Ice Cream Man

Sasquatch Music Festival 2008 Review

Words by Kate Schruth
Photos by Dr. Knife, Jackie Canchola, Timothy Norris

We arrived at the Gorge on a beautiful Saturday morning to find the crew all there, camped out from the night before. Matt had picked up the cream and dry ice the day before so we were all set to christen Newt, the newest member of the ice cream fleet, on her first major festival (the actual first fest being Joshua Tree Music Festival the week before). And what a festival! Sasquatch has killer lineups, a gorgeous venue, and mostly great weather. Mostly.

After we got a prime parking spot right near the main stage, we spent the first hour or three setting up the truck. Matt had gone super shopping to outfit Newt for their first cross country road trip together. You would be surprised how much stuff you need, in addition to the essentials like candy and toys, of course. It was not a chore at all though as we could hear all Fleet Foxes set and most of the next set which was Dengue Fever. At this point we were almost done setting up, so I struck out to explore the festival grounds. I walked all the way around past the Yeti and Wookie stages, up the steep, steep hill to the upper lip of the Sasquatch stage amphitheatre. There I sat in the grass to take in the rest of Dengue Fever’s set and soak in some sun. The view was amazing, quite complimented by the psychedelic Cambodian grooves.

The scene was so idyllic in fact, I didn’t move until long after Beirut’s set. The breeze was strong and the amphitheatre hadn’t really filled in yet, so sound conditions were perfect up at the top. While brass instruments and ukuleles fit most anywhere in my mind, they were especially well suited to this place and time. The music of Beirut can sometimes sound moody and dark, but on this day it felt light and celebratory. This was actually my first time seeing Beirut live, Zach Condon is amazing, playing all those instruments and what a voice. I was hoping to see Owen Pallett up there but it was far so I had trouble distinguishing. They played mostly music off of Flying Club Cup, but did squeeze some new ones in there that sounded great. Also, looks like Condon just cancelled his entire summer tour, wonder what’s up?

After that lovely set I ventured back to the ice cream truck to hand out ice cream with Dave, Sarah and Knife for the next few hours. Saturday afternoon an interesting change in schedule happened, The National couldn’t make their 4pm slot on the main stage, so the day openers Fleet Foxes ended up stepping in and playing a second set. I was happy, it meant I could run out and catch a few songs, as I’d missed seeing all of their first set- even though I heard it. It also meant that the National played The Yeti Stage later that night- which is the smallest stage at the festival. I’m guessing it was quite a treat for the National fans willing to get there early. After Fleet Foxes take two, Matt and I headed briefly over to Wookie stage for Destroyer then came back to listen to the New Pornographers play through the afternoon while hanging around the truck.

The next set on the main stage was MIA which I was determined not to miss. I’d seen her perform once before and wasn’t that impressed, I suspect now it’s because I was side stage, far from the good sound and the energy. Since her first appearance I thought of MIA as sort of a hack, a lot of her album material sounded jarring, and relied heavily on covers and big samples. Hype, I said. However, recently I heard a few songs that changed my mind a little - so I had to go out and have it changed for good. She was awesome. Her energy is huge and her songs are hard and powerful. The videos, the DJ, insane hype woman and loooud ass horn MIA was blowing – it all added up to a great show. The audience ate it up. While the sunshine had put on a brave face for the majority of the day, it gave way to some light rain – the audience didn’t seem to mind and danced all the harder.

The late afternoon concluded in more ice cream and a brief jaunt back up to the Wookie stage to check out the Breeders (the Deal sisters came by the truck right before). While I’m not intimately familiar with their album material Matt and Sarah both loved what we heard of the set, so I guess we’ll go thumbs up. I do know they played some new songs- which sounded good to me, so there’s my opinion of the show. We headed back down to the truck to keep Knife company before heading out to R.E.M. for the last bits of their set. While the band sounded okay, I really wished it had been louder and also really wished they had played a song I recognized. They have such a huge popular catalogue, I feel as though their set could have been a tad more audience friendly. The video work on stage, I thought, was very cool – so while I don’t like to watch the big screens at festivals, it was pretty much all I was doing during this show. [Gooch's note: I thought theirs was the best performance of the fest, and I was amazed that they played "Harborcoat," a song they've played once live in the last 20 years.] So this concluded the first day and we moseyed back to the campground to get some rest.

