2005 Sasquatch Music Festival - George, WA

By: Graham Golbuff

Thursday June 02, 2005

"You know, I'm starting to understand the appeal behind these giant festivals," Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy told the capacity crowd now in their fifth hour of baking underneath a 95 degree sun.

And for Sasquatch's 26 acts set against the gorgeous (no pun intended) backdrop of the Columbia River for 55 dollars a ticket, not to mention the equivalent of 6 months of sun exposure in a single day for the western Washington heavy crowd, who could blame him?

With three stages, one featuring exclusively northwest acts, the day was long. The festival began before noon and ended after midnight. The first act I caught was the Seattle based hip hop group Blue Scholars, an MC / DJ duo that brought energy and head-nodding tracks lively rhymes that covered everything from US foreign policy to ditching class at the University of Washington.

Next up was A.C. Newman. Leader of the New Pornographers, Newman's band tackled material off of his 2004 release The Slow Wonder which often recalled the work of The Shins. Newman's off-kilter but catchy melodies and lavish arrangements warranted incredibly fun and danceable pop music. The rousing chorus of "Secretarial" was a definite highlight.

I left Newman's band early to catch the tail end of singer-songwriter Ray Lamontagne's set, which I had a hard time getting into. Playing the main stage posed a difficult challenge; Lamontagne's band consisted of nothing more than him on acoustic guitar, an upright bassist, and a drummer. While the bass player was quite good and added a much needed thickness to the sound, it's unfair for these types of musicians to be asked to play monstrosities like the main stage at the Gorge, a 30,000+ capacity amphitheater, when the nuances and intricacies of their music are more clearly projected via a smaller venue.

I then stuck around the main stage to catch the first headliner, Montreal's The Arcade Fire, who took the stage with incredible animation. One of the members trotted around the stage with a tom drum draped across his gut, marching-band style, and beat it with unmatched intensity. While I was trying to rendezvous with my crew at this point in the day, I didn't watch this set with the clearest of focus. But I recall three of their songs to be outstanding, and I was left with an overwhelming sense to no longer be the one music writer who has yet to hear Funeral.

I then moseyed back to the second stage to see some of the Benevento-Russo Duo's set. A Brooklyn based free jazz organist and drummer combo, the Duo has made headlines around the jamband community for their recent collaboration with former Phish bassist Mike Gordon. While Gordon was not present for this gig, I was still taken back by the depth of their sound. This band was much more than what a Chick Corea-Tony Williams jam session might sound like. Add Sonic Youth to the equation to get an idea of the Duo's aural aesthetic, created by a thick layering and looping of effects laden keyboards.

Making the hike back to the main stage to grab a good spot for Wilco proved to be somewhat fruitless cause. Their set was cut short and both Tweedy and Nels Cline experienced guitar problems with their main electric axes for the first 4-5 tunes. As was a defining characteristic of their most recent LP, 2004's A Ghost Is Born, a number of Wilco's songs concluded in lengthy and dissonant feedback jams. As a guitarist, I normally enjoy these noisefests, but due to the technical difficulties the jams rarely stood up to other recent performances of the same songs. The audience welcomed the succinct wrap ups of pre-AGIB songs like "Jesus, etc." and "A Shot in the Arm."



Kanye West followed his fellow Chicago brethren. Decked out in a purple suit, Kanye rushed the stage and fired through the highlights from his excellent 2004 debut The College Dropout. With a new record on the near horizon, the real treats of Kanye's set were the opener "Diamonds" (the first single from July's Late Registration), and the closing track whose name was not revealed but featured a minimal, bass heavy beat that should be a guaranteed club smash. Kanye has grown so much as an MC since "Through The Wire," a fact he clearly displayed to the audience through his two freestyled verses, the better of the two featuring the lines So sick and tired of niggas sayin 'he pompous' / these cats should know I'm in the same league that Nas is.

But the highlight of the night by far was Seattle's own Modest Mouse. Unlike Wilco, Isaac Brock and company opted for a heavily percussive attack over guitar freakouts, and rarely drew any of their songs out. Modest Mouse utilized two drummers for this show, one alternating between a kit and hand percussion, resulting in a very syncopated and danceable sound that frequently recalled the heyday of the Talking Heads. Even after having lived in the northwest for the past two years, it wasn't until this night that I realized that Modest Mouse are now the true heroes of northwest rock and roll. Brock is undoubtedly the most revered Seattle-based frontman since Kurt Cobain ruled grunge. Everyone sang along to every song and was generally in ecstasy for the duration of their set. Wisely playing their 2004 mega hit "Float On" in the set's opening triumvirate, the band quickly shed a big monkey off their back and began to explore deeper material. The presence of a second heavily modulated mic for Brock to shriek the chorus of "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" marked the musical highpoint of the festival. With a generally shaky live reputation, it was a delight to be able to catch this band in top form.

By this point I was so exhausted that the Pixies' closing set flew right by me. Kim Deal's bass sounded gigantic, and the audience was treated to both acoustic and electric versions of "Wave Of Mutilation" under a picturesque Eastern Washington starry sky. Despite tremendous lines for water and will call tickets, the festival was a tremendous success. As the legend of Sasquatch has grown in spectacle in every year, next year's lineup should be truly remarkable.