Sasquatch! Music Festival 2011 Day 4 Monday, May 30th at the Gorge Amphitheatre
This was my second year in a row being sober at Sasquatch. It took both Matt and I this weekend to finally realize that there are three groups of people who attend the festival. Group one, the music fans. Group Two, the people who come to party. Group three, the people who just want to dance. I am not saying that any group is better than one or the other, because we all got along just fine at Sasquatch this year. In a sense it’s kind of cool that Sasquatch can draw from that many types of people. Either way I am sure we all provide each other with some wonderful people watching over the weekend.
Today I learned that big things happen at small stages; just because a band is playing on the “Yeti Stage” doesn’t mean they are boring or not cool… in one point of view that stage can be the most important of the day. Foster the People had the biggest crowd of the Yeti Stage all weekend, with people standing on rooftops and then most of them stuck around to see Best Coast play next. Both the final Yeti Stages bands on Monday and Sunday ended the night with more than a bang.
Monday we saw the following bands; Wavves, Twin Shadow, The Young Evils, the Old 97′s, Head Like A Kite, Black Mountain, Guided By Voices, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Foster the People, Surfer Blood, Best Coast, !!!, The Decemberists, Deerhunter, and Wilco. Monday ended up being a very stacked day of music.
My Monday highlights included:
Seeing Head Like A Kite perform because they wanted to make sure they continued to bring the dance party, which they did complete with a dancing panda bear and backup female singers.
!!! was a complete shock for me, I had no idea what to expect and as soon as their set started I don’t think my jaw ever closed shut. It was sassy, spunky, all over the place fun. !!!’s dance music is so fab that even the photographers were dancing in the pit while they were snapping away at Nic while he violated his microphone. That was the first time all weekend that I saw an artist jump off the stage and get into the crowd, on top of working it for all of the photographers like a catwalk model. Most insane part of Sasquatch 2011 was seeing !!! on the Bigfoot Stage. I will never forget it!
I hadn’t seen Macklemore & Ryan Lewis before either and I loved his Bowie Fringe Denim Jacket as well as his music! I had such a great time watching the crowd go bananas for Macklemore. Plus thanks to Macklemore I learned the 80% of the crowd was born in the 90s. Which seriously my mom wouldn’t let me go to the Gorge until I was like 18; what the hell!
I had no idea that Foster the People were going to be so popular this year at Sasquatch! It was by far the largest crowd I saw at the Yeti Stage all weekend. I had to push through people like I was going for the single discounted MAC at Best Buy on Black Friday. Plus they totally worked it on stage moving around, switching instruments, and making sure people got their time’s worth. I am stoked to say that I got to see them; because I have a feeling I won’t be able to ever be that close to them again. It was also perfect that Best Coast was playing next on stage because I adore that three piece.
Guided by Voices had more energy than some of the youngest bands that played all weekend at Sasquatch, though I must say the most amusing part was watching their roadie bring them smokes on stage while they were playing. I don’t think they ever stopped smoking. Not to mention their singer was drinking straight from the bottle. Their set was chalked full of classics and another legendary band that we finally got to see thanks to Sasquatch!
The Decemberists were a perfect band to play on Monday night. They sounded just as I had hoped with every lovely twang and I got to hear some of my jams like “Box of Rocks,” “Down by the Water,” and “Calamity Song.” It was funny too, because of course they brought up how last time they played Sasquatch two people had sex over on the rocks; they mentioned that if anyone wanted to do it again this year that “Rise To Me” would be the proper song for that task. I am glad I had the chance to see them live again because I have fallen in love with their latest release “The King is Dead.”
I would like to say I ended my 2011 Sasquatch experience with Deerhunter and their chilling set as the lighting rolled in behind the crowd and fog filled the Bigfoot stage. Their set wasn’t flashy; it was just dark, cold, and mystic. Matt has been listening to their album “Halcyon Digest” for weeks now and it was fucking wonderful to hear my jams off the album live. I got goose bumps during “Desire Lines” and just stood there with a camera around my neck shell-shocked at the brilliance, somehow still managing to sing to the whoas in the song. It was haunting, and will forever be etched into my mind of my top concert moments.
Matt went down to catch a few songs from Wilco as I stood on the hill and watched Mother Nature work her magic in the background striking purple lighting and giving Wilco the most unexpected gorgeous backdrop. The weather overall this weekend was perfect, I even managed to get a little too much sun.
Sasquatch! Music Festival is the highlight of my year every year; it’s the Christmas of Concerts in my world. I love how I can get out and just listen to live bands all day, for days in a row. Every year I seem to find a new band to fall in love with and I gain a new story to tell my family and friends. Happy 10th Birthday Sasquatch, just think in 11 more years you can drink a $12 beer with the rest of us!
All photos taken at the Gorge Amphitheater by Matt Auclair and Andrea Williams.
