It’s musical festival lineup announcement season and the next fest on the list to be unveiled is Sasquatch! Unfortunately, as of today, there’s practically nothing known about the lineup for this year’s Sasquatch! festival aside from the rumored confirmations of appearances by Solange and Rodriguez. And while those two are acts that live up to Sasquatch!’s rep for being a widely diverse event, a full festival lineup they do not make. Also, those confirmations are rumors, so there really is nothing officially on the books for Sasquatch!
News: Cody ChestnuTT, Built to Spill to play Sasquatch! Launch Party
Since guessing festival lineups has become an Internet pastime for those who read music blogs (just as the Coachella folks about that) I thought I’d speculate about who might be performing at Sasquatch! To do this I took into account several things including the festival’s past tendencies, which bands are making the festival rounds this year and the lineups of two festivals that come close to mirroring Sasquatch! in diversity and quality: Coachella and Spain’s Primavera Festival (which happens the same weekend as Sasquatch!, making crossover between the two unlikely but possible). That highly scientific formula helped me stray away from just posting a random list of bands and it’s how I came up with the below list of artists who might appear at the Gorge this Memorial Day weekend.
Now before you begin to take this too seriously, keep in mind this is all playful speculation on my part. Feel free to chime in with your guesses for Sasquatch! performers, or disprove any of my guesses, in the comments section below.
Likely headliners: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (seems like a gimme), Sound City Players (that rumor started last week with this thread of possible evidence), Deadmau5 or Bassnectar (filling the big-name EDM act quota), The Postal Service (the reunion wouldn’t be complete without a big local festival appearance)
Less likely headliners (aka big bands with upcoming albums who are likely to play festivals): Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, the Strokes, the Flaming Lips (they’re practically the Sasquatch! house band), Phoenix
Solid guesses (bands with holes in their tour schedules or that are strongly rumored): Paramore, Imagine Dragons, the xx, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Atlas Genius, Beach House, Grimes, Dirty Projectors, Father John Misty, DIIV, the Helio Sequence, Alt-J, Cody ChestnuTT, Built to Spill, Solange, Rodriguez
Ten likely locals: Reignwolf, Pickwick, Youth Lagoon, Ravenna Woods, Lemolo, Telekenesis, Naomi Punk, Truckasaurus, Kithkin, Blue Scholars
Possible Primevera bands: The Breeders, Tame Impala, Band of Horses, Grizzly Bear
Outside possibilities: My Bloody Valentine, Wu Tang Clan, Jurassic 5, Grimes, Hot Chip, Jeff Mangum, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Blur (which would be a-may-zing btw)
The Sasquatch! Launch Party is Feb. 4 at the Neptune Theatre. Tickets are free and will be made available while supplies last at the Neptune’s box office beginning at noon Saturday.
I’d also add Wavves to the “Solid Guesses” category. They have an album coming out and are conspicuously not playing Seattle on their tour.
Sound City Players would be an excellent headliner, seeing as how Primavera took a lot of the other hopefuls. It’d be great to have a unique group like that make it over to the Gorge.
Paramore???
I really have a sick feeling the Strokes will headline Sasquatch. Here’s my theory:
1. They sent their single to a Seattle radio station first
2. They announced the single and album late enough to miss out on some other big festivals (unless they denied them)
3. They haven’t played in the PNW since 2006, and will most likely avoid touring, which means Sasquatch is a good way to cover their PNW base.
I would fucking melt if they came
lol Macklemore as a headliner? Get serious.
Anyone have an idea about Björk? Playing Pitchfork Fest so in the mix for summer US festivals
Here’s some other solid guesses i pulled from Coachella’s lineup:
Local Natives, Japandroids, Divine Fits, Polica, Portugal. the Man, FOALS, The Lumineers, Cloud Nothings.
I also think Sharon Van Etten is a shoo-in.
Though unlikely, I’d be really excited if Janelle Monae is on the lineup, and Hot Chip is one of the few obvious Sasquatch bands that I really want to see that I don’t think has ever played Sasquatch.
And if any of Travis’ predicted headliners don’t hit, I’ll go out on a limb and say The Black Keys will be in their place.