Spotlight on Reignwolf

As I mentioned in my Sasquatch recap, Reignwolf, A.K.A Jordan Cook truly deserves his own post. Reignwolf fist caught my attention during Sasquatch on Saturday night. As we made our way down to the lower bowl of the gorge I exclaimed, "Look it's Jack White!" as a skinny guitar player with long messy black hair stood atop a van next to the Easy Street Records booth.

I soon realized that it was not Jack White, but as Reignwolf began to play a short set on top of the van! we couldn't help but stand their looking mesmerized. Going into screeching guitar riffs while simultaneously using a kick drum with his right foot, Reignwolf immediately won me over. After playing a couple songs, Reignwolf pushed his amplifiers off the top of the van and stumbled over his kick drum, nearly falling off the van himself. 

The next day on Sasquatch's yeti stage, Reignwolf was joined by a backing band and played an absolutely killer set. 

To start, Reignwolf might be the most badass band name I've heard in a while, and the name perfectly reflects Cook's style. The best thing about Reignwolf is that I have never seen an artist more engaged in his music than this guy. He gives absolutely everything he has while on stage, demonstrating his vast musical capability. During his Sasquatch set Cook straddled his PA monitor, soloing while staring off into the distance above the crowd with a wild look in his eye. Although it appeared that Reignwolf was drugged out of his mind, it was merely a reflection of how deeply he was immersed in his music as he calmly addressed the audience after the completion of the song.
While Reignwolf's guitar playing is the emphasis of his music, Jordan Cook's vocals are a mix of heavy metal and blues; almost a mix of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell and Jack White. 

Often playing guitar with his left hand while holding the mic with his right, Reignwolf's stage presence is simply epic. During his Sasquatch set, Reignwolf played his guitar and solo'd using his microphone as a pick, turned the stage into a misty temple of rock with several smoke machines placed under his amps, stage dove, and solo'd while being held up by an enthralled audience.
Simple yet effective, Cook's lyrics stay true to his blues roots. Reignwolf's "In the Dark, probably my favorite new song repeats the same 4 or so lines over and over throughout the four minute song. "My love, why's it gotta be so hard, my love, always keeping me in the dark". However, Reignwolf proves that that's all he needs, as his varied guitar playing and vocal effects contribute to a diverse performance. 

Reignwolf's in-studio show on KEXP is a prime example of his musical charisma. With only the on-air host in the room watching, Reignwolf made it seem as if he was playing to a packed arena, hotboxing the studio with a smoke machine, standing on his monitor and angrily kicking his base drum and screaming into his mic. Check out his full performance and interview here:

Now based in Seattle, Reignwolf will be making appearances at both the Capital Hill Block Party on July 20th, and at Bumbershoot over labor day weekend. Be sure to buy some tickets and check him out, I know I certainly will. This guy is going to be huge.
Reignwolf's official website: http://www.reignwolf.com/

Sasquatch! 2012, Weekend in Review

This past Memorial day weekend, three friends and I ventured to Central Washington's Gorge Amphitheater for the four day Sasquatch! music festival. There was no doubt that it was the best way to spend our last weekend of high school.
Forgoing setting up our tents, we sprinted to the main stage upon our arrival to the festival just in time to watch the dub-step phenomenon Pretty Lights. A steady supply of glow sticks were thrown into the air through out the concert with every bass drop and strobe light shutter. A rambunctious, and frankly utterly keyed audience enjoyed an impressive light show and samples of popular songs strewn over bass heavy techno beats. By far the highlight of the concert was Pretty Lights' "Finally Moving" featuring the vocals made popular by Avicci's "Levels". "I know ya'll know this shit!" screamed Pretty Lights, as the chorus kicked in. Every light in the mainstage's apparatus angled upwards and lit up the entire audience as everyone sang along "wooah sometimes, i get a good feeling'. We apparently missed a surprise mini set from Macklemore, but Pretty Lights blew me away and set a high standard for the concerts to come.

