GEORGE – The ticket for Saturday’s Sasquatch! Music Festival read “rain or shine” and it sure did a lot of the former during a freak hailstorm at the second day of the three-day event that will forever be the enduring image of the 2006 edition of this burgeoning destination festival.
While the hail was the hallmark of the Memorial Day Weekend event that annually marks the season opener for The Gorge Amphitheatre, there were several other memorable moments at the festival, which for the first time was a three-day event.
Friday was the day for heavy and loud rock with a lineup that included Wolfmother, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails. Wolfmother opened the show with a set that featured chugging riffs, howling vocals and plenty of spectacular guitar solos.
Wolfmother’s set was followed by Trail of Dead and the band’s drummer and occasional vocalist Jason Reece was at the helm most of the set. Reece added a punctuation mark to his performance when he punctured the top of a kettle drum with a drumstick.
Nine Inch Nails brought the night to a close with an emotionally-forceful set of songs that covered most every base of the band’s nearly 20-year career. An elaborate lighting set up that included a fence-like structure which occasionally dropped down from above the stage to cover the band in lights added dramatic effects to the show. Vocalist Trent Reznor and his band blazed through “Burn,”Closer,”Hurt,” “Wish,” a cover of Queen’s “Get Down Make Love” and others.
The second day of Sasquatch! was marred with the previously mentioned hailstorm but that didn’t stop the show from going on. The hailstorm happened during Neko Case’s mainstage performance, which was cut short after roughly six songs. During the worst part of the storm, the red-haired Canadian chanteuse sang while holding a jacket over her head for protection.
After a nearly two-hour delay, performances picked up again although activity on the second and third stages was halted for safety concerns.
Portland, Ore., band The Shins performed a joyful 60-minute set which included an untitled new song which likely will be on the band’s upcoming album. Ben Harper and his band played for two-hours, although set times were supposed to be cut short due to the postponement, wasting valuable time that could have been given to other performers.
After Harper finished up, The Flaming Lips delivered what was possibly the highlight of the weekend as Saturday’s portion of the festival stretched into early Sunday morning when singer Wayne Coyne started the set by walking on the crown in a massive inflatable bubble. The band’s show included dancers dressed as Santa Clauses and aliens, confetti streamers and rousing covers of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “War Pigs.”
As fantastical as the Lips’ set was, Sunday’s lineup was the most impressive and enjoyable. Highlights included Matisyahu’s energetic crowd-pleasing set, Death Cab For Cutie’s 75-minute show that contained a greatest hits style set list, Brit-popsters Arctic Monkey’s jangly and punchy guitar rhythms and We Are Scientists’ spirited second-stage performance.
The always entertaining Beck closed down Sasquatch! with, of all things, a puppet show. The singer and his band played an entire set with a miniature set behind them that had puppets of the band playing exactly what the band was playing. The marionettes aped nearly every move the band made and were almost as much fun to watch as their real life counterparts.
While the music was spectacular, the coverage given to the event by the media will likely help cement Sasquatch!’s reputation as a festival of note nationally. More than 200 music scribes and photojournalists from outlets as varies as National Public Radio, Rolling Stone and National Geographic were present at the event according to Frank Nieto of 230 Publicity, the firm hired to handle PR and marketing for the event.
