Last weekend I went to Sasquatch Music Festival for the first time in four years. The lineup was too good to pass up, especially because it included: The New Pornographers, Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors, She & Him, Camera Obscura and Mumford & Sons. So, I bought a three-day pass as soon as they went on sale, arranged to stay in a condo at Crescent Bar, and convinced a few friends to come along. And thus the stage was set for an amazing weekend!

Friday:

Jarad and I drove across the pass late Friday afternoon, along with everyone else in the state, it seemed. At one point, it took us 35 minutes to drive no more than 9 miles. We made it eventually, though, and apparently walked into a frat party. I guess a lot of Wazzu students discovered the resort, and decided it would be a good place to wreak havoc over the long weekend. Too bad for us, because they played beer pong and drank in the hot tub literally all day. To make matters worse, there is zero reception there. Jenny and Mal weren’t due to come for a few hours, and we had no way of knowing when they would arrive. We tried to guess based on previous text messages, but were off by 50 minutes. Whoops!

Saturday:

After ditching our Vitamin Waters at the entrance (they don’t let you bring in “colored water,” but really it’s because they were selling the same stuff inside), we started the day at the Bigfoot stage to see Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons. The latter show got surprisingly crowded, but they were pretty good! I think they’re best when they’re just jamming, and it seems like they do that in a lot of their songs.

After we got some food, we went back to the Bigfoot Stage and caught a little of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes (but not their only good song, “Home”). It was at this point that there were two security incidents within 20 seconds: First, a guy jumped over a fence into the festival, and then a skinny guy started running around naked, while his friends tried to get clothes on him.

After that, we headed to the main stage and saw OK Go, Broken Social Scene, The National, Vampire Weekend, and My Morning Jacket. Vampire Weekend was definitely the highlight of the day, and I’m excited to see them again in August!

Sunday:

We learned from our mistakes on this day, and bought stuff for sandwiches to take into the festival, so we didn’t have to spend a crap load of money on food. We arrived just as Local Natives started at the Bigfoot Stage, and stuck around to see Tallest Man on Earth. Too bad he’s not the tallest man, because I couldn’t see a thing! I didn’t even bother trying to process those pictures, because you can only see the top of his head in them.

We liked hanging out on the grass overlooking the main stage, so we went over there and saw They Might Be Giants (“Allow me to introduce you to my left eye”), Kid Cudi (ehh…), Tegan and Sara, and a little bit of LCD Soundsystem. Even though I like Tegan and Sara, I wasn’t expecting much from their set, but it was surprisingly awesome! Not only did they play great music, but their banter between songs was entertaining and funny. And Jarad, who previously said that their music makes him want to hit little kids, actually liked their show, too! Well received, all around.

The next show we went to was Fruit Bats on the Yeti stage, and then we headed over to the Dirty Projectors show at the Bigfoot stage. I was glad I got to see them, because I left their show at hot and overly-crowded Neumos early.

After the show, we met up with Zac and Ab, who bought Jenny and Mal’s Monday tickets, since they had to go back to San Diego that day. Zac taught everyone how to play 2’s and 10’s, and good times (and alcohol) were had by all.

Monday:

Well, needless to say, this was the best day of the bunch. I mean, it was the day I met Neko Case! Jenny and Mal left in the morning, and Jarad left a little bit after them, since he didn’t have a ticket. The first thing we did at the festival was go over to the practically empty hillside and watch The Heavy on the main stage. They were pretty entertaining, and got the crowd surprisingly riled up. Then we saw some other bands I didn’t really care about (Past Lives, Mayer Hawthorne, Phantogram, Drive-By Truckers, and Fresh Espresso) and played a few rounds of 2’s and 10’s. Passion Pit was awesome, though, and it was great seeing the whole hillside dancing, like during Vampire Weekend two days before.

I saw a little bit of She & Him, but then I had to go get in line for the New Pornographers’ signing at the Easy Street booth. It took forever, but they finally came out, and I met Neko Case. Oh man. I know I was such a dork (what do you say when you meet your favorite musician on the planet?), but I got a picture with her, and she and five of the other band members signed my vinyl copy of Mass Romantic (I don’t know where Kurt and Todd were). Those were quite possibly the coolest five minutes of my life.

After that, we went over to the Bigfoot stage and saw Camera Obscura. After their great set, I squeezed into the crowd, got as close to the stage as I could, and waited for The New Pornographers to come out. Their soundcheck took forever, but their show was well worth it. I can’t think of many of my favorite songs that they didn’t play, and as always, they got the crowd singing along and dancing like fools. It was a complete blast, even when it started raining. I wish that there hadn’t been a tall guy in front of me, but that’s the story of my life, I guess. After their set, we piled into the car and headed back to Seattle. I wish I’d taken Tuesday off from work (I’m still tired), but it was the best weekend in a very long time.