SASQUATCH! | 5.26 & 5.27 | THE GORGE

How about a pic of the Slip onstage at the Gorge?

I was expecting a review.

Here is a review for you: Cold. Windy. Windy. Cold. Two hour delay on the main stage on Sunday. Spearhead moved off of the main stage. Forty dollar camping per night. TEN DOLLAR TALL BOY OF COORS. Short, but sweet set by the Beasties. Overall, a very poorly organized festival in my opinion. Im a new to the West coast, especially in terms of festivals out here, and I must say that I miss the guster of those east coast shows; thank god for Bonnaroo and All Good this year.

1st thing I thought of as I scrolled the pix was that it looked cold once again for this festival. Sasquatch has gone down hill since the first year and even them it was really cold by the time SCI came on. The venue itself, which is one of the nicest in the country is being run into the ground by a horrible management company who know very little about running a top notch facility. Its really too bad. But after hearing that the Beastie's set was short and the weather sucked, I'm glad we didn't drive over. I am bumbed that we couldn't get in to the Beastie's show at the Crocodile in Seattle on Friday night. Does anyone have any feedback on that show? For those who are not familiar with the venue, The Crocodile holds a couple hundred people at most.

great photos...

That you Gary? Phisherman81 looks mighty familiar! Was it that cold?

I had a farkin BLAST this year. Spearhead killed it!!!! The Black Angels are flat out amazing live, so many great moments and I LOVED THE WIND!!!! This was my 29th time to the Gorge and a great kick off to the festival season.

Here is my pics, good times!! - http://www.shenny.smugmug.com/gallery/2927481

Cheers,

Matt

Since jambase didn't post a review here's mine:
Saturday - we got in the venue (after waiting at security for over an hour, and still managing to bring in tons of booze and party favors) just as Ozomatli was starting. I always love an Ozo show and this was no exception. Loved hearing newer stuff and danced my ass off.

Neko Case - boring as hell, singing was off key several times. Decent voice but nothing to get your panties in a bunch for.

Ghostland Observatory - Rad! Very retro, obviously don't take themselves too seriously. Loved the fuzzed out beats and the singer's got great stage presense.

Grizzly Bear - Need a new name, if you call your band Grizzly Bear you should fuckin' rawk. They did not.

Beasties - Great show, even though the sound sucked (actually the only set that sounded good all weekend was Bjork, imo, the sound techs at this fest are incompetent) Billed as an instrumental set, but wasn't, which was fine but I was a little disappointed, I wanted to hear funky shit like the In Sounds from Way Out all night. The encore was dope though, enough people left that boogie space up front was abundant.

Arcade Fire - Most hyped band on the planet. No soul, crap singing, two violins and not one violin solo? what is that about? Sound was so muddled I couldn't pick out any single instrument. Too bad we had to sit through this tirade of noise to get to the reason we came...

Bjork - I've been listening to Bjork for many years and this was my first show. I was hoping for more than she could possibly give, but she gave it all and then some. I've never seen a singer who sounds just as good live as in the studio. The stage show was sweet, and I loved being able to see the electronic wizards do their stuff. The horns were great and I loved the new arrangements of older songs. Bjork was just as adorable as always, dancing around and smiling ever so seductively. She really seemed to enjoy herself. This set was worth the trip from Eugene.

Sunday:
Tried to get in for Blackalicious, but again with lines and security it didn't happen.

Bad Brains - Loved the reggae, hated the punk. Sat down and got our drink on.

Polyphonic Spree - One of the other main draws for us, so it was a bummer to have their set cut short. Sasquatch's website had warned us of wind 2 days before we left Oregon. We were prepared, why weren't they?

Smoosh - Well, they're like 13 and sound like it, cool to see kids play, but it would've been cooler to see kids rock out. Novelty act at best.

Spoon - Only saw a couple songs, since they made the announcement that Spearhead was going to play at 9:00, they were okay, but really not much there.

Dandy Warhols - Pop rock, not too exciting, the most fun thing about their set was the impromptu jump rope blanket in the crowd.

Spearhead - Well, we wandered over to the Wookie stage and waited, and waited, and waited, missing interpol in the process. Finally left the stage before they even started so we could get a spot for the Beasties. Disappointing.

Beasties - Ummm, why do I want to see the same show 2 nights in a row? They played a few songs that they didn't on Sat. but mostly it was the same set. Fun, dancable, high energy and the crowd was diggin' it, but I was a little let down. I thought the Beasties were gonna do an instrumental set Sat. and something completely different on Sun. I was wrong.

Polyphonic Spree late night - This was unexpected and awesome. The spree are great in a smaller setting and put a huge smile on my face. A little tired after the long day, but a great way to end the weekend.

