Sasquatch 2008

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Oh, what a wonderful memorial weekend of merriment we had!

Wayne and went to the Sasquatch Music Festival again this year. We went in 2006, and it was just awesome.


(The Gorge. Gorgeous)

Last year's line-up--aside from the Beastie Boys-- was unispiring and didn't seem worth the cash the festival eats. Actually, scratch that. I just looked last year's line-up over again, and it looks really good! I don't know why I thought it was so bad. Hm. Anyway.

This year was, quite simply, AMAZING.

We drove out early and arrived at The Gorge at about 9:30am. We had prepared the night before by making sandwiches, baking brownies, chopping fruit and putting food in clear plastic bags. We had a wonderful assortment of goodies to last us the entire three days without having to spend a dime at the greasy, nasty, expensive food stands in the venue.

We felt so smart and well-prepared.

(Me. Wayne. Happily preparing)

We also got early access passes, so we were able to enter a full fifteen minutes before the rest of the General Admission (GA) crowd. It really does make a difference--especially if you want to sit on the terraced area rather than the sprawling lawn hill.

Trust. It is a big deal difference.

(The Hill viewed from up top)

We got the tippy toppest tier of the terraced area, which put our heads right against the main pathway. Not so good planning there.
BUT still great.


(Notice the people walking right by Wayne's head. Check out the bitchen camera strap).


It was a beautiful day. Sunny, warm. Perfect. Our feet were happy.

The bands play on three stages-- Sasquatch! Stage; Wookie Stage; Yeti Stage.

Day One (bands we saw are in blue):
R.E.M.
Modest Mouse
M.I.A.
The New Pornographers
The National
Ozomatli
Beirut
Dengue Fever
Fleet Foxes
The Breeders
Okkervil River
Crudo (featuring Mike Patton & Dan The Automator)
Destroyer
Kathleen Edwards
The Whigs
Dead Confederate
Newton Faulkner
Grand Archives
David Bazan
Joshua Morrison
Vince Mira with the Roy Kay Trio
Throw Me The Statue
The Shaky Hands
Grand Hallway
--
I wish we had seen The Shaky Hands and The National, but the bands we did see were great.

I was ecstatic to see The Breeders. I love, love, love the Deal sisters, and I was thrilled beyond measure to see them live. They really are fucking awesome.

REM was overwhelming for me; like, I have never seen REM live, and I just couldn't believe I was actually seeing them there right in front of my face. As amazing and awesome as that was, the next night damn near made me cry with joy.

Pictures from day one (we bought a new point-n-shoot for this trip because I was afraid they wouldn't let me take in my DSLR):

The Breeders (we were still trying to figure out the settings on the new camera)
Kim on the left Kelley on the right.


Clouds rolling in. Sun going away.

The one picture we have of REM's performance:


We stayed that night at a Super 8 in Ellensburg, and it was okay. In fact, I was impressed at how clean it was; I would definitely stay there again, if we were going to see a concert at the gorge.

Day Two...
It was a little harder to get up and moving, but we were in the early entry line by 10:15 (GA gates were supposed to open at 11 but were actually open at 11:30 all three days). We got a better place on the terrace (nobody walking right by our heads...no fear of drinks spilled on our heads). We stopped at Fred Meyer in Ellensburg before we got to the gorge and bought sandwiches, St. Arbucks and strawberries with non-dairy creamer. We still had left-over food from the day before as well.

The Line-Up:
The Cure
Death Cab For Cutie
Michael Franti & Spearhead
The Presidents of the United States of America
Cold War Kids
Blue Scholars
65daysofstatic
Tegan & Sara
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
The Kooks
Mates of State
Rogue Wave
White Rabbits
The Heavenly States
What Made Milwaukee Famous
The Morning Benders
The Blakes
Sera Cahoone
Cancer Rising
The Cops
J. Tillman
"Awesome"
Truckasauras
---

I wish we'd also seen:
The Cops
Truckasaurus

---

The weather wasn't as nice, but we did get a nice spot on the terrace.


