Sasquatch 2012: Jamey Johnson, Jack White & More Best Moments From Day 2

I knew Jack White was a guitar hero, but hot damn: dude is a nuclear blues bomb. He's currently on tour with two bands, one all-female and one all-male, and word is he doesn't tell which band he's playing with that night until just before the gig. On Saturday night, he chose the all-male band Los Buzzardos, who delivered tunes from each of White's musical outlets, including Dead Weather, the Raconteurs and the White Stripes, with wild, muscular abandon. They surpassed "Love Interruption," the gentle country-folk single from his new solo album 'Blunderbuss,' for riff-a-paloozas like "Sixteen Saltines." He even played a crunchy version of Hank Williams' "You Know That I Know." The show closed, naturally, with a fist-pumping take on "Seven Nation Army." The guitar is this man's third appendage.

Actually, it's a miniature homemade airplane that a daredevil pilot maneuvered around the Gorge just as the sun fell over the horizon.

As the crowd made its way up the Gorge’s big grassy hill, towards the exit following Jack White’s searing headlining set, they were met with the blasting hip hop sounds of Philadelphia’s own the Roots paying tribute to the late Adam “MCA” Yauch with a cover of Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere.” “So here's a little story I've got to tell / About three bad brothers you know so well …” Adam Yauch: You may be gone, but you won't be forgotten. Ever.

It’s been more than four years since this electro-indie duo dropped their awesome last album, ‘Keep Your Eyes Ahead.’ But during their set this afternoon at the Bigfoot stage, singer-guitarist Brandon Summers told fans some exciting news: The Sequence’s new LP will drop this fall via Sub Pop. They played a few new tracks, which stuck to their typical game plan—glistening guitars, laptop wiz-bangs and intensive drum beats from Benjamin Weikel, a sought-after sticksman who has played with Northwest stars like Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie. He's a machine behind the kit, his arms flailing in unison with his big, big smile.

"This is an old one," lead Dum Dum Girl Dee Dee said when introducing "Jail La La." "If you're bad, then this one's for you." Dee Dee then coos, "Oh in these stairs a holding cell / Soon i'll be in county jail." The four girls of the San Diego band are bad in all the right ways. Black lace and tights? Gritty surf-rock riffs? They looked downright cool up there in the afternoon sun, and their dreamy pop sound translated perfect from their latest album, 'Only in Dreams.'

Girl Talk always invites dancers onstage; almost enough to fill it. But Seattle rapper Sol took that approach to the max—the stage was so full, in fact, that fans and performer were indistinguishable, and Sol was lost in a sea of faces. “Where is he?” one concertgoer asked another. Somewhere up there, someone was rapping and it sounded good. "If you guys in the front would scoot back five feet, I could put on a better show for y'all,” Sol pleaded. No one budged.

Over its 10 years, Sasquatch has been reliably indie-centric, but this year there are a few exceptions in the lineup: dance acts like Pretty Lights, who packed Sasquatch’s opening night, and country outlaw Jamey Johnson, whose set Saturday was criminally under-attended. "What the hell did I do last night? That's the story of my life,” he sang on “That Lonesome Song.” With a big beard and long ponytail, Johnson looks like and plays music like a heartbroken Hells Angel. His drummer sported a Slayer t-shirt and was a doppleganger for that band’s guitarist Kerry King. It was all hot country licks and a up-all-night-on-drugs-and-booze regret: "Good morning, y'all,” Johnson joked. “Or should I say it's 4:20…?”

The stars of IFC’s ‘Portlandia’ brought their sketch comedy TV series to life at Sasquatch, narrating a photo book slideshow featuring childhood images (and more) from both ‘Saturday Night Live' star Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag fame. Carrie showed a pic of her dad holding her as an infant. "My dad's here," she said. She then brought her dad onstage. "Ken, you look like a hipster there,” Armisen said, referring to the picture of her and her mustache-and-mane-sporting dad. It runs in the family!

This Athens, Alabama quartet may have set the new speed of buzz. They only formed in late 2009 and just dropped their first album ‘Boys & Girls’ in April of this year, but they’re already opening for Jack White and playing high-profile slots at major summer festivals. They've earned it: Their distilled brand of rock-R&B-soul is urgent live thanks to singer-guitarist Brittany Howard commanding presence and wailing pipes. She killed it. And the crowd got the message: At the first note of their most popular song, “Hold On,” a huge stampede of fans ran uphill to catch the breakout band in action.

The project of New Zealand native Ruban Nielson (the guy behind Kiwi outfit Mint Chicks), this Portland, OR-based trio took the crown for the day’s best set. Imagine The Rapture covering Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’—crunchy, unhinged guitars played at disco-dance speeds, especially “How Can You Luv Me” and the rowdy set-closer “Never Damage.”