Bumbershoot, Day Two - Death Cab For Cutie

One of the highlights for this year's Bumbershoot was going to be the opportunity to see Death Cab For Cutie perform arguably their greatest album, Transatlanticism, in its entirety from beginning to end.  However, due to their popularity, the set was held in Key Arena, the Sonics' former basketball arena, and although it's large (I saw M83 there last year), it does have a finite capacity.  Bottom line is if you wanted to see Death Cab's 9:45 performance, you pretty much had to get in line starting at 6:15 am for the opener, Ra Ra Riot (last year, I saw Best Coast prior to M83).  That would have meant passing up on Tamaryn, one of my must-see choices for the festival, as well as Broncho and Beats Antique, another must-see.  So I was resigned to missing the Death Cab set.

Imagine my surprise, then, when immediately following the Beats Antique set, the festival began projecting the in-progress Death Cab For Cutie set on the screen behind the stage.  I was able to take a seat on the Fountain Lawn lawn and watch the set without the hassle of Key Arena's lines and crowds.  

What a nice solution, and what a nice set. 

Dude, I Was There!

One of my favorite concerts of the year was held during MusicFest Northwest, but wasn't actually a part of MFNW, when My Morning Jacket played an outdoor show in McMenamin's Edgefield in rural Troutdale, Oregon.  Some magic combination of MMJ's epic jams, the beautiful setting, the sunset, and the fact that my being there was totally unplanned (my itinerary had me seeing Kishi Bashi in the basement Doug Fir Lounge over in Portland) all made it a very special show.  The quality of this fan video isn't professional but it isn't all that bad either, and it does give a fairly good impression of what the show was like.  As I recall, this number was about a third of the way into the set.

I don't like to rank anything as "Concert of the Year," as that's such a relative title, and many shows deserve top ranking for one aspect of the performance or another.  But, because such things are traditional at the end of the year, here in chronological order are some of my favorite concerts of 2012:

1. Akron/Family, Drunken Unicorn, January 14
2. Thurston Moore, The Goat Farm, February 8
3. Allo Darlin' & The Wave Pictures, 529, April 28
4. Damien Jurado, The Earl, May 23
5. Sonic Generator performing Steve Reich's Drumming, The Goat Farm, July 27
6. Dirty Projectors, Variety Playhouse, August 9
7. M83, Bumbershoot, Seattle, September 3
8. Low, Bumbershoot, Seattle, September 3
9. Black Mountain, Doug Fir Lounge (MFNW), Portland, Oregon, September 8
10. My Morning Jacket, McMenamin's Edgefield, Troutdale, Oregon, September 9
11. Animal Collective, The Tabernacle, September 30
12. David Byrne & St. Vincent, Cobb Energy Center, Marietta, Georgia, October 3
13. TOPS, Farm 255, Athens, Georgia, October 6
14. Sharon Van Etten, Terminal West, October 27

My Year-End 4x4

No getting around it - this is pretty much what I was listening to this year.  Here are some random clips grabbed from the above.

Seapony

Oh, look.  Seattle dream-pop band Seapony have released a new video for their song Be Alone.  

Seapony brightened the morning back on September 3, the most awesome day of Bumbershoot 2012, the same day M83 performed, among many others.  Seapony performed a set at 12 noon, just as the sunny Seattle sky was starting to warming up, the Labor Day crowd was arriving, and the realization of what a terrific day was ahead was just starting to dawn on your humble narrator.

Formed in Ohio in 2010, Seapony is longtime couple and songwriting duo Jen Weidl (guitars, vocals, lyrics) and Danny Rowland (guitar, lyrics, and Jason Schwartzman impersonations).  In Seattle, they teamed up with bassist Ian Brewer, Rowland's childhood friend and former bandmate, and drummer Aaron.  

Their LP Falling was released September 11, and is available here.

M83

You really have to hand it to the French electro-pop band M83 - a full year after their album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming comes out, they finally get around to releasing the video to what I consider to be the most beautiful song on the album, the lovely and understated Wait.  I don't understand a thing that's going on in the video, but it's still fun to watch.  

Here are some more pictures of M83 performing in Seattle at Bumbershoot 2012, where a riot almost broke out when the audience overran the security guards and bum rushed the open floor of Key Arena during M83's performance,