People Burn Shit Fuck School” began the moment that Red Stage opener, the UK’s Yuck, played their final note. The crowd gave an ovation when Odd Future DJ Syd’s LAPTOP was brought onto the stage. I had originally planned to watch this set from my perch, between Red and Green, which made it possible for me to see both clearly, but at the last moment, I decided to be brave. I dug my way to somewhere around the 5th row of people. The sweat and pushing and elbowing was pretty amazing, considering NOBODY had taken the stage yet except a laptop. When Syd emerged, looking awesome and wearing a cool hat and throwing the audience water, the jostling and intensity increased. From around me, calls for “Sandwiches”, Odd Future’s usual set-opener, featuring a green-masked Tyler emerging in a hail of screaming and his signature stomp-dance. That’s when I got a little worried. Do these people not know that Tyler broke his foot? When Hodgy Beats and Left Brain (AKA MellowHype) emerged first, the thrashing in the front eased up a little. They did their recent single, the murderous “64″, and people seemed to be feeling it, but we had not reached the fever pitch that we had been building to. After the song, the rest of Odd Future emerged, Tyler on crutches. The young dude next to me yelled “What???” I told him about Tyler’s broken foot, from a recent LA show. Apparently nobody was expecting it. But, he explained first thing, and the show must go on. The group launched into “Transylvania” from GOBLIN and people sang along and there was crowd surfing, just like your standard O.F. show, but you could feel the frustration, from both sides. You can see that Tyler just wants to be able to go berserk and the fans, obviously, want a full-strength show. All that being said, Odd Future were obviously going as hard as they could, and that’s what I always, always want to see at a show. But the “we don’t give a fuck about anybody” attitude that has made Tyler and company famous is a two edged sword, both edges showing clearly during the most famous song of the set, “Sandwitches.” Before the song, Tyler introduced it by smugly saying “Ok. Here’s the song that probably all of you niggaz in the back know the first verse to” and proceeded to make a bratty face and not sing the first verse, and instead puppet the words with his hands like a kid might do when their parents are speaking, but not looking. And you could feel and see it effect people in a sort of put-off way. And then, there’s the OTHER edge, a moment of genius. When we reach verse three, and the line “I’m stabbing any blogging faggot hipster with a pitchfork” and instead of singing, Tyler smiled big, put his arms in the air, and spun a 360 on his stool, in front of the capacity Pitchfork crowd (and a might squad of…ahem….”faggot blogging hipsters”) that is FEATURED in the lyric, and that was singing the line right back to him. And THAT was the moment of the set. I think the festival at-large would’ve been stronger without the eclipsing shadow of their hype. For 40 minutes, though exciting, it just didn’t feel like the festival anymore. It felt more like OzzFest. But, with that singular moment during yonkers, I call this a win for Odd Future.

As for the Non-Odd Future part of the festival, Sunday was a big triumph. One of the most stunning performances came from Kurt Vile and the Violators, playing rocked-up versions of selections from the absolutely wonderful Smoke Ring For My Halo. It was exactly what I’m always hoping for when seeing a band that I like. I want to hear a mixed-bag of selections, true to their original arrangements, but adjusted for the live setting. And this was a perfect example.

Another big winner on Sunday was Merge Records-founding Superchunk! People (who don’t know better) seemed genuinely shocked at how hard this mild-looking band of indie elder-statesmen brought it. Bouncing all over the stage and just ripping through songs. Awesome.

Because I couldn’t force myself away from the Green/Red stages, I was sad to miss the Blue Stage performances on Sunday, but word on the street is that Baths and Kylesa were the big winners, and that comes as no surprise if you’re familiar with either of these acts.

During their stellar set (mostly collected from Halcyon Digest), Pitchfork Festival veterans Deerhunter, led by the prolific Bradford Cox, offered one of the best moments of the entire weekend. During “Nothing Ever Happened” at the peak of the long, intense build at the end, Bradford broke out into the first verse of Patti Smith’s “Horses” drawing a wave of screams, just before kicking into the song’s end coda. This was my first Deerhunter show, and that is my favorite song, so for my money, that was the moment of the festival.

As the sun started to set, Cut Copy took the Red Stage. And then proceeded to turn the entire field into a jumping, fist-pumping party. I was in the middle, slackjaw. This was, by far and away, the most people simultaneously dancing to one band, of the festival. And it carried through their entire performance. Originally, I wasn’t sure why they got such a good spot on the red stage, but I am no longer a doubter. I’m not so sure they shouldn’t have been closing the main stage but NOBODY ran the entire audience like they did, including any of the green stage headliners. It was really something to see.

And with the sun almost completely down, our last act, TV On The Radio, took the stage. You could tell that the people were tired, and yet, the capacity crowd squished around the Green Stage and gave the band all that they had, which was mostly attention. The band sounded on point and put on a compelling performance, which felt less like a peak (like the Cut Copy set) and more like a release, an exhale at the end of 3 furiously hot, busy days. It was right.

Sore and exhausted, I slipped away as they were finishing, and walked by myself down Ogden to The Silver Palm for their signature “Three Little Piggies” sandwich, my finish line. On the way, these were the conclusions I came to about this festival: It is the right price, It is the right size, It runs on time (to the minute), and it goes to extreme lengths to keep everyone comfortable and hydrated. The record fair is awesome. I asked around to see what people’s complaints were, as I was having a shortage of personal complaints, and besides wanting more of the food vendors to take credit/debit cards, people were happy. And that is a big deal.

Thanks for Deb and Chrissy for taking me to dinner.

Thanks to Team Clermont folks for the kisses.

I’m going to get on a plane to TN now, and sleep forever.