Well we went to Seattle last week, and here's my Bumbershoot wrapup.
First, let me say that if I had a national park as beautiful as Mt Rainier within 40 miles of my abode in DC, you'd probably never hear me complain about anything. If you're a hiker, and you're out that way, you MUST go there.
Secondly, let me say that there are wayyy more lesbians in Seattle than in DC. Or at least more women who like to hold hands at music festivals and pretend they are lesbians to get the attention of men.
But more importantly, the music:
Saturday :
Solomon Burke: I think Celeste summed him up best when she said, "That's the type of music 50 year olds listen to when they don't know anything about music." True, but for what he was, it was a good performance.
Minus the Bear: We only lasted a few songs, leaving unimpressed by the band, but even more so unimpressed with the lousy sound system in the exhibtion hall they were playing in.
Voyager One: Spacey Britpop from Seattle. They were tolerable, though generic. EMP Skychurch is a nice venue, and that made it reasonably enjoyable.
The Pale: A pale imitation of Death Cab for Cutie. Unimpressive
The Catheters: Back to the same crummy venue that MTB had played. 10 seconds of this band convinced my we had to leave.
Mary Lou Lord: Finally and artist that I had already seen multiple times. Her shag-rat-mullet combination haircut looked straight off the street of Barcelona, and her mesh baseball hat looked straight off the streets of Seattle (what are these people thinking with their bad fashion?) But her music was good. And she was charming in her usual self-depracating wany.
Bobby Bare Jr.: Never paid the band Bare Jr much attention, but had liked what I heard of his solo album on Bloodshot. And man, what a great show he put on. The surprise of the festival for both of us. Endearingly goofy and sounding like Paul Westeberg in an alt-country mode.
Kathleen Edwards: Only stayed for a handful of songs. Overrated, overhyped poser. Not bad, but definitely not great. And her flipping the bird to the radio dj who introduced her and then tried to snap a picture wasn't all that endearing either.
Dandy Warhols: Well, they started 45 minutes late due to sound problems (same building as MTB), too bad they coudn't just come out and play acoustic. Once thet did come out, we had to move to the back of the room and keep our earplugs in, because it was so loud. The sound was just a muddy wall of noise, and their songs dragged on to 10+ mins each (ooh how arty) Even Wilco can be a bit annoying when they drag songs to such length, and an inferior band like DW suffered even more. What a tuneless mess. Part the sound system, part the band's fault. Had to leave early.
Sunday:
Got there late, but did see:
Gorgol Bordello: imagine an eastern european version of the Pogues. Fun stuff, but it gets repetitive.
Chuck Prophet: Tom Petty meets Bob Dylan, minus the hooks of Petty and the lyrics of Bob. Totally mediocre
Grey Delisle: wife of Old 97's bassist Murry Hammond (who played bass and sang harmony, admirably, as always). Her strong voice and sweet demeanor were quite enjoyable, as were the stage antics of former Lone Justice member Marvin Etzioni, who was on guitar and mandolin.
Rhett Miller: Fifth time we had seen him solo. Second time we had to sit through his awful Bowie cover. Solid entertaining show as usual, but looking forward to the return of the Old 97's next year. On KEXP, he revealed he is thinking of naming his son either Cash (after Johnny) or Stuart Ransom Miller III.
Would have liked to have seen the Shins on Friday and the Long Winters, Wilco, Jesse Sykes and New Pornographers on Monday, but our schedule didn't allow it.