Look at those clouds in the background!


Brownies!! I really do make the best ;-) It's all about the butter you use.


It rained a lot this day, and my suggestions for having a dry time at the gorge will be forthcoming.


Me. Wayne. Warm. Dry.


The Presidents of the United States of America. They are a favorite of our whole family, and I get warm fuzzies when I listen to them. You would also see me sporting a HUGE grin.


I love this picture.


The one semi-decent picture we have of The Cure.

The Cure made me cry. As awesome as it was to see REM, I was waaaayyyy more into The Cure when I was a teenager. Never ever in my mind did I imagine that I would have an opportunity to see them live, but omg, there they were right in front of me. I so wanted to be down on the floor, but I can't hang with those crazy kids. I am, quite honestly, too damn old.

The Cure ended the show with my all time favorite (well, one of them) song, and I was like, NO WAY!! Wonderful. Brilliant. Fantabulous.

Setlist: Underneath The Stars, Prayers For Rain, A Night Like This, The End of the World, Lovesong, To Wish Impossible Things, Pictures Of You, Lullaby, Fascination Street, The Perfect Boy, Hot Hot Hot, alt.end, Sleep When I'm Dead, Push, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, A Letter To Elise, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, The Only One, The Walk, Shake Dog Shake, Never Enough, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, Baby Rag Dog Book

1st encore: A Forest
2nd encore: Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab

Total = 31 songs.

Back to the Super 8 that night; we upgraded to a 2 queen room because Paige's friends were crashing with us and the night before they had to sleep on our floor.

Day Three:

The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show
The Mars Volta
Flight Of The Conchords
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Built To Spill
The Hives
Matt Costa
Yeasayer
Dyme Def
Ghostland Observatory
Jamie Lidell
Battles
The Cave Singers
The Little Ones
Pela
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down
Delta Spirit
Kinski
Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground
Say Hi
Siberian
Whalebones
The Choir Practice
The Moondoggies

We stopped at FM again for coffee, edamame and more salt and vinegar chips. And sunscreen...we really went through the SPF this weekend.

Back in the early entry line at 9:30. Front of the line, baby. Thanks, esurance. When we got there, there was a line of people, but they were all in the wrong line. We probably should have let them all in front of us, but it's not our fault that they can't read the huge "ESURANCE EARLY ENTRY LINE" sign.

We had a National Geographic Experience while waiting in line:
a green snake ate a mouse right in front of us. It was sick. While the mouse was half in (tail and back feet hanging out of the snake's mouth), he was squeaking like crazy. It was really...gross.


Though we were first in line, I don't run to get a seat. Wayne got held up at security because he had a girl check his bags who happened to be working her first day, and she wasn't sure what to do. The guy who checked my bag barely peeked, but Wayne had to take everything out, unroll our pads and shake out the blankets... it was really frustrating for him-- and for the people behind him.

Nonetheless, I staked out the best spot we had for the entire weekend. Sweet.


I still needed the umbrella...

to provide some shade. When the sun is out, the sun is really out, and there is nowhere to hide. Unless you have a big soccer umbrella.

I forgot to mention my favorite indulgence of the entire weekend:

Vanilla Coke Slushies.
$5 a pop. I had one each day. That was the only thing I bought from a stand at the gorge. Wayne spent $24 on TWO beers on Saturday, but the beer was too pricey to drink more than that. It was only Heineken, too.

We didn't really move off the main stage this day.

It was good to just chill.

Have you seen the Flaming Lips live?
They are a trip:

Doozers.


Teletubbies.


A Wayne in a bubble.

We headed home right after the concert, and we arrived home at about 3am. Not bad. The show was out around midnight, I think.
My favorites the third day were definitely
The Hives
Flight of the Concord
Rodrigo y Gabriela
The Flaming Lips.

I wish I'd skipped:
Mars Volta

I wish I'd seen:
anyone but Mars Volta

--

All in all, this Sasquatch! Festival was totally worth the money. I hope they have a great line-up next year, too, because I really, really, really love Sasquatch.