The last day of my last Bumbershoot, and I have to admit it: this was my most enjoyable Bumbershoot yet. Here's a late-night recap of the bands we saw today:
GOLD & YOUTH
Gold & Youth came on early, taking the stage at 12:30 and only being allotted a 30-minute set, but kicked off the day nicely with their moody anthems. Highlights included, naturally, their closer Time To Kill.
LA LUZ
La Luz took the stage at the same early hour as Gold & Youth, but were allotted a more luxuriant 45 minutes to play, so I was able to catch the last few songs of their set after Gold & Youth were finished.
HOBA HOBA SPIRIT
Going through the schedule, I did not plan on seeing any band named "Hoba Hoba Spirit" or have any interest in hearing any band named "Hoba Hoba Spirit," but as I had some free time after La Luz, I wandered over to the Fisher Green Stage and to my surprise found myself enjoying the funky set of Moroccan punk ("Moroccan roll" as the band put it) by Casablanca's Hoba Hoba Spirit. Even though one of the singers wore a Clash Sandanista t-shirt, sadly, they still had to sing a song called I Am Not a Terrorist to dispel any Western suspicions about them. Later in the day, Jonathan Richman would say that the most promising thing he saw during a recent tour of the Middle East, the only promising thing in fact, were joint Israeli and Palistinian punk-rock bands. After they got the audience up and dancing, no small achievement in Seattle, Hoba Hoba Spirit even got them singing along in Arabic, an even greater achievement in these polarized times.
CAMPFIRE OK THE WEATHER
I saw Campfire OK in 2011 at my first Bumbershoot, so I noticed that they had a new and different lineup when they took the stage today. However, I was still surprised when their front man, Mychal Cohen, announced that this was their very last set as "Campfire OK," and from now on they will be called "The Weather." Anyway, still a fun set from an up and coming band.
DAKHA BRAKHA
This was the real surprise of the day. Just like with Hoba Hoba Spirit earlier in the day, I did not plan on hearing any band named "Dakha Brakha" today as I was going through the schedule. But as it turned out, this three-women and one-man band played native music from "the free Ukraine," and featured otherworldly harmonies, interesting rhythms, and exotic-sounding instruments, reminding us how far east the Ukraine really is. It's not rock, but fans of bands like Dirty Projectors and Bjork should find them interesting. I was mesmerized.
ROSE WINDOWS
Psychedelic blues rock from a band that sounded like they could have opened for Janis Joplin or Grace Slick at the Fillmore West back in the 1960s. Some people might mistake that remark for a criticism, but I mean it as the highest compliment.
MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND
Funky electronic hip-hop-influenced dance music straight from the heart of Mexico City. The infectious beats had your humble narrator up and dancing, despite his sore feet from two-and-a-half days of Bumbershoot.
JULIANNA BARWICK
Wisely, the organizers set Julianna Barwick up in an indoor venue, so her quiet, ambient soundscapes wouldn't have to compete with the backbeats and noise from the other stages. Still, it was quite a transition from the dance-oriented sound of the Mexican Institute to Barwick, but the sheer artistry and brilliance of her playing rewarded the effort, and the audience hung in there in total silence through her spell-binding set.
BOMBA ESTEREO
Back to the dance. It was only 100 yards but it felt like a whole different universe coming from Julianna Barwick's ambient set to the latin-infused hip-hop dance music of Columbia's Bomba Estereo, but in this case, it was the desination and not the journey that mattered. A great set and a whole lot of fun.
NADA SURF
Finely crafted indie-pop by 20-year veterans of the scene.
JONATHAN RICHMAN
Not unlike with Julianna Barwick earlier, I wondered how Jonathan Richman's music would fare in a festival setting. As it turns out, his improvisational and spontaneous approach is the perfect tool for keeping a large audience's attention, and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand through his hour-long set, which seemed to fly by far too quickly.
REAL ESTATE
Real Estate are one of my favorite bands, and a perfect nightcap to end my last Bumbershoot. At one point, bassist Alex Bleeker asked the audience if anyone had been lucky enough to catch Jonathan Richman earlier and asked what he had played, and when someone offered Egyptian Reggae, guitarist Martin Courtney spontaneously launched into a note-by-note, perfect cover of the song's main riff. Just from that episode alone, you can tell how much these guys love their rock, and wouldn't it be so much fun to just hang out with these guys, talking music and going through their record collections? In any event, they played a wonderful set of their layered, jangley music, and it was all so lovely that at times I even forgot where I was, or that the festival was ending, or how much my feet hurt from standing on them for three days.
So that's it. Best Bumbershoot ever. At least for me.
And now it's over.
