Sasquatch 2013 Part Two: Music, More Music and a Sprained Ankle

Welcome to Sasquatch Part Two! If you missed it, see Sasquatch Part One: Travel, Camping and the Gorge.

On day two we saw a bit of Robert Delong and Atlas Genius and then back-to-back performances by Nick Offerman, Bloc Party and The XX, which were pretty much the best shows ever! Nick Offerman plays Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation which is one of our favorite TV shows. He did a comedy set that included 10 Tips for Prosperity (including such things as “Eat Red Meat”, “Use Intoxicants” and “Practice Romantic Love”), mixed in with songs he had written himself to emphasize his 10 Tips (which were hilarious).

Nancy and Beth, aka Megan Mullally (Nick Offerman’s wife) and Stephanie Hunt, joined him onstage for a mesmerizing and spectacular mash-up of “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Hits from a Bong” from Cypress Hill, rapped by Nick himself. They ended with a tear jerking rendition of 5,000 Candles in the Wind, and it was amazing! It was exactly the unique experience that I was hoping to witness at a music festival.

Bestie and I danced our buns off to both Bloc Party and The XX as the sun went down and the party cranked up. We were both extremely happy that we had sold our tickets to see The XX in Edmonton the night before we left for Sasquatch, in exchange for seeing them for the first time ever while they played on the main stage overlooking the gorge. It was nothing short of magical. Also, Bestie got kissed on the cheek by a random girl dancing in front of us in a white fur coat that kept turning around and telling us “we were good at life”…HA!

We were going to hang around to see Sigur Ros but it got ridiculously cold and we were under dressed (I was a tad optimistic and over-packed the “summer” appropriate clothes). Luckily enough, we could hear the sound from the concert float through the gorge over to our campsite, which only emphasized the eerie beauty of their music. I had never listened to anything by them before, but I’m definitely a fan now.

Day three was an interesting day. We saw Danny Brown only because we wanted to score good seats for the rest of the night. He was definitely not my cup of tea, with lots of lewd comments and sticking out his tongue. After he was done, we saw a beautiful performance by Tallest Man on Earth, then the rowdy Dropkick Murphys, Edward Sharpe, Elvis Costello and a bit of Grimes. Husbie ducked out between Edward Sharpe and Elvis Costello to watch Earl Sweatshirt, and I went with him at 12:00am to 1:30am to see Primus in 3D!

My favorite set of the day? Edward Sharpe. The sun poked through the clouds just as their set began, and their gospel-soul sound created a dreamy atmosphere that I’m not likely to forget anytime soon. They took a moment during the crowd-favorite song “Home” to jump into the crowd and ask fans to tell stories. One girl told a story about how she had come to Sasquatch to see Edward Sharpe and they were amazing. Alex Ebert replied, “Aren’t YOU amazing?” You can tell they really love what they do and adore their fans 🙂 We watched the sunset as they finished their concert.

After Elvis Costello, we were making our way over to Grimes when my Bestie twisted her ankle really badly. Long story short, she ended up going to the hospital and getting some crutches and an ankle brace, which really sucked and I felt so bad for her!! She was stuck in the tent for the rest of the trip, and she’ll be stuck on crutches for a few weeks 🙁

Husbie and I went to Primus 3D on Sunday night (technically it was Monday morning) since seeing Les Claypool was on his bucket list, and I actually didn’t hate it! Mr. Claypool is quite the impressive bass player and their music is rather quirky and interesting. It doesn’t hurt that he looks very similar to Johnny Depp! 3D usually makes me sick but their graphics were fairly subtle and really fun. I’m pretty sure Husbie and I were in the minority (a.k.a. non-high) at the concert and so it was quite entertaining to watch the crowd (a.k.a. people reaching and trying to grab the 3D graphics).

Day four dawned wet and dreary, and it stayed that way for the whole morning. My Bestie and her man stayed back at their tent while Husbie and I bundled up, donned our ponchos and saw Chvrches (an Aussie band that I hadn’t heard much before and really enjoyed), and P.O.S., a rapper who is a member of Doomtree, one of Husbie’s favorite groups.

We got crazy close to the stage and P.O.S. ended up rapping most of his set within inches of us which was SO cool! We then wandered over to the main stage and waited to see Imagine Dragons in the rain, but weren’t aware that their set was pushed back an hour and we got cold and wet so we bailed. After a quick meet and greet with P.O.S. we headed back to our tents.

After discussion with Bestie and her man, we decided that we didn’t want to stay the last night at the festival in our tents in the cold and rain and that we’d rather skip out on a few of the final shows, drive back to Spokane and stay in a warm and dry hotel room. We missed seeing Twin Shadow, Alt-J and Postal Service, but knew that if we had stayed we would have been miserable due to the weather. Bestie couldn’t see the shows anyways because of her ankle. So we packed up! We were all immediately in better moods knowing that we’d be sleeping in warm beds.

Our drive home the next day wasn’t too bad thanks to the rest of our mega-playlist, and we got home around 9pm. It was such a fun trip and it made me realize just how lucky we are to have friends that we can be stuck in a car with for 13 hours, and not want to kill them! I foresee more trips together in the future after the success of both Calgary Expo and Sasquatch…