Sasquatch! 2009 In Photos
Chona Kasinger 
Everybody loves Memorial Day weekend, but nobody loves Memorial Day weekend like those that make it to Sasquatch! As friends have returned from their treks across country, they've shared nothing but raves for this year's festival, from the Gorge's breathtaking views to this year's fantastic lineup. Even the public indecency seems particularly magical on the Sasquatch! grounds: at Coachella all we got was a wizard penis; according to fest-vet Whitney Pastorek, the Gorge had 22,000 people applauding a couple having sex on the ridge. Top that, Bonnapalooza. We sent Chona Kasinger to capture the non-sexual goings on at this year's party, including Jane's Addiction, YYYs, Girl Talk, Santigold (inviting the crowd onstage, M.I.A. style), Shearwater, Animal Collective, and so many more. Enjoy.
Posted at 12:42 PM by amrit in Concert, Photo
Tags: Animal Collective | Beach House | Blind Pilot | Champagne Champagne | Deerhoof | DeVotchKa | Doves | Explosions In The Sky | Girl Talk | Gogol Bordeloo | Grizzly Bear | Jane's Addiction | John Vanderslice | King Khan | Kings Of Leon | Lavender Diamond | Monotonix | Mos Def | Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band | My Brightest Diamond | of Montreal | Passion Pit | Santigold | Sasquatch! | School Of Seven Bells | Shearwater | Silversun Pickups | St. Vincent | The Decemberists | The Dodos | The Duke And The Dutchess | The Walkmen | The Wrens | Yeah Yeah Yeahs
best weekend ever. still can't figure out bif of montreal or girl talk stole the show...runners up were def yyy, king khan and monotonix.
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DEERHOOF was the best show imo. followed by Of Montreal although Brothersport was one of the greatest things i've seen live.
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it was epic. agreed, yyy were amazing; probably my favorite. lots of great sets though... black moth super rainbow and monotonix killed it. i also saw shearwater by accident (thought sun kil moon was about to go on) and they were rad.
and yes, somebody definitely fucked on the hill. didn't personally see it but it was the talk of the weekend.
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Wrens won the weekend, hands-down. Shearwater and Grizzly Bear were great, also. Animal Collective was the biggest letdown for me.
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completely agree with you about AC. i think the daytime set was maybe not the best option for them.
Score = 3
My Top Performances:
Bon Iver
Grizzly Bear
TV on the Radio
Erika Badu
King Khan
Deadmau5
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Oh My God and Murder City Devils is at the top too... I loved Spencer Moody's rant against homophobia. If anybody has a link to a video of that show PLEASE post it!!
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yeah, and that was awesome how he called out everyone at the gorge for being a fucking poseur pussy and told us all to go fuck ourselves. wait, that was terrible. fuck that guy.
Score = 6
Not enough musicians tell the audience to go fuck themselves IMO. He was voicing disdain for homophobes and misogynists and the pop culture obsessed vapid youth that attend Sasquatch, and I could not have agreed more. My favorite part "You think everybody who comes to these festivals are good people? they are NOT all good people" Fuck YEAH! Like it or not he was absolutely spot on.
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you make a valid point. most folks do act like music festivals are a gathering of like-minded good spirits, and yeah, i know that's not the case. there's plenty of douchebags out there; i've seen 'em. half the people there are just in it for the party.
i guess my real beef is that all of his stage banter was spent specifically insulting festival crowds... basically insinuating, as you noted, that we're mostly vapid and inauthentic people. clearly, he'd rather be playing for a handful of "beautiful faggots" in a grimy basement or whatever. and yet, here's the murder city devils, "reuniting" yet again for a festival show. why? fuckin' money, i presume. to me, it's like an indie filmmaker taking on a hollywood blockbuster and then calling the audience a bunch of lowbrow jerkoffs at the premiere.
in any event, that's my two cents. it's really no big deal; i did like their set and i'm probably not as offended as you may think. one last thing, though (and then i swear i'm done), i didn't really get the homophobia/misogyny ranting. was he noticing that sort of behavior going on at the gorge? i sure didn't see anything along those lines.
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I will probably have to watch the show again in order to make a more correct assertion, but I felt at the time he was more insulting people who are homophobic and in general just being awful. I am not sure what he saw to warrant that rant, but there is plenty of homophobia and misogynistic tendencies in our culture and if you are aware and disgusted by it, and have a platform to express that, then why the hell not? You know- I think more people should be speaking out like that. I think that he was not saying everybody in the audience was awful, but by directing his anger at the audience then he could get his point across better.. Yeah and they definitely reunited for the money, but who cares? They can do that and still play the main stage at Sasquatch because they put on a great show and can attract people to see them. Also, there was a lot of shit talking about the crowd by the bands, because well, the crowd at Sasquatch kind of sucks.. I remember Robin Pecknold of the Fleet Foxes starting his set by saying mockingly "high school" insinuating that the crowd is young and immature(which it is)... I didn't take offense to that and I certainly didn't take offense to being called a poseur because, well, I am not one. That that could all change if Sasquatch stopped putting acts like Ben Harper on the bill. We could cut the douchebag factor in half!
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well said.
i'm blaming girl talk, too. as fun as his shows are, he's attracting an increasingly larger and lamer audience by the minute. high school jock bros and pre-tweeners nationwide are eating his shit up. not to offend any fans, but you know it's true.
man, and i don't mean to sound like an ass, but the crowd as a whole was WAY younger and douchier this year, as compared to the last two. i mean, i was fighting for standing space with freakin' 12 year olds during some shows - all of which were wearing wayfarers, of course! i guess that's what you get, when sasquatch is getting bigger and more popular every year. it's definitely the place to be seen being cool at now. it's also strangely enough become the place to walk around at with your tits and ass hanging out, if you're a hot girl. not sure how that happened.
side note: the only violence i saw all weekend was a fight started by some NIN fanboys who looked like they came straight out of the trailer park.
