Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival: Day 3 (Sep. 1, 2008)
Posted by Brian Berry on 09.08.2008
Seattle's biggest music festival comes to a close with performances by Paramore, Superchunk and comedian Greg Behrendt!
As much as I don't want my trip to Seattle end, this is the final day of Bumbershoot. If you've never been to Seattle go during September when the weather is near perfect.
Day 3 (Monday September 1)-
1:15pm-My second intimate Music Lounge show of the festival was for beloved San Francisco duo Two Gallants. Having seen them a dozen times already (and covering two of their live shows and and an album review for 411Mania), they are one of the only acts that can move me to tears with their punk-inspire, bluesy folk. The short set for KEXP borrowed from all three of their full length albums, highlighted by 2006’s emotive “Waves of Grain”. Singer/guitarist Adam Stephens and drummer/back-up vocalist Tyson Vogel received a standing ovation from the captivated audience. Rating: 9/10
1:45pm-My current guiltiest pleasure is the platinum selling pop-punk band Paramore. The young Tennessee quartet drew an enormous crowd owning a guesstimated median age of 16. Their Hot Topic ready, coming of age anthems were complimented well by spunky, cutie pie lead singer Hayley Williams. Fans went apeshit for the singles “Misery Business”, “That’s What You Get” and “crushcrushcrush” and the ultra positive, high energy set borrowing mainly from last year’s Riot! album.
[Paramore] Rating: 8/10
2:30pm-The surprise performance of the festival occurred at the Exhibition Hall Stage where Israeli garage-punks Monotonix were slated to perform for 1 hour. First off, Monotonix don’t even have sixty minutes of material…probably 30 minutes tops. Conversations overheard in the crowd boasted rumors of the band setting themselves on fire and drinking urine. The guitar/drums/vocals trio opted to set up their instruments in the middle of the floor rather than on stage. Eager fans swarmed in as the show started and my jaw instantly hit the floor! The band has a dirty rock ‘n roll sound, indebted mainly to early Detroit punk bands like MC5 and The Stooges. Singer Ami Shalev danced around wildly like Mike Patton in an old Faith No More video while the guitarist’s killer licks recalled Wayne Kramer of the MC5. The crowd danced frenetically while the band blistered through their first couple songs. Shalev was hoisted on top of the crowd, using a drum piece as a springboard. After the third song, climbed onto the stage, mooned the audience for a minute, jumped back into the crowd and started back up. Now, guitarist Yonatan Gat was crowd surfing while playing(!) whilst the crowd continued feeding off Monotonix’s energy; smiles abound. Thirteen minutes into the set, a festival rep got on stage in the middle of a song and told the audience the show had to be cancelled but the band finished out the tune. Cheers of “let them play” and “Monotonix” went on for a few minutes before Shalev got on stage, thanked the audience and asked the audience to leave. [Writer’s note: I caught Monotonix in Oakland two days later at the Stork Club and asked the Gat why they were asked to leave, initially thinking it was due to Shalev’s indecent exposure or the unruly nature of the audience. It turns out they were asked not to crowd surf and their blatant defiance of that club rule caused the end of the show. ] Rating: 10/10
3:45pm-My final Music Lounge performance was by the mega popular alt-country band Old 97’s. This was the fullest the Music Lounge got over the three days but it was the weakest of the three sets. The band sounded clean and the performance, borrowing mainly from 2008’s Blame It On Gravity, was adequate but frontman Rhett Miller’s cutesy, on stage posturing grew tedious quickly. The highlight was meeting comedian Greg Behrendt inside. He is a really nice guy. Rating: 6/10
4:10pm-I run into Janeane Garafalo outside of the Old 97’s show and talk to her for a bit about her performance the day before. She looks amazing for her mid-40s and is incredibly sweet and down to earth. I ask to take a picture with her and she kindly obliges. The photographer doesn’t recognize her and calls us a “cute couple”. For a few seconds in my life, I’m perceived as the boyfriend of someone I’ve had a crush on since I was in the 7th grade (after watching Reality Bites…ha ha) I’m in love and Jenna Fischer has been replaced as my celebrity crush. Rating: 11/10 (not a performance, but I’ll allow myself a free pass)
4:15pm-Two Gallants performed at the “Rockstar Stage”. I didn’t realize how often I was over there, drinking free, nuclear waste colored soda until writing this article. Two Gallants’ performance was top notch as usual during the hour long set. They’ve come a long was in the past five years.
