Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival: Day1 08.30.08
Posted by Brian Berry on 09.06.2008
Seatte's biggest festival kicks off with huge performances by Beck, MTV's Human Giant and The Walkmen!
A Little Bumberhistory
Ask anyone who’s been to a jumbo-sized music/arts festival (e.g. Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza) and they’ll have a gripe about at least one of these unsavory topics: sweltering heat, belligerently drunken patrons, too large of crowds, needlessly expensive ticket prices (and surcharges) being trapped within the festival grounds thanks to no ins/outs policies, surly staff, lulls in the programming schedule (generally the best time to grab food and water) and poor sound design.
Fear not Mr. or Mrs. Festival-Cynic as Bumbershoot, Seattle’s 37 year old music & arts festival, turns all of these unfortunate conventions on their ass to produce a 3-day event so consistently top notch that you can’t afford to miss it. Unfortunately, the event won’t happen again until Labor Day weekend of 2009 so you’ll have to wait a while to buy tickets.
For the low price of $100 for a 3-day pass (VIP packages run a little bit more), you can enjoy 15 stages of every musical genre imaginable, stand-up comedy, book readings, live radio broadcasts, a film festival, carnival games and rides, improv troupes, live artists, street performers, puppet shows, theatre, and as my friend noted “dude, there’s so much free shit here” (we call it SWAG in these parts)-all at the 74 acre Seattle Center. And yes, it takes about two days to get a good handle on the layout of this humongous space.
This year’s line-up boasted internationally renowned music acts including the always eclectic Beck, post-grunge rockers Stone Temple Pilots, Southern rapper T.I., indie-popsters Death Cab For Cutie and the hard rock infused pop-punk of The Offspring. Some of the comedic big names included David Cross, Janeane Garafalo, Greg Behrendt and MTV’s Human Giant. Local talent is given a huge push on all levels as well, with several music stages and a stand up stage dedicated to Seattle talent. As a self-proclaimed music/comedy geek, this reporter previewed every single music and comedy act online to develop the ultimate schedule (for my taste) over the 3 days of Bumbershoot. I gave each performance a rating of 1-10 where 1 equals terrible and 10 is jaw droppingly awesome.
DAY 1 (Saturday, August 30)-
12:00pm-Three lines to enter the Seattle Center and they are each roughly 200 yards long (or, a 45-minute wait to get it). I manage to weasel my way in through the press door while my friends stand in line.
12:30pm-Local up and coming indie-pop act Throw Me the Statue is performing outdoors at the “Rockstar Stage”. Barely legal girls in bare midriff tops with orange tans and robotic dude bros pass out neon colored energy drink to patrons. I didn’t drink enough coffee so I indulge in three cups of the green apple variety. TMTS rocks the crowd with their gentle songs and complex melodies, reminiscent of bands ranging from Neutral Milk Hotel to Helio Sequence. They bring out horn players on the standout track of their 2008 album Moonbeams, “About To Walk”.
[Throw Me the Statue] Rating: 7/10
1:30pm-People on 2 story high, flexible poles are leaning forward and backward, forward and backward, forward and backward. They’re an Australian troupe called Strange Fruit and apparently there is a storyline attached to the act. Losing interest quickly, I high tail it to the Intiman Theatre for a comedy show. The LSD/psilocybin/marijuana induced demographic looks on in awe. Rating: 3/10
2:00pm-The Doug Benson, Karen Kilgariff and Hannibal Burress comedy show is packed to the gills and many people are turned away in line. This would be the case for all main stage comedy acts throughout the festival. All of the performers have appeared on late night TV and/or television and movies. The host’s name escapes me but I’ve seen him on VH1’s excellent Best Week Ever. He makes fun of Strange Fruit, Scott Weiland (calling him Scott Stapp for effect) and his need to take a Bumber-shit after riding a roller coaster at the Seattle Center. Burress is a young Black comedian from Chicago with deadpan delivery and bits ranging from the lack of diversity in Seattle, the magic of “courier new” type font, his fondness for pickle juice and dating cougars so they’ll buy him video game consoles. Kilgariff, formerly of HBO’s Mr. Show, warmed up quickly after a slow start. She ended with a hysterical impression of Bjork, if she were elected president. Headliner Doug Benson (Last Comic Standing, Best Week Ever, Super High Me) joked about enjoying marijuana (a lot…just about every other bit was about pot), McGriddles and why you should buy his DVD. Rating: Burress 8/10, Kilgariff 7/10, Benson 7/10
