Now that I’ve had a week to reflect on the experiences I had in the Seattle area and at Sasquatch, there are definitely moments that I know I will never forget from the trip.
If you asked a bunch of random Sasquatch-goers what the most memorable events were for them, you’d find quite a few who had Bassnectar‘s set on their list. I was pretty excited before the set, and I had an inkling of what was coming, but even so I was completely unprepared.
Bassnectar opened with Teleport Massive, and something truly magical happened at the first bass drop.
This is the best video I’ve found so far (no, I didn’t take the video) of the start of his set. If you look you’ll see me off to the right from time to time (I’m wearing the glowing yellow cowboy hat).
Literally thousands of glow sticks were thrown during the hour-long set, with I’d guess about 50% of them during the span of that video. It was indescribable.
And I know there were thousands of glow sticks because I brought 1,000 on my own, and in the area around me I saw another 6,000 or so between a number of different people. Of course, we were all handing them out prior to the start of the set to anyone who wanted them. Sheer madness. And I can’t possibly forget being there.
By the final day of the festival, my body was already showing signs that I was pushing limits and needed to slow down a bit, so Monday was a little more relaxed than the previous days. There was a lot of water, a lot of sunblock, and several hours of just relaxing and lying in the shade. Oh, and music, of course. For me, the day started out with
Old 97′s
Which I had problems getting into, but really they weren’t that bad. Despite being quite tired physically, I downed some more water and headed into the fray for
Chromeo
Which was far and away the sexiest dance party of the entire weekend. Such a blast, and a good way to get energized for the rest of the day. The inflatables were fun too. For the next while there wasn’t a lot that interested me so I caught my first and only comedy act of the weekend,
The Scott Aukerman & Paul F. Tompkins Show
which was the Worst. Comedy. Act. Ever. Guided by Voices would have been infinitely more fun. But It was a good excuse to lie in the shade for an hour and rest before
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Which were the most surprising act of the weekend for me, and my favorite “never heard them before” artist. Sharon is a total diva, and she knows exactly what she’s doing on stage. At one point, a guy managed to slip over the barrier and start to climb the stage. Security pulled him down, but Sharon told them to let him go, and he got up on stage. She totally rocked out with the guy who was clearly having the time of his life. Such an awesome performer. I’ve never really given soul / funk much of a thought until now. Stand up and take notice, ladies and gentlemen. This is how it’s done.
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Were another act I hadn’t really heard much about, but I knew I had to see them. It was just 2 people and 2 acoustic guitars, but they managed such a display of musical prowess that I was once again blown away. They reminded me somewhat of Jesse Cook, and that’s not a bad thing at all. I think I danced for about 1/2 of their set up on the hill which probably made me look pretty silly, but I was definitely enjoying myself. Which is maybe part of why
Skrillex
was such a huge disappoinment (second only to the Flaming Lips). I enjoy his recorded music, but he just isn’t very good live. Lots of people in the dance tent were having a good time, but I quite honestly wasn’t. Maybe it’s because I was surrounded by sweaty, smelly kids who were obviously extremely high and dancing like they were being attacked by a pack of rabid wolves. Skrillex’ poor performance live coupled with the crowd completely ruined it. I gave it 20 minutes before heading back to the hill for
The Decemberists
Who I enjoyed immensely. I did not however stick around to see
Wilco
as a storm was rolling in and I was completely exhausted. I simply left, and slept hard.
After such a fantastic day Saturday, I wasn’t sure how Sunday would measure up. As it turns out, Sunday was no slouch either. While I can’t point to as many single things as I could on Saturday, Sunday turned out to probably be the day I enjoyed the most overall.
I arrived in time to catch most of
The Drums
Which was better than I expected, but the real reason I was down in the pit was for
Fitz and the Tantrums
who I was really looking forward to seeing. They definitely didn’t disappoint, and it was a pretty good dance party right up front. At this point in my day, things started to go a bit astray though: I got an ear plug stuck in my right ear such that I wasn’t able to remove it. So instead of sticking around to see
Tokyo Police Club
I went to the medical tent to get the earplug removed. Astonishingly, the medical tent didn’t have any tweezers (!), so they ended up digging the earplug out with a needle. With that taken care of, I went to see the last half of
Sam Roberts Band They played the only song of theirs I know during the part I caught, which was nice. The rest of their stuff was so-so.
