Sasquatch 2008

I think it's only appropriate that this blog's inaugural post of legitimate content should be about my more-than-epic experience at this year's Sasquatch.  As you can see, it's taken me some time to figure out how I want to tackle this post.  Well, after some (very) long deliberation, I have come up with the following plan:

The Sasquatch Post will actually be broken up into 3 parts, 4 if you count this one (which I'd prefer to refer to as a preface).  Shortly, I will list my top 7 performances of the weekend and quick justiblurbs (justification blurbs -- yeah, I just made up a new word) for each.  Come Monday, I will have posted 3 more posts of yes, you guessed it, the top 3rd, 2nd, and of course best performance of my Memorial Weekend at the Gorge.

With that said, here are the top 7:

10. Rodrigo y Gabriela - I was VERY skeptical about how good this set could be because I thought I could only take so much acoustic guitar playing with no vocals, but these two had an incredibly commanding stage presence that left most of the crowd either speechless or roaring with cheers. 

9. Michael Franti and Spearhead - Had no idea who these guys were pre-Sasquatch, but their live set of socially and politically driven hip hop/reggae really caught me off guard in the best way possible; I don't throw up peace signs in the air for just anyone.

8. Matt Costa - There were some sound issues in the beginning and the entire pit was full of girls between the ages of 15 and 30 + Joey and some annoying dude bros who were already wasted at like 1pm, but none of that that stopped Mr. Costa from putting on an energetic live set.  I wasn't impressed with his set at Coachella three years back, but this one inspired me to go purchase his most recent album, Unfamiliar Faces.

7. The Flaming Lips - I guess some of you may be wondering why The Flaming Lips UFO show only landed the number 7 spot on my list.  Well, in all honesty, this was the last set of the three weekend festival so I was already tired as balls.  Even without that in mind, I was never a HUGE Flaming Lips fan to begin with and I also got really annoyed with Wayne, who kept asking people to sing louder by saying "Come on fuckers. Let's go" or "Yeah, come on come on; even you fuckers in the back"; something about that really turned me off, not really because he was cussing, but because he kept asking people to sing.  You shouldn't have to ASK people to sing your stuff every two minutes (on a side note: I think the same goes for clapping).  Anyway, the show was definitely an eyegasm of lights and confetti and naked girls and teletubbies and a giant inflatable hamster ball, but I honestly can't say it was one of the most epic performances I've seen in my life, contrary to the general consensus -- sorry, world.

6. Flight of the Conchords - I'm pretty sure the name speaks for itself.  If it doesn't, I suggest you YouTube them now.

5. The Hives - DEFINITELY one of THE most energetic sets I have EVER seen.  To those that have never been to a concert and/or are skeptical about the power of live music, the Hives prove that sometimes song quality is even better live.  It also doesn't hurt that Pelle Almqvist is one of the hottest and funniest men on the planet (he knows it, too -- and for some reason, it makes him twice as hot).

4. Cold War Kids - One of my favorite performances of the weekend, landing them the fourth spot on this list.  New material sounded great live, and "We Used to Vacation", "Hang Me Up To Dry", and "Saint John" were definite crowd pleasers stirring old fans to sing and thrash around, and converting those waiting in the pit for T&S to new Cold War Kids fans.  My personal favorite though, was Hospital Beds, which seriously gave me chills the whole way through.  I still put the song on repeat in my car to relive the moment from Sasquatch, and it may not exactly be the same, but it certainly does the trick.

And there you have my top 7.  Top 3 to come definitely by Monday, which might be a hint to some of you as to who may have landed one of the top spots.

Signing out,
A very apologetic-for-the-text-heavy-post Slo