Sasquatch 2015: Mother Mother makes the crowd euphoric

When Mother Mother took the Bigfoot Stage at 7:00 p.m. on the opening night of the Sasquatch! Music Festival, there was a lot of pushing and shoving. Because of the show’s proximity to Vancouver—and the band’s original base of tiny Quadra Island—the indie rockers had a steady base of followers that were cheering as soon as they recognized a song. And that happened a lot. 

Featuring a drum set that was pockmarked with two pink Ms and red lights and a stage that beamed red lights into the crowd, front man Ryan Guldemond walked out onto the stage in an undershirt, launched into a rousing version of “Get Out the Way”. From there, he rolled into “Reaper Man” and “Infinitesmal”, before taking a rare break and launching into a speech about how lucky we all are to be here, with Mother Nature.

Crowd favourites “Let’s Fall in Love” and “O My Heart” were next and a dance party was inevitable. Guldemond let his two female counterparts, sister Molly Guldemond and Jasmin Parkin, take the lead, comfortable to riff on his electric guitar while the two harmonized perfectly. “It’s a pleasure and a joy to go into this sinister evening with Mother Mother,” were the next words out of the male Guldemond’s mouth and as soon as the psychedelic opening marks of “Monkey Tree” were busted out, the crowd was euphoric.

An extended version of “Bit By Bit” followed, with the crowd yelling and jumping along to that song’s irresistible chorus. Guldemond then said his goodbyes. Music was still playing though, and when he shouted a crass, almost ominous “Hey!” everyone knew what was coming. The terrific back-and-forth ballad “The Stand” followed to close out the show. 

At one point, my notebook was grabbed out of my hands, only to be returned a few seconds later with the words “Dear Diary, Mother Mother RULES!” Yeah, I guess I could have just written that.