Bumbershoot Retrospective Day 2

Damn, these retrospectives are getting labor intensive!  Once again, I'm going to have to let others who've already posted about this year's Bumbershoot do the heavy lifting, and see if I can't post this one more as a compilation or anthology than a purely original post.

MANATEE COMMUNE

According to Kyle Fleck of The Stranger, "The beatific beats 'n' synths of Manatee Commune were easy enough on the hungover noon peeps."  I wasn't hungover, but still enjoyed the ambient sounds of the day's opener at the indoor Pavilion Stage.

HOBOSEXUAL

On the other extreme. Seattle Weekly’s pick for best rock group of 2014, Hobosexual (above) rocked the outdoor Fountain Lawn Stage. Hobosexual is NOT the worst band name ever (that would be Nashville's Diarrhea Planet), and Seattle Weekly said the band "might just be the perfect act to get things going on the festival’s second day, because nothing says early Sunday like loud, irreverent, balls-out rock and fucking roll. Pink bathrobe not included."  Don't worry - I don't get the pink bathrobe reference either, although I did see one person in the audience wearing one, and noted this picture on the band's Facebook page:

GOLDEN GARDENS

Meanwhile, back at the Pavilion Stage, it was the dreamy and the ethereal once again, this time with the band Golden Gardens.  Dave Segal of The Stranger noted, "Led by the creamy, angelic singing of Aubrey Rachel Violet Bramble, Golden Gardens proved themselves to be Seattle's premier goth-gaze-techno outfit at the Pavilion Stage, which couldn't be a more sterile environment for live music. The trio—all dressed in black—seemed to have been beamed in from a European metropolis circa 1989, blurring elements of Durutti Column, Cranes, and '90s German techno from the Tresor label."

SANDRIDER

Seattle Weekly promised that local trio Sandrider would be "full of melodic, heavy riffs and one of this town’s best rhythm sections."  Sandrider, they wrote, will pummel you in the best way possible. Dave Lake of Seattle Weekly reported that "Jon Weisnewski, singer-guitarist of Seattle stoner-rock trio Sandrider, said he grew up coming to Bumbershoot as a teenager and was humbled by playing the festival this year as an adult. The band, which has two records out on local indie Good to Die, doesn’t mess around much with dynamics, but that’s not the point. It focuses its energy instead on sludgy grooves and neck vein-bulging screams. The heavy, steady riffs were a full-frontal assault and as the sun began to move from behind the clouds, the fans closest to the stage gave way to a circle pit."

Kathleen Richards (The Stranger) wrote, "Seattle is a city known for its rock bands, but you wouldn't necessarily know that by this year's Bumbershoot lineup. Nonetheless, Seattle's own Sandrider handled the pressure of being one of the festival's few hard rock acts with pride, pounding out headbanging riffs and throat-bleeding screams with a ferocity that kept a kid in a Thou shirt pumping his fists while other youngsters attempted (but largely failed) to get a mosh pit going."

KISHI BASHI

According to my preview of the festival schedule, Sunday was supposed to be the "slow" day of the weekend, but I don't recall how I had figured that any day that had a set by Kishi Bashi in mid-afternoon would be a "slow" day.  In any event, K Ishibashi took the stage at 3:00 pm, and charmed the Seattle audience with his infectious brand of pop-rock.  Regarding his latest album Lighght, the festival Program noted "right and soaring avant-pop songs are prevalent, as are Eastern-tinged arrangements, gentle ballads, Phillip Glass-inspired improvisations, and more that a few moments that flirt with 70s prog-rock in the tradition of ELO or Yes."

This is more than a bit of a "Where's Waldo?" pic, but most of my head and face are visible in the picture below that Ishibashi took from the stage after the show.  Hint:  I'm about three or four rows back, and I'm wearing an Army-green,  long-sleeved t-shirt.

CRAFT SPELLS

I saw Seattle's Craft Spells at Bumbershoot in 2011, and although I was already familiar with their fine song After the Moment, that was about all that I knew about them.  However, I enjoyed that set, and was looking forward to seeing them again, even if they did play at the side stage in Memorial Stadium, the festival's main stage, to a small crowd.  According to the festival brochure, "Justin Vallesteros is back with the gorgeously ambitious Nausea.  Full of a newfound maturity in both songwriting and recording sophistication, it showcases a bold, beautiful, and lush new sound emphasizing Vallesteros' songwriting abilities."

Seattle Weekly wrote "Craft Spells is back with dreamy pop grooves on their sophomore album, Nausea. The name’s ironic, of course, with its beautiful, melodic sounds and feel-good vibes."

THE DREAM SYNDICATE

I got back from Craft Spells in time to catch the reunion tour of 80s psych-rock legends The Dream Syndicate at the Starbucks Stage.  Dave Segal wrote in The Stranger, "The Dream Syndicate's dual-guitar attack from original member Steve Wynn and new guitarist Jason Victor was as tight, vicious, and loud as Contortions', the Pop Group's or the Velvet Underground's circa I Heard Her Call My Name. They focused on the best cuts from the immortal debut LP, The Days of Wine and Roses, but also threw in a raging cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson's blues standard, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.  This fiery set was a total Wynn/win scenario."

