After the grueling three festivals in a row in June--Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge, Electric Forest, and June Jam--I had to take a long break from anything fun. I spent the next few weekends mostly alone at home, staying away from anything remotely stimulating. I even considered selling back the Bass Canyon box seat tickets I'd bought earlier, but thankfully I didn't, because I really enjoyed this one.
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Unlike the trip to Beyond Wonderland two months earlier, but just like the last year's Bass Canyon trip, I flew to Seattle on a single direct flight out of Albuquerque on Alaska Airlines. The drive to the Albuquerque airport was nerve-wracking. The highways between Clovis and Albuquerque were full of road construction that hadn't been there six weeks earlier when I was driving back from June Jam, and on top of that I had to deal with torrential rain that made parts of the roads dangerously slippery.
But, obviously, I made it alive and on time. After checking my baggage and getting through security, I had dinner at Panda Express. The flight left at 7:50pm (Mountain Time) and landed in Seattle at 10:06pm (Pacific Time), and I spent the rest of the night at a Rodeway Inn near the airport.
Friday, August 18, 2023
Being a cheap Rodeway, the hotel didn't have anything to eat, so I got breakfast from a 7-11 within walking distance. All that was left after that was to pack up and check out of the hotel.
The weather in Seattle was pleasant that morning. Overcast, breezy, and 59 degrees! (Fahrenheit, obviously) I enjoyed that as much as I could, because I knew it was going to get a lot sunnier and hotter further east.
Like two months ago, I'd be meeting my friends with the RV, but this time not at the house but rather as far north as I could get on the light rail, Northgate. The Rodeway where I had spent the night was across the highway from the airport and its associated light rail station. The train trip was going to take awhile because the airport is very close to the southern end of the light rail line. And not only that, because of construction on the rails, the train stopped at Pioneer Square and I had to get out and switch trains there.
Northgate, on the northern fringe of Seattle, used to be a typical shopping mall, but that mall was razed sometime around three or four years ago and is now being replaced with more mixed-use developments. In one such development I found a nice coffee house called Jewel Box Café, where I got an Americano. I'll recommend this place.
My ride showed up on a nearby street. Soon I was taking a long ride down eastbound Interstate 90 in the RV. We only made one stop, at a Target, before we crossed the edge of the Cascade Mountains into the flat plain that makes up half of the state of Washington. This state may be officially nicknamed the Evergreen State, but something like half of it is barely distinguishable from, say, eastern Colorado. At one point along the way, I even saw wind turbines.
Six weeks earlier, I was in Arizona, whose official nickname is the Grand Canyon State, for the June Jam festival, surrounded by evergreen forests and not a single desert in sight. And now, I was in the Evergreen State looking at this:
Up ahead you can see the Columbia River. We've almost reached the Gorge.
We parked the RV at the Wildhorse Campground and hooked up to external electric power and plumbing sometime in the early afternoon. We met up with the greater part of our group there who had their own trailers. It would be a few hours, though, before any of us finally entered the festival. Plenty of spare time for me to go get a coffee.
The Wildhorse has a coffee shack called Bucked Up Espresso. It has all the usual stuff you'd expect, like Americanos, lattes, and mochas, hot or iced, but it can take a frustratingly long time to get your coffee. If there's even a little bit of a line, that line will move painfully slowly. Wait times can easily go beyond ten minutes. But it's always worth it!
It was sometime after 5pm when we finally got into the fest. As usual, we had to ride a shuttle bus from the campground to a spot just outside the venue. Now, right here I have to share an apparently uninteresting photo...
I took this right after stepping off the bus, so I would remember later where to catch the bus going back. Look at how blue and clear the sky is. It's like you can see for miles! Now remember this, because it'll be important later.
