{This is part two of our opening day coverage of this year's Sasquatch! music festival at the Gorge -- click here to take a peek at part one!}

Our first full day at Sasquatch! kept rolling strong, with a big-guitar kick-ass set from Sharon van Etten, which shifted flawlessly over to an intimate solo performance from J. Mascis on the Yeti stage. The noise kept coming with the simultaneously loud/pretty sounds of Wye Oak, after which we changed gears to take on the upbeat, alt.indie.powerpop-ish party of Matt & Kim -- what a blast! The fading sun brought a powerful, dusky mainstage set from Bright Eyes, and we welcomed the night with an impressive (albeit late) performance from Robyn on the Bigfoot stage.

Closing out the night with a local flourish, hometown faves Death Cab for Cutie took us out well into the dark with a killer mainstage performance that spanned an impressive portion of their current and back catalog. Photos below!

Sharon van Etten:

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OMG! Yes, I freaking love Robin Miriam Carlsson, and have since her first eponymous release (as, um, Robyn) in the States and the 2007 sampler of her Swedish hits, bulleted up in the charts "With Every Heartbeat." I left this album, Body Talk, a collection of two separate releases earlier in the year, off my TIG 2010 favorites list because I hadn't had this super consumer-friendly marriage of both albums yet. Now that all the songs are together, and each one is a chrome-wrapped chocolate-covered hit of dance-demanding bliss, I have to hype it here.

In the surreal stew of pop-art and art-pop, we kids in the Madonna generation used to wonder if rumors that The Clash and Elvis Costello really loved ABBA as much as they claimed were true. Eventually, a gal born in 1979 is likely to come along in the mid-90s and start writing songs as smartly narrative, anthemic, sarcastic but sweet, visceral and science fictional, and cool-quirky as a perfect combination of post-punk and lushly-created chart pop might be.

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Aesthetically, her focused self-determination seems a little overbearing, until the charisma of her voice and the sly charm of her lyrics combine with the catchy keyboard-and-drum machine music to curb-kick down your resistance. Or mine, anyways.

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