Saw these old geezers backstage during The Dream Syndicate set:

NEGATIVLAND

I don't even know what to say about the Negativland set or how to describe it.  Seattle Weekly wrote, "For more than 30 years, subversive culture jammers Negativland have charmed your trademarked socks off your copyrighted feet with witty, sample-heavy beats and satirical jams. Its live shows are always weird and memorable; therefore, you will go see them and love them."

Dave Segal wrote in The Starnger, "Negativland's subtlety is too humorous for a festival crowd, and it sent the jackass kids who were yelling 'Drop a beat!' and 'Let's get it!' scattering after 10 minutes. This set was as hallucinogenic as hyperreality, unspooling an eerie, absurd concatenation of officious and oleaginous media pronouncements and a menagerie of left-field electronic sounds that ranged from tranquil to unsettling. Sensory-overloaded culture jamming at its smartest."

Dave Lake wrote in Seattle Weekly, "Negativland were definitely not what the EDM kids were expecting. The experimental San Francisco sound collagists don’t make music as much as sonic mayhem: audio think pieces that are subversive and enlightening, vexing and revelatory. The foundation for most of its work is some kind of monologue, be it news clip, found dialogue, or, in the case of the opening track, an excerpt from a Marc Maron podcast accompanied by squeals, squelches, and sound effects. Dressed in matching grey and black button-up shirts, the band’s three primary members sat behind a long table covered in a tangle of cords, effects boxes, mixers, and more, tweaking knobs like mad scientists, while a laptop-working fourth member controlled the video screen behind them. Negativland are political to the core and even Bumbershoot wasn’t off limits. Between songs came a sponsorship message accompanied by a giant Chipotle logo, a nose-thumbing message to the festival for including corporate food sponsors amongst their vendors.

PICKWICK

According to The Seattle Times' Joseph Sutton-Holcomb, "Pickwick frontman Galen Diston is a lead singer of the very highest caliber. The intensity of his screams, the soulfulness of his falsetto, and even the way his hands gesticulate while singing make him engrossingly sincere. Like Allen Stone with more emotional intelligence and grit, the band, tightly orchestrated with lots of keys and organ high in the mix, backs up the vocals with what can be vaguely summarized as pop rock. However, their musical influences clearly also include '70s soul, and blues. Pickwick is not an easy band to simplify, but they are easy to dance to. Especially toward the end of the group's set where a horn section (tuba, trombone, trumpet, and no fewer than three saxophones)  joined them on stage."

My two cents:  Best Pickwick show ever.

BOOTSY COLLINS

So much for the "slow" day.  Great sets by favorites Kishi Bashi and Pickwick, a mind-blowing spectacle by Negativland, a nice set by Craft Spells, and the reunion of The Dream Syndicate all served to distinguish the day from the ordinary, not to mention the early-day dream-pop and ambient (Manatee Commune, Golden Gardens) and metal (Hobosexual, Sandrider) sets.  My plan at that point of the day was just to go home (Pickwick didn't wrap up until 9:15 pm), but I realized that since I had the rail for Pickwick, all I had to do was just stay right where I was to have a truly once-in-a-lifetime chance to see funk legend Bootsy Collins from the front row.   

Seattle Weekly wrote that  "Bootsy Collins is a bass-playing god from outer space (also from Parliament/Funkadelic) who founded an online 'Funk University' because he basically invented the whole goddamned genre. He is an interstellar gift to Earth." Josh Bis wrote in The Stranger, "More than a decade ago, the EMP put its beloved/ridiculous 'Funk Blast'—a simulated roller coaster that taught the masses (and Rufio from Hook) about how to keep it funky by STAYING ON THE ONE —into hibernation to make way for the Science Fiction Museum (and Hall of Fame). Tonight, a crack in the space time continuum brought some of that spirit and more back to the heart of Seattle Center through the miraculous talents of Bootsy Collins and his amazingly funkadelic crew."

Mike Ramos wrote in The Seattle Times that "The Cincinatti-born bass legend came out with a full band and in full glittery superstar attire, and played one of the most cohesive, completely funked-out sets of the entire festival. Though a ripe 62 years old, Bootsy and company put on a musical clinic, playing Parliament favorites like Give Up the Funk, Mothership Connection, Flashlight, along with covers of funk standards like Yarbrough & Peoples Don’t Stop the Music, and basically every original version of every West Coast rap song ever written — making sure to take time for quick bass solos just to remind everyone of how filthy he actually is. Everybody’s got a little light under the sun.

So that was it for Day Two of Bumbershoot.  The so-called "slow" day, but about as much fun as either Days One and Three.