Sasquatch!: Who Needs Fresh Jocks Anyway!

Welcome to Sasquatch!

I should first point out that this blog may not be for everyone – its not going to be clean or poetic, its going to be grimy, dirty, crude and somewhat in your face cos that’s what Sasquatch! was. After all its a music festival. Shite I didn't even change my jocks for the 5 days, let along have a shower!

So Thursday morning we loaded up both cars to the brim with passengers and their belongings and made our way out to Walmart to see how much more shite we could fit in. Surprisingly we were able to fit all we needed and some more – nice work on the watermelon Big W!

Road trippin'

With the cars riding on their rims (don't think Rodge quite knew what he had signed up for) we got back on the road and made good time to the festival, where somewhat surprisingly, there wasn't much of a line.

Camp spot secured we unpacked and set up what little gear we had brought – well in comparison to others. We had brought the mandatory tents, sleeping bags and the all important stimulants, but little thought had gone into too much more. Those around us came equipped with RVs decked out to the max, old school buses with built in platforms on top, shade tents, surround sound systems and enough lights to start their own festival – shite some of them even did that night!

Our site versus some of the others

Anyway with our meager supplies set up a few of us went for a walk to take in the surrounds. Sasquatch! is held annually in the Gorge in central Washington, and the venue is unbelievable – I’m pretty sure every artist made that comment, or something along those lines, at some stage throughout their set. Just quickly, its set high up on the plateau overlooking the canyon carved out by the Colorado River, and the sunsets are probably the best inland sunsets I have ever seen.

The Gorge

Along our mosey through the campsites we stumbled across the dump site for previous festival punters – a gold mine for those who brought f_ck all! A quick rummage around through the skip bins produced a few camp chairs that were still in sit-able condition but the jackpot lay just around the corner. An old park bench with a few wobbly legs, a few dangerous screws and exposed nails, but when you have nothing it seemed like a dinning table from the Taj Mahal.

The 'Dining Table'

With our brand new dinning table set in the middle of camp it was time to start the merriment. Thursday night turned out to be almost as much fun as the actual festival nights. As mentioned earlier the more prepared punters had set ups we could only have dreamed of, so we spent most of the night wandering around from one party to the next.

I will say one thing, drug users are a hell of a lot more liberal with their gear than alcoholics. They say Woodstock would have blown your mind, but Sasquatch! did a fairly good job of ours. We were offered everything under the sun, and although we didn't partake in that side of the looseness it didn't stop every man and his dog offering us some. I don't know too many drunks that are constantly offering you a share of their precious beers (hell I don't), but the kids on a bit higher grade gear sure as hell will.

They also seemed to love finding out we were Australians, or Swedish or Kiwi for that matter. Sorry Chris they didn't seem to be too impressed with being Canadian. Every time someone found out we weren't form North America the standard response was, 'Wow, that's so awesome'. Usually followed up by, 'did you come all the way from Australia for Sasquatch!?'.

Silly Americans!

Thursday night's festivities

Highlight of the night was probably the 'joint roll off' where instead of challenging someone to the standard skull off of beers, two lads fought out a tightly contested battle of who could roll the tightest joint the quickest and then spark it up – this happening at about 3.30 in the morning meant calamity ensued!

Friday morning's hangover

With a slight hangover to kick off the festival proper we cracked Friday off with a bang – breakfast beers and bacon and eggs! I won't go through each day's festival activities rather I'll give you an overview of who took out each category we have come up with.

Best Acts:

For mine it was Glass Animals. Each festival I have been to there is usually one act that the organisers have cocked up the time slot of. For Reading (and pretty much every festival in 2011 it was Foster the People), and for Sasquatch! it was Glass Animals. The lead singer was blown away with the support they had garnered and subsequently put on a show for the ages – well at least for me it was but I was in a fair state at this stage.

Glass Animals

For Nic it was Of Monsters and Men – coming in we weren't expecting too much from them but little did we know they would stack the stage with 9 members and produce a sound we haven't heard from many other bands. Highlight of the set was the trumpet solo by one of the rather attractive females of the group.

Of Monsters and Men

Best Entertainers:

For both of us its a toss up between Future Islands and Kendrick Lamar. It was to be expected of Kendrick given he was the actual headliner but he didn't disappoint. I suppose being out there pretty much on your own (rapper's support bands don't get much credit, or spotlight for that matter) you have to dominate the stage and command the audience's attention, but Kendrick did it with aplomb. Two punters will not be forgetting his gig in a long time – asked to join the man himself on stage and rap one of his older songs both punters nailed it, but the chick took it too another level. Props to Kendrick and the two kids who must have been waiting at the front of the mosh pit for hours to be so close. On a side note, it seems to me that when rap music is played everyone seems to get a few shades darker. The shoulders roll back, the hip sway a little more, the cap gets tilted a little off centre, the pants come down a little, everything just gets a little looser. In essence everyone seems to think they all of a sudden have swag. Not swagger, that’s too white. SWAG!

Kendrick Lamar doing what he does best - entertain!

Luis and Peyton living out childhood dreams

Future Islands were somewhat of a surprise packet. I have always thought the more enjoyment I get out of a set is in direct correlation with how many songs I know and given Future Islands were a band I only got into because they were playing at Sasquatch! (and they have been around for 9 years) they could have gone either way. However the setlist they played was much to my liking, but I really don't think that would have mattered too much given their front-man’s antics. To a fan he was unbelievable – practically living every lyric of every song, to a non fan he probably came across as an over-the-top wanker. We are in the former group! I suppose a little like the Hives in that respect. And to steal a Rodney Rude euphemism he could dance like a duck on a f_cking hot plate! Check out what I would consider a tame version of his antics at David Letterman - Future Islands: "Seasons (Waiting On You)"

Future Islands

Acts We Wished We Caught More Of:

Again we are split between MØ and Royal Bloods. The sets we watched in favour of these were Tame Impala and Milky Chance respectively and both of these acts were top notch. Milky Chance's set contained a harmonica solo that almost blew the guy's head off, and seeing the crowd Tame Impala pulled was pretty impressive given we have followed them since they were a small time Fremantle band. I'm not saying I would have rather seen MØ and Royal Bloods over Tame Impala and Milky Chance but from what we caught of them I will definitely be making an effort to see them somewhere along the lines. Both completely different acts but both engaged the audience to fever pitch, complete with stage diving antics and a belief that they are music goods (more so Royal Bloods for that one). But the sound Royal Bloods produced for a two man show (drums and bass) was pretty impressive. I always wished I had seen the Black Keys when they were just the two, but I’m glad I have seen these guys in their early stages, in their element.

Royal Bloods

Sasquatch! definitely rates up there as one of the best festivals we have been to (Reading probably takes the cake). Couldn't have asked for a better crew to spend 5 dirty, stinking days with. Couldn't have asked for a better venue. Couldn't have asked for a different line up (well of course we could have but you get my drift). And probably couldn't have fitted in one more beer...but then again maybe I could have. We'll just have to go back and try again next year!

The Sasquatch Crew

Sasquatch! by the numbers:

50,000+ Punters;

Probably the same about of illicit substances;

More beers than I can count;

100+ bands;

8 crew;

5 stages;

5 days

1 pair of jocks; &

0 showers

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice!

Farmer Sasquatch!