City and Color
Was interesting. I wasn’t super impressed by the music, but the lead singer has an incredible voice. Additionally, I had an ice cream bar special delivered (long story) which totally made my afternoon. After that I got situated up on the hill to watch
Flogging Molly
and the insane dance party I knew that would result. I didn’t want to be in the dance party in this case, just wanted to watch from afar. It was quite a lot of fun, even as a spectator. I then moved to a different spot on the hill to watch the sunset and
The Flaming Lips
Which turned out to be my biggest disappointment of the weekend. They started out strong, but Wayne kept blabbing on and on at random in between songs, and even in between verses of songs, which completely ruined the flow of the show. I wish he would have just shut up and played some music. I think they managed only 8 songs in a 90 minute set. Yuck. The sunset was pretty though.
Modest Mouse
Prompted a trip down to the floor to get somewhere warmer as well as some flat space to dance. They completely made up for the Flaming Lips and I had a fantastic time at the show. Another highlight of the weekend for sure. I was tired, so didn’t stick around for any of the late night stuff.
Saturday was the first full day at the festival, and I learned a few important lessons from the previous day:
Pack your bag for the festival early and carefully. Don’t bring too much, but bring at least 2 or 3 layers.
Plan on the walk and security / admission taking at least 30-40 minutes if not longer, assuming you are already close to the edge of the campground.
The lines for filling water bottles can get long, so bring a couple of empties to reduce the number of times you have to fill up
Throughout the day I saw numerous fun costumes, and they got better as the weekend went on. I also saw lots of guys wearing neon baseball caps, and I realize I need to get one before the next festival I do – it’s so hard to find people even when you know where they are.
With no further ado… my day started off with
Local Natives
Which really surprised me by how good they were. I really enjoyed the set, and the completely random dance party on the hill was fun to watch.
Wolf Parade
Came on next, and they were solid too. I left a few minutes early to head to another stage to watch
Jenny & Johnny Who totally rocked it. Jenny was wearing a sassy red number which you could have seen from miles away. On my way to get more water and catch part of
Pink Martini
I hit a wall of people and realized that
Wye Oak
were causing quite a stir. I stayed and watched them and had a blast, although I do regret missing Pink Martini completely. I grabbed a bite and chilled for part of
Iron & Wine
who I just couldn’t get into really. They had a few moments, but I left partway through to go see
Matt & Kim Who had me up and dancing for most of their set. They blew me away. I also got the cowboy hat prepared before I went to
The Glitch Mob
where the hat made its official debut near the front of the dance tent. I enjoyed their set but it lacked the energy of some of the later stuff in the weekend, like
Robyn
who had a late start, but she was easily one of the highlights of the weekend. I danced for her entire set, start to finish. Because her set ended late, I missed
Sleigh Bells
who would have been fun but I am still glad I saw all of Robyn.
Death Cab for Cutie
was an act I was going to skip entirely until the schedule got re-jigged. As it was, the music kinda sucked, but it was good to relax on the lawn and get my glow sticks cracked and ready for
Bassnectar
who blew away every other electronic / dance music act of the weekend. I had 1000 glow sticks with me, and others had brought similar numbers. I’ve never seen that many glow sticks all thrown in the air at once (we dubbed it the glowpocalypse for a reason), and it was pretty amazing. The cowboy hat was rocking the entire set. And if you were there, you’ll understand exactly what I mean by “pink elephants”. Holy crap.
I arrived at the gorge about 12:00pm on Friday after getting a bit of a later start than I had hoped from Seattle. The line getting into the campground took about 30 minutes, and I wound up camping relatively close to the entrance to the festival (just over the fence from premier camping) next to a whole bunch of really awesome strangers. I managed to score enough space for my tent and the 14′ by 14′ shelter which everyone nearby wound up sharing.
By chance, two other Calgary groups I knew were camped relatively close as well (within a 5 minute walk). Given how big the campground is, I was quite surprised.
After getting the lay of the land and getting set up, I headed in for what I thought was 4:45 to catch the start of Biffy Clyro. I underestimated the walk, wait at security, etc and arrived promptly at… 5:10.
Biffy Clyro Sucked pretty bad, but I was able to wander around and get my bearings (and a beer) before things got super crowded.
Bob Mould
Caught the last part of the set, enjoyed it a fair bit. This is what got me into the Sasquatch mood.
