Bumbershoot: Day Three Retrospective

Day Three of Bumbershoot was, as always, on Labor Day, so someone apparently had to go to the top of the Space Needle and hoist an American flag.  Jobs I'm glad that I don't have to take. . .  

Here's another.  This jackass was protesting, or testifying or witnessing or something, in front of the main gate. I'm not even sure of his point - is he saying that covetousness is idolatry, as is materialism, pornography, etc.?  In other words, is covetousness his only complaint, or is he listing all of the things he doesn't like?  Anyway, the front of the Bumbershoot main gate may not be the best place to win converts away from music. "Well, I was going to go listen to rock music, but now that I see your sign, I've changed my mind," said no one, anywhere.

But to his point, the festival was overrun all weekend with zombies.  I had forgotten to mention that up to this point.

But on to the music.  The first band of the day was a jazzy afro-pop group called Cascadia '10 performing at the Fisher Pavilion.  They were scheduled to play Bumbershoot last year, and I had even gone to their stage to see them, but they had to cancel at the last minute due to some mishap, and instead another afro-pop group, The Jefferson Rose Band (I think) filled in for them.  In any event, it was nice to finally see Cascadia '10 themselves, and sunny afro-pop is always a good way to start a day.

Meanwhile, over at the Fountain Lawn, BellaMaine, an indie-pop band from Anacortes, Washington, were playing.  The sunny, happy mood continued.

Even the zombies seemed happy.

I had three passes to the KEXP Music Lounge for the day, and for the first time, they weren't for the opening, noontime performance, nor were they all together.  The first Music Lounge performance for me on Day Three was the North Carolina band Superchunk, performing at 1:15 pm.

Superchunk played a tight, ass-kicking set, but founding bassist Laura Ballance was notably absent.  Reportedly, she's not touring due to hyperacusis, a hearing condition, and in her place was touring bassist Jason Narducy.

After the kick in the pants from Superchunk, I went over to the Fountain Lawn to really get my ass kicked, this time by Brooklyn's The Men.  If I had waned to see the band Alt-J, this would have been my chance. However, the line to get into Key Arena was staggeringly long - I probably would have had to get in line sometime around noon if I had really wanted to get in.  But I have tickets to see them Sept. 23 back home in Atlanta, and anyway, I didn't want my whole day devoted to seeing one band (and in an indoor basketball arena at that), so The Men seemed like the better option.  They were loud, aggressive, raw, and near perfect, rendering yesterday's debate about who was more punk, FIDLAR or Broncho, moot.  They have no one specific frontman and everybody takes turns at lead vocals, but it doesn't matter, because you can't hear the vocals over the guitars and walls of Marshall amps, anyway.    

I knew The Men would be playing in Portland's relatively small club Dante's, and I shuddered to imagine how their loud volume would sound in that little space.  

Meanwhile, back in the audience, zombies were devouring Miss Seattle.

I wasn't sure what the transition from The Men to Lissie was going to be like, as I wasn't sure is she was a pop singer or a rocker.  But over at the Starbucks Stage, I was relieved to find that she was a rocker, shredding on guitar when she needed to as she belted out her songs.  It was actually a nice way to come back down to earth after The Men.

My second Music Lounge set was at 3:45 by the acoustic bluegrass band Trampled By Turtles.  They played superbly and the vocals were soothing, but after all of the adrenaline and excitement of the previous acts, I almost fell asleep in the dark, cool Music Lounge.  I heard several people, folks close to my own age, tell me that the Turtles' set was the high point of the festival for them, and I might have been inclined to agree but for my mood that day.  As it was, the set was a nice little opportunity to recharge myself for a final push through the last day. 

Outside, it was still zombies.  I got something to eat (not brains), and went back to the Music Lounge for a decidedly more energetic set.

We've seen The Joy Formidable before, during MFNW 2011 at the Wonder Ballroom, at Music Midtown that same year, and this year at Atlanta's inaugural Shaky Knees festival. But we've never seen them this close or in as intimate a setting as the KEXP Music Lounge. 