Getting inside the festival was different than the last two times I was here, because this was the first time I had splurged on the box seats. We had to go through a certain side entrance leading to a special desk on the right side of the GA entrance, show our e-tickets--I had mine in my iPhone's Apple Wallet--to get scanned, and then walk in through there. No wristbands to scan, and it felt a little strange walking into a festival not wearing any wristband. But it wasn't over; when we eventually got to the box seats, we had to show a worker there our tickets, and then they gave us all wristbands. Not Bass Canyon wristbands, but The Gorge Amphitheater wristbands, all yellow, only good for that night, so we would have to go through this all over again Saturday and Sunday with different colored wristbands those nights.
Just like last year, there were three stages, Canyon, Hilltop, and Starlight. Canyon was the main stage, with its amazing view of the canyon behind it, where all the big name dubstep artists were. Hilltop leaned more toward drum 'n bass, while Starlight was the smallest stage with the least-known artists.
The food and drink situation was apparently unchanged from Beyond Wonderland. There were plenty of bars all over the place serving beer, and all the beer was Bud Light, Coors Light, Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois, and Modelo served in huge 25-ounce cans. There was one bar, Whiskey Jack's Saloon, which served all of the above as well as draft beer which was all craft brews, mostly IPAs but also Kona Big Wave golden ale, as well as wines and margaritas. If you wanted to do any shots, you had to go to one of two bars which required some strict age verification: not only do you need to show your ID to get an "age verified" paper wristband, but even with that wristband you still have to show ID every time you buy a drink.
If you happen to have blown money on a box seat, there's a full bar selling beer and liquor shots in the box area, and another such bar, way off to the left of the Canyon stage, which also requires box seat wristbands for entry.
The food available at the Gorge includes:
- Blazing Teriyaki - chicken and beef teriyaki bowls
- Asian Express - chow mein, egg rolls, tofu wraps...
- Trejo's Tacos
- Volt Burger Smash
- Art Bird Fried Chicken
- At least one place that sells gyro wraps
- Many more stands selling ice cream, kettle corn, smoothies, and Vietnamese coffee
I had an acquaintance from the days when I lived in San Antonio who was coincidentally also at Bass Canyon that weekend. After we found out we were both there, we met up at the Canyon stage during Ray Volpe's set, and went on to one place I somehow never noticed before, the View Bar. There's a spot in the scaffolding surrounding the Canyon stage, just to the left of the stage underneath the big screens, there's a passageway to a bar with a great view of the canyon behind the stage.
The canyon and the Columbia River behind the Canyon stage.
I spent some time bouncing around, getting some drinks, and re-familiarizing myself with the grounds, even if I had just been there two months earlier. I also spent a lot of time here checking out merch tents, looking for more stuff to wear at future festivals, but I found there weren't as many vendors here this year. What happened to Thai Exchange?
Eventually I made it back to our box at the Canyon stage for all the big name dubstep sets of the night. First was Trivecta. I really wish I could write more about these sets I experienced, but I just haven't been listening to much dubstep outside of actually going to festivals like this. I really enjoyed what I heard, and also enjoyed the workout that comes with the headbanging.
Wooli took the Canyon stage after sunset.
Wooli
Svdden Death was up next. OK set, not quite as hard-hitting as Wooli, or what we'd be experiencing later.
The last set of the night was the founder of this festival, Excision...
Excision's set started out with this cool Mario-themed animation.
This was certainly the best set of the night, and it wasn't just headbanging; he occasionally veered into DnB territory.
More of Excision's stunning visuals.
Saturday, August 19, 2023
I've mentioned in past blogs that the Corral Café, the campground's food stand, serves some delicious breakfast, even if it is big, greasy, and at $15 a little pricey. Getting breakfast here means, for me, only needing one more meal the whole rest of the day. So I got a breakfast burrito. This monstrosity was made of a cheddar jalapeño tortilla filled with ground beef, onions, garlic, scrambled eggs, sour cream, salsa, and Parmesan cheese. Yeah that was filling and then some.
The sky was a lot grayer and hazier that morning. The air was full of wildfire smoke. Much like the Midwest right after Electric Forest, there were wildfires burning on the other side of the Canadian border, this time in the province of British Columbia, and the winds were carrying the smoke south over us. You'll see this in all the rest of the photos of this trip.
