Sasquatch Festival 2007
Here are ten artists whose performances were highlights of the 2007 Sasquatch Festival held at the Gorge Ampitheater in George, Washington last weekend.
One of the first acts to play on the main stage during day 1 of the festival, The Hold Steady showed that they can rock a huge stage at an ampitheater just as well as they can play the smaller club shows that they typically excel at. They have such a huge sound that translating it to a larger venue was no problem for them.
After watching The Hold Steady, we headed to the small, intimate Yeti stage to watch an awesome performance by Portland, Oregon’s The Blow. A duo consisting of a female rapper/spoken-word artist and a DJ, KHAELA MARICICH (the vocalist and MC) had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand. Her trick is getting the crowd to empathize with her self-deprecating yet sweet stories of lost and never quite achieved love of all sorts.
Last year at the same festival, she didn’t make it through her entire set as the fox confessor really did bring the flood since there was a tremendous thunderstorm during her set, which then had to be shortened. This year, however, Case defied the weather with sunglasses in tow, playing a great set that deftly covered her recent albums. Highlights include “That Teenage Feeling,” her cover of BOB DYLAN’s “Buckets of Rain” and the incredible “I Wish I Was the Moon” from Blacklisted, her high-water mark.
After catching Neko Case at the main stage, we headed back to the Yeti Stage to watch Seattle’s awesome Visqueen. They were terrific as always, debuting not just a new bassist but an additional guitarist as well as some new songs which will be recorded for their forthcoming third album.
Although the awful weather on day 2 of the festival shortened their headlining set at the main stage, we were fortunately treated to a special “instrumental” set on day 1, where they headlining the medium-sized Wookie stage. Over the years, they’ve gotten to be much better instrumentalists and while not quite virtuosos, they do a respectable enough take on ‘70s funk, reggae and r’n’b that combined with their smartass humor and pop-culture references make for a satisfying mix. The played songs from their yet-to-be-released all-instrumental The Mix Up as well as obscurities like “Do It” and hits like “Remote Control”. They even delved into their hardcore punk side for “Time for Livin’” (a song by the band FRONTLINE that they recorded for Check Your Head) and closed with “Sabotage”, pleasing the crowd greatly.
Although we’d just seen them a few weeks prior in a venue considerably smaller than the main stage here, The Arcade Fire still managed to play a terrific, memorable set mixing new material from Neon Bible with gems from Funeral. We even got “Wake Up” this time around.
Although she took forever to set up, Bjork redeemed herself by playing a thrilling, emotional set headlining day 1. She covered all aspects from her solo career, opening with Volta’s “Earth Intruders” and playing a bevy of songs from Post (“Hyper Ballad”), Homogenic (“Joga,” “All is Full of Love” and “The Hunter”) and Vespertine (“Pagan Poetry”) in addition to other Volta tracks like “Wanderlust”.
Oddly placed on the main stage (albeit in an early, 3 PM slot), Bad Brains nevertheless completely brought the house down, much to my surprise and delight. The band was as tight as I’d ever seen them, though HR just stood still, calm in the midst of the hurricane in front of him. Many old classics like “Right Brigade,” “I Against I,” “Sailin’ On,” “FVK” and “At the Movies” were played, but the great old reggae song “I and I Survive” was a slower highlight. The material from their new album Build a Nation sounded WAY better live, too. I’ll definitely have to reevaluate that album.
Since THE POLYPHONIC SPREE’s set on the main stage had to be postponed due to the high winds on the main stage, Smoosh got a huge crowd at the Yeti stage. Although they’re all not even in high school yet, you would never know it as they play smart, competent indie-pop very much in the tradition of other great bands from the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, some seem taken only with the novelty, one man even flashing them (fortunately only from the waist up).
Although they were the very first band we saw at the festival, I’m including them in the last spot because we only got to see the last fifteen minutes of their set. Nevertheless, much like their excellent set opening for LOW here in Philadelphia a few months back, they once again impressed with their brand of Swedish chamber-pop, no doubt converting some new fans in the process as well.
