Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Live: Sasquatch 2009

Music festivals have a tendency to become more about drugs and socializing than about music. That being said, here are the music highlights from this year's Sasquatch. I only attended Saturday and Monday, so Sunday is unaccounted for. Sundays was a 'rest' day. Unfortunately, I ended up drinking enough whiskey to turn the day into 'heatstroke' day.

Saturday:

Passion Pit: not sure what all the buzz is about. Seemed like a really white guy with a synthesizer trying to sound impassioned, failing. PA may have been malfunctioning.

Dent May: I knew he sounded good on record (I've called him Sinatra meets Ariel Pink a few times), but his stage present is also fantastic. He comes off as an adorable drunk. His band is super cute and all the song lyrics are prefect, funny, easy. Probably in my top three for the festival.

Animal Collective: There's really no point in explaining why I like this band. There set was prefect, I was on drugs, everything came together.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Karen O = still hot, great lyrics, songwriting, as always. She appeared younger and more girlish than I was expecting. I think the song "Maps" will be canonized over the next few decades.

Kings of Leon: This band rides the fence between the lands 'Americana' and 'critically acclaimed' rock. They're not astounding, but if you pretend that you still care about what is means to be 'an American' and what it means to listen to 'meaningful music' that people from the Midwest might like, the band sort of makes sense. Overall, probably too sappy/unoriginal for my taste.

Crystal Castles: Did not see them. Heard there were goths with pacifiers in the audience.

Monday:

Deerhoof: Is this band actually good? I can't tell.

Grizzly Bear: Never thought I would admit this publicly, but I think I like the Department of Eagles (related project) more. Grizzly Bear lacks the pop/rhythmic sensibility I need.

Santigold: At this point (2:50 PM), bored, stoned, too hot.

Fleet Foxes: This is one of my favorite bands and probably (next to Animal Collective) the band that will be the most popular in ten years. If they can record and tour three good albums (one down) they will probably be the most popular American rock band of my generation (b. 1987). They played two new songs and rearranged the vocal parts on a few others, notably "Mykonos."

Beach House: Besides a lot of PA problems, this set was amazing. A great way to close the festival: lazy, sexy, intelligent. Perfect summer melodies.

Girl Talk: Worst 'band' of the last five years? I had to walk through this show on my way to the parking lot. Terrifying.

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