After getting through that huge, greasy burrito, I needed some coffee to fully wake me up. As usual, the line at Bucked Up Espresso was painfully slow. But that was all right, because thanks to the WiFi I could pull out my phone, pay all my bills for the month, and reserve another hotel room at the Seattle Airport Rodeway for Monday night.
Now I thought it would be a good time to take a shower. And of course the line was really, really long. Long enough that waiting in line would probably take an hour, and would require sitting on the grass and getting to know my line neighbors. So...there went another hour. But, hey, it's not like there was a whole lot going on at the Wildhorse in the morning or early afternoon.
This is the spot outside the venue where we stepped off the shuttle bus. It's the same place I took a picture of the day before, but notice how hazy the sky is now. That's wildfire smoke.
We made it into the festival at 4:25, once again showing our e-tickets at to someone at the GA gate who let us through. At the box seats we got our wristbands, which looked just like Friday night's except these were sky blue.
Saturday was definitely drum 'n bass day on the Hilltop stage. Skellytn's DnB set was the first of many there.
With no one playing at the time who I was really interested in, I did some wandering looking for food, having a drink or two, and stopping by the each of the three stages for a little while. That definitely included Hilltop since I really like DnB, when René Lavice was on.
Canyon stage just as Zingara was taking over. That smoky haze really put a damper on the great view of the canyon.
About now is when I went looking for dinner. First, from the Asian Express stand, I got some shrimp tempura. That was good, but not quite enough, so I went to Trejo's Tacos and got some jackfruit tacos. That was good too, but kinda tart.
I spent some more time at Hilltop for more DnB...
I think this was Teddy Killerz, because that's who was scheduled to be on at this time (6:49pm) but the Hilltop schedule had been a little messed up that day with René Lavice playing when Mt. Eden was supposed to be on, and Skellytn taking René Lavice's scheduled timeslot before that, so who knows.
On my way back to the Canyon stage. The smoke in the air was thick enough to severely dim the sun.
Back to the box for the rest of the day. First up was Dion Timmer...
After Dion Timmer was Space Laces, someone I'd been trying to listen to more last year. That was a good one. Space Laces was followed by someone else I had tried listening to in the past but couldn't really get into: ATLiens. This really demonstrates how I seem to enjoy this kind of music better at a festival than at home. Listening to ATLiens at home just didn't do anything for me, but being right here experiencing it live was just something else.
Next up, Sullivan King, who I'd describe as a fusion of dubstep and hard rock. This really was a hard-rocking set, augmented by Sullivan's guitar playing. Liquid Stranger went on afterward; his deep and mysterious set was a bit different than what I heard from the other artists on that stage that night.
And finally, the night's headliner, GRiZ. We all knew he was planning to go on a long hiatus soon, and so I didn't know when I'd get to see another GRiZ set after this one. This set was a real big production, an hour and 20 minutes of funk-infused dubstep, enhanced with GRiZ's own saxophone skills and a number of guest musicians.
Sunday, August 20, 2023
For breakfast at the Corral Café, I got something a little lighter, relatively, than what I had the day before: biscuits and gravy.
The Canadian wildfires must have been burning even stronger on Sunday, because the air quality was even worse than on Saturday.
Outside the venue at 6:00pm.That's the Hilltop stage just a little left of center.
We went through the standard procedure of getting into the festival. Today our wristbands were a light green. The first thing I did, after getting the wristband, was find dinner, which ended up being a chicken teriyaki bowl from Blazing Teriyaki.
I spent most of Sunday night at our box with its great view of the Canyon stage. Level Up was pretty good, and so was Knife Party. For part of that last one I left the box and went into the pit.
