bass head – sasquatch festival 2011

Memorial weekend was my first official music festival. Four days of camping and raving out at the Gorge Amphitheater in the middle of Washington, along the Columbia River. I have only been to the Gorge once before, 5 years ago when I went to Pearl Jam with some coworkers from Camp Reed for our weekend off. I had forgotten what a truly breathtaking view there is from the hill around the main stage. It is a beautiful venue, but also extremely hot in the summer, it is in the middle of a desert/farmland. I got sunburned and was wearing my sunglasses too long over the weekend.

I look like the coon.

Over the course of the weekend, I saw these artists play:

DJ Anjali & the Incredible Kid
The Head & the Heart
Local Natives
Pink Martini
Washed Out
The Glitch Mob
Sleigh Bells
Bassnectar
Fitz & the Tantrums
Tokyo Police Club
Beach House
Cold War Kids
Flogging Molly
Gold Panda
The Flaming Lips
Flying Lotus
MSTRKRFT
Ratatat
Young the Giant
Old 97’s
Chromeo

(Bolded artists were the performances I really loved, but ALL the performances were amazing)

And then the Trailer Park Boys made an appearance and it was hilarious. I’ve never watched their show before, but it’s on Netflix so I have something new to watch.

The Glitch Mob

We were about 3 people away from the fence for Glitch Mob. We waited in the Banana Shack (the dance tent) for 2 hours so we had a good spot for them. They were awesome, and we were raving it up with everyone around us, then everyone started shoving and it got crazy. We were in the middle front and all the crowd surfers were headed our way. I got kicked in the head and there’s definitely a bruise on my head, and my poor boyfriend had someone land on him from behind, because we didn’t seem them surfing behind us. We got out of the craziness and went to chill until Bassnectar for the rest of the evening.

Bassnectar came on as the final act for the evening, and when he dropped his first song, the crowd, literally thousands of people, started throwing glow sticks into the air.

Ryan got video of it, and I’m so glad he did. I’ve never seen so many glow sticks in the air, and they just kept going through the whole thing, it was such a sight. Here is the video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNBE9Hcfx0&w=425&h=349]

It was so sad though, they didn’t have his stage set up properly, when he got into the really heavy, intricate bass sounds in his songs, it died! The system couldn’t handle his bass! It was sad, I’ve seen him before and he puts on a fantastic performance, but someone screwed up and it kept cutting out. Heartbreaking.

The Flaming Lips

MSTRKRFT

Gold Panda

I highly recommend checking out DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid, they are based out of Portland and threw down hard at Sasquatch, they played everyday, making the crowd dance every.single.day. I did not get tired of them. On their Facebook page they say, “They are most known for incinerating dance floors with the South Asian sounds of Bhangra and Bollywood, but the duo scours the globe for any hard-hitting music that combines local musical traditions with window-rattling production.” I just found out they stream live from KBOO in Oregon on Tuesday nights starting at 10. I’m actually listening right now 🙂

I am in love with the beauty of the Gorge. I enjoyed lying in the sunshine, listening to the music during the day while we waited for more electronic artists to come on, so we could go dance our butts off. It was so nice.

Sunday Evening Sunset

I had such a good time with Ryan, and I am so glad we got to go. Sasquatch sold out in 4 days or something ridiculous like that. We originally didn’t have tickets and were planning on spending the weekend camping. My boss’s wife won tickets though and didn’t want them, and they were originally going to raffle them off in the office because they wanted to be fair about it and they didn’t want to sell them. No one else wanted part and I got the tickets. I am so happy, we had a really fun weekend and what a way to kick off the summer. I am so excited for my birthday next month. I have tickets to another festival that I bought, and I will be seeing a few of the same acts again. I cannot wait!

Throughout the weekend I saw a ton of adorable outfits worn by girls, such a hippie, free vibe but they were adorable and not tacky. I wish I had more pictures of everything I saw. One item I did see that I WANT before the next festival is a Spirit Hoods’ Furry Animal Hat.

I want a wolf one or a panda one reeeaaally bad. I’d never take it off 😛 They look so cozy. I am determined to obtain one.

It is back to the grind though, back to the grey and wet west coast. It was nice to be in sunshine for 3 full days, it was only 75 and I was frying, how did I ever survive summers in Spokane? It gets to be 100 degrees there and I can hardly handle 75 now! Being in rainy, grey overcast weather all the time really changes your sunshine tolerance. But I got burned, so I will have a tan in a matter of days…FINALLY. The Eastern European in me does not like to be pasty white. I need some color.

I wish everyday could be a music festival….I said that to someone at work and he said, “It can!” It’s all in the attitude I suppose.

More updates soon. Just waiting for my Black Milk Leggings to arrive. WHY does Australia have to be so far awaaay???