That's it for the music, here's the rest:

Sarah Silverman - WTF? I didn't see her at all, my girlfriend saw her for about 2 minutes and said she seemed hammered. Uh, if you're hosting a show, shouldn't you be on the stage? And especially during the wind induced break. It would've been nice to have some entertainment other that trying to kick a hacky sack on a hill in the wind.

$10 Coors Light - Ridiculous, is there some sort of shortage of shitty beer in Washington that I don't know about? That's the only valid reason I could see for beer being so expensive.

$4-6 water - see above. The Gorge needs to treat their PAYING CUSTOMERS with some respect.

No re-entry - Again, some respect is needed. We paid $120 to camp, let us go back and change, nap, eat, drink. 3 hours with no music on the mainstage and we couldn't even go back to our camp to wait it out. This is the only festival with camping that I've ever been to that doesn't allow you to go back to your temporary home during the day.

Communication - On the Gorge's website it states that vehicles won't be allowed to leave the campgrounds and come back. But, that's what our neighbors did both days. If we'd have known that we could leave and go swimming, we definitely would have taken advantage of it. Also, I went to get a $100 camping pass from ticketbastard like it said to do on the website and they weren't selling them anymore. Update the website with information like this. No Ice at the campgrounds was also stupid and the lady running the store even said she has asked for an ice trailer and the Gorge won't give her one. Are they trying to get us to buy more food? Every employee I talked to throughout the weekend said they were going to quit, and hate the way the place is run. Livenation needs to get its shit together.

All in all we had a fun time, but won't be going back to the Gorge until they start treating us with the respect that nearly all other festivals do. Bjork was the shit and the Beasties were fun. Wish we could've seen Blackalicious, the Slip, Helio Sequence, Interpol, Manu Chao, Spearhead, Mirah and Sarah Silverman. Seems like we paid a lot and didn't get too much in return. Oh well, in the end we got to see Bjork and that made the whole trip worthwhile.

keep groovin'
Domino Holster

Chunk - Much thanks for the review - oh and

"Ghostland Observatory - Rad! Very retro, obviously don't take themselves too seriously. Loved the fuzzed out beats and the singer's got great stage presense."

AMEN!!!!!!!

CHUNK......SLOTH

Baby.........RUUUTH!

Nice photos and nice review Chunk. Sounds like the production could have been better, to put it lightly.

I'm glad you enjoyed Ghostland. I'm from Austin and have been seeing them for years. Energy is always through the roof. Definitely on par to hit it big, but I'll always remember the gigs at hole in the walls around here.

Dunno if anyone caught the Black Angels, but they're an absolutely amazing local band as well. Drone out.

I like Spoon and all, but man their egos got way too big.

I have to say I disagree with alot of what has been written in this review. If you want to complain about $10 beer, then go ahead, but next time don't fucking buy a $10 Coors! As for the weather---if you go to the Gorge you better damn well be prepared for the weather. Saturday was nearly perfect weather. Sunday was windy as windy gets, but the speakers were blowing like I have never seen and calling the show off for a few hours was the right thing to do. Also, this festival is just the right size for this venue. The vibe was awesome, the collection of big, medium, and small acts combined with local music was great. This is the Northwest--if you want to enjoy yourself, you have to work a little bit for your entertainment, and it was very easy to see many bands with a little bit of effort. Also, the security was really lax and they let you bring in as much food and water as you wanted. The prices should be high--if you're not going to take advantage of the security at The Gorge, then you SHOULD pay that much for food and water. I had a great time at Sasquatch, as did everyone I was with. For the price of tickets ($65/day), we heard a ton of music, which is what it was all about.

OK, I didn't buy a $10 beer, cause I was there last year and knew what to expect. I'm from the NW, born and raised, and if you noticed I didn't complain about the weather, only that the venue was less prepared than we were. We brought in our own food and water and booze, I'm just trying to give people who weren't there an idea of what the scene was like. And why should the prices be high? Just because they can? Why not give a little to those of us who make this festival happen. And security was not lax, waiting in line for over an hour as they tore apart everyone's bags is not what I call chill security.
To each their own.
Domino Holster

i dont get it...the Slip played this festi and no pic? I cant even ask for one? dont tell me the INDYWHORES who wrote this don't respect the Slip enough to give them SOME love...THE SLIP IS ONE OF THE BANDS THAT HELPED BUILD THIS SITE! I know i have been getting my Slip tourdates here since day one...

Having been a Gorge veteran for 10 years now I can understand the gripes about prices and security... yes... $10 for a beer is rough... but nobody's mentioned that they're 24oz beers... which really makes them $5... whatever.