After this, I wandered around and got some sort of chili covered hotdog thing that looked about as awful as it tasted, but I was starving so I ate it anyways. Man can’t live on beer alone. I caught a bit of
The Bronx
which didn’t do much for me.
Death From Above 1979
I watched from the hill and it was a great warm up for…
Foo Fighters
Totally rocked. This was the highlight of the night for sure. I took many photos and almost none of them turned out. It’s hard to hold a camera steady when you’re dancing.
I wasn’t ready to go to sleep yet, so I found a random dance party in the campground for a bit, then froze my butt off walking back to my tent.
Sasquatch is still several months away, but I felt compelled to start working on a costume of some sort. I may also be involved in a yet-to-be-determined group costume, but independently I’ve started in on an individual costume.
Three words: electroluminescent wire cowboy.
I’ve already acquired some of the stuff I’ll need, and the el wire is being shipped. Yes, it’s been done before, although I’ve been avoiding looking at the various videos floating around on the internet since I wanted to make sure I had my own unique take on the theme. The few videos I have seen don’t look quite the same as what I have in mind, so I think I’m safe.
I’m doing a hat, yes, but there’s more to the costume than just that. Once everything has arrived and the costume is assembled, I’ll be sure to post some pictures.
Posted in Friends, Parties at 8:10 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I admit to enjoying Halloween. It gets my creative juices flowing when I start thinking about putting together an interesting costume, and even though getting together a good costume can be a lot of work, I always enjoy it.
I had ambitious plans this Halloween. It turns out that as I originally envisioned my costume, blowing my budget was unavoidable. Like most creative processes, though, the additional constraint forced me to get even more creative and explore other possibilities.
My new concept is in the same vein as my original idea, but is both more fun (in my mind) and I found a way to cut the cost down to something more acceptable. As a bonus, I also gain more confidence that the costume will work for more than a single use this Halloween season (so far: 3 planned uses).
I don’t really want to spill the beans, but this will be a lot of fun as a costume and I’ve never seen anything quite like it in the past.
I really hope that shipment from Toronto gets here soon so I can finish building the costume. It shipped a week ago so will hopefully be here tomorrow.
As most of you probably know, I have had a very busy summer. Lots of traveling, lots of time with friends and outdoors, and working 2 jobs has kept me off the blogosphere for the most part. Now things are settling down and I’m embarking on some autumn projects, new and old. I’m also trying out some new things and challenging myself.
First up is my Halloween costume. I have some lofty ideas and I’m not sure how (or if) it will all turn out. I may have to revise my budget somewhat. Without being too specific, it involves my largest Photoshop document ever (36″ by 80″ when printed) which is a challenge in and of itself. Once that’s done and printed, I have to build and buy the remainder of the costume. This will involve at least one trip to Home Depot, one to Cat’s Eye, and quite possibly some time with the sewing machine. So far it’s a fun project. I’m really excited to see how it comes together.
Next up are some writing projects. I posted a short story last month in the form of a letter, and I’ll probably get around to recording the audio version of it later this fall. I haven’t done much with my audio gear in a while, and I’m getting excitied to do more work now that I can do it on the laptop as well as my main computer. Recording will be easier since I can be more portable.
The other writing project I have on the go is an RPG scenario for Call of Cthulhu. I have a lot of notes already written, and I’m going to give some new writing software a try. The software is called Scrivener, and so far I like it. It works well with my existing writing workflow in MindManager and I like the ability to work with my research materials alongside my own text within the same application. I think I’m going to wind up purchasing it – the RPG scenario is a test to see how it goes. The free trial is very generous (30 days of actual use, not consecutive days) so I’ll be able to know for sure that i like the software before I buy it. Very unusual, and very cool.
Beyond these projects, who knows. I’ve got lots of ideas.
For the second year in a row, I spent the August long weekend in Kelowna, BC visiting friends. And for the second year in a row, the weather was good, the water was warm, and there was way too much food.
This year seemed a bit more laid back than last year, but I still had a great time, and Sunday was pretty high-activity for me. Probably the highlight for me was getting out on the lake in a kayak again, even though it was only for a short while. I also met some new people who live only four blocks away from me in Calgary (small world).
Now all I have to do is catch up on my sleep before this coming weekend…
Jeremiah Wittevrongel lives in Calgary, Canada. Though he works as a software developer and loves what he does,
this blog isn't about that. It's about the rest of his life, which tends to revolve around music, board gaming, hiking, travelling, and cooking.
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