popwreckoning

I arrived at the Gorge around noon on Sunday. In fact, I think it was exactly noon, because I’d missed the first half of Wavves set (because for some reason they put them on the main stage at 11:30 a.m.). So Portland natives Typhoon began my lineup for the day, and to an epic degree. Typhoon consisted of everything from electric guitar, a mini brass section, and a prominent cello, and I loved it. Their set was so good (and not just for noon) that I caught their acoustic EndSession* around two hours later.

*Local radio station 107.7 The End was hosting acoustic sets throughout the day in a small tent that people had to win a game to get access to. I don’t really know how, I just knew that I would be hitting up Fitz and the Tantrums’ set in there later as well.

Typhoon was one of the best of the day at the Bigfoot stage, but the Yeti stage delivered exceptionally well on Sunday. Just to name a few – Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, local “hipster-hop” (they made it up) group Mad Rad, and Das Racist all lit up that stage, one leaving a bit of carnage, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

A few other bands played great sets, and are definitely worth mentioning. Funk group Wheedle’s Groove was a little out of their element, but it was a breath of fresh fun air early in the afternoon. Seattle folk group the Moondoggies put on a lovely set, tailored perfectly to the overwhelmingly local crowd. One of the many Canadian acts that weekend, The Sam Roberts band, also on the Bigfoot stage, played a sleek set of easy and radio-friendly indie rock.

Speaking of Canadians – I don’t know why more Canadian musicians get wide recognition in the U.S. I like to consider myself a bit of a music geek, and I had never heard of Sam Roberts, and he and his band has won Juno Awards since 2004. It just makes me very glad that Sasquatch can offer than bridge over our northern border, metaphorically speaking. I can assure you that no other festival around has that many Canadian bands, and I welcome it. Have you ever met a rude Canadian? I haven’t.

Before the awesome evening of Yeti stage antics, I set myself up in the EndSession for Fitz and the Tantrums, because I’d only caught a glimpse of their main stage set. Honestly, I avoided the main stage most of the time. But Fitz and the Tantrums delivered spectacularly in that small setting. I’d heard good things from several friends, and I wasn’t disappointed. With such an odd mix of characters on stage, you wouldn’t think that the music would mix, but it’s like maple and bacon – it just tastes good. The funky stage presence of Michael Fitzpatrick and the soul that Noelle Scaggs brings makes Fitz and the Tantrums definitely not a band to miss. Thankfully, they’ll be back in the northwest in September for Bumbershoot.

I’m going to sound like a terrible person, but I’d never listened to Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears before Sasquatch, and now I want to see them again and again. While the set was obnoxiously late (which was still a theme on all the stages), it was worth the wait. It was a mix of soul and rock and pure energy that made filled that relatively small space in front of the Yeti stage. Personally I think they should have played in the Bigfoot stage with how big their performance was. At one point, someone from the crowd threw a roll of toilet paper in the air. Then another. And another. And soon it was an all-out TP frenzy. From what I heard, someone broke into the port-a-potty with all the extra toilet paper in it and went crazy. I’d hate to be anyone who had to clean all that up.

After Black Joe Lewis was Mad Rad, who is some hard to describe that I can just give you what they call themselves – “hipster-hop.” It’s hip-hop, with electro, and indie rock, and obscene lyrics, and maniacal stage performance, and I could keep going, but that might just confuse you. They are truly a band to be seen live, rather than heard on record, and I highly recommend staying out of the front of the crowd, unless you’re into being thrashed about. Mad Rad’s name is self-explanatory. They’re mad (as in crazy) but also rad.

Das Racist was on directly after Mad Rad, and the mood was still frantic and awesome at that point, and Das Racist fed off that energy from the crowd and it made for quite an interesting set. I’m not sure if the guys of Das Racist were at all drunk, but they were holding cans of beer and seemed really relaxed on stage. No matter, as they put on an entertaining show for another huge crowd.

