The Road To Sasquatch

Back in February, Pat Collins sent (several) emails to see if we would join him at Coachella music festival. The lineup included a lot of bands we really like including Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Franz Ferdinand and the fantasic Venezualan funk band, Los Amigos Invisibles. Being the great wife that I am, I agreed to go (without asking Rob first, knowing full well that he's not really into the festival scene.) In my acceptance reply I asked, why oh why were Arctic Monkeys not playing--the one band that would have really sold me on the idea. Pat's reply went something like this:

well why didn't you say you wanted to see the
'Monkeys? they're playing the Sasquatch festival
in central Washington on Memorial Day
weekend--and tix go on sale this saturday (it's
also possible to camp, which would further save
money). guess who else is playing? none other
than Nine Inch Nails!
Sasquatch!

Kismet!!

Pat, being nostaligic for road trips, planned to drive there from San Francisco, but the rest of us sensible people, flew to Portland, where Pat picked us up to go the rest of the way (4 hours.)

Rob and I spent Thursday night with Matt and Marieka. Getting to see them twice in a very short period of time, made us wish they were close enough to pop in on on a regular basis. Marieka made us some delicious lasagne and they told us all about their amazing trip to Thailand before we completely obsessed on Google Earth. Which, if you haven't seen, you should do now as I can assure you, it's much more fascinating than this blog entry.

Friday morning came and Pat, Bruce, Rob and I (Dina would join us on Saturday night) were united in Portland and on the road to Sasquatch.



Our first stop was to one of the strangest things you can imagine in the middle of nowhere--Stonehenge. I know you're probably thinking I have that wrong but, believe me, you're no more surprised than we were.







We stopped long enough for Pat to sacrifice my husband--because apparently the man who built this replica, believed Stonehenge to be a sacrificial site and thus, built this to honor the WWI soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in the war.



After checking into our hotel in Ellensburg, WA, we drove the remaining 45 minutes to the Gorge Amphitheater, one of the most beautiful places you can imagine to see a concert. The amphitheater overlooks the Columbia River gorge and provides a sweeping view of the river, the gorge and the high desert beyond.



While the view was overwhelming, the first few bands were the opposite. The worst, however, was the band HIM. Described as "haunting, gothic, rocking, beautiful and melodic" we found them to be nothing other than irritating. The lead singer stood in one place smoking and singing for the entire set. While they're supposedly a heavy metal band, their sound was poppy and light and they filled the space between songs with banter like "How many of you......have been buried alive.......by.....Love?!" For their last song, they played a Black Sabbath number and, at the end, tried to "get a good vibe going" by repeating this mantra--it's not hard--it goes like this:
Black. Sabbath. Saved Our Lives.

We're still laughing over that one. Luckily, they were followed up by a surprisingly great set from Bauhaus and, the performance of all performances, Nine Inch Nails. I don't claim to be a huge fan, but I can't think of a show that even remotely compares to this. Trent Reznor is an energetic and intense performer, the music is amazing and the lightshow is brilliant without being over the top. Everything was exactly how it should be that night. Even Rob was happy to be at the festival.