Sasquatch Preview: Andy Will Blow a Sunday in the Desert this Weekend
Sasquatch Music & Arts Festival
May 24-27, 2013
George, Washington
By Andy Bookwalter
It’s official. I’m packing up my gear, leaving the wife and kids behind for a day, and heading over to the desert of Central Washington for a bit of Sasquatch action this year. Here’s what I’m looking forward to on Sunday, in descending order of groin-grabbing anticipation.
Dropkick Murphys: Yes, the heroes of blue collar working class punk are playing for an hour on Sunday afternoon at a festival where tickets cost more than $300 each. Sigh. On the other hand, the band made headlines twice recently, once for raising $65,000 in about a day for the Boston Marathon bombing victims and once when bass player and vocalist Ken Casey beat the holy crap out of a skinhead doing a nazi salute on stage during a show in NYC. We hate Manhattan nazis. Also, their new record Signed And Sealed In Blood is a great album, chock-full of Irish-ish punk rock goodness, which you either love or hate. I choose love.
Elvis Costello: I am more excited about the Dropkick Murphys than I am about Elvis Costello, but at least I recognize that this is blasphemy. Whatever, it’s not like I’m going to introduce you to Elvis Costello because he’s a new up and coming artist that you’ve never heard of, right?
Shovels and Rope: Another two-piece band with a woman on drums and a guy on guitar playing fuzzy, blues-inspired rock. I used up all my good jokes that would work here when I wrote about Seattle band The Grizzled Mighty, so I’ll just tell you that Shovels and Rope are really good. “Hail Hail” has horns and a soul vibe and the whole package is thoroughly satisfying.
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, Mumford & Sons: Both bands have had one “catchy-as-hell” earworm song that gets played ALL THE TIME. I might not see either band, but I assume that both bands have more songs.
I haven’t heard any of them, though.
Primus 3D: I thought Primus was always 3D, at least they seemed to have depth when I saw them back in the 90’s. Les Claypool once said that he chose to take up the bass because he figured four strings would be easier than 6. Which is why I started playing bass as well, although he took it a little farther than I have. Primus closes out Sunday, and if the crowd is less than 99.9 percent dudes I’ll eat my hat, and the hats of several of the dudes standing near me.
The rest of the schedule: http://www.sasquatchfestival.com/schedule/sunday.
Follow Andy and the rest of the Nada crew in real time this weekend via our Twitter feed at @nadamucho.