Sasquatch Music Festival 2006
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Ben and I just got back from a rocking show at the Gorge in George, Washington today, and I figured I’d better write a bit about it before next week starts and I get too busy at work… This story contains all the pre-requisites for total awesomeness: music, women, drugs, and a hail-storm… But if for some reason you’d rather just read the illustrated version, pics and videos from the show are available. :-)
When I first heard the line-up for Sasquatch this year, I was stunned. The Flaming Lips, The Shins, Iron and Wine, The Decemberists, Ben Harper, and… Sufjan Stevens?! How could I not go? Originally Ben and I had planned to go both Saturday and Sunday (Friday’s line-up simply wasn’t that interesting to us), but at some point we decided we didn’t want to camp out, and that would have been required if we were to go to both days. I think we both regretted this decision in the end, so we’ve learned our lesson and will definitely plan on camping out next time. We decided that if we had to choose between Saturday and Sunday, Saturday was better. The rationale was that we could catch Death Cab and Decemberists later at some point since they’re relatively local bands, and the rest of the line-up that day, while cool, was not an absolute necessity.
We drove out from Ben’s place in Puyallup at around 9:30 am on Saturday morning. The goal was to arrive at the Gorge at around noon, but a stop in Ellensburg for gas and food made us a bit late. We arrived on the grounds at about 1:30. We initially missed the turn to premiere parking because the signs were horrible, and made our way down to the VIP area. Once there, the security lady asked me who we were with. I suppose we could have tried to fool her and get some super special treatment, but we told here we were looking for premiere parking and she directed us back. She complimented me on my car as we drove off, and Ben commented later that the fact that Rosaline looks so nice was probably a major reason we managed to get so far without getting stopped by security beforehand. :-)
Once parked, we grabbed our stuff and headed in. Getting past security to get into the grounds was relatively painless, though Ben did have leave both of his hacky sacks. Didn’t make much sense, but I guess their worried about people smuggling in pot or something. Didn’t seem to make much difference, though – there was plenty to go around.
As we crested the hill to the main stage, the opening notes of Gomez’s How We Operate (iTunes) greeted us. Talk about perfect timing! We stumbled down the rather steep hillside and found some empty space on the lawn right in front of some older hippies that wore wool socks and constantly talked about Gore-Tex and how it was the best material in the world. :-) It became apparent very soon that we had picked a great spot to get stories. There was a guy to the right of us who was definitely having a good time. He had panty hose on his head and was rocking back and forth, screaming, and generally making a ruckus. I’m not sure what he was on, but it must have been good… :-)
Gomez put on a great show. I had prepared for the whole day by listening to all the bands I hadn’t heard much of so I was familiar with their stuff. They played one of my favorites from the How We Operate album, See the World, which was cool. Also, they did a song with a vocoder, which was the first time I had heard one actually played live. I was generally impressed with their set, though it was pretty short and we only caught the last few songs.
At some point during Gomez’s set, we witnessed a crackdown on "illegal" beverage consumption by a "Beverage Enforcement Officer." No, I’m not kidding – his shirt actually said that. I don’t know what the deal was… I guess some people were bringing in good alcohol and Miller Light took offense.
I have to admit that I would have gone to Sasquatch no matter what the line-up was as long as Sufjan Stevens was playing. Ever since being introduced to him by my friends Matt and Ricardo, I have wanted to see him live. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, since his music is so richly layered and atmospheric. I wasn’t quite sure he could pull it off live. It seems my concerns were well-founded, though he and his band made a valiant effort. As far as I could tell, everything was live. There were some mixing issues, though. He tends to sing quite softly, and it was tough to hear him. Then when the horns would come in they’d be too loud, then too quiet, and the supporting instruments (such as the xylophone) tended to get drowned out. It was still awesome to see Come on Feel the Illinoise! (iTunes) performed live. He also played Jacksonville, Decatur, The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts, something from Michigan (iTunes) and a Sufjan-ized cover of the Star-Spangled Banner, which was surprisingly fabulous. His set was altogether very good, but unfortunately I doubt it made anyone in the crowd a fan if they weren’t already, which is truly a shame, since he is a tremendous musician.
Next up was Iron and Wine, starring Samuel Beam, the dude with the coolest beard ever. It was a good show, but alas, I fell asleep through a couple of songs. The sun was out, and it was nice and warm on the hillside. It’s a good thing I soaked it up while I could, since a storm was brewing (watch the clouds close in around us here).
