As I previously stated, Coachella was a massive disappointment.  The amount of stage hopping (having to go from stage to stage to see the acts I wanted to) was ridiculous.  Who’s to blame? Well, whoever sets the lineup obviously.  This past weekend, I was lucky enough to make my way to Washington for an epic music festival called Sasquatch.  Not only is the name cool, but the acts involved were absolutely stellar!

Who was there you ask? The National, Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem, WHY?, She & Him, Passion Pit, MGMT, Mumford & Sons, The Very Best, Freelance Whales, Kid Cudi, and so many more.  Pretty deisel lineup, and not only that, but there was comedy involved (Daryl from The Office) and a shit ton of drinking whilst at the campsite.  What really set this festival apart though was the planning.  On the average day, I wouldnt have to stray from a single stage more than once due to the amazing planning by the people in charge.  They knew the music, knew the fans, and knew who would want to see a certain string of bands in a row.

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Imagine this.  In a single four hour sitting, I could see OK Go, Broken Social Scene, The National, Vampire Weekend, then My Morning Jacket all without having to move my little bum to another stage.  The only downside to this situation was the fact that I had to deal with the dude in front of me bearing all (spankee-wearing police outfit), dancing in front of me for a full four hours.  It was disgusting.

What made this festival even more surreal was The Gorge, where Sasquatch is set.  It’s the most beautiful venue in the entire country, if not the world.  Now I’ve been to a ton of venues in my life, a list that includes Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado and the polo grounds in Indio, California, yet this beautiful spot in George, Washington puts them both to shame (sorry Red Rocks, I still love you though!).  Picture this: me dancing wildly like an idiot to the music of Vampire Weekend as the sun is setting over the rolling hills in the background.  I’m looking over a gorge that to a camera may look more like a painting than reality, surrounded by beautiful women/girls, then as my legs tire, I sit down in some plush grass and smell the sweet smell of, well, grass. Any spot in the entire venue is a great seat as the seating is merely the soft ground that descends on a declined slope so that no one (even the police dude) could block my view entirely.  Even when we were getting ready at our campsite, I could hear the music (the early acts of the day) which is pretty rare for a festival.  Yes, that’s precisely what transpired.

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Here are my most vivid memories from my time at the festival:

1. Yoni Wolf of WHY? and his coordinated dance moves while singing The Hollows and These Hands/January Twenty Something
2. OK Go singing Get Over It which can only remind me of the hours of time I spent playing Madden NFL 2003 (on the Gamecube?)
3. Matt Berninger of The National’s baritone voice engulfing the entire crowd of roughly 60,000 music fanatics, and finishing up with the epic, the glorious, the most amazing song of all-time, Fake Empire
4. Dancing my ass off to Vampire Weekend as they play their best songs from both of their LPs, going particularly ape-shit for Giving Up The Gun and A-Punk
5. Witnessing Kid Cudi live for the first time, surrounded by a sea of crackers (crackas)
6. Standing in line for the ATM, watching Freelance Whales in the background as they sing Generator ^ First Floor, listening to people around me in a frenzy trying to find out who the fuck was singing that hauntingly beautiful music
7. LCD Soundsystem breaking out tunes for their new album, This Is Happening, in particular, I Can Change, which left me standing (bouncing up and down to the beat while flailing my arms wildly) in a sea of sitters
8. Pavement on stage for what seemed like four hours!
9. Spotting Dr. Dog on the Big Foot stage while walking to see Passion Pit: I couldn’t help but to stand in awe for a few minutes
10. Passion Pit outdoing MGMT, which makes total sense to me as I’ve been saying for quite some time now that Passion Pit is 2009-10′s MGMT (those loyal frat dude music fans can’t exactly latch onto the immensely [not] catchy Congratulations songs)
11. Band of Horses going back to the songs I know and love with No One’s Gonna Love You and The General Specific
12. The hoard of peeps watching MGMT silently (except for the hipsters in the back bobbing their heads and critiquing the songs – I may of may not have been doing that), then suddenly standing up and breaking into song and dance for Kids, Electric Feel, and Time to Pretend (what a goddam shocker)

Pictures from the festival coming VERY soon (but here’s a taste – although most are of the actual bands)!