Sasquatch Music Festival - May 27th - 28th
Here is Justin, Danielle, and myself rocking out at the Sasquatch Music Festival.
The music festival itself was located at The Gorge in George, Washington. It was beautiful. You can vaguely see the water in the distance behind us. The stage is on the edge of the gorge. Shortly behind the stage is a huge drop off going down to the water.
You may also notice a big blue box in the picture. I put that there to cover up an incorrect date that Danielle's camera so helpfully applied to the image.
We missed Friday night because of work. The only band I really wanted to see on Friday was Nine Inch Nails. But I had seen them a few months earlier when I first got to Seattle.
On Saturday, I saw Architecture in Helsinki. I wasn't too impressed, but I think it was because of the sound quality on the stage they were on. We then caught the end of Sufjan Stevens. After that, there was an good performance by Iron & Wine. The real fun occurred when Neko Case was playing. It went from being sunny and hot to hailing! It was quite painful, and since there was no re-admission, we tried to brave it out. Eventually we were all soaking wet and cold, so we went back to the camp site. Fortunately, they were kind enough to let us back in once we got dry clothes on. The rest of the night rocked out with The Shins, Ben Harper, and The Flaming Lips.
The Flaming Lips get their own paragraph. They rocked harder than anyone else. They switched order with Ben Harper since Ben had to make a plane flight out of there and we were delayed by the hail. Everyone was cranky because it was late, and it look so long for them to get ready to play. Once they started playing, it was totally worth it! All of a sudden, 20 people dressed as aliens rush on stage. Then 20 people dressed as Santa Claus rush on stage. Apparently, they were fans picked from the audience earlier. The band started jamming. The fans threw big beach ball like things up in the air. The lead singer had a gun that shot confetti strings into the air. The lead singer then got into an eight foot inflatable clear ball and rolled over the crowd. During the entire set, they had video playing in the background. We think we saw Yoshimi. The second song was a Bohemian Rhapsody sing-a-long. They posted the words on the video screen. The rest of the show continued to rock out. The lead singer had a camera attached to the microphone. The video would cut to him occasionally. You could see him singing from a really weird angle. He also had a nun hand puppet that he occasionally brought out. It was truly a "Flaming Lips experience" instead of just a show.
On Sunday, we saw a rap group called Blue Scholars. They were followed by Pretty Girls Make Graves. During those shows my eyes got irritated from sunscreen dripping in them in the hot sun. Then Nada Surf went on. Afterwards, we waited in line to get Nada Surf to sign their CD. The lead singer and drummer signed mine. At which point, the drummer asked me if I had any pot! We also saw Arctic Monkeys, Decemberists, Queens of the Stoneage, Death Cab, and Beck.
Beck also gets his own paragraph. He had a person on stage that had the sole job of dancing around the entire time. As they were setting up, we all wondered what the little thing was that looked like a miniature stage. They had marionette puppets of each of the band members that imitated doing exactly what the band members were doing. It was a great show. They played "Loser" over the speakers and they went off stage. I guess they got tired of playing it every show. The only bad part was the length. When it was over, it seemed like they should have played more.
While in the beer garden at the show, we saw a guy try to steal bracelets that they give to people 21 and over. It took 4 security guards to tackle him!
Overall, the camping experience was less than stellar. It was expensive, and it was really just tents set up behind cars in a flat clear field. And they packed in the cars! But we were there for the music, so it was still a lot of fun.
The music festival itself was located at The Gorge in George, Washington. It was beautiful. You can vaguely see the water in the distance behind us. The stage is on the edge of the gorge. Shortly behind the stage is a huge drop off going down to the water.
You may also notice a big blue box in the picture. I put that there to cover up an incorrect date that Danielle's camera so helpfully applied to the image.
We missed Friday night because of work. The only band I really wanted to see on Friday was Nine Inch Nails. But I had seen them a few months earlier when I first got to Seattle.
On Saturday, I saw Architecture in Helsinki. I wasn't too impressed, but I think it was because of the sound quality on the stage they were on. We then caught the end of Sufjan Stevens. After that, there was an good performance by Iron & Wine. The real fun occurred when Neko Case was playing. It went from being sunny and hot to hailing! It was quite painful, and since there was no re-admission, we tried to brave it out. Eventually we were all soaking wet and cold, so we went back to the camp site. Fortunately, they were kind enough to let us back in once we got dry clothes on. The rest of the night rocked out with The Shins, Ben Harper, and The Flaming Lips.
The Flaming Lips get their own paragraph. They rocked harder than anyone else. They switched order with Ben Harper since Ben had to make a plane flight out of there and we were delayed by the hail. Everyone was cranky because it was late, and it look so long for them to get ready to play. Once they started playing, it was totally worth it! All of a sudden, 20 people dressed as aliens rush on stage. Then 20 people dressed as Santa Claus rush on stage. Apparently, they were fans picked from the audience earlier. The band started jamming. The fans threw big beach ball like things up in the air. The lead singer had a gun that shot confetti strings into the air. The lead singer then got into an eight foot inflatable clear ball and rolled over the crowd. During the entire set, they had video playing in the background. We think we saw Yoshimi. The second song was a Bohemian Rhapsody sing-a-long. They posted the words on the video screen. The rest of the show continued to rock out. The lead singer had a camera attached to the microphone. The video would cut to him occasionally. You could see him singing from a really weird angle. He also had a nun hand puppet that he occasionally brought out. It was truly a "Flaming Lips experience" instead of just a show.
On Sunday, we saw a rap group called Blue Scholars. They were followed by Pretty Girls Make Graves. During those shows my eyes got irritated from sunscreen dripping in them in the hot sun. Then Nada Surf went on. Afterwards, we waited in line to get Nada Surf to sign their CD. The lead singer and drummer signed mine. At which point, the drummer asked me if I had any pot! We also saw Arctic Monkeys, Decemberists, Queens of the Stoneage, Death Cab, and Beck.
Beck also gets his own paragraph. He had a person on stage that had the sole job of dancing around the entire time. As they were setting up, we all wondered what the little thing was that looked like a miniature stage. They had marionette puppets of each of the band members that imitated doing exactly what the band members were doing. It was a great show. They played "Loser" over the speakers and they went off stage. I guess they got tired of playing it every show. The only bad part was the length. When it was over, it seemed like they should have played more.
While in the beer garden at the show, we saw a guy try to steal bracelets that they give to people 21 and over. It took 4 security guards to tackle him!
Overall, the camping experience was less than stellar. It was expensive, and it was really just tents set up behind cars in a flat clear field. And they packed in the cars! But we were there for the music, so it was still a lot of fun.