Post by KittyKat - RIP Luciano on Sept 6, 2005 16:39:54 GMT -5
Every Labor Day Weekend, the Seattle Center grounds (where the Space Needle, Experience Music Project Museum and the Pacific Science Center reside) host the big music festival for 4 days.
There are always at least 3 "big name" bands a day, but the best thing is that there are about 7 different stages that are devoted to different music styles that host up to 5 different bands a day, so you can flit around the festival sampling music that you normally wouldn't be acquainted with. This year's lineup wasn't as star packed as previous years and we had some last-minute pull outs (notably Devo and General Public, two groups that I was excited about seeing).
This year's line up included (taken from the program):
Friday
Garbage + New York Dolls + The Donnas + Mavis Staples
Saturday
Trey Anastasio + Citizen Cope + John Butler Trio + Digable Planets + Harvey Danger + Bill Frisell Trio
Sunday
Elvis Costello + Common + The Pharcyde + Talib Kweli + Son Volt + Bo Diddley + The Posies + Billy Preston + Marc Broussard
Monday
Iggy & the Stooges + Michael Franti & Spearhead + Mudhoney + Dashboard Confessional + Buckwheat Zydeco
I went just Sunday and Monday.
We started Sunday by seeing this guy named David Poe who was really wonderful. Then we walked around and got the lay of land and checked out the different venues before going to catch Tim Seely who used to be lead singer of this band that I liked called Actual Tiger. I had listened to a few of the tracks off his new solo album a few weeks ago at this record store and liked it, but I thought his Bumbershoot performance was just ok. After this, I headed over to the blues stage to catch the end of Wheedle's Groove which is a collection of various soul, R&B and funk artists from Seattle that were popular in the 70s. It was nice to sit in the sun and listen to them. I headed over to the jazz stage to catch Swampdwellers. I didn't know anything about them but their description in the program sounded fun. They were pretty awesome - nice horns.
I got to see some of the Posies but it was sort of drizzling so I just decided to head straight for McCaw Hall to see Sunvolt. I got to McCaw early enough that I was able to catch the last song of the preceeding act, Jesse Sykes. Sun Volt kicked ass. It was a great show. When I got out of there, Elvis Costello was still playing so I caught the last 45 minutes of his set which was nice.
Monday started out with a dance performance called the Buttrock Suites. It's an interprative dance group that does modern jazz/ballet to heavy-metal music from the 80s. The troupe was AWESOME. The dancing was amazing, and while the dancers wore costumes and wigs and their tongues were firmly planted in their cheeks, it still wasn't insulting the hair metal, more like praising it. If anyone has a chance to catch these guys I highly recommend it.
After Buttrock I headed over to the jazz stage to see the band that basically was the main reason that I'd come to Bumbershoot this year - the Upper Left Trio. This jazz trio is headed up by Clay Giberson who I knew in college at UM. The band was amazing. Clay writes most of their songs which is so cool - he's definitely making the most of his UM Music degree.
After that I went to see The Waybacks, a band out of San Francisco. They're a mix of country, folk, rock, bluegrass, jazz, funk - excellent. Later that evening I caught Iggy Pop & The Stooges – they still know how to put on a good show.
All in all a great 2 days of music.
There are always at least 3 "big name" bands a day, but the best thing is that there are about 7 different stages that are devoted to different music styles that host up to 5 different bands a day, so you can flit around the festival sampling music that you normally wouldn't be acquainted with. This year's lineup wasn't as star packed as previous years and we had some last-minute pull outs (notably Devo and General Public, two groups that I was excited about seeing).
This year's line up included (taken from the program):
Friday
Garbage + New York Dolls + The Donnas + Mavis Staples
Saturday
Trey Anastasio + Citizen Cope + John Butler Trio + Digable Planets + Harvey Danger + Bill Frisell Trio
Sunday
Elvis Costello + Common + The Pharcyde + Talib Kweli + Son Volt + Bo Diddley + The Posies + Billy Preston + Marc Broussard
Monday
Iggy & the Stooges + Michael Franti & Spearhead + Mudhoney + Dashboard Confessional + Buckwheat Zydeco
I went just Sunday and Monday.
We started Sunday by seeing this guy named David Poe who was really wonderful. Then we walked around and got the lay of land and checked out the different venues before going to catch Tim Seely who used to be lead singer of this band that I liked called Actual Tiger. I had listened to a few of the tracks off his new solo album a few weeks ago at this record store and liked it, but I thought his Bumbershoot performance was just ok. After this, I headed over to the blues stage to catch the end of Wheedle's Groove which is a collection of various soul, R&B and funk artists from Seattle that were popular in the 70s. It was nice to sit in the sun and listen to them. I headed over to the jazz stage to catch Swampdwellers. I didn't know anything about them but their description in the program sounded fun. They were pretty awesome - nice horns.
I got to see some of the Posies but it was sort of drizzling so I just decided to head straight for McCaw Hall to see Sunvolt. I got to McCaw early enough that I was able to catch the last song of the preceeding act, Jesse Sykes. Sun Volt kicked ass. It was a great show. When I got out of there, Elvis Costello was still playing so I caught the last 45 minutes of his set which was nice.
Monday started out with a dance performance called the Buttrock Suites. It's an interprative dance group that does modern jazz/ballet to heavy-metal music from the 80s. The troupe was AWESOME. The dancing was amazing, and while the dancers wore costumes and wigs and their tongues were firmly planted in their cheeks, it still wasn't insulting the hair metal, more like praising it. If anyone has a chance to catch these guys I highly recommend it.
After Buttrock I headed over to the jazz stage to see the band that basically was the main reason that I'd come to Bumbershoot this year - the Upper Left Trio. This jazz trio is headed up by Clay Giberson who I knew in college at UM. The band was amazing. Clay writes most of their songs which is so cool - he's definitely making the most of his UM Music degree.
After that I went to see The Waybacks, a band out of San Francisco. They're a mix of country, folk, rock, bluegrass, jazz, funk - excellent. Later that evening I caught Iggy Pop & The Stooges – they still know how to put on a good show.
All in all a great 2 days of music.
