After driving four hours from Seattle the night before out to the middle of Washington state (despite the traffic, it was a beautiful, scenic drive) and before pleasantly discovering that Quincy (where we were staying) is a hotbed for authentic Mexican cuisine, we were ready for day one of the Sasquatch Festival. In its sixth year, it brings together a great mix of indie, punk, hip-hop and other types of artists and this year’s lineup was terrific. With music happening simultaneously on three different stages, it could be a little overwhelming as it’s almost impossible to catch it all, but we did the best we could.
After getting to the venue at about a quarter to noon, we finally get let in at about a quarter to one. Thus, we were only able to catch the last fifteen minutes of LONEY, DEAR ’s set on the Wookie stage. Nevertheless, they were just as enjoyable as they were opening for LOW here in Philadelphia a few months back. I don’t quite get the BEACH BOYS comparisons, but I do hear a resemblance to more recent indie acts like BELLE AND SEBASTIAN as well as NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL .
After Loney Dear, we were off to the main stage to watch THE HOLD STEADY . Although we stayed on the lawn, they still played an enjoyable, rocking set and their sound is big enough to translate to such a large venue. They concentrated heavily on last year’s Boys and Girls in America, with “Stuck Between Stations,” “Chips Ahoy,” “First Night” and “Southtown Girls” being highlights. However, the performance of “Stevie Nix” (from 2005’s Separation Sunday) was the highlight for me, its sneering, Minneapolis-centered lyrics mentioning everything from the Minneapolis-based anarchist collective Profane Existence to the urban legend about ROD STEWART getting his stomach pumped.
After The Hold Steady’s set, we headed over to the Yeti stage (the smallest of the three stages) to watch THE BLOW , who had already started. A duo consisting of vocalist/rapper/MC/spoken word artist KHAELA MARICICH and DJ/programmer JONA BECHTOLT , they won over the crowd with Bechtolt’s catchy beats and Maricich’s frequently self-effacing tales of heartbreak and love lost. Not only are the songs catchy, but instead of coming across as a sad sack, Maricich comes across as a genuinely likable woman trying to find her place in the world and that fact cements The Blow’s appeal.
After The Blow, we headed back to the Main stage to catch NEKO CASE . Last year at the same festival, her set had to be shortened to a torrential thunderstorm occurring as she was performing. However, this year there were no such weather-related problems (well not during this day, anyway; the next day would be a different story altogether). She played a terrific set that focused on last year’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (“That Teenage Feeling” sounded particularly good) and older material from 2002’s career-defining Blacklisted (her performance of “I Wish I Was the Moon” just made my jaw drop). She also played a nice cover of BOB DYLAN ’s “Buckets of Rain”, which also appears on her recently released live album.
Regrettably, wee missed the last ten minutes of Neko’s set in order to rush back to the Yeti stage in time to catch VISQUEEN , who were just starting to play at this point. Although they have added not just one but two new members (second guitarist TOM CUMMINGS as well as new bassist BARRETT JONES , who also produced their amazing first album King Me), they were just as great as every other time I’ve seen them in the past. They played several new songs (they are recording a new album this summer) that sounded great as well as older songs like “Vaxxine,” “Manhattan” and my favorite “Zirconium Gun” that are now regarded as classics by fans.
After Visqueen, we watched THE LONG WINTERS on the Main stage. Originally, the popular, Sri Lankan-born, UK-based rapper M.I.A. was supposed to play, but she had visa trouble, so JOHN RODERICK and company filled in for her at the last minute. Although they were playing on a stage much bigger than what they’re accustomed to, they filled in capably and sounded good. The set lacked the between song banter so common at a typical, smaller Long Winters show, but any chance to hear gems from last year’s Putting the Days to Bed like “Teaspoon,” “Fire Island, AK” and especially “Honest” is just fine and dandy in my book.
We caught a bit of MANU CHAO (who took a very long time to set up) on the Main stage after I waited an obscenely long time for food. They didn’t do anything for me, so I went over to the Wookie stage to catch the “instrumental” set by THE BEASTIE BOYS . Although they’re still not the greatest instrumentalists, they play a perfectly fine mix of ‘70s funk and reggae well enough and it helps that they add their own unique style, sense of humor and numerous pop-culture references to the mix. The setlist contained lots of obscurities like “Do It” as well as a few hits like “Remote Control” and the closer “Sabotage”,which pleased the fans enormously. They even played “Time for Livin’” (a song by the early ‘80s New York hardcore band FRONTLINE which they recorded for Check Your Head).
After Manu Chao finally finished their set, it was time for THE ARCADE FIRE and as always, they delivered the goods. Although seeing them on the lawn of an ampitheater that holds almost 20,000 people is no match for seeing them in smaller venues (a recurring theme here), they still excel as a live band. It was a shorter set compared to the one we got a few weeks before this, with one notable difference being that “Wake Up” was performed on this evening.
After another long wait for BJORK , she finally came on and boy was she great. Opening with “Earth Intruders” from her new record Volta, her set deftly mixed the strongest songs from Volta (such as “Wanderlust”) with some of her greatest songs from the past like “Joga” (from Homogenic), “Pagan Poetry” (from Vespertine) and “Hyper Ballad”. Since it was really late at that point and we were tired, we didn’t stay for her entire set, but we did catch about an hour of it, so I didn’t feel like I missed too much. This was frankly a far better set than the only other time I’ve seen her (back in 1998 at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom) and I couldn’t have been more pleased with it. That statement also goes for most of the rest of the first day of music as well.
