Monday certainly offered the best opportunity for our Northwestern hides to get sunburned. With the sunshine pouring in, the laid back, final day of Sasquatch 2012 offered an interesting, rousing mix of artists even if fans’ gas tanks were running low.

Grouplove: (By: Alan Densmore) Monday afternoon, the last day of a four day whirlwind of sunshine, music, and a lack of sleep and showers. If you have never been, Monday is almost always the quietest day of Sasquatch with people slowly trickling out either the night before or throughout the day, weary, dirty, sunburnt and back to thinking about work and real life. Luckily we weren’t worried about all that jazz and were fortunate enough to be down in the pit for Grouplove which was, in my opinion, the best daytime show of the weekend. I have been listening to their debut album and EP for awhile and, after having seen them in a small venue in Portland, was excited to see what they could do on the big stage at The Gorge. Dressed in psychedelic costume and colorful instrumentation decoration, Grouplove’s poppy rock had the thousands in attendance on their feet in an afternoon dance jamboree. It turns out the band’s sweet vocals aren’t limited to front man and woman Christian Zucconi and Hannah Hooper. Songs like “Chloe” and ‘Spun” feature lead vocals from bassist Sean Gadd and Guitarist Andrew Wessen, respectively (I guess it makes sense since they all met at an artist commune on the Greek island of Crete before moving to California to write and record together). While frequently expressing their sheer joy at being able to play at a place like the gorge for a bunch of “naked kids running wild and free” their uplifting style and radio ready hooks made us all glad they showed up as well.

Gary Clark Jr: I’ve had the fortune to catch guitar god Gary Clark Jr twice before Sasquatch. Once was a headlining spot in his hometown of Austin, TX during SXSW. The other was an afternoon set at Coachella. Gary certainly brought the heat and delivered a set that any first-time fan would be won over by. Unfortunately, this set was cut shorter by time restraints (damn those early festival slots!) and Gary played abridged versions of many tracks. Now, seeing as how Gary has several 15-20 minute jams, this is quite understandable. And the truncated set still showcased some of the finer guitar playing of the festival. If there was one dude who could hang with Jack White’s abilities at Sasquatch, I’d vote Gary Clark Jr.

Damien Jurado: After years of both solo and accompanied live performances, Damien Jurado boasted a full and decorated backing band at Sasquatch this year. If you’ve not heard his new album Maraqopa, you should. It’s sprawling, winding, spiritual depth is a fantastic sonic treat. Jurado and his band delivered a very accurate live translation that sought to capture the albums depth rather then cutting pieces out for the sake of an easier show. Touche to Damien.

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fun.: We make it a point to avoid writing negative pieces here on Apes on Tape. So I don’t want to dwell on this set much. Granted Nate Ruess is an accomplished songwriter and wrote many a well-received songs with the Format. But fun.’s set was one of the lowest points of Sasquatch for me personally. Plenty of people dig fun’s new tunes and their single “We Are Young” is definitely catchy, so we’ll hop past a music critique here (though a fan next to me definitely commented “this sounds like the soundtrack of a bad circus funhouse). Ruess’ stage presence and antics ultimately just seemed very insincere. After a weekend of incredible artists delivered such great jams without much pretension, watching Ruess assume some mega-rapport with the crowd after only a few songs made me feel like he’d roll through the same monologue at every festival. Additionally, wearing your own band’s shirt on stage isn’t the classiest move. But that’s enough rambling from me on this. People got their groove on for the single.

Cloud Cult: (By: Sean Lawlor) I came to Sasquatch for many reasons, but the moment I decided to come was the moment I heard Cloud Cult would be performing. The bar was set high, as their performance was on the festival’s final day, a festival complete with dynamite performances by artists ranging from Alabama Shakes to Jack White to Bon Iver. I got to the Bigfoot stage early and got up close to the railing, just feet away. Such an interesting crowd—people of all ages and sizes and backgrounds, but each seeming to have a common hopeful glow of anticipation in his or her eyes, all ecstatic about what is to come. Cloud Cult, led by Craig Minowa, entered the stage, and we erupted. Behind their slightly elevated presence we glimpsed a view of the vast expanse, the Columbia River stretching through the lips of the Gorge and toward the Northern Distance, cradled under a pale blue sky. Without hesitation, the band entered into “Unexplainable Stories,” the opening track from their most recent LP, “Light Chasers.”

To say Cloud Cult rocked it would be a grand understatement. Their forty-five minute set was like a portal into the unseen but highly intuited energy moment, as if they were summoning the power of the sublime Gorge and thrusting it forth for all of us to experience. Such dynamism, such originality. Each band member left their station to furiously pound tribal/ritualistic sounding timpani drums for their fourth song, offset only by the light twinkle of a glockenspiel, with the gradual addition of a supportive symphony brought on by a tremendous variety of instruments—cellos, violins, glockenspiels, electric/acoustic guitars, giant timpani drums, and a canvas for the incredible live painter. The pounding pulse-like percussion vibrated the ground in continuous rhythm as their songs exploded the Universe’s heartbeat through the massive speakers supporting and enhancing their highly Spiritual intentions. A Cosmic connection was felt, many tears were experienced, and I began to fully realize how full of potential we all are. We simply must decide to walk the difficult road toward self-actualization. Their affirmative message screamed at we present to go do, to light our fire and put out our hands and lovingly embrace whatever incredible things may be waiting for the new versions of ourselves as we travel safely out the exit doors of Sasquatch.

Feist: I’d marry Feist. Between her work with Broken Social Scene, “1-2-3-4”, Let It Die, Leslie’s a very accomplished musician. However, her overall “girl next door” stage presence and humbly excited demeanor really sealed it for me. Feist mixed tracks off her new album Metals with older songs for a set that flowed quite well and held the waning attention of the final day crowd.

Mogwai: To our dismay, Mogwai was unable to play due to visa issues. Spritualized moved their own slot back and played during this set. While Spiritualized owned their set, at least 30% of the crowd was murmuring “wtf? This isn’t Mogwai?”

Beck: Beck is easily of the most most dynamic and creative artists of the 90’s. I’ve heard legends about his unbelievable live shows, including a set my sister saw in New York where he began with a fully set dinner table which double as an ensemble of ad-libbed musical instruments. So admittedly, expectations were quite high. Now Beck delivered, we got tons of jams from four delicately delivered Sea Change tracks to a crowd-backed “Loser” to a collection of tracks of songs of Guero. However, something was askew in Beck’s performance Monday night. Many people I talked to thought he was coming down from acid, which seemed plausible given his distant demeanor through the show and spacey stage banter. Some thought he was just phoning it in. Having not seen him before, I had nothing to compare it to. But a fan next to be who’d seen him ten years ago was quite upset with how downhill his live set had apparently come since then. To summarize it a bit more clearly, nothing was directly wrong with the set. But occasional verses were skipped, Beck would look at his guitar to check notes and pull away from the mic leaving empty lyrics. All in all, it was still a great set and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But I can’t count the number of times someone mentioned the “weird vibe” of the set. A spontaneous encoure with Jack Back and KG also mixed things up as Beck shut Sasquatch 2012 down.

Photos by Kyle Johnson. All Rights Reserved by Sasquatch Festival