My main disagreement is with the review of Arcade Fire. IMO that set absolutly RIPPED... the energy that band gives off blew me away. Granted, the sound up at the top of the venue wasn't the best. The tough thing about a festi setting is there's no soundcheck... throw in the fact that they had 10 players on stage who are all switching instruments and it's bound to be muddled when you're that far away. I made my way down to the floor (plenty of room by the way) around their third song and was able to take in the rest of the show from a nice spot stage right.

If you're not familiar with their music, their first album was pretty much a concept album with recurent themes (neighborhood #1-4, etc) and rhythmes. Pair this with their new album, which is a bit more disjointed but still incredible, and you have an amazing collection of songs for a band with only two full-length records.

Neighborhood #4 (Power Out) > Rebellion (Lies) was the highlight for me, as well as great versions of Intervention and Keep The Car Running. Side note: No Cars Go was the second song played, while Keep The Car Running was the second to last song played.

I also had the pleasure to see them the next night in Portland at the Schnitzer (didn't stay for the windfest that was day 2, but wasn't planning on it from the start as I had the Portland tickets before Sasquatch went on-sale) and they brought the heat again. Now in a controled environment with a proper soundcheck the mix was perfect... but the energy of the Gorge show gave that set an edge.

Beastie Boys "instrumental" (definitely not instrumental as they sang nearly every other song) was sick as well... funny as hell set and really cool to see them in such a no-pressure environment like that.

All in all I had a blast and it's too bad that some of the people on this board didn't. Yes, the camping wasn't heady by any means (no venders anywhere) and the beer was kind of expensive, but music was what we came for and it delivered.

oh... and it was 80-85 and sunny on Saturday.

Totally agree about Arcade Fire. I had not seen them before, and honestly only got hip to them when I saw they were playing Sasquatch. I had heard the buzz, but as of yet not started listening. I bought Neon Bible and love it, keeping in mind that everything good I had heard about them was about the live show. That being said, they did not disappoint. As much as I was looking forward to the Beasties, Michael Franti, Citizen Cope, BJORK, and others, I was highly anticipating the beast that turned out to be Arcade Fire. I've seen tons of shows (as most of you have), and I can honestly say that Arcade Fire is one of the 3 or 4 most creative and energetic live bands I have seen in a long long time. That's the way music should be played live. With energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and a modern does of drama and stage effects that don't detract from the music.

Why have I been afraid of Bjork since I can remember? That pic brought back some pain.

This was my first time at the Gorge and I was disappointed by the venue. I guess I expected the venue to be run with a little more repsect for the concert goers. I have been to plenty of smaller equally awesome concerts that have catered to the nature of their viewers. For example:

Missing Blackaliscious and The Slip because I spent an hour and a half in lines. Our group even went so far as to come hours in advance to beat the lines and we still got left out.

Not being allowed to return to the tents. According to all the crazy restrictions in the concert, unless you are planning to pack a suitcase for every possible need, most people were left shorthanded in one way or another. The temperature must have swung 20+ degrees the second day and I saw plenty of people unprepared. That wouldn't matter if they could go back to their tent. You also lost an hour or more in the lines for the food.

THE FOOD! Oh my goodness-talk about not knowing your demographics. I was at least expecting something edible. It seemed that every poor vegetarian and vegan was stuck at the wok line and if you didn't ask for the meal plain they slathered on some brown thick liquid that pretty much made you want to throw it away the minute you received it. I think the corporations running the show could have shelled out a little more than your atypical county fair food.

Didn't they announce that this concert was sustainable? Which part? The part where they had one recycling tent, which only worked if you brought your bottles to them or happened to find one of the poor volunteers who were trying to keep it under control?? Plus the recyclers closed up shop early the second night. When I left all I could see were recyclable items strewn everywhere with no place to put them except the trash.

Sarah Silvermann-that lady was hell on wheels. She was rude to the audience, I know that is her thing but she pretty much didn't care where she was because she was hammered ass drunk. Then she forgot Manu Chao's name and the crowd heckled her. That was the last I saw of her for the whole concert. I want to know how much of our ticket sales went to paying her to show up drunk and be obnoxious?

Concert Itself: Excellent!

Ghostland Observatory was outrageous!

I really liked the line up of Arcade Fire and then Bjork-it would have been sick to see them play one song together. I didn't notice a problem in the music or the way it sounded, but then I was farther from the stage and maybe it was all flowing better. The Arcade Fire brought all the energy anyone could need and then mood was perfect when Bjork came out. I have seen her once before, and I think it goes without saying that she brings it everytime. I thought it was so funny how the audienced "awwwed" after her when she said "Thank you very much!". I just want to dunk her in my coffee.

Interpol and Beastie Boys were awesome, but for me they did not trump the first night.