Just a song or two into their set, Seaweed singer Aaron Stauffer looked out to the crowd in front of him and laughed: “You know what you all look like? You look like that Fastbacks 7” with the crowd on it. That’s what you look like. You haven’t changed a bit!”

It was 1994 all over again—I was surrounded by a bunch of dudes with badly bleached, messy hair, button-up work shirts, and homemade “Screaming Life” jackets. The digital cameras and text messaging while moshing were the only hints that we were of a new generation. Seaweed’s songs, though many of them are over a decade old, have a classic and relevant sound. It’s pure and sheer rock with anthemic choruses and huge guitars and booming, quick drumming. I can’t make any old or fat jokes. They have kids now, law degrees and wedding rings, but as yesterday’s performance proved, the guys are still more than capable of mesmerizing a crowd of both old and new fans. They haven’t changed a bit either (save for the addition of new drummer Jesse Fox of Polecat/Leuko/To the Waves fame).

Before their last song, Stauffer gave a shout out to the Helio Sequence, who were going to play next. Apparently his young daughter was obsessed with that Feist song, “1234.” She wanted to listen to it constantly. That was until she heard “Blood Bleeds” by the Helio Sequence—“The Helio Sequence trumps Feist in my house,” he said. “So thanks for that, guys.”

They played a couple more songs while a bunch of stoked boys moshed in the sun and I thought it was one of the best, most energetic performances of the afternoon (no, they didn’t shove towels down their pants or hock loogies on the crowd like Pissed Jeans, but dudes still fuckin’ rocked it).

The Helio Sequence took things down a notch—a dreamy, spacey, mellow notch. There’s a lot of noise coming from just two guys, and it’s all pretty and poppy and exactly what I want to hear when I’m standing in the shade of some Evergreens on a cloudless, 80+-degree summer day.

Like many of the bands over the course of the afternoon, Helio Sequence also talked about how honored they are to be on such a legendary label as Sub Pop. “I wanted to be Kurt Cobain. I always wanted to be on Sub Pop,” singer Brandon Summers admitted.

About 20 minutes later, after showcasing material from their new album Keep Your Eyes Ahead he also mentioned the cute e-mail he received from Stauffer, about how much his daughter likes their song. He said even though they haven’t played “Blood Bleeds” for about two years, they practiced it over the last few days and wanted to play the lullaby for Aaron’s daughter. Awe!

Another note about the Helio Sequence, which I hadn’t realized before since I had never seen them live until yesterday: The drummer is probably the most animated drummer in the world of music. With herky-jerky moves, he keeps a perfect beat. His face contorts into various scrunched up expressions, his mouth snaps open and shut like he’s biting at a piece of invisible pie. His right arm stays fairly still and in one place, but his left arm flails about high and low and everywhere. He smiles to himself like just heard a joke, he closes his eyes like he’s imagining he’s somewhere else, I wish I could read his mind while he played.

Another band that really benefited from the environment was, of course, the Fleet Foxes, who took the stage just as the breeze picked up and the sun was low enough to shine through the trees, making sunbeams and shadows dance around while they played their sepia-toned campfire sing-a-longs. They sounded just like the Fleet Foxes, which is to say they sounded weirdly perfect, pretty, and unreal (espcially since Pissed Jeans had just finished being all loud and messy and shit).

^{Fleet Foxes}

The highlight of the otherwise familiar set was the drum-off that almost happened. While a drum tech on the nextdoor stage checked the mics for Mudhoney’s set, it interrupted the Fleet Foxes, so the band declared “It’s on” and drummer J. Tillman timidly showed off his skills. The drum tech returned his serve, Tillman pounded a little louder but then stopped, laughing, and apologizing since he promised himself that was something he’d never do. You could’ve taken him, J.

^Mudhoney

I tried to sit still during Mudhoney—I was there while they played the title track off the new album The Lucky Ones and I got to hear “Touch Me I’m Sick” (a song that never gets old). I saw Mark Arm thrash around and be the infamous frontman he has been for over 20 years, and then I decided to wander around while the rest of their set echoed across the field. Mudhoney was Mudhoney and Mark Arm’s real time to shine is going to come during today’s Green River reunion (and besides, there were some pretty sick back tats just waiting to be photographically archived for-ev-er)…