The War on Drugs rocked the Pitchfork Music Festival Saturday night to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. The Philadelphia indie-rock band (which is what you would expect at Pitchfork) was ably led by front-man/co-founder/ primary songwriter/guitarist Adam Granduciel, who did not speak to the crowd much during The War on Drug's hour-plus set, but rather let the music do the talking. The music was carried by the rhythm section of Charlie Hall on drums and David Hartley on bass guitar; Hartley has been with the band almost from the beginning, back when they were formed in 2005 by Granduciel and Kurt Vile. Vile left The War on Drugs shortly after their first full-length album, Wagonwheel Blues, was released in 2008.
Every song that the War on Drugs played at Pitchfork was from either their third album, 2014's Lost in the Dream, or their most recent fourth album, last year's A Deeper Understanding, which won a Grammy Award this year for Best Rock Album. The nine-song set included lengthy versions of several of their songs, and the set concluded without an encore.
