Sasquatch! Monday Notes & Photos: She & Him, Dr. Dog, Band of Horses, and Fresh Espresso

Renee McMahon

Band of Horses played the Sasquatch! Music Festival at the Gorge on Monday, May 31.

Dr. Dog, 4:30 p.m.(ish), Bigfoot Stage: They ripped through their Philly-soul rock and roll with the intensity, appreciation, and integrity of five dudes who wished nothing more than to be doing exactly what it was they were doing.

Band of Horses, 6:40 p.m.(ish), Sasquatch! Stage: Since Band of Horses' cheeky Bumbershoot 2008 set, frontman and former Seattleite Ben Bridwell has evolved from an employer of an indie rock band to the frontman of an epic rock band, working the stage often without a guitar, and engaging--even jumping into--the crowed.

During yesterday's feel-good set--eaten up by the high school crowd--the band soared on epic favorites like "The First Song" and "The Great Salt Lake." Even cuts off the band's latest and weakest album, Infinite Arms, sounded inspired, most notably "NW Apartment."

Quasi, 3:25 p.m.(ish), Bigfoot Stage: Melodic, adult indie-punk that the kids napped through.

She & Him, 5:20 p.m.(ish), Sasquatch! Stage:

She (Zooey Deschanel) sounded more powerful, her voice fuller, and dripping with far more Americana than comes through on the band's pair of records, Volume One and Volume Two.

Him: M. Ward is painfully modest in this project. The finest moments of the show--"Ridin' In My Car," and the cover of "Rollover Beethoven"--were not surprisingly the times when the two are sharing the spotlight. The people want more. More Ward--on vocals and lead lines on guitar--will also help add the heft the music is begging for, too.

Fresh Espresso, 3 p.m.(ish), Yeti Stage: Seattle's proudly misogynistic party rapped debuted a couple new tracks, including "I Put My Sunglasses On," more than appropriately summer and autobiographical. "I'm a better musician than I am a human being," P-Smoov rhymed, "I'm an awful boyfriend, I'm a ... drug fiend."