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Summer Concert Guide
Music
West Coast Festival Guide
by Joel Peterson
Bumbershoot 2007
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If you’re anything like me, you don’t remember Woodstock. I wasn’t alive to witness firsthand the exploration of peace, love, mud, and don’t-eat-the-brown-acid fun that took place those fateful days in 1969. But no matter, people say that if you remember it, you weren’t there. So take that, flower children, we’re even. That particular multi-day concert festival was so poorly planed that, in an effort to prevent rioting from ticket-less hippies, the promoters eventually gave up and declared the rest of the concert free.
Luckily for the modern, gargantuan concert promoters, that hasn’t happened again for some time. These modern Woodstock knock-offs cost a pretty penny. Even when facing the prospect of dropping multiple hundreds of dollars on multiple days of cramped amphitheater space, an 8’ x 8’ square of grass to camp on, and $8 Coors Tallboys, it’s hard to resist some of these festivals, even if Jimi Hendrix won’t be there to wake you up with the national anthem on Sunday.
The Festival Line-up
Who: Jack Johnson, Roger Waters, The Verve, The Raconteurs, The
Breeders, Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab For Cutie, Dwight Yoakam,
Love and Rockets, MGMT, My Morning Jacket, Rilo Kiley, Rogue Wave,
M.I.A., and many others.
What: Head to the desert for Pink Floyd revisited, mellow frat-rock and indie rock darlings.
When: April 25th – 27th
Where: Empire Polo Field, Indio, CA (Palm Springs area)
Tickets: 3-day, $270; Camping, $55 3-day, per person
Website: http://www.coachella.com/
Seattle.net says: The LA Times called Coachella “the Kentucky Derby of Rock.” That must explain why Dwight Yoakam is there
Who: The Eagles, John Fogerty, Trisha Yearwood, Rascall Flatts,
The Judds, Taylor Swift, Dierks Bentley, Dwight Yoakam, Big & Rich,
Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, Trace Adkins, and
others.
What: Three days of mainstream twang.
When: May 2nd – 4th
Where: Empire Polo Field; Indio, CA (Palm Springs Area)
Tickets: $95 day, $250 festival
Website: http://www.stagecoachfestival.com/
Seattle.net says: For three days, you won’t have to be embarrassed that like country music. And the freakin’ Eagles are going to be there!
Who: R.E.M., The Cure, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Death Cab
For Cutie, The Mars Volta, Flight of the Conchords, M.I.A., Blue
Scholars, Built to Spill, and many others.
What: Three days of indie rock superstars (oxy-moron, right?) and one hip-hop group.
When: May 24th – 26th
Tickets: $66.50 per day; Camping $40 per vehicle, per night
Where: The Gorge in George, WA
Website: http://sasquatchfestival.com/
Seattle.net says: Basically every good band in the world is
playing Sasquatch. And they’re even buying carbon offsets to tug our
environmental heartstrings. How cute.
Who: Beachwood Sparks / Comets on Fire / Fleet Foxes / Flight of the Conchords / The Fluid / Foals / Grand Archives / Green River / The Helio Sequence / Iron & Wine / Kinski / Low / Mudhoney / No Age / Pissed Jeans / Red Red Meat / The Ruby Suns / Seaweed / Wolf Parade, and more to be announced
What: Sub Pop Records 20th Anniversary Party
When: July 12th – 13th
Where: Marymoor Park in Redmond Wa
Tickets:
Seattle.net says: Twenty years of great music, Twenty years of one up and coming artists after another. This guaranteed good time.
Who: Vampire Weekend, Les Savy Fav, Girl Talk, U.S.E, The Dodo's, Jay Reatard, Akimbo, PWRFL Power, Past Lives, Black Eyes And Neckties, Champagne Champagne, The Hold Steady, Chromeo, Kimya Dawson, Darker My Love, The Builders & The Butchers, The Hands, Vellela Vellela, The Physics, Man Plus, Little Party And Bad Business, Plus many more.
What: Seattle's own block party in the center of it all, Capitol Hill.
When: July 25th – 26th
Where: All over Capitol Hill
Tickets: $18 in advance and a 2 day pass for only $34.
Website: http://www.thestranger.com/blockparty
Seattle.net says: You can't go wrong with a block anytime, especially on the hill, if nothing else the people watching will be superb.
Who: Coldplay, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Nine Inch Nails,
Jay-Z, The Tragically Hip, The Flaming Lips, Serj Tankian, Death Cab
for Cutie, Interpol, N.E.R.D., My Morning Jacket, Sam Roberts Band, and
others.
What: British Columbia’s first crack at the multi-day festival platform.
When: July 25th – 27th
Where: The foothills of Mt. Currie in Pemberton, B.C.
Tickets: 3-day, $259.50 (Canadian)
Website: http://www.pembertonfestival.com/
Seattle.net says: Canada just couldn’t hold out any longer,
they had to try it. The promoters would have to struggle to make the
line-up more eclectic, though. Who knows what the crowd will be like,
eh?
Who: Jolie Holland, Bad Livers, The Gourds, Kelly Joe
Phelps, Langhorne Slim, Crooked Still, Melissa Ferrick, Wayne Hancock,
The Everybodyfields, Red Stick Ramblers, The Cave Singers, and many
more.
What: Three days of pickin’, twangin’, fiddlin’, and dancin’.
When: Aug. 1st – 3rd
Where: Pendarvis Farm, Portland, OR
Tickets: 3-day, $110
Website: http://www.pickathon.com/
Seattle.net says: Roots music is all the rage right now.
Isn’t that silly? Sort of like saying, drinking water is soooo hot
right now—I saw Tom Cruise drink an entire glass! All to himself!
Who: 3Oh!3, Rise Against, Gym Class Heroes,
Story of the Year, Reel Big Fish, The Academy Is..., Relient K,
Anberlin, From First to Last, Say Anything, Against Me!, Every Time I
Die, Cobra Starship, Norma Jean, All That Remains, Angels and Airwaves,
The Vandals…
What: Over 50 punk (if you liberally interpret the label) and ska bands.
When: Aug. 8th
Where: The Gorge in George, WA
Tickets: $29.05
Website: http://www.warpedtour.com/
Seattle.net: Warped Tour always gives you best bang for your
buck. Ska bands always have at least six or seven members, so the
musician to dollar ratio is phenomenal.
Who: Radiohead, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jack
Johnson, Beck, Wilco, Manu Chao, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals,
Widespread Panic, Primus, and many more.
What: Widely popular bands take over Golden Gate Park for three days of fun and music.
When: Aug. 22nd – 24th
Where: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Tickets: 3-day $225.50
Website: http://www.outsidelandsfest.com/
Seattle.net says: If you can’t have fun in San Francisco with these headliners, well, is everything all right? Do we need to talk?
Who: Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case,
Ingrid Michaelson, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Jakob Dylan, !!!, Lee
"Scratch" Perry, Saul Williams, Joe Bonamassa, M. Ward, The Walkmen,
Asylum St. Spankers, Dan Deacon
What: Music, comedy, literature, movies, the arts, etc.
When: Aug. 30th – Sept. 1st
Where: Seattle Center
Website: http://www.bumbershoot.org/
Seattle.net says: This is the Northwest cornerstone. A can't miss.
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