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Last month, I was invited on short notice to attend the 2009 Sasquatch Music Festival, a three-day event happening over Memorial Day Weekend at the Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington state. My role for the weekend was to post updates to KEXP's Facebook account about all the great bands I was seeing; naturally, I also took notes to write up a review of the weekend. With so many bands to cover, I'll do my best to keep this short and sweet.
Read about Saturday at Sasquatch.
Read about Monday at Sasquatch.
Sunday
I meant to start Sunday morning by seeing Viva Voce and Point Juncture, WA, but we arrived back at the Gorge too late for either act. However, I was just in time to run into KEXP's DJ Shannon, walking over to the Wookie Stage to see Hockey, and so I joined her for that. Hockey's lead singer looked ridiculously young, like 15, but certainly sang very well. The band had something of a disco vibe, with funky bass lines and dance beats; as they sang in one song, "This ain't no Roxy Music." Rather, their clean, energetic sound was similar to CSS or New Young Pony Club, and very enjoyable. The singer described the last song as, "It's like a dance verse with an Aerosmith chorus," which was amusing and not too far off.
Next up was John Vanderslice. I'd never paid much attention to him until I was given a copy of his 2005 album Pixel Revolt last summer, and then kept being surprised to discover these good unfamiliar songs coming up in shuffle were from that album. That quality of surprising goodness also came up during this set. His music was mostly mid-tempo rock, sunnier-sounding more often than not but with occasional moodiness or hints of harder edges and darkness. It's more complex than it seems at first, and I believe it's that subtle complexity and deceptive sunniness that accounts for the factor of surprise. Vanderslice is definitely worth checking out.
St. Vincent, the stage/band name of musician Annie Clark, was one of the acts I was most looking forward to, and she did not disappoint. Although her music is rooted in indie pop, it has strong art-rock elements as well. Clark can thrash out or play sweetly, even doing both in the same song, such as "Now, Now" from 2007's release Marry Me. Indeed, featuring as it does violin, saxophone, flute, and even a little clarinet, her music might be better called chamber rock. "Marrow", which she described as the "dance track" from this year's album Actor, felt too off-kilter with its complicated rhythms to be considered an ordinary dance pop song. I thought her set was very cool, and really want to get her two albums now.
I finally left the Wookie Stage for a bit, just to get a bite to eat and wander around a little, but I made sure to get back in time for The Airborne Toxic Event. I first saw them back in February 2007 after hearing them live on KEXP, and really enjoyed their set that night. This time, they started out sounding harder-edged, more rock and less pop, at least for the first couple songs. However, they haven't left the violin out, and musician Anna Bulbrook knows how to rock it. The 'Event are not my dearly-departed Dambuilders, but they're still sounding good and I'm looking forward to hearing how they grow.
Another band I was excited to see was M83, but I hadn't expected it to be the performance of the weekend. M83's bright, summery synthpop was perfect for the late-afternoon hour, and their huge anthemic sound swept up the audience in a big loving embrace. Featuring several singles from their most recent album, Saturdays = Youth, their set bounced from trance to dance and built its way up to a heavy techno party track that had the whole audience hopping. On a day, a weekend, that featured numerous cool bands and good performances, this one was amazing and blew everyone away.
Wrapping up the day for me was Natalie Portman's Shaved Head in the Comedy/Dance Tent. Their high-energy synthpop, backed with a heavy rock beat, carried on the dance party that M83 had kicked off. I found however that they could have used some variety in their style for my taste: it was fine I suppose for a continuous dance party, but after a while it started to grind. "Shrill" also came to mind. Still, they were definitely bringing the fun for a lot of people, and offered a decent conclusion to the day.
See my Sasquatch Music Festival 2009: Sunday photo set on Flickr.
Read about Saturday at Sasquatch.
Read about Monday at Sasquatch.
Sunday
I meant to start Sunday morning by seeing Viva Voce and Point Juncture, WA, but we arrived back at the Gorge too late for either act. However, I was just in time to run into KEXP's DJ Shannon, walking over to the Wookie Stage to see Hockey, and so I joined her for that. Hockey's lead singer looked ridiculously young, like 15, but certainly sang very well. The band had something of a disco vibe, with funky bass lines and dance beats; as they sang in one song, "This ain't no Roxy Music." Rather, their clean, energetic sound was similar to CSS or New Young Pony Club, and very enjoyable. The singer described the last song as, "It's like a dance verse with an Aerosmith chorus," which was amusing and not too far off.
Next up was John Vanderslice. I'd never paid much attention to him until I was given a copy of his 2005 album Pixel Revolt last summer, and then kept being surprised to discover these good unfamiliar songs coming up in shuffle were from that album. That quality of surprising goodness also came up during this set. His music was mostly mid-tempo rock, sunnier-sounding more often than not but with occasional moodiness or hints of harder edges and darkness. It's more complex than it seems at first, and I believe it's that subtle complexity and deceptive sunniness that accounts for the factor of surprise. Vanderslice is definitely worth checking out.
St. Vincent, the stage/band name of musician Annie Clark, was one of the acts I was most looking forward to, and she did not disappoint. Although her music is rooted in indie pop, it has strong art-rock elements as well. Clark can thrash out or play sweetly, even doing both in the same song, such as "Now, Now" from 2007's release Marry Me. Indeed, featuring as it does violin, saxophone, flute, and even a little clarinet, her music might be better called chamber rock. "Marrow", which she described as the "dance track" from this year's album Actor, felt too off-kilter with its complicated rhythms to be considered an ordinary dance pop song. I thought her set was very cool, and really want to get her two albums now.
I finally left the Wookie Stage for a bit, just to get a bite to eat and wander around a little, but I made sure to get back in time for The Airborne Toxic Event. I first saw them back in February 2007 after hearing them live on KEXP, and really enjoyed their set that night. This time, they started out sounding harder-edged, more rock and less pop, at least for the first couple songs. However, they haven't left the violin out, and musician Anna Bulbrook knows how to rock it. The 'Event are not my dearly-departed Dambuilders, but they're still sounding good and I'm looking forward to hearing how they grow.
Another band I was excited to see was M83, but I hadn't expected it to be the performance of the weekend. M83's bright, summery synthpop was perfect for the late-afternoon hour, and their huge anthemic sound swept up the audience in a big loving embrace. Featuring several singles from their most recent album, Saturdays = Youth, their set bounced from trance to dance and built its way up to a heavy techno party track that had the whole audience hopping. On a day, a weekend, that featured numerous cool bands and good performances, this one was amazing and blew everyone away.
Wrapping up the day for me was Natalie Portman's Shaved Head in the Comedy/Dance Tent. Their high-energy synthpop, backed with a heavy rock beat, carried on the dance party that M83 had kicked off. I found however that they could have used some variety in their style for my taste: it was fine I suppose for a continuous dance party, but after a while it started to grind. "Shrill" also came to mind. Still, they were definitely bringing the fun for a lot of people, and offered a decent conclusion to the day.
See my Sasquatch Music Festival 2009: Sunday photo set on Flickr.
