Sasquatch 2008: R.E.M., The Cure, Flaming Lips Light Up the Gorge

With its sweltering heat, pouring rain, vast views and tons of music, the Sasquatch Music Festival is a three-day slice of Northwest highlife. This past weekend, 60,000-some revelers converged on the sold-out Gorge, a beautiful natural amphitheater carved out of the Grand Canyon-esque Columbia River Gorge in eastern Washington, to check out headlining sets from R.E.M. and the Cure. Both bands mined their catalogs and flaunted their pop-icon status, while the Flaming Lips arrived on Sunday evening with an army of jumpsuited technicians to erect their massive "UFO Show" production, taking over the festival a full 24 hours before their set. Their eye-popping Monday night finale proved that Wayne Coyne is committed to bringing a full-scale party to every Lips experience.

For Rolling Stone's full report, check out the Sasquatch 2008 photo gallery, stocked with info on all the major sets.

The Gorge's massive, sloping mainstage lawn is perfect for blanke-spreading, people-watching, sunset-basking, and music-hearing, but much of the action took place at Sasquatch's smaller stages. The Wookie Stage leaned more towards electro, with the trifecta of Battles, Jamie Lidell and Ghostland Observatory closing out Monday night. The Yeti Stage hosted smaller, mostly Seattle-based acts, suggesting that festival organizers are intent on keeping at least part of Sasquatch local. Then again, it's easy to stay local when your region is home to Death Cab for Cutie, the New Pornographers, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse.

Read actor Rainn Wilson's Sasquatch blog here.

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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