3:30pm- We head to the indoor Sky Church (inspired by a Jimi Hendrix) design@ the Experience Music Project to catch a local heavy music three-piece called The Valley. The Sky Church is awesome, with a vaulted ceiling, wide dance floor, great sound, and IMAX screen sized lighting system. The Valley tear through a set of pre-grunge inspired songs, reminiscent of The Melvins and early Helmet. They vow to “blow the fucking PA out” but are literally unsuccessful in their quest. Still, the crowd throws up devil horns and enjoys the set despite this setback. Rating: 7/10
4:15pm-San Francisco’s Thao With the Get Down Stay Down, led by Thao Nguyen, perform poppy folk music borrowed mainly from their 2008 album We Brave Bee Stings and All back at the “Rock Star Stage”. Within the indie community, they are one of the breakout bands of 2008. She has a sweet, breathy voice and her tunes are melodic but her band’s performance does not make me feel anything emotionally. Moderate disappointment. Rating: 6/10
5:45pm-The Walkmen are up next at the same stage. Hell yeah. For my buck they’re one of the most consistently engaging bands both live and on album. Today, they delivered an intense set of songs, borrowed mainly from their solid recently released album,You & Me. Frontman Hamilton Leithauser’s intense, often enraged, drunk-dialing-at-3am croon was on full display as he and his always tight bandmates brought in the biggest crowd of the day at the “Rockstar Stage”. Leithauser’s usually indecipherable, Bob Dylan-esque, meandering stage banter has been replaced by clear enunciation. I’m befuddled. Highlights included “The Rat”, “In the New Year” and “Thinking of a Dream I Had”.
[The Walkmen] Rating: 9/10
8:00pm-We head to the Charlotte Martin Theatre to see a live performance by MTV’s criminally underrated sketch comedy troupe Human Giant. The trio, whose irreverent comedy style is similar to Comedy Central’s defunct Upright Citizen’s Brigade, re-created popular sketches such as the crime fighting “T-Shirt Squad” and Criss Angel lampooning “Illusionators”. The best sketch came from a pair of inspirational speakers intent on having a cripple gain the confidence to walk again. Low points came when the trio of Aziz Ansari, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel were not on stage and were temporarily replaced by other stand-up comedians, especially during an unamusing skit about back acne led by the usually very funny Matt Walsh (of Upright Citizen’s Brigade). Overall though, the performances were high energy and entertaining and well worth missing Band of Horses and Man Man’s competing sets.
[Human Giant] Rating: 8/10
9:00pm- The final slot of night one was filled with several interesting acts so I decided to split my time evenly between headliner Beck, dance-punkers !!! and old school indie band Nada Surf. Stopping first to see one of my favorite live bands, !!!, I was let down by a lack of energy on stage as well as in the crowd. The absence of 2nd vocalist and percussionist John Pugh (he left the band in 2007) was noticeable especially as he played the part of main hype man to eccentric frontman Nic Offer. I next checked out Beck’s set. Generally a fun show, filled with a balance of goofy fun and heartfelt sentiment, the L.A. native performed in a Bob Dylan Desire era black hat and long sleeve shirt with a new backing band since the last time I caught him. His set, similar to the one played at San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival last week, made me think Beck would prefer being anywhere besides on a concert stage. Out of five times catching him live, this was the only time Beck was a bore. Over at the “Starbucks Stage”, I caught the last 20 minutes of Nada Surf’s set. While best known for the 1996 hit “Popular”, Nada Surf have been making good albums that have fallen under the radar since. Tonight’s performance was well attended and for good reason. Their emotive, intelligent power-pop was the strongest performance of the three bands playing this late night slot. Rating: !!! 6/10, Beck 5/10, Nada Surf 7/10
The 411: With so much diversity in the entertainment schedule and intelligent planning by One Reel productions, Bumbershoot is easily the best running music & arts festival in the United States [Note: The score below is for the festival and does not necessarily reflect individual peformances].