This set was a warm-up of sorts for their later performance at the Fisher Pavilion, but they still held nothing back for this late afternoon set. 

More damn zombies.

Despite the presence of the undead, it was time to prepare for the final 1-2-3 punch of the Bumbershoot schedule.  To get a good position in the crowd for the first of the last three performance, I went over to the Plaza Stage early and enjoyed the slightly gothic, country-rock sounds of Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands.

I got the rail for Seattle's Ivan & Alyosha, but wound up giving it up to a younger and far shorter fan. Still, I had a great, unobstructed view for their uplifting set of folk-pop songs.

They closed their set with their popular song, Be Your Man.

Ivan and Alyosha were the 1 of the 1-2-3 finale.  Number 2 was Atlanta's own Deerhunter, playing at the Fountain Lawn.  Despite the large crowd and my late arrival a mere couple minutes before the set began, I still managed to get a reasonably good position in the audience.

Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox was as confrontational as ever.  He wore a similar wig to the one he wore on his infamous Jimmy Fallon performance, and after one particular song, he told the laid-back Seattle audience, “I'd heard Seattle crowds are crazy, but this is something else."  He went on, sarcastically mimicking Mick Jagger pleading with the Altamont audience to calm down.  "I'm not going to sing on this next song," he declared. "I don't want to be singing when the world ends in a whimper and not a bang.” Guitarist Locket Pundt wound up handling the vocals on Desire Lines.

After Blue Agent, Cox thanked the audience for their "polite applause,” and announced “Here's a polite song,” launching into The Missing. 

But in the end, he delivered the goods, using several of the songs as launching pads for extended psych-rock excursions and experiments in feedback and pedal effects, particularly at the end of Nothing Ever Happens.  At the end of Monomania, his vocals were looped over and over on top of themselves, building up into a wall of sound.  Cox and the band then unceremoniously left the stage without announcement even as the instruments still squealed. It seemed like an encore might be possible as the stage remained lit and the feedback showed no signs of stopping, but those of us who saw him leave the Fallon stage knew he was not coming back (he didn't). 

There was a huge crowd in front of the Fisher Pavilion stage to see The Joy Formidable for the final set of the night.  However, I had learned a neat trick over the past three days - instead of standing at the back of the crowd hoping to press forward for a better view (like I had for Crystal Castles), I walked all the way around the crowd and down a stairway that marks one edge of the audience space, which put me near the front of the crowd, although at an extreme angle to the stage.  However, people don't seem to mind when someone works their way sideways through a crowd and even back a little nearly as much as they resent someone who tries to move forward, and soon I was standing near stage right about six rows of people back from the stage.  It wasn't as good a view as in the Music Lounge, but it was better than about 90% of the rest of the audience. 

But then a funny thing happened:  The Joy Formidable was playing their set when the drum mics suddenly failed. Lead singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan seemed at a loss of what to say, and blamed the drummer for always having something “explode” at their shows.  She soon ran out of stage banter and told everyone that the band was going to go backstage for a few minutes while the crew fixed the problem.

A good amount of time passed and The Joy Formidable still hadn’t come back out.  The crowd began to get impatient, and calls for the band's return started turning to taunts. This wasn't going well, but after about 10 minutes, the band finally reappeared on stage and completed their set.

Fortunately for everybody, both the redemptive qualities of rock 'n' roll and the audience's capacity for forgiveness overcome the earlier awkwardness, and the band got huge applause and a call for an encore at the end of their set. 

And that, then, was the end of Bumbershoot 2013, the best Bumbershoot in my limited experience (three consecutive years).    The final 1-2-3 punch of Ivan and Alyosha, Deerhunter, and The Joy Formidable was every bit as satisfying as expected, despite Cox' taunting and the Formidable mishap.  In addition to that 1-2-3 finale, highlights included the wild and crazy Beats Antique show, !!!, and the chance to watch Thao twice in one day (Joy Formidable, too).  In fact, all of the Music Lounge sets were great, and everything was run with perfect timing.  

