We started off the final day of the festival by heading over to the main stage and lounging on the hill overlooking the gorge one final time before it got too packed again. The first band of the day on the main stage was The Sheepdogs. To be honest, I know nothing about the band, and I wasn't really paying much attention during their set. Instead I just enjoyed the general environment.
Before The Sheepdogs finished up, we headed over to another stage to see Walk The Moon. I know that I listened to some of their stuff before Sasquatch, but I really didn't remember them all that well. Fortunately, Carly was more familiar with their stuff and made the decision to go see them because their music is quite a bit of fun. The band puts paint on their faces before their shows and has someone bring some out to fans who want to join in as well. All craziness aside though, their songs are really solid and the band packs a lot of energy into their shows. To date, they only have a 3-song EP available, but they have a full-length due out one week from today (June 19). The song "Anna Sun" appears on both of those, and apparently has already generated some buzz last summer when Esquire called it the song of the summer. Now I can't vouch for Esquire's taste in music, but you could do a lot worse than soundtracking your summer with "Anna Sun."
After Walk The Moon, I tried to stick around for the beginning of Ben Howard's set because he was another artist I discovered through Sasquatch's lineup announcement before the festival. Unfortunately, they were running behind, so I didn't get to catch any. Frankly, it's pretty impressive that this was the only case all weekend of things running behind schedule (that I remember encountering anyway). Instead of seeing Ben Howard, I headed over to see a stand-up comedy block of Chelsea Peretti, John Mulaney, and Nick Kroll. I had never seen any of the three perform stand-up, but Chelsea Peretti writes for Parks and Recreation (one of my favorite shows) and is entertaining on Twitter, Nick Kroll is funny on The League, and John Mulaney had the distinct attribute of performing between them (I had never heard of him before). I wasn't too sure what to expect from any of them, but I'm glad I chose to stick around for the unknown (to me) John Mulaney in the middle of the other two because he was my favorite of the bunch. I feel like I don't find new stand-ups I really like very often. I've already made a point of looking for other material by him since Sasquatch, and it has been just as good as his set there was. Chelsea Peretti was also entertaining before John Mulaney. I'll have to find some of her other stuff too at some point. On the other hand, Nick Kroll just really wasn't my cup of tea. Like I said, I really enjoy him in The League, but his stand-up wasn't doing it for me. The comedy block as a whole was definitely a success though.
After the comedy break, it was back to music with fun. performing on one of the side stages. If they perform at Sasquatch again, they may have to move to the main stage though because it was PACKED. I absolutely loved the two full-length The Format albums (the lead singer's previous band) and fun.'s first album, but for whatever reason their album earlier this year didn't really hook me. I may have to go back and give it another try though because at least being performed live, it was pretty fantastic.
Next up was Feist back on the main stage. Feist is one of those artists that I feel like I should enjoy more than I do based on what other people with similar tastes say about her (Radiohead is another example). I'll listen to her stuff, and I like it, but it is never one of my favorites. Maybe one day it'll click with me, and I'll see what I've been missing out on. We were pretty far back on the hill for her set, so we didn't hear it super well. We were also getting to the point in the weekend where I was just too tired and worn down to function very well once I sat down. I've read other reviews that said she put on a great show, so you should probably just listen to them because I don't think I was all there for it.
Since the weekend was wearing on us, lack of sleep was catching up to us, and I had about 2000 miles to drive over the next three days, we had decided earlier that morning that we would cut the weekend just a little short. We caught a little bit of The Cave Singers, and then drove to Spokane so that we could sleep on a real bed and rest up for the long drives ahead. Because of this, we missed seeing Beck Monday night. I'm sure he would have been a lot of fun, but using a shower and a real bed won out.
All in all though, the festival was everything I had hoped it would be and very few of the things I worried it might be. I hadn't been to a festival since Warped Tour like 8 years ago, and I had never been to a multi-day one. I left thinking it would be fun to try to do Sasquatch or some other festival once a year if possible. We got to see dozens of artists (with more that we missed because they played when we were watching other bands). I was able to see Bon Iver and Explosions in the Sky, two artists near the top of my list of artists to see live (Tom Waits, Frightened Rabbit, and First Aid Kit are near the top now). I got to drive 3,600 miles and visit Montana, Idaho (just the northern part, which was surprisingly beautiful), Wyoming, and Colorado for the first time in my life (although none of them for terribly long). I was fortunately able to catch a Rockies game in Denver on the way back to Iowa, which was a lot of fun. After toying around with the idea of taking a long road trip to a music festival in the past, I'm glad I finally pulled the trigger and went for it, and I'm glad I chose Sasquatch because it was a great experience.
MONDAY SUMMARY
Artists I saw: The Sheepdogs, Walk The Moon, Chelsea Peretti, John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, fun., Feist, The Cave Singers
Favorite sets: Walk The Moon and John Mulaney
You can listen to a song by Walk The Moon higher up in the post. As for John Mulaney, here is an absolutely fantastic bit about his best meal ever (which has nothing at all to do with the food). He didn't perform this one at Sasquatch, but my friend Karl shared it with me after I mentioned seeing John Mulaney. Enjoy!
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