sasquatch!

day two

Sunday, entirely sold out, was the day that everyone wanted tickets for. The campground was packed that day, the scalpers were out full force, and some were desperate for the chance to see The Blue Scholars, Tegan & Sara, The Presidents, Death Cab, and The Cure all in one go. It was a Main Stage day for me, even though I'd wanted to see Truckasauras, The Blakes, and The Kooks, and maybe accompany Chelsea to see Rogue Wave on the other stages, I ended up staying for the full lineup on the Main Stage. It was pretty damn hot out there.

And it was, indeed, a great day. We made it in time to see 65daysofstatic a little after 12:30, whose intense electro-rock I was only a teensy bit familiar with, but was not bad at all to groove to while settling into a grassy spot on the upper lawn.

Next was Blue Scholars, the Seattle Hip-Hoppers hailing from the U District and the UW, who are great live and pulled off a great set, highlighted by a certain crowd-pleaser... "get your education on the ave." Cold War Kids also pulled a good set...

I've caught Tegan and Sara live at festivals a couple times before, and their banter-filled discourse between songs always makes their sets funny and unique, and this time was no exception. The set was great, full of many of my favorite songs, and the banter was dominated by their confessions of unsuitability towards camping. They'd been forced into camping as children by their mother, they said, and now found nothing exciting or sexy about it as adults, preferring cable TV and hot showers at night. Fair 'nuff; they were so gracious in their critique, you couldn't help but enjoy it.

I haven't acquired a copy of The Presidents (of The United States of America) new album, These Are The Good Times People," but their performances, with Michael Stipe's energy, are always great, and I of course loved singing along to Kitty, Peaches, and Postman. "Fuck you kitty... you're gonna spend the night outside!"

In apprehension of Death Cab's set, we made our way down to the floor for Michael Franti and Spearhead's performance. I hadn't heard them before, and didn't know what to expect, but the energy and spirit in his hip-hop/reggae/folky singer-songwriter lore was something you could get to. Both personal (a song about his son growing up and finding his own path in and across the world) and political (songs begging for peace and bringing soldiers home), the music was inspiring and dance-able (kinda hippie-style dance-able).

First moved by local-indie-band-gone-huge Death Cab For Cutie's youthful, melancholy sound and lyrics when I was in early college, I've been able to see them live a few times, and they never fail to enchant me.

Cause I built you a home in my heart,
With rotten wood, it decayed from the start.

I want to live where soul meets body
and let the sun wrap its arms around me
and bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
and feel, feel what it's like to be new

'cause in my head there’s a greyhound station
where I send my thoughts to far off destinations
so they may have a chance of finding a place
where they’re far more suited than here

and I cannot guess what we'll discover
when we turn the dirt
with our palms cupped like shovels
but I know our filthy hands can wash one another’s
and not one speck will remain

Being up close on the floor helped mitigate the huge-venue effect, and the soft, glowing sunset added a certain je ne sais quoi of ambiance to their set. Their new album, Narrow Stairs, is a deep, and somewhat haunting pleasant surprise of an album, which could have been one that was more formulaic, resting upon the band's more recent laurels of widespread popularity. I was glad to hear their eight-minute-plus hit from the new album, "I Will Possess Your Heart," or The Stalker Song as you might call it, make its way into their set, in addition to my current fave, "Grapevine Fires-"

...to remind us it's only a matter of time before we all burn

we bought some wine and some paper cups near your daughter's school,
and we picked her up and drove to a cemetery on a hill
we watched the plumes paint the sky grey
as she laughed and danced through the fields of graves,
and there I knew it would be all right
that everything would be all right...

the news report on the radio said it was getting worse
as the ocean air fanned the flames
but I couldn't think of anywhere I'd have rather been
to watch it all burn away
...to burn away

The ambiance of the music and the setting sun in sorbet hues made dancing with the cute stranger who was smashed up into my back in the crowd practically a requisite during the show. :)

I could have chilled in the crowd a while to see The Cure from the floor, but followed my tired friend, not familiar or a fan, up to the lawn to enjoy it from there. Seeing the Cure, with Robert Smith's eccentric, dazed delivery, and the jumbotron's closeups on the super-heavy man-eyeliner...you can't lose, if you dig their tragic-epic Brit rock even just a little bit. I got to see them by chance when I was studying in Rome for a few months at the MTV Europe Awards (for free in front of the Collosseum, no less), and that was incredible. This set this time was good, but the performance didn't pull me in quite as much, maybe because they played some earlier stuff I wasn't familiar with, but maybe also because Smith seemed...kind of somewhere else. But then again, on the other hand, that's kind of his thing. They did play Disintegration, Pictures of You, Fascination Street, Love Song, and Lullaby, my all-time faves, so I won't complain.

Remembering you
standing quiet in the rain
as I ran to your heart to be near
and we kissed as the sky fell in
holding you close
how I always held close in your fear
remembering you
running soft through the night
you were bigger and brighter and whiter than snow
and screamed at the make-believe
screamed at the sky
and you finally found all your courage
to let it all go