[Our fearless team, Nicci Boots and Ian McNeil spent three days listening to an obscene amount of fantastic music above the stunning Columbia River Gorge in George, Washington. Check out all our coverage here, over 30 sets from a who's who list of indie music.]
For about a month now, I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that LCD Soundsystem claims their recent release, This Is Happening, may just be their last. That’s ridiculous. Because for the last few years, James Murphy and his electric-dance-punk crew have been producing some of the best, most hypnotic beats this world’s seen.
Their wicked Sasquatch! performance further reminded me of how I need to find a way to make LCD remain together, making music. Starting with "Us v Them," Murphy laid down the perfect set opening lyrics with, "The time has come, the time has come, the time has come today." The crowd went mad, and throughout the rest of the set, LCD’s music had a highly frenzied effect on them. I saw a lot of dancing this Sasquatch! weekend, but nothing quite like what went down during this show. It was as if the fans had demons they were trying to shake out of themselves, writhing violently as they kept time with the music. It was kind of amazing to see, and stood as a testament to the band’s genius compilation of beats.
"Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" was digitized in a way I’d never heard it before, and "Drunk Girls" was delivered fiercely, leaving us feeling like we’d just been slapped with awesome. I really appreciated the unpredictability of the show, and the number of unexpected breaks and beats throughout. More than that, though, I noticed there are some brutal guitar shreds in most of LCD’s songs. It never seems that evident in the band’s records, so to Murphy and his band, I say this: more guitar, less whining about how you need to finish your work as a group. The world may just despise you if you don’t (or at least, I will).