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 | Comments Off on SQUATCHING: Gold Leaves
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 | Comments Off on SQUATCHING: Electric Guest
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 | Comments Off on SQUATCHING: The Shins
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 | Comments Off on SQUATCHING: Alabama Shakes
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 | Comments Off on SQUATCHING: Spiritualized
June 7, 2012 by Marwood
Seattle’s Damien Jurado drew a healthy crowd for a dose of expansive, classic rock. His high, sweet voice soared gracefully over shimmering organ and unexpected iPad accompaniment. He appeared to show admirable restraint by not milking any local feeling in his eloquent, Washington-name-checking ‘Working Titles,’ but that lack of crowd interaction was to sour the end of the set. As the performance went on, sections of the crowd (myself included) were surprised as his high, keening falsetto gave way to gravel-voiced rock heroics from a most unlikely Jim Morrison wannabe. But they were even more surprised when the set simply stopped and the band left the stage.
And, while the vagaries of festival timings might be beyond Jurado’s control, trying to explain to or even communicate with the audience isn’t. ‘Are you fucking kidding?’ was the response one particularly aggrieved female listener insisted I note down.
*UPDATE* As you can see in the comments below, Damien Jurado kindly explained the sitch:
“the set time being so short, was beyond our control. we were originally given 40 min. however, due to other bands before us going longer and careless sound engineers, we had a half hour to play our set. i wish it could have been longer. on a side note: i interacted as much as time would allow. beyond, “thank you for coming out”, and “how is everyone doing” there wasn’t time for much of anything else, than to play. .. what the fuck indeed.” – Damien Jurado
Note From the Editor:
This is a HUGE problem at festivals and maybe something for another post, but how can we stop this? When other bands run over their time allotment or show up late, the next band gets jipped. And the next. And the next. What the eff?
Any ideas on how to deal with this? Or if you work in festival (or venue) production, tell me what I’m not getting!
Category Live | Tags: Damien Jurado,rock,Sasquatch | 3 Comments
June 7, 2012 by Marwood
Hollywood’s Vintage Trouble deserved better than a Yeti Stage appearance, opposite the fun. juggernaut. The immaculately-attired four-piece put on a fantastic show to an audience of almost no-one, shaking hands with one another before blasting into a polished collection of up-tempo barroom RnB. Utterly unperturbed frontman Ty Taylor puts on a good show – exhorting a response from the crowd at every turn. ‘I can’t even hear you!’ was less and less true, each time he teased the growing crowd.
Electric blues played at full pelt, by a band with very different ‘classic’ reference points to the rest of the festival’s lineup. Taylor is the kind of soul-showman who can win over any crowd. One of the highlights of my time at the festival.
Category Live | Tags: RnB,Sasquatch,Vintage trouble | 2 Comments
June 6, 2012 by Marwood
It’s hard not to see Sweden’s Little Dragon as the backing for vocalist Yukimi Nagano, whose temper supposedly inspired their name. It’s certainly her vocals that make the band stand out. Delicate and accented, it’s the most distinctive element of the band’s indie-electronica. She was also the focal point of their performance – energetic around stage and striking expressive poses.
A remarkably large crowd took well to the up-tempo, danceable set with more than a hint of early Madonna and 80’s synth grooves which served as a welcome relief after much of the day’s male-dominated multi-instrumental seriousness.
Category Live | Tags: little dragon,Sasquatch,Sweden | 1 Comment
June 6, 2012 by Marwood
Dressed all in white, in contrast to her black-clad backing band, Zola Jesus gives the impression of a woman not used to shrinking into the background. When the Yeti Stage’s flaky sound system starts to waver, her response is to climb onto the on-stage speaker and sing her lungs out.
Her operatic education is apparent in a voice seemingly too forceful for her slight frame – her descent into the photographic pit sees her disappear from sight for most of the audience. But her enthusiasm prompts her to vault the fence and continue singing as she skips around the edges of the crowd. Just as she risked being encircled, her latest dramatic gothy anthem reached a shrieking climax, and she was able to dart back though to protective barrier and its none-too-impressed security guards.
Category Live | Tags: Sasquatch,Zola Jesus | Comments Off on SQUATCHING: Zola Jesus
