I am writing from the back of the van with my headphones on listening to Mozart’s Piano Concerto #23 in A. The music is a way to be by myself while on tour. Not that being with the guys is bad in any way, I love my band mates. It’s just nice to spend sometime with yourself.
We are driving through rolling sage filled hills of Washington State heading towards Portland, Oregon. Memories of the Sasquatch Festival pass through me as I drift away out the window. There were twenty thousand people in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I am sure there will be many pictures of the festival, of the sunset, of the Gorge. But I don’t see how they will capture the power of a place; I don’t see how they could…
While getting to the Gorge, everyone in the band was excited and exhausted. The previous night at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle kept us up till three in the morning. Then we woke up at six to head over to Sasquatch. None of us had a sense of what to expect, but we knew it would be memorable.
After getting to Sasquatch we loaded in, dealt with a few responsibilities with the organizers, and then had some time to take it all in. The campground was as far as the eye could see, and billowing lines of people headed towards the gates that just recently opened for the day. A steady stream trickled into the concert area for the next few hours.
The Wookie stage is the first stage you see as a person entering into the grounds, something we secretly hoped would go in our favor when we were playing. We knew that a lot of people at the festival had never heard our music before. So the challenge of winning over new fans was in front of us.
Playing just before us was a band Thao and The Get Down Stay Down. The crowd started to fill in, probably upwards of three thousand people. Watching this from back stage we started to feel the power of what we were about to go through. After they finished a large amount of the people dispersed. Leaving about 500 fans waiting. A few of them screaming out ‘Pela’ every once in a while.
I remember the feeling of uncertainly. Did we drive all this way with such excitement, with so many people here, and so many of them wouldn’t see the show? But the feeling quickly turned over in my head. I turned to Billy and said “Well, looks like we are going to have to earn a crowd today,” he smiled and continued to set up he gear. I could see in his face he knew exactly what I meant, and he felt the same way.
From the moment we started playing we took in where we were playing. The crowd was very responsive and I could see people funneling into the Wookie Stage. Above our heads, as far as the eye could see, there were huge puffy cumulous clouds. The stage was large and sounded great.
The crowd was clearly there to have a good time, and when we feel that from a crowd, it’s like dumping lighter fluid on the barbeque. We gave everything we had to the audience and they responded by clapping, cheering, and doubling in size.
We played our set time of 45min, and the crowd was still going, so we broke policy and played on more. Billy stepped up to the mic and played a new song of his called ‘Juarez’ just with guitar and voice. The crowd started to clap along from the beginning of the song and it never stopped. For four minutes straight the crowd played the backing rhythm track, growing with intensity each minute. All of this grew to the point where Billy stopped playing guitar and finished out the song a capella with the crowd. When everyone stopped the crowd roared and I thought back to how I felt we were setting up our gear before the show. The crowd had doubled five times over; I believe that everyone one of them will remember us.
Though we will never really know, we estimate that 4000 people were in the audience at the end of the show. And soon after we finished the people filed out towards their next activity. The scenery, the crowd, the songs, our lack of sleep; all of it was overwhelming; maybe over-stimulating is a better word. The band was certainly excited afterwards, but also a bit shocked.
For the rest of the evening we, enjoyed our all access passes, ate fantastic food, drank our fair share of beer, and took in a couple of shows. Nate and Wilson talked with Doug Marsh for a bit, and Nate and I re-introduced ourselves to Wayne Coyne. I will never forget the view of the main stage as Chris, Nate, and I sat on the grass waiting to see The Flaming Lips. The sun was setting in the background, while the clouds, turning rich green and dark blue, cast their shadows over the endless hill of the Gorge. After watching a bit of the Lips on stage we decided to pack it in and beat the traffic. Within 45 minutes we were at the hotel resting our ringing ears.
Thank you to everyone that came out to support us. Especially the crew that came from Brooklyn.
Cheers,
Eric
photo by James Paribello. More on his Flickr page
great post eric…i really got to drop this nine to five gig and get out west some time, soon!
peace and sleep my friend. talk soon.
I only caught the last two songs of your set and immediately regretted not being there earlier. Was really impressed with your sound and your energy and look forward to catching another show soon.
Yes, we made the blog! Thanks again for making our weekend at the Gorge. Already looking forward to your next trip out West - and the new album.
I caught the whole set from the center of the Wookie crowd.
We had spent most of the day before, and that whole morning, pitching Pela to whomever would listen. We stood there in anticipation, believing that we were about to be blown away. . . and then Pela began to play. It was transcendent. We screamed for Tenement Teeth and they roared right into after a short intro. Amazing. What heart.
Many of the people whom we had previously spoken to, came up to us and thanked us for turning them onto Pela. We were treated like royalty back at our camp.
I kid you not, Pela was the best act of the day, including all the big name headliners on the main stage. As a matter of fact, I would rank Pela in the top 3 acts for the entire weekend. (we personally watched at least 75% of 27 acts).