CONTINUED FROM PAGE Il

Sasquatch ‘08

I stuck around the Main stage for
Rodrigo y Gabriela (literally Rodrigo
and Gabriela), a Dublin via Mexico
duo that plays amazingly contemporary
Spanish classical guitar. Both members
were formerly part of Mexico City’s
thrash metal scene, and they bring an
undeniable sense of metallic urgency
to their acoustic performances. Rodrigo
frequently hyped the crowd up, used a
beer bottle for a slide solo, played an
impromptu cover of the X-Men theme
song while Gabriela
fixed a problem with

her guitar. Their
arrangements —_ were
frantic, and _ their
playing was incredibly
tight. They even

included a_ schticky
cover of Pink Floyd’s
“Wish You Were
Here,” which really
got the crowd going.
After that, it was off to the
Wookie stage for the math-rock wizardry
of Battles, whose off-kilter time
signatures and intricate samples and
loops provided the perfect counterpoint
to Rodrigo y Gabriela’s acoustic prowess.
Their set was one of the more talked
about events at the festival, and the crowd
collectively lost their shit when they
closed with the triad of “Tonto,” “Atlas,”
and “Race In.” Drummer John Stanier,
formerly of Helmet, deserves some
serious props as a master timekeeper, and
he elicited cheers from the crowd when
they realized that he was playing some
of the more complex parts live, without
any assistance from a sampler.
Although Jamie Lidell was busy
funking up the Wookie stage, I actually
bailed to spend a few moments with the
Mars Volta. You see, Cedric Bixler-
Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of the
Volta used to be in a little band called At
the Drive-In—a band that quite literally
changed my life. Back in 2000, their
album Relationship of Command put the
final nail in the nu-metal coffin and gave

“watching Mars Volta
churn out over an
hour of utterly
unintelligible wankery
was akin to being told
there was no Santa
Claus.”

rock n’ roll a much-needed shot in the
arm. So, naturally, watching the Volta
churn out an hour and a quarter of utterly
unintelligible wankery was akin to being
told there was no Santa Claus. I think they
basically played one long song the entire
set, and it consisted of skrony saxophone
bleating, masturbatory improv guitar, and
Bixler-Zavala writhing around onstage,
kicking a videographer in the face, and
only occasionally singing gibberish
lyrics. I swear at one point I heard him
howl something that
sounded like “abort
the chocolate bar in
the back of the brown
pinto’s cornea.” Not
surprisingly, their latest
record is based on
their experiences with
a haunted Ouji board
they found in Israel.
Fortunately, the
Flaming Lips soon
followed, and they quickly reaffirmed
my faith in live music by arriving via a
bright orange U.F.O. suspended above
the stage. This was quickly followed by
frontman Wayne Coyne walking on top
of the crowd inside of a giant inflated
hamster ball. The rest of the show was
pretty stock for a Lips gig: sing-alongs
abounded, Yoshimi battled some pink
robots, and there was more confetti,
giant balloons, and unbridled joyousness
than at the Macy’s Day parade. A group
of girls even decided to heed Coyne’s
request that everyone get naked during
a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “The Song
Remains the Same,” and they stormed
the stage and danced sans apparel.
Underneath all the spectacle
and nudity ran a fairly strong anti-
war message. Coyne talked a lot about
the potential for change and openly
discussed his disappointment with the
current administration before launching
into the “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,” with
its chorus of “What would you do with
all your power?” A particularly touching
moment came when Coyne played a

pre-recorded version of “Taps,” the U.S.
Army’s funeral march, through a bugle
while discussing how the American
military can’t find enough talented bugle
players to play the song live at funerals
for victims of the Iraq war. It struck both
a literal and figurative chord with a lot
of people and the Lips deserve a lot of
props for showing just how political

June 2, 2008

 

their message of peace, love and fun can
be.

Well... that’s all, folks. The immersive
experience of the Sasquatch Festival is
really something else, and I urge all of
you to check it out next year at the same
Sasquatch time on the same Sasquatch
channel.

 

 

IU A a

WATERFRONT LOUNGE

250 Columbia St. 604.517.2966 ww w.brookls n.ca

THURSDAY
er

Ss

STUDENT
NIGHT!

 

 

 

STUNE
TWISTER