[Two Gallants] Rating: 9/10
5:30pm-The only mainstage comedy act I hadn’t seen was the one I was most looking forward to: Greg Behrendt (The Greg Behrendt Show, author of She’s Just Not That Into You) and comedienne Tig Notaro (Last Comic Standing). Notaro has a dry delivery without being cynical. She discussed the lack of mental filters in a man who told her she has “a little titties”, gave impressions of people giving impressions and a bit about “do not disturb” signs in Spanish reading “no moleste”. She was superb and probably the best received comic of the weekend. Greg Behrendt, former writer for Sex and the City and syndicated daytime talk show host, delivered a rousing set focusing on his image, performers at Bumbershoot and an amazing bit about his wife having a crush on Krasinski and Greg’s desire to outperform the actor at the gym. This was the best comedy show of the festival.
[Tig Notaro] Rating: Notaro 9/10, Behrendt 9/10
7:45pm-Indie gods Superchunk are opening for Death Cab For Cutie in one of only four shows this year (the other three were in their home state of North Carolina). Having listened to them since middle school, I was excited to finally catch them live. Unfortunately, the crowd was packed with little’uns waiting for Death Cab so I couldn’t get as close to the stage as I wanted. When they took the stage, Superchunk looked and sounded amazing, not missing a beat in their hour long set borrowing from every nook of the discography. Kids were literally lining up near me to crowd surf. At one point, there were a dozen kids hovering above the crowd and running into one another, much to the plight of security who did not have enough arms to pull the kids over the security barrier safely. An unfortunate circumstance of the immature crowd was the several people who sustained eye injuries from the free blinking light pins used as projectiles shooting away from the stage. I literally had to shield my eyes for several songs to avoid being hit. Nevertheless, Superchunk played some of their best songs, including “Detroit Has A Skyline”, “Slack Motherfucker” and the encore of “Hyper Enough”, thus converting many of these teeny boppers on to one of the most influential indie bands in history.
[Superchunk] Rating: 8/10
9:00pm-We scour the grounds for the best ½ price food from the vendors. A $5 blackened salmon burger (usually $8) had nothing on my $4 plate of green curry chicken, pad thai and spring roll from the Thai stand (50% off). Still, these deals had nothing on the $2 hand-dipped corn dogs on sale for the entire festival (between the four people in my party we had a total of 12). Loaded up with nearly 2 pounds of carbs, I was ready for a spike in my blood sugar and a long night’s sleep before my flight back to California.
[$2 Corn Dog Tent w/ “Tipping Gong”...you can't lie about something this awesome]
Bumberconclusion
Festival cynics would be hard pressed to come up with a serious gripe about the festival. The weather is generally pleasant in the Northwest this time of year. Altercations related to alcohol consumption are kept in check by the sparsely distributed beer gardens and non-threatening police presence. The only stage that sometimes suffers from overcrowding, as expected, is the mainstage at Memorial Stadium but you have the option to sit in the bleachers to avoid the crowd. I only witnessed one pile of vomit and no fighting. Security and police only interjected as needed and were very pleasant. Ticket prices are kept at a minimum thanks to the low overhead related to the event; 500 volunteers help run Bumbershoot (very helpful AND they smile) and a local non-profit promotion company operate the festival. In & outs are allowed. Furthermore, sound at each of the stages is nothing short of top notch and-*gasp*-you can’t hear any of the other stages while you’re listening to a band. Coachella’s peeps could take a long needed cue from the sound techs in Seattle.
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.
