The Gorge sounds like that because of the wall behind you

I mix front-of-house for a living, mostly clubs, occasionally something bigger. The first time I stood on the lawn at the Gorge I spent the entire first set doing engineering instead of listening, which my girlfriend has never let go.

Here's what's happening: you have a basalt wall a few hundred feet behind the audience and a river canyon in front. The wall throws a slap back at you that is late enough to read as reverb and early enough not to smear. It is, acoustically, a free plate reverb the size of a county. No system tech put it there.

During Hood the band went quiet — really quiet, the part where it's basically just Page — and the canyon kept going for a beat after they stopped. Nine thousand people heard the room breathe.

I have never gotten that in a club and I have stopped trying.