Sunday was a musically calm day. Most bands I heard from afar while handing out ice cream to the beautiful people backstage. This was fine, as I knew Monday was going to be the big show day. The scene back stage was really nice this day. We headed out to the near empty amphitheatre to soak in some of 65daysofstatic, a band who’s name I’ve come across many a time but heard never, and check out the view of the gorge from the opposite side of the stage. After our quick jaunt I had some coffee from the generous people from Caffe Fiore who had a stand set up right next to Newt. We put together a toy airplane that did loops when you threw it, and broke out some sidewalk chalk. All throughout the day our airwaves were graced with the sounds of awesome bands like Cold War Kids, Tegan and Sara, The Presidents, and Death Cab for Cutie, all of whom played the main stage that day.

Mid afternoon Matt and I headed out into the festival grounds with a full cold bag of ice cream for the remote festival workers who might not have easy access to the truck. We got around to lots of people and by the time we got up to the Wookie stage for The White Rabbits we were nearly out. The White Rabbits were great, right on pace and playing all sorts of good stuff, including “Kid on my Shoulders”, which I love. While the set was still in full swing we headed over to check out the revivalist tent erected for the viewing of the Flaming Lips’ new movie Christmas on Mars. While the first showing wasn’t for another 8 hours or so the tent was already flanked with fans. We got to see the inside of the tent and give away the remainder of the ice cream there, so it was a positive visit.

All day long the crew had been going about various activities. Timothy and Jackie obviously were darting to and from the stages snagging all the beautiful photos you see here. Also, Knife had set up a camera on top of one of the in-ground trailers backstage. He made a beautiful time-lapse video that captured the sunset, Newt, the river, and part of the main stage over the course of an hour or two. It was really something.

Day two ended up with a visit to see Stephen Malkmus and then the Cure. We all agreed that the Cure was amazing. [Gooch's note: Sarah and I thought they were incredibly boring.] Id never seen them before, but I heard a lot of people comparing it to a terrible Coachella performance some years back. They sounded clean and loud, perfect in my ears. And then we were tired, and Monday was going to be a big day so we roped it in.

Monday, the last day, was calmer than I would have expected. I spent the majority of the day at the truck, opting out of a lot of shows to do chalk drawings and double dutch jump rope. It was also super hot that morning so demand for early ice cream was high and we had a crowd. We ate some lunch and drank some beers, it was relaxing. At around six Dave, Sarah, Matt and I went over to the main stage to see Flight of the Conchords do their thing. It was so much funnier then I had imagined it would be. They even played “Albi (the Racist Dragon)”. We were saying part of the reason the Concohrds are so great is that their songs are not only funny, but they’re actually good music as well, music you would listen to either way.

At the end of the Conchord’s set Dave and Sarah went to relieve Knife of his camera duties, he had been making another time-lapse video (2) (3) – this time of the main stage, and he and Matt and I headed up to the Wookie stage to check out Jamie Lidell. Jamie came on a little late, but when he came out it was with a full band. There were some technical difficulties, the levels were all off – but it didn’t stop us from dancing. Then the set up was stripped down to just Mr. Lidell who broke it down, and it sounded great. We hopped back down to the ice cream truck and opted out of Mars Volta – which sounded not great – and who were apparently violently abusing their fans and photographers in the pit by throwing heavy objects at people’s heads. I’m not entirely sure what that has to do with music.

As for the last slot of the festival, the time was split between the Flaming Lips and Ghostland Observatory. We were at the main stage in time to see the Lip’s orange and silver UFO land and Wayne to come rolling out in his hamster ball. Their shows really are something to behold, the visual richness is fantastic. The set list had a few interesting choices and we managed to see lots of dancing naked girls on stage before heading over to the Wookie stage. Ghostland had a pretty healthy sized crowd considering what they were competing with. I guess sometimes people just wanna dance. I'd not seen their laser light show yet and I gotta say, it really compliments what they do up there. We stayed and danced around a bit, but didn’t really hear any of the show stoppers we wanted.

By this point I was pretty tired and after a brief stopover at the main stage I was ready to call it a day, or weekend, or long weekend. However, I say, if you’re not totally beat at the end of a three day festival, you’re doing something wrong. I think the Ice Cream Crew did it right.

Many thanks to Blue Bunny and Jakprints for helping make it all possible, as well as Adam and the Sasquatch crew.