Like most festivals with more than one stage, Pitchfork sometimes books two great acts to play overlapping sets, forcing fans to make a painful choice. Reader writers found quite a few of those conflicts on the fest’s schedule, and thought long and hard about who they’d go to see. These write-ups compare those decisions with the “winners” as determined by Pitchfork itself, via rounded averages of the ratings the site has given to each artist’s releases.

Whether with the wild, jagged punk of Bikini Kill, back when she was de facto ambassador of the riot-grrrl movement, or more recently with the relatively club-friendly Le Tigre, Kathleen Hanna has always had a knack for hammering out danceable jams—she could probably do it with nothing but the lid of a trash can, a rubber band, and her shimmying, piercing vocals. She sanded off the edges a bit on the first album from her band the Julie Ruin, 2013’s Run Fast, but it still has the same Hanna strut—”Cookie Road,” with its disco beats and zap-gun synths, is a good example. Waxahatchee‘s most recent record, this spring’s Ivy Tripp, is bolder (and better) than its bedroom-poppy predecessors, with a stage-seasoned rock fullness, but Katie Crutchfield’s aching vocals still can’t go head-to-head with the Julie Ruin’s bombast—not to mention whatever outfit Hanna’s bandmate Kenny Mellman (better known as half of cabaret duo Kiki & Herb) will be wearing. I say wait for Waxahatchee to return for a show at the Empty Bottle or Lincoln Hall.

Pitchfork’s call: Waxahatchee, 8.3 > The Julie Ruin, 7.0

Read the rest of our Pitchfork Music Festival coverage