Ok, let's talk a little bit about Bumbershoot, seeing as how it was my first one and all. (Even though I was a bad first timer and decided to skip Smoosh, the Blue Scholars, and New York Dolls on Friday in favor of shopping and Audrey Hepburn movies.)
Saturday: I showed up in time to catch the end of Vamola, where Cat was waving palm fronds around in front of some dancers and a volcano. We wandered a bit and then caught a few songs of The Academy Is--which we left almost immediately. Cat went back to wave palm fronds some more and I looked around for my friend Chris, who was working somewhere on the grounds. I never found him.
After the palm fronds we debated going to see IQU, but the line was just too long and so instead we poked around a bit before heading over to Visqueen. I love Visqueen, and I really love how they all dress like third grade math teachers. Next was the 826 benefit, and then we left to go to Bill's Off Broadway for pizza and singing happy birthday. I blew out the candle on the table.
Sunday: The whole point in going to Bumbershoot on Sunday was to see Math and Physics Club. They've been one of my favorite bands ever since "Weekends Away" came out at the beginning of the year. I carefully stepped on the toes of the man standing next to me whenever he talked too loud, and MAPC made me smile. My enormous crush on James was strengthened.
I debated sticking around for Headphones, but instead headed over to see Lauren Weedman perform her one-woman show, "Wreckage." She was really amazing, playing characters and switching from funny to sad on a dime. Since it was raining I stuck around for Open Circle's "Are We Scared."
A snack, and then the Posies! I caught the first few songs and then headed over to check out Pretty Girls Make Graves. But the line was so long that I went back, in time to see Ken Stringfellow wearing little else than a clear plastic garbage bag. Awesome. Afterwards, I met Cat and Caroline for the Carolines and Key Note Speaker, as well as a bit of chatting with fellows out to make nice with Cat, and a bit of checking out the sound guy.
(What?)
Monday: I met Cat and Caroline way, way too early in order to catch The Decemberists. Astonishingly, they played the whole of "The Tain". I nearly beat up a girl to steal her "Pirates arrrr cool" tshirt. (I found it tonight and bought it!) They get an A+ for performance. I just love them.
We couldn't take the Dashboard Confessional crowd, so instead we wandered over for Los Amigos Invisibles. They were "superfunky"--they told us so themselves. A bit of a dance party was refreshing, because after all there is nothing like breaking it down in the sun in Seattle, unsound shin and all. We then meandered over for Earlimart, who were probably pretty good, but not good enough to make a dent on all the superfantastic things I had already seen for the weekend. So we went back outside and got in line for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, about five minutes before the large part of the Flogging Molly crowd showed up and things got insane. Ted Leo was good, although the bass was overpowering for the first couple of songs and the vocals were too low.
I debated sticking around for Tegan and Sara, but by then my kidneys were tired of being elbowed and instead I came home.
Thanks for letting me get that out of my system, guys. In all, I'd give the whole Bumbershoot experience an A-.
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