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Rainn Wilson’s Sasquatch Blog: Reveling in R.E.M., Waking Up to the Cure and Beard-Watching

5/27/08, 4:30 pm EST

Rock Daily asked The Office star and Kanye West karaoke adversary Rainn Wilson to be our Sasquatch blog correspondent. Here’s his experience at Washington’s Memorial Day weekend fest — and for more Sasquatch coverage, click here:

Rainn Wilson, international superstar celebrity icon, reporting from the Sasquatch music festival at the “Gorge” in George, Washington:

I love the word “gorge.” It reminds me of “gorgon,” “gorgeous” and “engorged.” Three of my favorite words.

I was there promoting my new movie The Rocker and one of those crop dusting planes kept incessantly circling the festival with a “Rocker – August 1” banner. I mean incessantly. I apologize to all concertgoers for the dizzying ubiquitous ness.

There is a specific breed of northwest rocker and rock fan. Unlike the pale, skinny, black jeans and ’80s stud-belt-wearing junkie look of the East Coast set, the northwesterners are a scruffy, cordoroy-wearing, unkempt thrift store crowd of music nerds. Henceforth they shall be known as “nwerds.” Pale, yes. But not junkie pale. TV-watching, basement, rainy Seattle pale. There’s a difference. And they’re a fleshy lot too. I fit right in.

Beards, by the way, are the new flannel, the new grunge. The new “I sooo don’t care how unstylish I am that I have ceased grooming” look.

These are my people, my tribe of nerds and I had a f***ing BLAST!!!

I got to meet many of my favorite bands and had lovely chats with some of my favorite bands, the National and
Cold War Kids and Rogue Wave. I got turned on to many new bands like What Made Milwaukee Famous, and Seattle’s own Blue Scholars. Modest Mouse had everyone jumping and twitching!

R.E.M. (Rapid Eye Michaelstipe), pelted with rain, put on a great, lean, hard-driving show. I realized as I stood there with all these teenagers that I saw R.E.M. 22 years ago in 1985 where they played in a weird auditorium at MIT and blew people’s minds. No one did rock & roll like they did back then. With such mystery and intensity and poetry.

Why, oh why did the Cure insist on doing its sound check at 6:30 AM???!!! I’m not making that up. I was in a nice hotel next door but there were like 17,896 music nerds camped out in the wet field next to the venue and I guarantee you every single one was cursing out Robert Smith and his guyliner.

For those about to rock, I salute you. Even the nwerds.

Rainn

[Photo: Getty]


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Comments

bob | 5/27/2008, 8:36 pm EST

rainn is a pile of drizzle

daveed | 5/28/2008, 1:03 am EST

don’t you dare rip on Dwight K. Shrute

The Intl | 5/28/2008, 1:50 am EST

Michael Stipe looks like he’s been laying face-down in the sand. Clean up, you’re a wealthy middle aged man!

D | 5/28/2008, 12:09 pm EST

Any notion I might have had about seeing The Rocker was extinguished by having to sit and listen to Rainn Wilson ramble (in an entirely unfunny way) and insult the bands.

Seriously, man, we waited ALL DAY to see The National, and when they finally showed up, you took ten minutes to rip on the lyrics to Squalor Victoria before they took the stage. Even if it was supposed to be ‘ironic’ or ‘funny’, it wasn’t, just extremely fucking irritating.

yowoyboy | 5/28/2008, 4:30 pm EST

This website is impossible to navigate. I want to read more of this blog, if there is more. If not, it’s not really a blog, it’s more of a blurb.

And Rainn Wilson was obnoxious. Making fun of stuff is easy, making killer records is not. The National:1, Wilson:0.

Vanessa | 5/29/2008, 2:51 am EST

Rainn is my favorite.

Jayson | 5/29/2008, 11:35 am EST

Anyone who would have taken the time to research this any further would realize that while Rainn Wilson was at this festival he said many times that he was excited because bands like THE NATIONAL were some of his favorite. So, I think it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway for those of you that still might not get it, that he was being SARCASTIC.

J | 5/29/2008, 11:36 am EST

Anyone who would have taken the time to research this any further would realize that while Rainn Wilson was at this festival he said many times that he was excited because bands like THE NATIONAL were some of his favorite. So, I think it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway for those of you that still might not get it, that he was being SARCASTIC.

Scott | 5/31/2008, 1:24 pm EST

The Office is great, and the Dwight character is funny, but Rainn Wilson totally bombed at Sasquatch.

He twice wasted 10mins of my life with his inane, long-winded, boring, and excruciatingly frustrating attempts at poking fun of the bands.

It was especially cruel to keep us waiting for The National’s actual show. They were already 20mins late and Rainn Wilson’s unfunny rant ensured that The National and Modest Mouse overlapped completely. I was seething.

Rainn, your blog is a farce. I’m especially annoyed that you comment on both The National and Modest Mouse, when you were partly responsible for their sets overlapping so much.

Oh, and Jayson, I think everyone gets it. Rainn was being sarcastic, but he certainly wasn’t being funny or amusing when he read those lyrics line by line trying to mock every phrase.

Jayson | 6/1/2008, 4:46 pm EST

Well I think it’s a safe bet that The National wasn’t like standing on the sideline signaling for Rainn Wilson to shut up so they could go on. Ever hear of having to fill time at a festival like this because scheduling rarely ever goes according to plan?

Chad | 6/17/2008, 11:25 am EST

Rain wasnt to blame for the Nationals set being moved. There bus broke down on the way down from BC, he was “filling time” because (I imagine)there was a struggle to get a band to fill the hole left, which was the Fleet Foxes who played a second set on the day.

randy | 6/23/2008, 11:44 am EST

I think some indie guys are mad he made fun of their beards as ‘the new flannel’. ha!

Bob Rooter | 11/16/2008, 3:56 am EST

Everyone should just bow down to the man whose brain created the character of Dwight K. Schrute. Enough said and all arguments are void. Period.

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