Bumbershoot. Day 3.

16 Bands. 2 t-shirts. 1 semi-riot. 1 Guitar Hero hat.



Bands Seen:
Head Like A Kite
Paramore
Monotonix
The Physics
The Offspring
Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles
Bedouin Soundclash
Two Gallants
J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science
Feral Children
Old 97s
Del The Funk Homo Sapien
Battles
Mike Doughty
Death Cab For Cutie
Minus The Bear


The mother lode of days. My friend Derek, who's been up in town for the Penny Arcade Expo, got a ticket for today, and has made it quite clear that he wants to hear at least 8 bands. I assure him, that such a task will be far easier then he imagines. The day starts a bit late. He set his alarm for 10pm (rather then am), and after getting back home the night before at about 2:30am, I hit the snooze button 15 or 16 times on my own alarm. We head out the door for Seattle about 11:00 and get parked and in the gate at about 12:10ish. I've been looking over the schedule and thought a good place to start would be the School of Rock: Northwest All-Stars. Apparently about half the folks in Seattle Center thought similarly and as we get to the EMP Sky Church, we're confronted by a line and a closed door. The house opened an hour ago, and the band is on, so this means that the venue's at capacity. With the line that's sitting there, we won't be getting into this one. So, we immediately turn around and head over to the Rock Star stage (with a quick stop at the booth to get tickets to the Main Stage in the evening - we hit the booth at a time that there wasn't a line, which was a first for me this weekend) to check out Chester French.

Somewhere along the way however, it appears that Chester French dropped from the lineup. As we're standing in the crowd waiting for them to come on the emcee comes up and introduces a band from San Francisco called Head Like A Kite. Apparently they got called some time the day before and drove through the night to come play at Bumbershoot. For a last minute acquisition, I was mighty impressed. The band was comprised of two guys: one sitting at a drum kit, and one moving from guitar to synth, to some other random bits and pieces. The music had a happy dance-fest vibe to it, that was much appreciated by the crowd. I enjoyed the hell out of it and we stuck around through the entire set.

Then we made our way towards the main stage to see Paramore (with a quick stop at the Guitar Hero: World Tour booth to get our RAWK on). Paramore was... angsty. Teen girl angsty. Looking down at the crowd, I was baffled at the presence of several mosh pits. Moshing? To this? About 3 or 4 songs in (all sounding quite similar) we decided to head off to grab some food and check out another act. I grabbed some African fare from the Horn of Africa booth (tasty!) and we headed over to the Fisher Green stage and caught a little bit of The Physics (NW hip hop) as we ate. Food consumed, an executive decision was made to head over to the Exhibition Hall to check out Monotonix, which was billed as an Israeli band that put on an amazing live show. On the way in, I ran into Dustin, a guy that's been coming out to Tacoma pickup this past summer/winter. He's a writer for a blog called The Consequence of Sound I found out, so he's got press credentials to wander about with.

To say that Monotonix puts on a "great live show" is somewhat of an understatement. A more accurate representation would be to say that they put on a great riot set to some killer music. Whereas every other band was setup on stage, Monotonix eschewed this formula and set themselves up on the floor of the exhibition hall. And not front in center, but right square in the middle. The crowd pressed in tight around them, radiating outwards. Near the center, you could see a handful of folks with their cameras in the air, aimed down at the action, recording video and snapping photos furiously. I could hear drums, but couldn't see the drummer. I was made aware of the singer as he prompted the crowd to lift him and sang as he crowd surfed. Then he gestured for a trash barrel, hopped inside and had the crowd surf him around in that for a bit (it fell, he hopped out, and kept going full steam). Then, guitarist was lifted atop the crowd, ripping through a solo while aloft. About three or four songs into the set (10-15 minutes), an event official hopped up on stage and cut the set short, and indicated that the crowd needed to disburse. A wave of one finger salutes were thrown up and things got a bit cagey until the singer hopped up on stage and in broken English apologized for the short set and let the crowd know that they were fantastic. The rambling, broken speech that the singer got into lasted about as long as the set did. We got herded towards the exit, and I promptly bought a Monotonix shirt. I need to see this band in a venue that is a little bit more .... open minded...?

We headed back to catch a little bit more of The Physics, and around 3:10pm, headed towards the main stage to see The Offspring. I've seen The Offspring before, and they put on a great show on both occasions. The crowd were packed in tight up near the barrier as they walked on to the stage. As they launched into their first song, the crowd erupted into a writhing mass. Circle pits spontaneously forming, nebulizing off into other areas. Hoses were pulled out a couple songs in and the crowd was sprayed down. At one point, a kid in a wheel chair got crowd surfed (in his wheel chair!). After that song was done, the band indicated that that was the most awesome crowd surfer they had ever seen. I would have to agree on that one. Their set was a solid mix of old songs (Bad Habit, Gotta Get Away, Self Esteem) and some of the new stuff (You're Gonna Go Far, Kid). We left towards the middle/end of the set to catch a little bit of Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles at the Starbucks stage.

