Archive Sunday #45

   After a week or so off, we got ready for a bunch of festivals we had booked over the summer season. First up was one down in the middle of Atlanta called Shaky Knees. Not to be confused with Shaky Beats, which happened shortly afterwards and featured more EDM and electronic music. We arrived in Atlanta the day before and were excited to have some free time to check out the city. So we looked at all the attractions around where we were staying and planned a little band outing to the massive aquarium right downtown. I'm pretty sure I went there before when I was younger, but the huge whale sharks were just as captivating the second time. I think those guys and the tree frogs were my favorites, but before long Andrew got annoyed at all the animals being held in captivity. I could see where he was coming from, but still think rehabilitation and education play important roles for conservation. We discussed it for a bit, but in the end the screaming kids out on their end-of-the-year field trips gave us more than enough reason to leave haha.

   For the show day we got to the festival grounds early to check out our rented gear and get set up. We had an early afternoon set, so we found the catering tent and got some grub a couple of hours before. I remember being impressed with the lineup, so I was kinda surprised we were slotted to play on the big center stage. Though maybe it was due to the fact that Cage the Elephant and LCD Soundsystem had fairly large stage packages and our relatively small setup could be easily patched in beforehand. Nonetheless it was super cool to play our short, compact set to the early-comers while the video screens beside us zoomed in for the action shots. The best perk of playing earlier is that we now had the opportunity to check out the music after us without any stress. I remember getting my friend a day pass wristband and we caught FIDLAR shortly after we played. We left the grounds for a bit to grab some dinner because we had already used our meal tickets, but we came back in time to catch most of Cage the Elephant and LCD Soundsystem close out the night. I was so psyched to catch LCD Soundsystem after thinking I missed my opportunity once they called it quits a couple years before. They had this massive disco ball that could easily fit the entirety of our gear inside, plus a synth setup I'm sure the others caught me drooling over. It was a great night and I didn't want it to end.

   The following day we had to come up with things to do outside the festival cause we didn't get a full weekend pass. But it gave us a chance to rest up and prepare for our late night venue show put on by the same fest. We got set up in a venue called The Masquerade - Hell which turned out to be inside the old Olympic village complex built in the city. The festival helped us organize the show with Margaret Glaspy who also played the day before at the fest. I remember it was a bit of a struggle to switch from playing an early afternoon set to an after-midnight one, but thankfully once Margaret Glaspy kicked on an we could tell how excited the crowd was we got a second wind. Honestly we didn't know what to expect with the included venue show, but it turned out super cool and a much better vibe than playing in the middle of the day.

    The next day we had some time to kill before our flight, so we decided to meet up with Andrew's buddy Mikey play some disc golf at a nearby park. We used to crash on Mikey's couch on the first couple tours, so it was nice catching up. I'm pretty sure only Andrew and Mikey came close to making PAR on the 18 holes probably from their ultimate frisbee experience, but the rest of us had a great time belting discs across the park while narrowing missing the scattered kids' birthday parties. After an hour or two of messing around we said our goodbyes to Mikey and parted ways.

   Next up, we had another festival called Boston Calling. This was another great lineup that we felt privileged to be a part of. We got there in time to set up everything, and ran into Lucy Dacus backstage. We didn't have too much time to catch up, but it was great seeing familiar faces in a new spot. At this point we had our 45 minute set pretty much down, but we usually made an effort to switch it up a bit each time. The weather wasn't great for our set, but thankfully most of the fans stuck it out to get their money's worth. After we finished up we hung out in our little greenroom trailer where we found some knit caps the festival gifted us. Then we ventured out to catch some sets like Mac DeMarco, Sylvan Esso, and Sigur Ros. It was a great time, and I'm surprised how much of those sets I still remember.

  We had a quick turnaround to get back to the west coast by Sunday to play Sasquatch. So we flew back into Seattle on Saturday then packed everything in the van Sunday morning to make the couple hour drive to the Gorge. Andrew was super excited as this was the festival he grew up going to and reminisced about seeing tons of great music there like the Roots at Bigfoot Stage. We didn't have the greatest time slot, but we were happy just to be a part of everything. We were slotted to play the Main Stage with the incredible views of the Gorge behind us. I think we were one of the first bands to play in the afternoon cause I remember seeing everyone slowly filtering into the festival grounds from the camping section after the long weekend. As we were setting up side-stage, we ran into Cheryl Waters who was there introducing the bands. We chatted for a bit and thanked her again for her continued support through KEXP. Then she wished us luck as we took the stage to play for the hungover festival crowd.

  It was such a trip playing at that amazing stage, and I'm glad we got the opportunity to play Sasquatch shortly before the festival went under. After we finished the set, we ran over to the Easy Street Records tent to sign some records and shirts while helping promote the local West Seattle record shop. They gave us some Easy Street shirts in return for the help, and they definitely came in handy as we were all getting pretty sweaty by then. Afterwards we caught some music from Phantogram and The Shins, but called it pretty early because we had a long drive home. Overall these festivals were an awesome opportunity to play in front of a bunch of people who probably never heard of us. We're super grateful for the chance we got to make this first impression in so many beautiful environments and of course all the great music we saw along the way :)