This seemed like an odd choice for a free Millennium Park show. The Dirty Projectors aren't exactly the type of general population-friendly street festival rock band you would expect to hear if you were, say, a tourist just happening through Millennium Park on a lovely summer afternoon. The Sea and Cake, the headliner on this free bill, although somewhat soft and lite for a big outdoor show like this, at least are generically recognizable. Dirty Projectors, on the other hand, are prog-rock under an indie-rock cheesecloth - wonderfully complex and genre-bending, but I feel that the fact they're occasionally played on XMU is what got them their gig here. This isn't an easily accessible band. Would it seem odd if Coheed and Cambria or Dreamtheater were scheduled instead? Nonetheless, I was pretty excited to see them since I've passed before, largely since I can't spend money on prog-music. To that extent, the show was worthwhile, if only to see how they sound live, since on record it's pretty intensely weird.
Cost/Value = FREE = A