We arrived for the last three songs of the Langhorne Slim set, and the little that I heard was good. He had a great rapport with the audience, and had some free form conversations during portions of the songs. After his set finished, we headed over to the Fisher Green stage to check out the Bedouin Soundclash, who apparently had gotten a Juno in 2006 for best new band of the year. The lawn area was full, so we pulled out our IDs and headed into the beer garden area, and spluttered through an awful tasting $7 beer (a bit skunky, and a small portion. Everything could possibly hope for when paying out the ass for a beer). The band was not good. Not particularly original and pretty blah stage performance. This called for an immediate chug and hasty exit.

We headed over to the Rockstar Stage once more to see Two Gallants (from the Bumbershoot web site write up - "combine American folk, country, and blues with an undeniably punk rock energy"). Not impressed by this one. I had high hopes based on the description, but didn't find them to live up to the whole "punk rock energy" thing. Also, I think one of their songs was essentially about being a big douche bag (although the whiny, slur made it a bit hard to tell).

We leave to head over to J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science, who put on a nice show. We sit down and take the opportunity to recuperate after the first half of the day. At this point, it's about 6pm, and we've exceeded Derek's goal of 8 bands. And we still have half a day to go.

Next up on the agenda is Feral Children in the EMP Sky Church. Thwarted at our earlier attempt to get in, we show up about 10 minutes early and find the venue to already be near capacity. We grab a spot near the back edge and slowly work our way in closer to the stage. The band comes on and the drums are front and center. Two sets in fact. The singer stands at one set, and the drummer at the other. They launch into their set and remind me a lot of early Modest Mouse. Another high point in the weekend, an we stick through almost the entire set. One of the best bands I've seen this weekend. As we leave, I buy another T-shirt.

The Old 97s! One of the bands that I've wanted to catch live for awhile! We get to the stage a bit late (their set overlaps with Feral Children) and find some real estate to occupy. The show is solid, and I hear a bunch of songs that I like, but after the energy of the previous show, it's a bit anticlimactic. Food is eaten, and another trip made to the Fisher Green Stage.

This time, Del The Funky Homo Sapien. I swear he makes a reference to "rhyming like a nocerous". Is Flight of the Conchords so pervasive? Or is Del independently getting there? This one is a quick stop for us. We head back towards the Rockstar Stage after a couple songs to here Battles.

Battles is math-rock. Or so says the information guide. If so, then I need to check out more math rock. They were fantastic. And definitely helped by the group of generous folks next to us who had sneaked in a bottle of whiskey. A few swigs later, and I'm feeling a nice warmth spreading through my chest while listening to some great music. We stick through the rest of the set (I had planned on checking out Sondre Lerche, but that stage was distant and the music here was good), and then head over to the Starbucks Stage for Mike Doughty.

Mike Doughty was just taking the stage as we arrived. He launched into his first song, and I knew immediately that we would be heading to another stage shortly. This felt a little bit too much like a low rent Dave Matthews. I'm not an immense fan of Dave, and Mike just wasn't doing it for me either. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and stuck through about 3 songs, but it didn't get much better. We moved on. To the main stage.

Death Cab for Cutie were next on our list. We hit the stadium and grabbed a seat. The stands were packed and we ended up pretty high up off to the left of the stage. They were solid, although much like STP I felt that the stage show was a bit off kilter from what they were playing. The band was jumping and moving like they were playing some intensely fast thrashcore. Which was not the case. And Ben Gibbard had this odd retreat and attack thing going on with the microphone. He'd throw some words into the microphone, then take 3 quick steps back with his head down as he played guitar, and then slide back up to microphone like a snake attacking a mouse. This was repeated over and over again through all of the songs we were there for.

We left after about 25-30 minutes to go see the last band of the day/Bumbershoot, Minus the Bear. When I was initially checking the line up for Bumbershoot, this was the show on Monday that I most anticipated. And I can happily say that I wasn't disappointed in the least. The set was satisfyingly long and the venue wasn't overly packed (back at the Rockstar Stage). This was the perfect way to end the festival.

It was close to an exit, so after it was over, we headed out without a whole lot of foot traffic obstructing us (Death Cab was on the other side of Seattle Center). We walked the 7 or 8 blocks to the car, hopped in, and started the drive back to Tacoma. We got home around 12. I had to get up for work the next day at 4:30am. Fuck it. A beer was needed to wind down on a hell of a weekend.