Sasquatch! Music Festival

I’ve been to many shows there over the years, and this show ranks way up there. It’s probably in my top 5 all time. Legendary. The weather was a bit strange, shifting from bright sun to ominous cloud cover and smatterings of rain constantly throughout the day, creating a pretty wild backdrop to what ended up being a very memorable show.

I got there about midway through, having decided to chill out and drink a few beers at our campsite. I’m sure I missed some great music, but these old bones can’t really take a whole 12 hours of concert anymore. I was a bit bummed that I missed Death Cab For Cutie, Pedro The Lion and The Pale, but they tend to play in and around Seattle quite a bit, and well, I’ve seen them and should have a chance to again.

Ironically, the first two acts I saw we’re also local. Neko Case being the first. Wish I could say I paid more attention, but hey, I needed a burrito. I’m pretty sure she brought some of the Pornographers with her, but I may be wrong. The second, and first band I really watched was one of my favorites, Modest Mouse.

Now if you’ve ever seen them you may know that they are a bit of a crap shoot. I’ve seen them five times and well, three of the five shows were pretty damn bad. Having said that, when they are on, they are really on. Such was the case this weekend. They were awesome from beginning to end. They had to cut it a bit short, which was too bad, but they kicked out a classic version of Trailer Trash at the end that left the crowd really juiced up and buzzing.

Next up was Jurassic 5, another act I’ve seen multiple times. They were arguably the highlight of the show. Since I’ve seen them a few times, good shows all, I knew what to expect, but it was obvious that there were quite a few people there who were blown away. Pretty understandable if you’ve ever seen a hip-hop show in a large venue like that. It can be very hard to pull off, and J5 did that and did it very well.

A few beers later The Flaming Lips hit the stage. Now, I’d heard about their show, but hadn’t seen them yet. It lived up to all the freaky-deaky hype. They sounded very good, brought lots of energy and were crazy as advertised. I’d tell you more, but wouldn’t want to spoil it. Well, that and I can’t really explain it other than to say it was lots of fun. Crazy, disturbing and a bit confusing, but fun. A tough act to follow.

After that I was able to catch a bit of Calexico from the beer garden. They were awesome. Then it was time for Coldplay.

Wow. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but heard that they were amazing. I’d heard the same thing a few years back when I saw Radiohead. I was blown away then, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, and I was similarly impressed this time as well.

There was so much passion — so much energy — that you couldn’t help being drawn in. They were so in to what was going on, with the night, with the crowd, with everything, that it really spread though-out the venue. I think they were amazed at how everything was coming together themselves.

They didn’t do anything special or out of the ordinary, they just put on one of the best rock shows I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not sure how often they make it to the states, but if you ever get a chance, go see them.

Coldplay put the cap on a pretty darn incredible show, one that left everyone there talking well in to the night. There was quite a bit of debate as to what was the highlight and it was frankly pretty hard to choose, everyone I saw did such a great job, which is rare, and then to have Coldplay come out and do what they did — pretty much put the show into legendary status for me.