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Kin and I just got back from the Sasquatch Music Festival. It was awesome, and I couldn't have asked for a better weekend -- in terms of the music, the venue, the company. OK, the beer situation was pretty craptastic (screw you, and your $8 PBRs!), but still... 21 bands in 3 days. My head is still ringing from all that music, and I plan to write a detailed review of the bands we saw tomorrow. But in the meantime, here are a few of my initial reactions:

The Gorge is simply beautiful. I've been to a lot of venues, and the only site that can really compare is Red Rocks in Colorado. The Amphitheater sits right on the Columbia River, and the view of the gorge and the river from the main stage is impressive. We sat on the grass and we danced on the grass. It didn't really rain, and it wasn't really sunny. And in the Pacific Northwest, that makes it a goddamn perfect weekend, weather-wise.

WTF is up with the feathers in people's hair? I mean, I'm sorry, white kids. But cultural appropriation? Still not cool. And I say this, of course, as a white girl and as a former hippie-chick, so I get the whole dreadlock-rasta-except-not-really thing. But every time I saw someone with a little feather stuck into their headband (OK, and WTF is with headbands?), I realized that we've done a really shitty job explaining to kids why it's important to pay attention to the origins of the symbols they don as "fashion."

I'm old. I had several moments where this struck me full-force: dancing in the front row of Public Enemy, realizing I've been listening to PE longer than most of the kids elbowing me have been alive. Listening to They Might Be Giants, realizing that most of the kids in the audience know the band for the theme song to Malcolm in the Middle. But I wasn't alone in this realization. I heard Neko Case and James Murphy both utter "Fuck, I am old" - and that made me feel a little better.

Audrey Watters


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Audrey Watters

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