I think there were more people at Sasquatch than the previous two years. Or maybe we were moving more often with the cooler weather - last year was full too. There were a couple of entertaining bottlenecks between the main stage and the second stage, renamed Bigfoot (formerly Wookie). The stages breathed bodies between set breaks, jamming the paths and the Honey Buckets. The cooler weather helped with people getting on their feet and moving their bodies to the music. More acts got more people standin' and shufflin' at Sasquatch. LCD Soundsystem was a prime example. More beat, less noodly independent guitar.
A quick rundown of my route over the three days. We entered Saturday and I beelined for the small stage, Yeti, for the last song of Fool's Gold. I was happy to get at least that taste. Los Angelenos taking and transforming African and South American rhythms; vocals sung in Hebrew. A brief flip over to Bigfoot for the middle, and flat, section of Mumford & Sons' set, before catching Nurses, a Portland band, enjoying themselves on Yeti. We found a spot on the hill of the Sasquatch stage for a mostly average set from OK Go, famous for the viral music videos.
Broken Social Scene followed up with a scintillating set. They were Exhibit A: see/hear bands perform live. Their live show puts flesh on their albums. They were tight, especially considering the ensemble of players on stage. World Sick, Texico Bitches and Fire Eye'd Boy were strong performances. Kevin Drew bantered easily.
Sarah and I slid into the pit for The National. Matt Berninger, the band's lyricist and lead singer, was a madman on the stage, lurching around, descending for a long period into the crowd - roadie furiously slinging microphone cable - full of emotion. We saw the club version of The National when they played the evening slot on Yeti our first visit to the Gorge. This time around we got the big stage treatment and, from the pit's perspective, they projected. New songs - I'm biased - feel like instant sepia-toned classics. They played Bloodbuzz Ohio, Terrible Love. Old songs were like old friends - welcoming. They played Abel, Looking for Astronauts, Squalor Victoria, Apartment Story. Bryan Devendorf possesses a signature rhythm to his drumming, carrying me throughout their set.
I wandered after The National, catching some of the Hold Steady's shout-rock and failing to find The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya, of Malawi by way of London, and Radioclit, a Swede and a Frenchmen, also by way of London) in the tent (comedy through the day, dance music in the evening - lamely named the Rumpus Room). Vampire Weekend followed on Sasquatch. They picked the crowd off their feet with a performance full of energy and verve. I think they've played one or two shows since their self-titled album came out in 2008. They were really comfortable on stage and knew how to play to a festival crowd. Giving Up The Gun from Contra comes closest to conveying the propulsion of their live sound. A-Punk was a highlight of their show.
Passion Pit, performing on Monday. The new cladding on the back of the stage made the space much darker, and denied bands a view of the Columbia while they performed.My Morning Jacket were the final act on Sasquatch. I'm only familiar with a couple of their albums, 2003's It Still Moves and 2005's excellent Z, so I'm not an MMJ authority. Their set started strong, hit some of my touchstones - Mahgeetah, Masterplan, Off The Record - but seemed to mellow in the latter stages. Deadmau5 closed out Saturday night. His light show was sweet, with images and colours projected onto the giant white mouse head he wore. The music was fun too, picking up our feet.
A key to our stamina over the weekend, aside from the lighter sunshine and our broader tarpaulin, was eating a substantial breakfast. We fuelled up every morning (with healthy doses of pre-noon beer) on bacon and eggs, or sausages and beans, hashbrowns and fried tomatoes. Don Herzfeldt's Rejected gave us our festival catchphrases, charging us with giddy infantile laughter.