A short walk back to my hotel, past the KEXP studio, and finally a chance to rest my feet and get some sleep before starting MFNW in Portland the next day.

Bumbershoot: Day Two Retrospective

On paper, at least, Day Two of Bumbershoot looked like the least rewarding.  Not a bad day by any means, but not as promising as Days One and Three.  Sundays are like that sometimes.  For starters, I "only" had passes to one Music Lounge performance, but it was a noontime set by Portland's inimitable Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, a great way to get a day started.   

We've seen Sallie Ford before, once back at MFNW 2011 when she played her native Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, and again last spring at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta, when she opened for Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.  Her main Bumbershoot set this year was Saturday night (Day One), but winning the passes to her Music Lounge set on Sunday freed me up to go see Washed Out instead that night.

In any event, her rockabilly-influenced set was a very pleasant way to kick off the day.

Outside and in the sunshine, I caught a set by L.A.'s The Mowgli's at the Fisher Pavilion.

The Mowgli's are an indie folk-rock band, somewhat similar to, say, Milo Greene and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, but without all the acoustic instrumentation. If you like the sing-alongs and hand clapping of folk-rock bands but have heard enough banjos, mandolins, glockenspiels, and xylophones to last a lifetime, The Mowgli's might be the band for you.  There's got to be a niche for that, amiright?  

In any event, The Mowgli's were fun and refreshing, and continued the feel-good vibe started by Sallie Ford, but brought it out to the sunny outdoors.

Portland's Ramona Falls promised to be one of the highlights of my day, and lived up to that promise.  I was able to get right up in front of the Fountain Lawn stage for their performance, leaning against the security rail that marks the no-man's-land between the stage and the audience.

We saw Ramona Falls earlier this year at the godforsaken Masquerade in Atlanta, and we looked forward to hearing what they could do with the fine Bumbershoot sound system.  

Ramona Falls is lead by singer and composer Brent Knopf, formerly of the band Menomena.  Now, it would be totally sexist of me to have made snide comments yesterday about Thao wearing the same dress at Bumbershoot that she had worn at Smith's Olde Bar without also pointing out that Knopf wore the same t-shirt at Bumbershoot that he had worn at the godforsaken Masquerade earlier this year.

The drummer's t-shirt was new to me, though.

Ramona Fall's music is cerebral and somewhat angular without being inaccessible or "difficult."  The songs often change style and tempo as they proceed, often leaving the listener wondering just how they got to where they are now.  Knopf explained a little of his creative process in a TEDx lecture earlier this year.

He may be the only performer I've seen all week who's given a TED talk (David Byrne and Andrew Bird have also given TED talks, but unfortunately were not on the schedule this week).

So that was fun and all.  After Ramona Falls, I ventured over to the Fisher Pavilion to catch the punk band FIDLAR ("Fuck it, dog, life's a risk").  There was very little risk that anybody in FIDLAR had given a TED lecture recently. Their music was loud and obnoxious in the fine tradition of punk, and their songs were all about beer, drinking, getting wasted, and, um, drinking.  I stayed a good way back from the security rail for this one, as a pretty vigorous mosh pit had developed in front of the stage.  Several young men rushed past me at various points during the performance to dive into the melee, never to be seen again.  

Speaking of t-shirts (as we were earlier), FIDLAR frontman Zac Carper's had the words “straight edge” handwritten in sharpie across the front with a giant X through it.  He claimed that a phone number written on an amp belonged to Taylor Swift.  Nobody believed him, but several guys wrote it down anyway. You can see the number on the amp behind him in the picture above; try it if you like and tell Taylor I said "Hi."

Carper introduced one song saying, “This song’s about rehab and how much it sucks.”  Helpfully, he also pointed out that "It gets better the more you drink.”  I wasn't sure if he was talking about rehab or his set.

“This is by far the longest set we’ve ever played,” Carper pointed out. “Our sets are usually 20 minutes. This is brutal.”

