Sasquatch 2012: Bon Iver, War on Drugs & More Best Moments From Day 3

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon was just as breath-taken by the Gorge and its view as the rest of Sasquatch: "This is a whole lot to take in," he said. The same could be said for the live sounds of Bon Iver's latest album, 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver.' "Holocene," "Calgary" and "Towers," which Vernon said was written about "crazy college stuff," both swelled with layers of instrumentation (really, there are a lot of people on that stage) and raw emotion (that voice!). The dimly-lit light fixtures adorning the stage (which were definitely college-tastic—think wine bottles with candles), only enhanced the fleeting feeling.

With many of his other projects, including Monsters of Folk and especially She & Him, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Matt Ward plays the tender troubadour. Not with his namesake project, and not right now. He’s out playing barroom boogie woogie rock versions of his tracks like “Never Hard Nobody Like You,” from his 2009 album 'Hold Time.' Then there’s his crack four-piece band’s hotter-than-a-muscle-car’s-blaring-engine-pipe version of “Roll Over Beethoven." The midday crowd was a-twistin' and a-shoutin', indeed.

When the movie of my life hits theatres (oh, and it will), much of the soundtrack will be from the band War on Drugs, so I decided Sunday afternoon at the Gorge. Their dreamy rock sound from their new album, ‘Slave Ambient,’ was perhaps the best surprise of the day, and it came the second I walked onto the festival grounds. Who knew I liked these guys so much? I didn't. Sun, a stiff breeze, blazing harmonica and lots of atmospheric guitar and keys interplay. What else do you want?

Before their self-titled debut album was reissued by Sub Pop in 2011, this coffee shop indie-folk band’s album was a bestseller for Seattle’s Sonic Boom Records. Their hometown love them, and the feeling’s mutual at Sasquatch: "Seattle! Washington State! We feel blessed to play for you," gushed blonde cutie Charity Rose Thielen. She laid on a thick and similar sentiment during two other song breaks. Hometown hearts certainly swelled during songs like "Rivers and Roads"—Washington State certainly has a lot of those.

I had yet to see the Portland, OR-based all-girl super punk quartet Wild Flag before Sasquatch this year. Shame on me for waiting so long. The band—Sleater Kinney’s Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein, Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole—played upbeat, unhinged punk songs with lots of smiles and good times. Literally. “Let the good times roll,” sang Timony. Later, though, things got more serious. Sort of. “This is the only song we'll do about love, “ smiled Brownstein. It was the moog-bombing single “Romance.” “Hands down we like, we love, we choose you / We've got an eye, an eye for what's romance,” shot Brownstein. I consider myself swooned.

This happened.

Sasquatch people, Seattle people, aren't really the clubbing type. If you can't wear a North Face or Patagonia (that's PataGucci to Seattleites) jacket, then it's not for them. But if they had a quintessential clubbing album, it'd probably be anything by Little Dragon. The Swedish's indie-electro group brought the downtempo mix of icy techno and smoldering R&B to Sasquatch Sunday night. Glow sticks flew, lovers embraced and the world was at peace. Really, their set was eventful for all the right reasons: It didn't ask too much. Some danced; some sat in the grass. Many PataGuccis were sighted.

All gussied up in thrift store suits—peep singer-guitarist-songwriter John McCauley’s pink suit jacket—Providence, Rhode Island band Deer Tick looked (and, more importantly, sounded) like booze-consuming rockers the Replacements for a new, younger generation. And that's something every generation needs. They played rollicking, riff-heavy barroom rock. It was so good and so fun, in fact, that one dude held a “for president” sign reading, "Deer Tick 2012.” McCauley responded, of course, by shooting a snot rocket (see above).



Wait... Sasquatch don't eat bananas, right?

The six-piece Canadian indie rock band brought the cello and violin-flavored Americana sounds, each with their own proggy moment, including one song that had a percussion breakdown not unlike Radiohead’s 'Kid A' gem “Idioteque.”