sasquatch music festival
saturday, may 29, 2004 • the gorge amphitheater, george wa • review by janice • illustrations and photos by mike


preston school of industry: Up next on the second stage were Preston School of Industry, a band we're not too familiar with, but we did see them play with The Shins back in the day, and of course, we're huge fans of Scott Kannberg's (a.k.a. Spiral Stairs) old band, Pavement. (duh.) And they did not disappoint! They were totally rockin' and really awesome, playing lots of stuff off their latest CD, Monsoon. I was a little distracted by the drummer's played-out truckers cap though.

Sadly though, the main stage and second stage schedules were all staggered, so in the middle of Preston School's set, I had to go. Cat Power was about to start on the main stage, and I can't lie: the masochist in me was curious to see if she was gonna have a meltdown or not.

cat power: So, while Mike stayed behind to watch the rest of Preston Schools, I ran over to the main stage. My first thought was: where the heck is David Cross? He was supposed to be doing some comedy in-between the sets, but he was nowhere to be found. Was this true for the first main stage bands as well? So, we just had to sit and wait. Dang, I wished I had my knitting.

And then finally, a KEXP DJ came out and introduced, "The world's biggest crybaby...Cat Power! And Chan and her bandmates came out on stage. She kept grabbing the mic and bellowing loudly, "WHAAAZUUUP?!!!" Just over and over again. Huh. She didn't seem so shy to me.

I'm not familiar enough with her songs to name titles, but she only played a few songs really. They brought out an actual piano for her performance, which I thought was nice. And then she ended her set really, really early, like 20 minutes before her time slot was up. Her band left the stage, and Chan finished up the weirdness by lip-synching to some pre-recorded children's rap song and skipping back and forth across the stage, occasionally stopping to strike some gangsta poses, like with her legs standing apart and her arms wrapped around her torso, or waving her hands in the air like she just doesn't care. It was really, really, really creepy.

the new pornographers: Mike and I were so, so, so excited to see this Canadian quintet for the first time! We actually abandoned our comfy seats and braved the huge throng of people at the foot of the stage.

And hey look! It's finally David Cross! Sadly though, it just seemed like he got a call, "Hey, wanna MC our Sasquatch Festival?" and Dave was like, "Huh. Free trip to Seattle, a city I love and visit every year, and get to see all those great bands? Sure, I'll MC!" and then he arrived with no prepared material and just seemed to kinda wing it. And I love David Cross, so this pains me as I type. Oh well...

The band was adorable. Their harmonies sounded surprisingly good in such a large open venue. They performed tons of songs from both Mass Romantic and Electric Version. The Richie-Cunningham-esque Carl Newman cracked jokes about being from Canada in-between perfect pop songs like "The New Face of Zero and One" and "All for Swinging You Around". They all seemed to be in a good mood, even Neko. We weren't there (though we tried), but apparently at last year's Bumbershoot, some rude jerks in the audience kept hooting and shouting out "Take your top off!" [Shaking head in disgust.] Stuff like that just really pisses me off. They played a new song, which sounded really great, and made me all excited for their new CD. (When?!!?) When they finally ended, it seemed much too soon. I could've listened to them play for hours...