(ThatKidInTheCorner :: Sasquatch, Yeti, Wookie)

May 30, 2006

Sasquatch, Yeti, Wookie

In which we cross the mountains to the sunny side of the state in pursuit of high-end indie rock (and Beck)

At the risk of becoming one of those transplants in the Northwest who does nothing but complain about the weather, allow me a moment to note that the rainy season (all nine months of it) was supposed to be over by now. That is, Memorial Day weekend was not supposed to be 50 degrees and dreary. At least that's what I was told.

In all fairness, we had already hedged against the C@L weather by making plans to attend the Sasquatch festival at The Gorge -- two hours and change from C@L and on the other side of the mountains. Maybe "making plans" is a bit strong. We had made a plan to make plans. Actually making plans (instead of a plan to make a plan) might have yielded us some tickets to said festival. Instead, by the time we checked on Wednesday, they were sold out. Hmmm. Craigslist and other such last-minute resources were demand-heavy (and way too light on supply). If only we had made a plan instead of just planning to plan!

I went to bed Saturday night expecting to spend Sunday in rainy C@L. Instead, I woke up to a text message from a friend at the show: tickets had been secured! In injury time no less! We were heading to the sunny side of the mountains for a day of rocking in the great outdoors.

I wish I could quit you, Sasquatch Here's what I learned in 24 hours at The Gorge:

See also, Friscillating Dusklight, The: so I'll admit I'd been warned that the weather was different on the other side of the mountains. But I thought that it just meant that the rain stopped. The rain does stop, but that's not all. The whole landscape goes from lush and damp to full-on Cowboy Movie American West. Scrubby little shrubs, sand, rock formations, all of it. And it happens almost immediately. The things we don't know about geology and climate!

Myspace Has Strapped On Its Waterskis: though I thought the show was remarkably logo-free (save for a few notable offenders), the good people from MySpace (a division of Fox Interactive, a division of News Corp) had sent up a couple tents around the festival. Hmmm. A couple things here: (1) the MySpace logo is awful, not even in an ironic way or an authentic way -- there's no authenticity there; and (2) once you're handing out plastic bags at the youthful rock festival, you might as well be hawking totally awesome class rings by Jostens -- that's right, Jostens!

"And Now Another Song About Death": Death Cab For Cutie played late Sunday, and were excellent (much better than the last time I saw them). They played with a ton of energy, and the hometown crowd ate it up. Still, they definitely introduced a song with something to the effect of "speaking of death, here's another song about death." Not to be overly critical, but when everyone gets down on you for being a little depressing, maybe you shouldn't be quite so depressing up there (fingers remain crossed in re: it being ironic).

Two Nights Too Late For The Mystical Hooey: At this point I've pretty much given in to the Wolfmother thing. I sort of suspected that this might happen, but at this point I can already see their record being a big part of my summer. It certainly was a big part of the drives to and from Sasquatch. And really, is there anything so wrong about young kids pretending to be Black Sabbath and writing songs with completely Spinal Tap titles like "The White Unicorn," "Pyramid," and "Where Eagles Have Been." Also, I've taken to really enjoying shrieking "Woooooooooooooman" at random moments. So we were a little bummed out that they played on Friday night. Sigh. Next time through.

What Else Did We See?: Hung out with the young people for a bit on Sunday and checked out We Are Scientists and Clap Your Hands Say Weems, I mean, Yeah. Both were pretty solid and certainly worthy of the fawning indie-rock press they've been receiving. Both played the second stage, and both made me feel like I was in MySpace (see above). I was okay with Queens of the Stone Age, and wish that I had caught more of The Arctic Monkeys. Matisyahu...I didn't quite buy it. It felt a little packaged. Can I say that? The Decemberists didn't make much of an impression, but, then again, I didn't listen very closely. Overall, the whole thing could have used a little more hip-hop.

Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate: Beck closed out the festival and absolutely rocked. I had seen Beck a couple times before, both of which were great. He didn't disappoint Sunday night. At this point, Beck has enough albums in enough different styles that his live show ends up being a variety show (now we do the disco ones, now the hip-hop, now the folk tunes, etc) mixed with a Best Of album (since he has enough hits to fill two full sets). But the best part of the Beck show was definitely the full set of puppets that accompanied he and his band's every move. They had them on the jumbotrons, and I'll admit that it took me a couple songs to figure out that they were completely locked in with the actual band -- down to mouth movements and guitar licks. It was fantastic -- just the right amount of self-mocking meta-schtick that was high-minded at the same time that it winked at you (though I thought having the puppets play "Loser" by themselves was a step too far -- oh right, you're too good to entertain the nice kids with your tired old hits? Play "Takin Care Of Business!"). Great stuff, though. The video below is the only thing I could find on youtube (no sound, sigh), but you should be able to get the general idea:

I wish I could quit you, Sasquatch.

Posted by thatkid at May 30, 2006 11:20 PM under C@L

May 30, 2006

Sasquatch, Yeti, Wookie

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