Day two presented an exciting line-up. We headed to the smallest stage at the gorge to check out a wide array of Seattle hip hop. Fatal Lucianno and my man Grynch started the day off. Fatal won me over with a five minute freestyle to end his set. Grynch's set featured a guest appearance with Seattle's Brothers From Another, along with my personal favorite Grynch hit,"My Volvo".
Seattle's Sol followed with an electrifying performance appropriately beginning at 4:20 in the afternoon. Greeting the audience with green stoner shades, Sol performed a number of songs off his latest album "Yours Truly". Despite playing at the same time as Childish Gambino, Sol drew a much bigger audience than the small stage could handle. Demonstrating that he deserved a set on a larger stage, the audience crowded the front of the stage and pissed off a lot of the security people. "I'm not Snoop Dog I don't need that shit" Sol yelled as he emphatically asked the crowd to move back.
Still, Sol's concert was one of the best we saw. His new hit song 2020 was my favorite of the performance. In addition, Sol's crowd was refreshingly more "normal" than most of the other Sasquatch goers we saw. My friend Jack aptly stated that "Sasquatch is pretty much a gathering of some of the weirdest people you will ever see". My biggest regret of the weekend, I did not get any digits from the three UW sorority sisters we talked to at the Sol concert...damn.

One of the coolest things about Sasquatch! is that outside of the headlining artists, you have a chance to meet almost every artist at a signing booth after their performances. We made sure to say hey to Sol and Grynch after their shows, and were pleased to see that they were some of the most down to earth people you'll ever meet. After getting my hat signed by Grynch and telling Sol that we had almost the exact same name! we headed back to our tent before the evening concerts.
Jack white capped off an epic Saturday at Sasquatch on the main stage. By far the best showman, musician, and overall best performer we saw, Jack white captivated the crowd of 25,000 with several new tracks of his solo album "Blunderbuss" in addition to a number of White Stripes songs. Finishing with "Seven Nation Army", the crowd screamed for an encore for almost ten minutes after the band walked of stage. It was truly a concert to remember. While walking out of the concert I ran into Jason Reid, director of Sonics gate who was sporting his usual sonics hat and sweatshirt, and got to talk to him about the future of basketball in Seattle. Keep doing what your doing Sonicsgate! #Robbed #Gospurs

Sunday marked our last day at the festival. We started by seeing my new favorite artist ReignWolf at one of the festival's smaller stages. Reignwolf, A.K.A Jordan Cook and his band mixed bluesy guitar licks with heavy bass lines and aggressive drumming. Reignwolf closed out his performance with my favorite song of his "In the Dark", before playing a ten minute guitar solo while sitting on the shoulders of one of the security guards. Reignwolf will certiantely receive his own blog post in the future, as he was by far my best discovery of the weekend.

After Reignwolf we caught the tail end of Spac3man's set, who is also know as Seattle's Waka Flocka on the festival's smallest stage. For his last song, Spac3man walked off the stage and into the crowd and bounced up and down in the mosh pit with about 50 audience members jumping up and down with him. Spac3man then proceeded to finish with an eloquent and heartfelt accapela freestyle, which made up for my assumption of his lack of lyrical depth.
Next we took front row spots for Seattle's Dyme Def. Dyme Def made a considerable effort to connect with the crowd. At the beginning of the concert as joints were openly rolled and lit, Dyme Def  frontman "Fierce Villain" made his way to the front of the crowd and took a hit from a fans joint before passing it back to us in the front row. It set the tone for the show as Dyme Def played an intimate set, finishing with their most famous song "Let it be". Be sure to check out the new and long awaited video for that song below.

Sunday night was capped off by folk rockers Bon Iver. Maybe it was just the immense amount of haze being blow back into my face by the wind coming in off the Columbia river gorge, or maybe it was Bon Iver's relaxing melodies and high falsetto vocals, but as the band went into their hit song skinny love, I felt my eyes slowly close, only to open before finding tears covering the film of my vision. "Ma ma my, ma ma my my my" sang the audience as Bon Iver finished out his set. Sasquatch seemed like one big family at that point, and the gorge was our home.

As we left the Gorge, I couldn't help but feel a great deal of sadness, as college will likely conflict with Sasquatch's for many years to come. However, I am truly grateful that I had the opportunity to see some great music in one of the most beautiful venues in the world with some of my best friends.