This is probably a band I would never go to see live back home, as their target audience is obviously teens, but that's a part of the appeal of a festival like this - you can stick your toe in the water of various performances and get a little taste, without the commitment of total immersion in the experience. So, yes, now I can check hearing a snotty, California skate-punk band off my bucket list. 

After FIDLAR, I did a lot of wandering around before I settled down.  This, apparently, is Midday Veil, a goth, drone-metal band from Seattle, playing at the Plaza Stage.

I kind of liked them, but the Plaza Stage was smack in the middle of the sun, so I wandered over to the Fisher Pavilion and caught a little of Seattle's Katie Kate, filling in for Charlie XCX. 

Hey, look!  It's 1960's icon Eric Burden with his newly re-formed The Animals, playing at The Starbucks Stage.  I have no idea why he was wearing the gray hoodie in the sun and the heat.

I finally settled down at the Fountain Lawn and watched Mates of State, a husband-and-wife keyboards-and-drums duo.  This is probably what Matt & Kim will look like in 10 years. 

At this point in the day, I finally got something to eat and even took a 10-minute power nap.  Revived and re-fueled, I re-claimed the rail position at the front of the Fountain Lawn stage for the fine New Zealand dream-pop band Tamaryn.

The band seemed so committed to their dream-pop sound, they often appeared to actually be sleeping at various times during their set, as if they were playing in some sort of lucid dream state.  Still, the set was far from drowsy but instead was a sensual, languid performance.

The singer, Tamaryn, produced a dozen red roses during one song, waved them around some, and then tossed petals out toward the audience.  I don't think any made it past the security no-man's-land, and I saw petals still on the ground the next day.

It was now near sunset and after Tamaryn's performance, I headed over to the Plaza Stage to hear the Oklahoma garage-punk band Broncho.

"Which New Punk Band is More Punk? Broncho vs FIDLAR," asked an article in Seattle's weekly The Stranger.  For my money, I'd say Broncho is scruffier, less obsessed with partying, and truer to the original punk ethos, but FIDLAR still won the newspaper's poll.  For what it's worth (and the band probably won't appreciate this endorsement coming form someone my age), I'd be much more likely to see Broncho at The Earl someday than FIDLAR at the godforsaken Masquerade.

It was getting close to headliner time and there was no way I was going to wait in the long lines to get into Key Arena to see Death Cab For Cutie, so I instead opted to go back to the Fountain Lawn to see the EDM band Beats Antique.

It was more of a show than I expected.

Apparently, much of Beats Antique's gear, including their software and samples, got misplaced while traveling, so the band had to improvise their entire set.  I'm not that familiar with their work, so I don't know what was missing, but their dancer more than made up for whatever was absent.

The show involved frequent costume changes.

A bevy of dancers stormed the stage for the band's grand finale.

The encore included the bevy of dancers, now wearing animal masks for some reason, as well as a large inflatable squid, because why not?

The crowd went wild.  As my sister commented on my Facebook page, it looks like I fell really deep into the rabbit hole with this set.

That, I thought, was the conclusion of Day Two, and the Beats Antique set would have been a fitting finale. But just as soon as the band left the stage, the festival promoters began projecting the Death Cab For Cutie set, still going on live just a couple hundred yards away, on the video screen behind the stage, so that those of us who didn't wait on line - or who waited and didn't get in - could still see their set.

The first half of Death Cab's set consisted of them playing their album Transatlanticism, arguably their best album, through in its entirety. Some sat on the grass and watched the set, some stood, and some went home. I did all three (you can only watch a video for so long after havng watched live performances all day).

And that, I thought, was the end of the day.  But no, as I walked once again past the Plaza Stage on my way out, there was the fine indie singer-songwriter Matt Pond and his band still performing.  I stayed and listened to three or four songs until the conclusion of their set.

That really was the end of Day Two, a much better day as it turned out, than I had expected.  It was only a couple yards from the Plaza Stage and Matt Pond to the exit, and I managed to make it off the festival grounds without falling into any other rabbit holes or performances.