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Thank God there will be no Girl Talk this year @ CHBP!
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Girl Talk? If you were staying for Girl Talk, that meant you were doing all three days, and people who are down for that are generally a kind breed.
I blame the increased douchebag quotient this year on KoL. There were an entire squad of dudes with 'Kings of Neon' spraypainted on their shirts, and every one looked like he was ready to steal your girlfriend, punch you in the stomach, and then ruin your economy. NIN certainly didn't help.
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love the photos!
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it's a shame to see no Erykah Badu coverage here. she was amazing.
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I love that you captured Animal Collective doing what they do best: not playing instruments.
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I wish there was a better way to view these photos, I'm having a hard time with the way it's set up.
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Agreed Joy. Why does the whole damn page have to reload when scanning through the pictures? It's pretty lame.
Score = 5
the exhibitionists sexin' it up was awesome. had a prime spot for creeping.
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that topped any band for most memorable moment. hi-larious!
oh the hazards of love...
Score = 2
The whole weekend was incredible,
except I have to say that Girl Talk was not as good as I would have imagined. I mean, m83 had me dancing more than he did.
Also, I feel bad for the technical difficulties experienced by St. Vincent and Beach House, sad day :(
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The hardest part about looking back at this festival is to pick my favorite performances because there were suprisingly so many. I've never been to a Sasquatch where I thought band after band fucking killed they're sets. It also helps that it was set in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Score = 3
How come no one has mentioned Explosions in the Sky yet? They were pretty much my tops...
And yeah, this was the best venue ever.
The best part about the couple having sex is you see a security officer come over and it looks like its all going to end... but instead, he gives a fistpump and it all goes wild from there. I think Colin Meloy caught a glimpse of it too.
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haha yeah he did. Colin was looking up and kind of smiling.
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Yeah, I laughed at all the hipsters just staring at them in disappointment when they found out how terrible they are live. I was in the front row for the majority of Saturday, and I'll tell you that Animal Collective were the worst band that day.
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I don't know, Animal Collective did SOUND great, but there wasn't much more there. Definitely not the highlight of the weekend, but it wasn't awful.
The highlights of the weekend were: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Decemberists, Crystal Castles, M83, BMSR, Tobacco, and Girl Talk.
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yeah i agree that Of Montreal stole the whole thing, probably because I was hungover all the way up until they played and I felt so much better. They've been one of my favourites i'm so happy i got to see them.
I think St. Vincent was amazing live too, so much better than the album.
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Top 5 of Weekend:
5. Mad Rad (Played noon on Saturday, their antics were incredibly memorable)
4. Of Montreal
3. Kings of Leon
2. Santigold
1. Ra Ra Riot (Nobody has said anything about them, but their set was just perfect. Everyone so into it, sounding so pure live.)
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Yes! I'm glad someone said it! I thought Ra Ra Riot rocked it! Definitely in my top 3 of the weekend. They had an awesome crowd come out to see them too.
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Best 5 sets I saw:
YYYs
Explosions in the Sky
M83
Monotonix
Nine Inch Nails
King Khan was pretty solid as well. All in all a fantastic weekend.
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Karen O. is a Super Hero, in the historical sense. A normally mild-mannered person who, by night, wears elaborate costumes and performs extraordinary feats.
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Does anyone happen to have the Kings of Leon set list?
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no crystal castles pics? i wanted to see what the dance tent scene. oh well looked like a good show im still pissed that all of my friends suck balls and wanted to go after it sold out. im going to get new friends.
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i'm not a fan of kevin barnes' facial hair, but great set otherwise.
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Seriously, you guys need a way better gallery system. Wish we could see thumbnails of all the pics instead of having to click through them one by one.
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YYY's, Of Montreal, Fleet Foxes, Explosions in the Sky and Chromeo were all so sick in such different ways, but M83 stole the whole festival imo. Their set just built and built until it was unbelievably intense, none of the videos I've watched of their set can come close to the experience.
Karen O was absolutely brilliant though, definitely gave M83 a run for their money. Kings of Leon on the other hand was a terrible set, pretty sure they were all drunk as hell and the sound quality sucked. So crushed I missed Crystal Castles for that shit.
Erykah Badu was excellent as well but she definitely pulled some diva shit and was 30+ minutes late for her set, thankfully Girl Talk was all I missed for her.
Was anyone else here at the party in overflow at the Canadream trailer, that was amazing.
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These pictures are breathtaking. Props Chona Kasinger!
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explosions in the sky on day three were the best. i never knew music could make me feel the way they did that night.
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were these photos taken with one of those toy cameras?
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I edited some of them to look that way and if you don't like it, I guess that's just unfortunate.
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OKAY. No need to get all defensive. That's just goofy.
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Is this cool?
I'm a bit of a photographer - nobody pays me but I take it seriously. I did really well at Sasquatch! this year and thought some people here might appreciate some different looks. It’s taking a while to sort through the 5000 pics I took over the weekend but I’ve put some of the better stuff up in my flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matstephens/
I shot some artists that Pitchfork and Stereogum didn’t post pics of, so that’s reason enough. But some of my shots are also different.
It’s just more pictures, enjoy.
(I’m still working on getting everything up. I’ll probably have more posted by tonight…)
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I was a big fan of Hockey. They were pretty suprisingly good. Crystal Castles beats were awesome, but the shrieking was just too much. Explosions, of Montreal, M83, Grizz, Avett Bros, YYY, the list goes on. It was absolutely amazing!
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