This is it. The last day of Sasquatch! 2012. Maybe we attacked the preceding days too hard, maybe the combination of altitude and dust got to us, maybe it was a (rookie) compounding sunburn, but on day four this reviewer struggled before having to leave much earlier than anticipated. But more on that later, because we did manage to get a little music in…
Feist
Of course, we all know her for that song, “1, 2, 3, 4,” but Feist’s appearance at Sasquatch! was in support of her phenomenal fourth album “Metals” and the Canadian songstress served a set to remember.
Gracing the stage with a big-rimmed hat and an abundance of moxie, the rattling, sauntering, gospel-y “When I Was A Young Girl” opened what would unravel as a truly meaty set (which thankfully avoided the aforementioned token Big Hit©). Everybody on that stage was in the same off-kilter state of mind – the back-up singers at one point threw in some hilarious dance moves and Leslie later noted that they’d crossed some bounds to swim in “that river down there” (pointing to the bottom of the canyon behind her). She also queued the audience to grab their trombones “if you just happen to have one.”
The twists and turns in both antics and genre made for truly enjoyable set that sauntered through the best of her enviable discography before closing with the best performance of her set, a rollicking rendition of “Sea Lion Woman.”
Silversun Pickups
Silversuns have been absent for a while and that’s something that they were quick to acknowledge. To this, the crowd offered them a thorough welcome back and were entirely compassionate when the performance felt, at times, a tad rusty.
Looking past that, they still managed to push through what was a really enjoyable set. Unfortunately at mid-point things started to go downhill for this guy…
The early exit
Not to dwell, but I ended up missing out on Tenacious D and my most anticipated headliner, Beck.
So what happened? It’s hard to say, really. I wasn’t feeling too great earlier in the day and it was during Silversun Pickups when spell of the dizzies hit before a brief blackout. Testament to the general kindness of Sasquatch! attendees, a kindly lady sought out a medic who took care of me before insisting that I get rest and making sure I got back to the campsite, effectively bringing a premature end to my Sasquatch. Naturally I was devastated, but these things do happen and I completely understand the decision the staff made to take me back to the campsite. The lesson here? Take care of yourselves, people. A four day festival (nay, any festival) is a marathon and your priority needs to be taking care of yourselves and each other.
What I’ve covered wasn’t all of the bands I’d seen over the course of the festival, rather the ones I’d seen enough of the write about. But there were many more glimpses that I thoroughly enjoyed including Wild Flag, The War On Drugs, M. Ward, Beirut, Said The Whale, Dry The River, Metric and Kurt Vile and The Violators.
There was also The Roots. What happened there? They weren’t on the main stage, the crowd was (much) bigger than the area could handle and they were on immediately after Jack White. The best spot I managed to wrangle was about as far away as you could get, almost behind another stage. I wanted to see them, so bad, but the energy was lost at my vantage point and I didn’t want to force myself into half-enjoying something I’d had bigger hopes for.
For the record, The Roots’ scheduling wasn’t a matter of poor planning but a matter of availability. Saturday night is basically the only time they can play owing to other commitments (Jimmy Fallon) and it was just the way the cards fell. Either way, a great coup for the festival!
And that was that, Sasquatch! over for another year.
