June 29, 2012 by Marwood
Seattle singer-songwriter Grant Olsen (formerly of Arthur and Yu)’s Gold Leaves opened proceedings on the Yeti stage on Monday, and probably deserved a better slot. Being the opening act on the fourth day of a festival can’t be easy, but the soaring five-piece put on a good show for the few who’d made it out of their tents.
Category Live | Tags: Gold Leaves,Sasquatch | No Comments
June 28, 2012 by Hilary
I was pleasantly surprised by Electric Guest. Just like last year with Wye Oak I walked up having not yet heard them before thus the slate was clean. Quite simply put, Asa Taccone can sing. His range was a highlight of the performance from the falsettos featured in “This Head I Hold” to the full rich sound of “Under the Gun”.
Category Live | Tags: electric guest,Sasquatch | No Comments
June 27, 2012 by Hilary
(Photo credit: Greg Ellis)
I walked into this performance an avid Pretty Lights fan, but I think I did so with an inaccurate understanding of his music having not seen him live before. In most situations, when I’m listening to his work I myself am working. I would not go so far as to say that his music is suited only for background, but on the main stage Friday night it felt a little less than substantial. There was a bit of a mass exodus as the crowd who had just heard Girl Talk and an impromptu Macklemore performance suddenly realized just how late it was. While the tracks began and ended with intensity, somewhere in the middle of each the energy was lost. During these drones of anonymity waves of people would leave, climbing up the glowstick-strewn grassy hill. While I didn’t leave this set unhappy, I did leave with a different understanding of his music and my enjoyment of it.
Category Live | Tags: pretty lights,Sasquach | No Comments
June 19, 2012 by Dave
After seeing them for the first time I’m not sure it’s possible to not have fun at a Reptar show. It was definitely a situation of needing to live up to a pretty incredible “show energy” hype and have a really shitty timeslot to do so. Scheduled as one of the very first bands on Saturday they were fighting the fan’s fatigue of a late night before and trying to get people motivated to move/do anything that early was rough. It’s incredible that expectations were so high after having just released their debut album Body Faucets and even more so that they delivered. If you get a chance to see these guys live, jump on it.
Category Live | Tags: Athens,Reptar | No Comments
by Dave
Walking to the “I Break Horses” set I was a little surprised to see the Swedish Duo had become more… there were far more members on the stage, and more importantly, they were StrFkr. Due to a last minute cancelation by the planned indie rock group StrFkr took the stage again having just played at the Banana Shack the night before. The music was completely different from what was expected and it was damn good. Who could ask for a better opportunity to gain new fans than to play to a group of people that are decidedly someone else’s fans? It didn’t take long at all to sell this foreign crowd on their music and we were all dancing in no time.
Category Live | Tags: StrFkr,swedish | No Comments
June 18, 2012 by Dave
The Shins looked very different at the Gorge this weekend from the last time I saw them a few years ago, the new line-up including Yuuki Mathews (bass), Jessica Dobson (guitar), and Richard Swift (Keyboards), which in itself changed the mood a little but not in a bad way, just a different one. The atmosphere felt very “Shinlike” with the sun setting behind the stage lighting the entire gorge a soft orange. This truly is one of the greatest venues in the world.
Category Live | Tags: indie folk,Sasquatch,the shins | No Comments
by Hilary
The Yeti stage felt too small for Said the Whale’s soaring vocals and their faithful Canadians. As the set moved forward it grew increasing crowded when their piano rock sound attracted new fans. They accomplished a duality of stage presences during the set by switching vocalists and styles in Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worchester, which kept everything very engaging.
Category Live | Tags: canadian,indie folk,Said the Whale | No Comments
June 12, 2012 by Dave
These guys can put on an incredible show. I had heard of them a little bit before the festival from a co-worker as something that I had to listen to and I was not disappointed. It looked like they were genuinely having fun up on the Bigfoot stage and that enjoyment of music was as infectious as the sound itself. I found myself surprised that the southern rock was so enjoyable as quite frankly I am not usually a fan. Way to make me a believer guys.
Category Live | Tags: Alabama Shakes,Sasquatch | No Comments
June 7, 2012 by Marwood
Jason Pierce’s quasi-psychedelic, neo-gospel space-rock outfit are an odd choice for a festival seemingly populated by nobody over the age of 23. Set adrift from the oddly perfect pairing with Mogwai by the latter’s visa problems, Spiritualized instead have to follow up the entertaining Deer Tick and go head-to-head with headliner Beck. And Pierce doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest. Standing side-on to the crowd, there’s every chance he neither knows nor cares how few people are there.
Recent single “Hey Jane” both started and epitomized a set that rambled from pop hooks with gospel-tinged backing vocals to walls of noise and back again. New album Sweet Heart, Sweet Light dominates the show but there’s time for a song from Pierce’s former band Spacemen 3 (whom The Stranger’s Dave Segal makes a solid case for the importance of http://www.thestranger.com/
Time hasn’t been especially kind to Spiritualized -fifteen years on from that album the hints of redemption in “Stay with Me” are long gone, and these days it’s a rather ravaged-looking Pierce repeatedly howling “don’t go” into a flurry of feedback, but there’s still something life-affirming about the experience. Pierce’s invocations of Jesus and the Devil may always sound like he’s signing about himself but, audience or not, he can still put on a hell of a show.
Category Live | Tags: Sasquatch,spiritualized | No Comments
