DAY TWO:
Day two opened a little bit late with our bodies little bit sore after Deadmau5 wore our feet out the night before. As we were rushing out from camp to catch Caribou ("Odessa" live at Sasquatch) opening the main stage, we heard "Odessa" playing off in the distance and knew we had some ground to cover. As we danced our way down the natural amphitheatre, we finally made it down to the front standing area and danced for the last 10 seconds of "Sun". Dan Snaith thanked the crowd.. and the set was done!
Thankfully I have seen them a few times prior to this performance.. and since they were playing in my home town the day we got back from the festival we simply
continued the Sasquatch dance party three days after the festival had ended.
After we had just barely made and missed Caribou's set, we had some softer acts on the bill coming up in the form of Local Natives ("Airplanes" live at Sasquatch) and The Tallest Man On Earth ("Graceland" live at Sasquatch). Both groups allowed us to grab a spot on the grass, lay down, and just listen. The feeling instantly brought me back to laying on the grass during Iron & Wine's set at Sasquatch in 2006.. but this time without the mushrooms.
After we were sufficiently rested we headed over to catch tUnE-yArDs ("Hatari" live at Sasquatch) very fun set that had Merrill Garbus pump out most of her great album Bird-Brains for a very welcoming audience.
Since Garbus lifted our spirits away from the drab weather on Sunday, we went over to meet up with some friends and check out Kid Cudi ("Revolution" live at Sasquatch) to see what the big deal was and although I can't say that I'm a huge Kid Cudi fan, the guy certainly put on a positive show. The sun peaked out a few times during his set and it seemed like there was no better act to have on at that time.. but that being said I have never seen a dude sing so much for a dude that can't sing at all. Not exactly going to pick up anything of his anytime soon. The crowd and my crew made this one fun.
As we seperated from friends again, our company headed over to watch the highly anticipated xx on the Bigfoot Stage.. and the mellow swaying dancing that was seen at Kid Cudi transitioned over nicely to the xx ("Intro" live at Sasquatch) set. They played everything off of their wonderful self-titled debut except for Stars, which was unfortunately the one song a friend wanted to hear... Classic short festival sets.
With a few songs to go in the xx's set there were already legions of people leaving the Bigfoot Stage on their way over to the Main Stage to catch the highly anticipated LCD Soundsystem and as soon as the xx were done we did the same. We made it to the second tier of rush standing with some newly found friends who were all incredibly excited to see LCD. Looking back on the festival now, I'm glad that we surrouned ourselves with diehards during acts like Vampire Weekend, Kid Cudi and LCD Soundsystem because it made the experience that much more enjoyable.
I don't love LCD Soundsystem and I don't hate LCD Soundsystem.. they have made many undeniably great tracks and many mindless neverending repeated blipping tracks.. but luckily most of their great tracks were played during their set at Sasquatch. I got to see some favourites like "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House", "Tribulations", and "All my Friends".. but it was painful sitting through the far too long "Yeah (Crass Version)" and the new tracks "Drunk Girls", "I Can Change" and "Pow Pow" were to be expected but not welcome when tracks like "Get Innocuous!" and "New York, I Love You" were missing.
Basically their live show was much like every album they have come out with. This band would be so much better if they cut the bullshit and song lengths in half. It was a good show, but who needs good shows when you can have great shows? The reason for getting so close for LCD was to get even closer for my main reason for attending this festival.. PAVEMENT!
The nice thing about having LCD Soundsystem open up for Pavement were that all the fans that rushed to get close for LCD left and let Pavement fans take up their spot. Before their set started Bob Nastanovich came on stage to let the crowd know that it was Steven Malkmus' birthday and got the whole crowd to sing him Happy Birthday.. and after some technical issues occurred they got right into "Cut Your Hair" and followed with an incredible setlist that included all of their hits I personally wanted to hear:
Unfortunately after such a great show came such a big decision. I had seen a bit of Massive Attack at Coachella in '06 but left early to catch Daft Punk, which was a good and obvious decision on my part. This year at Sasquatch I had left the pit, where I would have been two rows back for Massive Attack, to catch Simian Mobile Disco (live at Sasquatch) at the Rumpus Room.
Now there was no denying that it was a great party, but since it was a DJ set they did not play tons of their own tunes (where the fuck was "Hustler"?).. and only James Shaw showed up to partake in the Sasquatch fun. Shaw's set left a lot to the imagination and the set got old after a short while. Luckily for us Pavement had had some issues and their set was pushed back, which meant that Massive Attack's set was pushed back, and we rushed over to catch half a dozen songs from their set (including "Teardrop" and "Angel") but looming in the back of my mind was that spot I had left two rows back from this incredible show. DJ sets are basically a waste of time.. good to know.
These things tend to notoriously happen at festivals though.. and Frankfurt's Booka Shade (live at Sasquatch) luckily lifted my spirits as we partied late into the morning at the end of day two.
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