Sunday started with Local Natives on Bigfoot, an LA band touring their debut album Gorilla Manor, one of the more complete albums I've heard recently. The Tallest Man On Earth - vocals and guitar - followed up. Pitchfork have been giving him props, but I was ready for more energy. tUnE-yArDs provided on the Yeti stage. They were my festival find, captivating me for the duration of their set. tUnE-yArDs is Merrill Garbus from Oakland, who plays ukelele and loops her sound, much like Juana Molina. Supported by a bassist and saxophonist on some songs, Merrill performed with unhinged passion, stretching her vocal cords, layering sounds and treating her ukelele like a Stratocaster. After that set we caught a little of Cymbals Eat Guitars on Bigfoot, including Indiana, my pick off their debut album.
The next standout of the day was the xx. They released xx last year, a spacious self-produced effort that belied their years and one of my favourites of 2009. (Sarah introduced the album to a crew of tree planters she was ferrying from camp to the blocks on a shift earlier this spring and they requested the album repeatedly. Beautiful, spare love songs from a group of 20 year olds.) They've been riding a wave of publicity and touring like mad - their live show was competent, but they would have shone brighter in an intimate venue. The two leads, especially Romy, have a reserved stage presence. VCR, Islands and Night Space were highlights.
The 7.00 pm slot was my major conflict of the festival. LCD Soundsystem, Girls and YACHT were all performing. I went with LCD, according to James Murphy, touring for the last time. They played a great show, getting the amphitheatre on its feet, and could have easily played another hour. In my ideal world, Massive Attack would have opened for them, and LCD would have had the extended headliner slot. LCD's new album, This Is Happening, continues their strong vein of form. They played a couple of new favourites, I Can Change and Home. After, I pressed myself through the crowd to the tent and caught the last 45 seconds of YACHT's Psychic City.
Pavement were a victim of scheduling, jammed into a slot between LCD Soundsystem and Massive Attack. They also fell prey to sound technicians, with Malkmus highly impatient with their efforts. Their sound was terrible throughout the opening songs, killing the high created by LCD. Malkmus stopped playing during the band's second song, with Scott Kannberg filling the dead air as they worked to fix the sound. He remarked that the last time Pavement played the Gorge, during the Lollapalooza tour of 1995, they were bookended by Cypress Hill and Sinead O'Connor - clearly indicting the Sasquatch scheduling. Things eventually came together, with Pavement transforming from a band that sounded like they hadn't played together in a decade, to sounding like they hadn't played together in a decade but had a couple of shows under their belt. They never reached any great heights.
We caught the opening of Public Enemy on Bigfoot, who drew a large crowd. Their sound was excellent and Chuck D was in full flow, but they too had technical issues, with the sound abruptly cutting out several times (the band's stage speakers played on, as did Public Enemy). Their audience leaked bodies out of frustration.
Massive Attack closed out the Sasquatch stage, continuing the tradition of big names past their prime filling headlining slots. I'm not familiar with their work post-Mezzanine, and nothing I heard made me want to investigate further. Their early albums are classics of the Bristol scene, and those songs resonated. Horace Andy appeared, as well as Martina Topley-Bird singing Teardrop.
Monday had a slower start to the day, with no real draws until the late afternoon. Bobcat Goldthwait - of Police Academy fame - entertained in the comedy tent. The first significant performance was from Passion Pit, who played the second stage last year. I'd enjoyed their sound but found Michael Angelakos's falsetto grating. They were on the main stage this year and told us they'd been touring since their last Sasquatch appearance. That experience told, with Angelakos demostrating a much better handle on his falsetto. His vocals seamlessly incorporated into Passion Pit's performance, and the band's energetic sound filled the amphitheatre. Again, people were standing, arms were waving - they were a genuine pleasure.
She & Him - the project of M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel - followed up on Sasquatch. Japandroids from Vancouver were making exciting noise on Yeti and the Mountain Goats were surprisingly energetic on Bigfoot. I watched Band of Horses's set and enjoyed the energy of MGMT. The crowd buzzed as they closed with Kids. Sarah and I finished our festival with a last dance to Boys Noize, a German electronic producer and DJ making some propulsive music. We returned to camp, for a feed of ramen and early A.M. beer, and then we were done for another year.
