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.
All good things must come to an end. When I woke up at 6:00am on Tuesday, this was very much apparent. I had the foresight to take down part of my campsite Monday afternoon, and so by the time I woke up, had a very quick breakfast, and packed up the rest of my camping gear it was a little before 7:00am and I began the journey home
The drive home was long, the wait at the border was long, but luckily traffic really wasn’t all that bad. I stopped at Mr. Mike’s in Cranbrook for some lunch, and decided on a salad. Given my festival food diet over the previous days, I remember thinking, “so this is what vegetables taste like.”
When I arrived home safely, it took another hour and a bit to get everything unpacked, but since I left so early I still managed to do that before I went to sleep.
I took home many great memories of Sasquatch, and although I’m not sure whether I’ll do it again next year or not, I’m excited for my next music festival which so far looks like it will be Coachella 2012.
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.
I decided to spend my final full day in Seattle wandering the Hill and Downtown. The weather is once again pretty nice, so I went for a walk around Capitol Hill this morning and will probably head into downtown this afternoon. I’m not going to bring the camera, I just feel like having a laid back day. Tomorrow will begin the insanity that is Sasquatch 2011, and I won’t be able to post anything from that point until I get back to Calgary on Tuesday.
I may check out Pike brewing for supper this evening, if I make it over there. We’ll see what happens as I go with the flow.
This morning I went North to the Boeing Aircraft factory where they make 747, 777, and 787 aircraft and did the 90-minute factory tour. They were very picky about their rules regarding cameras etc (you’re not even allowed to have a cell phone), so there are obviously no pictures of that to post. The tour itself was interesting, although not as interesting as I would have hoped. Still, it was cool to see the aircraft under construction and I also found the factory itself quite interesting – the “how” of making aircraft is at least as interesting as the planes themselves.
I then stopped for a quick bento box lunch at a random Japanese restaurant near the Boeing factory. It was as expected for the most part, but the sushi was higher quality than would be typical in Calgary, and the Bento Box itself was much larger and more filling than the price would have suggested.
After lunch, I drove to West Seattle, via Columbia street and part of the viaduct which is eventually going to be demolished. My destination was an unassuming store called Super Deli Mart. I wasn’t there for deli, but their selection of craft beer is definitely super.
I wound up buying 2 six packs; once I’ve been able to try them, I’ll post a brief review of each. The owner of the store commented that that IPA got a lot of good reviews. The hefeweizen was just something I was in the mood to have. I’m looking forward to them, but don’t think I’ll try either of them tonight.
The weather yesterday was great so it was time to head north and go hiking. I got to experience what happens when there’s traffic issues in Seattle firsthand too. On the way North, I-5 was backed up badly due to a stalled vehicle on the bridge on 520 Eastbound. Once I got North of that, it was smooth sailing though.
The drive to Deception Pass was quite pretty. Once I got there, I did 3 short hikes totalling about 5.5 miles round trip: Rosario Head, Lottie Point and Lighthouse Point.
Lighthouse Point was easily the best of the 3, although I enjoyed Lottie Point as well. Rosario Head was good to get a view of the area near the pass, but the best views of the pass itself were on the other 2 hikes. On several of the trails I spotted a few USGS survey markers, although I’m sure there were a lot more of them that I didn’t see.
The weather was grey and overcast but it was the perfect temperature for a hike and wasn’t raining at all.
After the hike, I went to the Trumpeter in Mt. Vernon for lunch (a salad and grilled chicken), then headed to Mill Creek for a bit of shopping at Target and met up with some friends for supper and a walk afterwards. The sun had come out by this point and it was a gorgeous evening.
It was a fantastic day, and I’m glad I got out to enjoy the weather.
Since the B&B is only a few short blocks from the Elysian Brewing Company‘s Capitol Hill location, I figured that was a good place for beer / food this evening.
The beer was… spectacular. I was a bit disappointed in the food (I had a curry schnitzel which was average in my view), but the beer… D E L I C I O U S.
I tried three of their brews; of the three, I enjoyed the Bête Blanche the most. As you might guess from her name, she starts out sweet and seductive, but you soon begin to realize that she’s a killer. What a way to go, though.
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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