Top Five Must-See Pickathon Sets Per Stage

KURT VILE

Fir Meadows Stage: Lightning Dust (Friday, 7:40 pm)
The first day of Pickathon is typically dedicated to finding camping, then booze, then the square dance, but a pre-sundown, open-air performance from this trippy-dippy Black Mountain side project sounds like a perfectly sublime start to the weekend.


Starlight Stage: Kurt Vile & the Violators (Saturday, 11 pm)
Positioned, as its name suggests, for optimal stargazing, the Starlight is tailor-made for Vile’s drifting guitar space rides. Don’t worry about actually looking at Kurt (pictured). His hair will be in his face, anyway.




Galaxy Barn: Parquet Courts (Saturday, 1 am)
In 2012, Thee Oh Sees delivered perhaps the most raucous set in the festival’s history inside its muggiest venue. This year, there are a few contenders to one-up them—indie-rock supergroup Divine Fits, psych-funk gospel singers the Relatives—but the nervously punky energy of Brooklyn’s Parquet Courts is the best bet to turn this creaky wooden shack into a basement keg party.




Woods Stage: Shabazz Palaces (Sunday, 7:40 pm)
Hip-hop is rare enough at Pickathon, so the opportunity to hear Ishmael Butler’s heady, surrealist rhymes evaporate into the trees surrounding the most transformative setting at Pendarvis Farm is truly a can’t-miss opportunity.




Mountain View Stage: Feist (Sunday, 8:50 pm)
Maybe it’s a tad predictable to pick the headliner, but big stages are meant for big things, and the Canadian quirk-pop songbird is rumored to be bringing Pickathon’s first-ever LED light show with her.

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