I think they should have just switched all the Yeti/Bigfoot acts in the afternoon, because the crowd was much more receptive of the bands at Yeti, and Das Racist was no different. I don’t even like hip-hop, and they were one of my favorite sets of the whole festival.

As the sun started to set over the Gorge, the Flaming Lips took the main stage to their usual over-the-top theatrics, giant bubble and all. Sadly, I only stayed for about 15 minutes of their set because of scheduling, but from what I heard, the Flaming Lips only played about 8 or 9 songs in their hour set. I won’t pass judgment, since I wasn’t there, but that just seems weird.

The Bigfoot stage finally started to heat up after dark, with Yeasayer and Ratatat bringing out all the crazy hipsters. Neither band disappointed, except for the horrible scheduling. Both Yeasayer and Ratatat used wicked on-stage light shows to up the amp of their set, and both filled their hour with fantastic versions of some their greatest tracks. Ratatat even had an entire song with repeated creepy bird images on projectors behind then. I wasn’t even on drugs and it was trippy.

Sunday rocked. Hands down. Would I go as far as saying that it was the best day? Hmm. You haven’t even heard about Monday yet.

Foo Fighters on Friday at Sasquatch

Gaining quite a following, thanks to local radio station 107.7 The End, South Africa’s Civil Twilight played a strong set to a crowd of relatively young fans at the Center Square Stage on Saturday afternoon. Their soaring piano-driven arena rock led by Steve McKellar hit a high note when Civil Twilight broke into the opening riffs of “Letters from the Sky,” the first single off their self-titled debut.

The power trio didn’t have necessarily the most mind-blowingly exciting set, but the softer sounds were still nice with the outdoor venue, on the pavement outside the Experience Music Project. And the more low-key performance helped showcase McKellar’s Bono-esque vocals. Plus, it was still early in the afternoon for people to go too crazy.

Go to http://civiltwilightband.com/

This being my first foray into the pit, I was hard to contain my excitement when I got to shoot 107.7 The End’s annual Deck the Hall Ball at the WAMU theater this last Tuesday, featuring Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Metric, 30 Seconds to Mars and the headliners, Muse.

Being a newbie to the rocktographer scene, I felt ridiculously intimidated by how big this show really was. Arriving late after finding parking, Vampire Weekend was the first band I saw. The charming foursome played through a disappointingly short 20-minute set, but made the most of the five-song slot they were given. It included the big hits from their critically acclaimed debut as well as a couple from Contra, out this January – “White Sky” and “Cousins,” both incredibly addictive. Possibly the only good thing about having that short of a set was that they only got time to play the really recognizable songs and there wasn’t any time to have any sort of up and down mood. However, with the lightness of Vampire Weekend’s music, I needed more to be satisfied.

Next up was Phoenix – the Grammy-nominated spunky indie pop quartet from Versailles, who came out with one of the best albums of the year, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Again, another short set, but it didn’t feel nearly as short as it was because they were amazing. Dare I say they stole the show? Bringing crowd-pleaser after crowd-pleaser with “Lasso,” “Lisztomania,” “Rome” and “Girlfriend,” it seemed as if front man Thomas Mars loved the crowd just as much as they loved Phoenix. Their unique French brand of indie pop was the breakout of the year, and seeing Phoenix play live was the perfect way to end the year. After their final song, the hugely popular “1901,” the waif-like Mars crowd-surfed all the way to the back of the crowd of people standing on the floor and ran back up to the stage to thank all those who filled the WAMU Theater. Let me tell you, as sad as I was to see them leave the stage, it pumped me up even more at the fact that they’re coming back to Seattle to play a full set at a much more intimate venue right down the street at the Showbox SoDo.

