Monsters were easy to find at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, Wash., despite the elusive nature of the festival’s namesake. Plenty of the 25,000 daily attendees at the sold-out Sasquatch, which took place Memorial Day weekend, from May 27 to May 30, wore furry animal hats, and the more adventurous donned full-body suits resembling everything from zebras to wolves.
Along with the unofficial Furries convention, the grounds of the beautiful Gorge Amphitheatre played host to all the hallmarks of the summer’s first big music festival, including expensive food and a loud mix of live bands, DJs and comedians. This year’s festival — the tenth Sasquatch — had its roots firmly in indie rock but appeased fans of dance music with the excellent (!!!, Washed Out) and the awful (Skrillex, Bassnectar).
The anchors of the festival — each day’s main-stage headliner — are established acts, each with a considerable fanbase and some radio airplay (Wilco being the only band to not have a major presence on mainstream FM radio.)
Foo Fighters’ Friday night performance set the bar high for the rest of the weekend. The five-piece was unstoppable with its run-through of greatest hits (“My Hero,” “Times Like These”) and some fan favorites (“Generator,” “This Is A Call”). Much of the group’s heaviness was provided by songs from its new album, Wasting Light, including the thrash-worthy “White Limo.”
As expected, the band’s show rewarded diehards and pleased casual fans, hitting just the right note for the festival’s start. Unexpected was the Foo Fighters’ role as the most honest band at the festival. Nearing the end of its two-hour set, frontman Dave Grohl declared that “some bands” would have the audience led to believe the concert was over when first walking offstage, only to come back out for an encore, an admittedly silly music-watching exercise.
Of course, Grohl and his rock ‘n’ roll band charged right through and didn’t bother with the lost minutes of encore nonsense. Grohl’s remark seemed like a challenge to all other bands, but, unsurprisingly, the rest of the festival’s headliners all delivered encore songs.
All these encores, however, were well deserved, following winning sets by Death Cab For Cutie on Saturday, Modest Mouse on Sunday and Wilco on Monday. Though encores were only afforded to the four headliners, acts such as Bright Eyes, The Decemberists and Death From Above 1979 all left the audience salivating for more with their pre-headliner sets.
Disappointment was a rare feeling at Sasquatch but reared its ugly head with a robotic set by a lip-synching Robyn and the occasional scheduling conflict. Though it was a weekend full of highs, the most noticeable low was brought on by Sasquatch’s lack of festival-ness.
The problem with the festival atmosphere at Sasquatch begins with the decision to not start music until noon most days and then end the music by 12:30 a.m. most nights. This allows for a great 12 hours or so of music, but the gates of the amphitheatre grounds close each day once the music ends. Most every food vendor inside the gates closes by 11 p.m., and the only food available in the campgrounds is a handful of independent vendors and an overpriced convenience store.
This is good for people who want more than a few hours of sleep each night, but bad for night owls, as it creates an odd void for a festival with camping. For those committed to partying nonstop, the best options are various pop-up DJs that pollute the night sky with bad techno in between tents.
The cause of Sasquatch’s unfestival-like hours is unclear. Perhaps it’s because the venue is an actual concert venue, not a farm in rural Tennessee, like the home of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which is known for its late-night performances.
Another bummer is the festival’s lack of independent food and crafts vendors. Good food is scarce, and one of the two independent crafts vendors I saw was a man sitting in a lawn chair, selling quartz out of a suitcase.
But alas, the bad should not outshine the fantastic, which is what Sasquatch is full of.
Set against the gorgeous Gorge backdrop of the Columbia River and mountainous hill after hill after hill, any opportunity to host an event at the Gorge Amphitheatre should be happily seized. The location is beyond breathtaking, and to be able to watch great music while being surrounded by this particular environment is an unparalleled treat for both nature and live music enthusiasts.
The four stages were all relatively nearby, which made it easy to catch at least part of each act performing at the same time. The relatively small size of the festival also allowed for an incredible bonus: the chance to watch main-stage bands in the pit area. Most every set on the main stage could be seen from up close with little effort.
As it stands, Sasquatch is a great four-day concert and a wonderful festival with jaw-dropping scenery. With a little bit of work, the event could develop into a truly great festival experience.
Below are a few of the many notable performances at this year’s Sasquatch.
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Comedy — Afternoon comedy in the Banana Shack, which hosted electronic and DJ acts in the evening, was a successful showcase of the festival’s curating skills. Though rarely very crowded for comedy, the tent provided relief with laughs and shade. Hari Kondabolu was an unexpected joy, with rants about the sad state of Weezer and welcome jokes about how festival attendees frame their faces with feathers and face paint. Axis of Awesome, an Australian comedy-music trio, worked well as an act at a music festival with parodies of cliché boy-band love songs and Five For Fighting’s lyrically clumsy “Superman.”
Guided By Voices — The most promising comedy booking of the weekend (Scott Aukerman & Paul F. Tompkins Show) had to be skipped because of a schedule conflict with the reunited indie rock greats Guided By Voices. Guided By Voices did not disappoint and rocked through a considerable amount of songs in the band’s one-hour timeslot. Bee Thousand classics including “Kicker of Elves” and “I Am A Scientist” were great live and the energy of the older gentlemen onstage made for a fun set. In addition to catchy choruses, frontman Robert Pollard quizzed the crowd, asking how The Flaming Lips were the day before and, in his best quip, asked who the “shitty” band was that played before Guided By Voices. That act was Chromeo, which packed the pit with dance-crazy concert-goers, a far cry from the tame and relatively empty pit at Guided By Voices.
The Flaming Lips — Though the crowd responded with approving applause when queried by Pollard about Oklahoma City’s best-known freaks, The Flaming Lips delivered perhaps the most upsetting set of the festival. Scheduled to play the entirety of the band’s masterpiece album, 1999’s The Soft Bulletin, the group skipped “The Gash,” “Sleeping on the Roof” and “Slow Motion.” Though the songs chosen undoubtedly provided for the best setlist of a Flaming Lips show in years, the performance was plagued by long breaks in between songs and a 30-minute late start, which cut the band off before it could complete the album. It was a defeated set, with too much time wasted on the band’s tired shtick of spectacle over substance. Confetti and giant balloons have overshadowed the beauty of The Flaming Lips’ songs in concert for nearly a decade now. Here’s hoping for a change.
Bright Eyes and Death Cab For Cutie — Both titans of the indie world, the two groups delivered back-to-back, rocking sets of emotionally charged music. Bright Eyes stuck to its latest album, The People’s Key, with the addition of a few older songs. Though the LP isn’t incredible, the songs were when performed live, providing for one of Sasquatch’s best sets. Death Cab For Cutie’s concert of love-story epics was one of the best-received shows at the festival, with the audience turning each song into a sing-along.
Foster The People — This group, making waves on radio recently, packed the small Yeti Stage, more so than any other performance over the weekend. It was a surprisingly sweet affair, as catchy melodies were the order of the day. The group’s synth-aided pop-rock was the guilty pleasure of the festival, and the building-climbing attendees seemed to confirm this. The impromptu rooftop dance party was likely a great vantage point for Foster The People, but no one could be blamed for being distracted by the view of the Gorge to the side. At Sasquatch, good music and good looks were a rewarding combination.
rhiggins@umdbk.com