About a song and half into Neko Case’s set, the rain began. It was slow at first, but the drops got steadily bigger. Then it tapered off, and just when we thought it was over, the hail began. The stones were about the size of papaya seeds, and at the peak of the 30 minute hailstorm, they were coming down pretty fierce. Ben and I were on the lawn during the whole thing, hunkered under our blanket, keeping our heads down. Ben did manage to get a video of the worst of it. It was a pretty incredible experience, but when it was all done, the temperature had gone down at least 10-15 degrees, Ben and I were very wet, the blanket was soaked, and the hillside was covered in ice. needless to say, we were pretty uncomfortable, so we got up to walk around a bit. The music had stopped once the hail started, and it wouldn’t start again for another 90 minutes. When we arrived earlier that morning, we had been told we couldn’t exit the grounds and re-enter, but after the storm they allowed people to do that, so we went out to the car and changed. I luckily had a pair of pants and a dry shirt, plus we had a spare dry blanket. Unfortunately my shoes are three years old and have no soles, so my feet were permanently wet and cold for the rest of the night.
When we got back to the main stage, we stood right at the crest and waited for the music to start again. I figured Neko Case would come back on, but apparently they just skipped right over her after the weather got bad, which sucked. In fact, the entire line-up got pretty frantic after the delay, so nobody’s sets were as long as they were supposed to be for the rest of the day.
While we were waiting we met a group of Seattle people (Andrew, Missy, Mike, Jade, Mackie, plus some others) who were coming to the main stage to see The Tragically Hip. They were really great people, and we ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. It was nice to have some company besides just Ben and me, and we swapped stories about concerts we’d been to, TV shows, movies, and the lot. Hopefully we’ll get to hang out with them again.
After the Hip were done, it was finally time for The Shins, another band I would have given my left arm to see. Their show was nothing short of amazing, even though it was cut short. They played two new songs, both of which sounded good but were a little lower-paced than I was used to hearing from them. They also played, Kissing the Lipless and Mine’s Not a High Horse from Chutes Too Narrow (iTunes), and of course New Slang. I think they played another couple from Oh, Inverted World (iTunes), but I can’t remember exactly. They’re performance was stellar, though it sounded like I’d popped the CD in and hit play. Not that that’s a bad thing, they just didn’t rock out and jam on their stuff like some bands do when they play live (Ben Harper, for example). But they were on a tight schedule and wanted to play as many songs as they could.
Our original plan was to head over to the Wookiee stage to see Matt Costa, but mackie informed us that the Wookiee and Yeti stages had been cancelled after the hail storm. That sucked, since I just really got into Costa’s Songs We Sing album (iTunes), and was looking forward to seeing him.
The Flaming Lips were supposed to be next, but it was announced that due to the weather, Ben Harper would play, then the Lips. It was very late; things were about an hour and 15 minutes behind schedule. But once Harper finally took the stage, it didn’t matter. He opened with his full band, doing a couple of older songs and Black Rain from Both Sides of the Gun (iTunes), ripping up the slide guitar on every song. As Andrew put it, "In case you guys were wondering who the best musician here is… it’s him." Then he left, which prompted much moaning from the crowd. He returned 3 minutes later with just his acoustic guitar, and played Another Lonely Day (video) and Walk Away (video), two of his sweetest, simplest, and most popular songs. The his band joined him again and they did a couple more songs, including Better Way and of course, the ganja-loving libertarian mantra, Burn One Down (video). The smell of weed was thick in the air as they played, and I couldn’t help but smile at how commanding they were on stage. The Djimbe solo during the song was the best I’ve ever seen, even better than the one from Bonnaroo a few years ago. Ben got the whole thing on video, so definitely check it out.
Harper left the stage for good at 11:15. The whole thing was supposed to be over at 12:00, but the Lips still hadn’t played. Ben and I discussed leaving, but we both anted to see them play, so we stuck it out. We moved back up to the crest of the hill and waited… and waited… and waited… Finally, at 12:15, after more false starts than I could count, they started. unfortunately, by this time I was so tired and frustrated that about halfway through their first song, I motioned to Ben and we headed out to the parking lot. We still had a 2 hour drive back to Puyallup ahead of us. Andrew, Mike, and Mackie had invited us to spend the night at their camp site, but we only had the one blanket between the two of us, and no dry socks, so our feet would have frozen off. I really wish we could have stayed, though, because they were cool people to hang out with.
The drive back was pretty uneventful, though the drizzle made it tough to see and we were both so tired that we had to switch drivers twice during the two-hour drive. We pulled into Ben’s place around 3:30 and crashed.
All in all, it was a great show, but we really got screwed because of the shortened sets and cancelled shows on the Wookiee and Yeti stages. Ben and I learned a lot though, and next time we go to the Gorge, we’re going to either camp ourselves, or be prepared to meet some cool people and crash at their camp site. And we’re definitely bringing dry socks next time. ;-)
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