By this point, I’d become pretty comfortable in the pit, filing in an out with all the other local photographers, even though I didn’t say a word to any of them. The third time back up the stage was for Metric, who I strongly underestimated. I didn’t catch them at Bumbershoot in September, but Emily Haines has got to be one of the most charismatic front women I’ve ever seen. She came out with dark lighting slightly glowing behind her sweaty, shaggy blonde hair, rocking back and forth playing her keyboard before walking up to the mic in her Sgt. Peppers-inspired jacket and blowing my mind. Metric played a half-hour set of songs from their 2009 disc, Fantasies and managed to fit so much sexy New Wavey heavy rock into that time frame. I strongly recommend seeing them live, as it makes you appreciate how good Metric is after 107.7 The End played “Help, I’m Alive” more than both Kings of Leon singles in 2008.

This was the end of the short sets, and onto the full-on Rock, yes, with a capital R.

I have to say, when I first heard the lineup, there was one band that didn’t fit. And that band was 30 Seconds to Mars. Honestly, you could tell which fans were there to see 30 Seconds to Mars because they were so out of sync with the rest of the lineup. But front man Jared Leto did make it seem that this was just a 30 Seconds to Mars show. And by the reaction of the crowd, their fans were satisfied. They opened their bombastic goth rock set with “A Beautiful Lie” and “The Kill” off their second album and played through the heavy hits from This Is War for the rest of the 45 minutes. Personally, I would have preferred cutting down their set to give more time to Vampire Weekend. As overdone as 30 Seconds to Mars was, with a spotlight for Leto, he surely has the voice and energy to hold a crowd that large, even if not everyone was there to see him. He jumped down off the stage, ran through the pit, dodged myself, the other photographers, and the sweaty teens being pulled from the crowd. But that could have been his fault – because at the beginning he shouted to the swooning girls, “Let’s see how many f-cking people we can get to crowd surf at the same time!” Great, thanks Jared. It made for a chaotic, almost dangerous pit. 30 Seconds to Mars surely does love the fans, almost in a needy way, as evidenced by the fact that they told the audience they’d sign every single copy of This Is War people brought to the meet and greet table after their show. I didn’t bother going to check, because Muse went on next.

After a way-too-long intermission, Matt Bellamy, Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard came up on stage to the loudest cheering I heard all night. The crowd surely belonged to Muse, an indication by the majority of the tee shirts being worn across WAMU Theater. I’m pretty sure Muse is the only band out there that can pull off the huge rock that hasn’t been popular since before I was born, because with such hits like “Hysteria,” “Uprising,” and “Unnatural Selection,” you’d think they’d be over-the-top, but it’s nostalgic and refreshing at the same time. Matt Bellamy strutted around the stage dry-humping his pink, glittery guitar at one point, and sporting a stylish patterned blazer. It’s almost unbelievable that that much sound can come from three guys. One guitar, one bass, one drummer – and Muse manages to sound like eight people are standing up on stage. I was just glad that now after seeing Muse live, I’ll stop thinking of that stupid scene in “Twilight” with “Supermassive Black Hole” playing in the background, and I’ll think about Matt, Chris and Dom rocking it in Seattle. Ending with “Plug in Baby” from Origin of Symmetry and a killer version of “Knights of Cydonia” from Black Holes and Revelations, complete with a spaghetti western intro, harmonica and all, Muse literally went out with a bang. They finished with giant jets of smoke shooting out from the stage, accompanied by tons of screaming fans.

If there’s one band that’s the current poster band for stadium rock, it’s Muse.

Band Info:
Vampire Weekend: website | myspace | @ treasure island | @ acl | @ monolith | @ popped | @ all points west | @ lollapalooza
Metric: website | myspace | @ midland
30 Seconds to Mars: website | myspace | This Is War review
Muse: website | myspace | Muse Reveal Tracklisting for New Album | Muse to Play Several U.S. Dates with U2 and MTV VMAs | Various Artists: New Moon Soundtrack | Muse – “Undisclosed Desires” Promo Video | Muse Announce Short Spring American Tour