I had to leave the Canyon stage for a bit because there was one artist over at the Hilltop stage I wanted to see: Lil Texas. I'd only found out about hardstyle a few years earlier while living in Germany. Hardstyle is as loud as it is fast; I'd describe it as the intensity and aggression of dubstep but with a tempo even faster than happy hardcore. It seems to be most popular in northwestern Europe, and it's biggest event is the Defqon.1 festival in the Netherlands. I wanted to go to that in 2020 but of course it was canceled along with everything else that year. So with those origins, I wouldn't expect a cowboy hat-wearing artist named "Lil Texas" to be the one to break it through in the US.
Trying to move to this takes a lot of energy.
Excision always does a "detox" set on Sunday evening, but this year I missed it because I was over at Hilltop since Lil Texas was on at the same time. The detox set is usually mellower, but after getting back to the box seats I heard it had been almost as intense as his usual sets.
I was back at the box for most of Black Tiger Sex Machine, which was the next-to-last set of the night.
Finally, the last set of the night, and of the festival, was Excision and Subtronics' B2B headlining set. The identity of the second artist had been kept a secret until that morning, with all the schedules simply reading "Excision B2B ???" And the long awaited B2B set...wow. Those two giants of dubstep on at the same time spun a set that was a cut above everything else that was on the Canyon stage during that festival. Easily the best set of the whole weekend.
Monday, August 21, 2023
We left pretty early Monday morning, and I had to get out of bed before I really wanted to, even though I didn't have a flight to catch that day.
The trip back was the reverse of Friday. I got dropped off at the same spot where I stepped onto the RV, near Northgate. And, my first stop there was the same as my last stop there on Friday: Jewel Box Café, where this time I got a latte.
Jewel Box Café was in a complex of apartment buildings. This is a kind of place I like, with restaurants, shops, a bank, and other such places on the first floor, and several floors of apartments above them. There was also a movie theater in another building in the complex. Next door to Jewel Box was a restaurant where I stopped for lunch: Thai Fusion Bistro. Lunch ended up being spicy basil (onions, spinach, red/green bell peppers in sauce) with tofu. I'd go back.
OK, it was now the middle of the day, I wasn't leaving Seattle until the next morning, and I didn't have a clue what to do, having not made any plans for the day after the festival. So, the rest of this blog is going to just be restaurant recommendations, in between some aimless wandering.
First thing after lunch, I rode the light rail from Northgate to Capitol Hill, where I found Oddfellows Café and Bar. Here's a place I'll recommend. I really liked the old-timey atmosphere of the place. I also slightly regretted having already eaten lunch because I actually sat at a table here--I couldn't just get a coffee to go--and saw their delicious looking menu while ordering nothing but an Americano for myself. I'll definitely have to hit this place up again next time I'm in Seattle, because it looks worth it.
I couldn't think of anything else to do in Capitol Hill so I took another light rail train to Pioneer Square, from where I took a long walk north to the Pike Place Market. I've already been through the Pike Place Market enough the last times I visited the city, and there was no point buying fresh produce or fish when I would be on a plane the next day, but I still needed to hit up Ghost Alley Espresso. I bought two bags of coffee beans to take home, along with an Americano to drink right there.
I've got one more restaurant report to make. After I checked into the Rodeway by the airport, I rode the train north to the Othello stop and since I wanted some seafood for dinner, stopped at the Cajun Crawfish. I didn't expect to find a Louisiana seafood restaurant here in Seattle, especially in what appeared to be a Vietnamese neighborhood, but there it was. It was mostly what you'd expect from such a restaurant, selling fish by the pound at market prices that change every day. I didn't get a pound of anything, though, because my stomach isn't that big, just a basket of fried catfish which was alright.
That's about all there was of this trip. I didn't go anywhere else except the hotel, and the next morning I just walked to the airport and flew back to Albuquerque.
Looking back, I sure had a great time at Bass Canyon, and after the burnout I experienced in June, it felt great to enjoy a festival again and know that I had gotten my energy back. I'll almost certainly be back for 2024, and just writing about last year's right now has been making me look forward to this year's more.
Look at what I saw out my window as the plane was leaving: the most famous mountain in the state of Washington, Mount Rainier.
As always, here's all the videos of the sets I could find:
