One Beast of a Show

For once, it was actually nice weather at the Gorge for Sasquatch. Last year was all sturm und drang and the year previous was approximately the temperature of the sun, but the gods smiled down on all gathered in George, Washington yesterday afternoon, as it was a pleasant 80 degrees under partly cloudy skies.

Our day started off at the Yeti Stage (where the Wookie stage used to be - when did that happen?) for Portland's lo-fi electro duo The Blow. We coulda sworn there was a dude in the band, but from what we could see, yesterday it was all Kayla, full of her "hot" love songs about failed relationships, spastic dance moves, and chatty anecdotes. Maybe a little too full of anecdotes--girl spent more time talking about boys, jogging, and her songwriting process than actually performing said songs. She hit all our favorite Blow songs, closing strongly with back-to-back "Parentheses" and "Waving Affections," but with all her neurotic stage banter (can someone say "guy issues"?), we were kinda underwhelmed by the set and left with one conclusion: bitch crazy.

We dropped by the mainstage for the tail-end of Ozomatli's set, where the band ended up in the crowd, before heading over to the Wookie stage for the Brit chick rock of Electrelane. This ain't your typical girl quartet: their influences include Sonic Youth and they've worked twice with post-rock producer guru Steve Albini. As a result, their sound is heavy and complex, occasionally drifting into psychedelia, with strong proggy synth lines. The set drew from all their albums including their latest, the more keyboard-heavy No Shouts, No Calls, which has a couple strong singles, like "To the East." We stuck around the Wookie stage for Ghostland Observatory and Grizzly Bear, both of whom we've seen multiple times, and both of whom put on great sets. Ghostland's was not without its problems: after kicking off with their perpetual crowd-pleaser "Sad Sad City," they had some sound issues, even losing power. But Ghostland recovered like the party pros they are, and gave a high-energy set as always. The dude on synths had his sparkly flowing cape in full effect and by the end of the set, the frontman (who we think of as Pocahontas) even took down his hair. Grizzly Bear delivered a set just as tight as they would in a more traditional venue. As per usual, "Lullaby" was their stand-out track, and the bassist once again earned his title of "secret weapon," with his expertise on the flute, clarinet, whistling, and crazy high-pitched cat sounds. Too bad the crowd, eager for the Beastie Boys' upcoming performance, was kinda out of it.

Back at the mainstage, the Long Winters closed their safe set with some kazooing. If your mom had been there, she woulda liked it. For the last time, John Roderick is no M.I.A., and we were more interested in the last few Aqueduct songs we could hear from afar. But soon thereafter was the legendary Manu Chao, who put forth some bouncy beats as the sun went down and grilled tortillas flew through the air. The French-Spanish singer ran the gamut from rock to reggae and more exotic South American rhythms, with Chao giving off a vibrant energy and keeping things upbeat, even when he verged into political territory ("you cannot fight terrorists with terrorists").

And then, after a stage change-over that took a little longer than we'd like, was what we had been looking forward to all day: the Arcade Fire. Compared to the other two times we've seen them (at Sasquatch and the Paramount), their show was bigger and more dynamic than ever, with changing-color LED lights, neon bibles, and a huge friggin' pipe organ. Win Butler and friends pulled out all the heavy stops, with Regine giving a dramatic interpretations of all her lines. The band ran through all the big songs from both their albums, closing with the always over-the-top call to emotional arms "Wake Up."

Though we really wanted to see Bjork, we left without seeing the Icelandic songbird trill a single note. The show was already running behind schedule and it was going to be at least half an hour until the elaborate stage was set and wacky costumes were donned. Plus ain't no way even Bjork could top the Arcade Fire. So despite our longstanding desire to see her, we skipped out early to miss the traffic and head back to Seattle. Sorry, Ms. Guðmundsdóttir, we'll have to catch you next time.