Any thoughts about it so far? Who are you going to see? Who do you think we should see? Almost every act has been announced by now, so I won’t list them all. It’s all on the web site. Here are some helpful links:

Main web site:
http://www.bumbershoot.org

Printable PDF artist lineup, schedules, and map, which includes the new venue that is replacing “the pit” (aka the Exhibition Hall)
http://bumbershoot.org/info/pdf/

Online lineup and scheduling tool:
http://sched.bumbershoot.org/

Miscellaneous info:
http://bumbershoot.org/info/about-bumbershoot/

Info about the free 40-years-of-Bumbershoot poster show (thru Sept. 7):
http://bumbershoot.org/40/umbrella-for-the-arts-40-years-of-bumbershoot-artwork/

Downloadable icons, wallpaper, and cellphone stuff:
http://bumbershoot.org/bumberfan/downloads.htm

Platinum/Gold Pass info:
http://bumbershoot.org/tickets/platinum-gold/

Buy tickets and ticket info:
http://bumbershoot.org/tickets/

That’s all for now…

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We didn’t get pictures of every music act we watched at the festival, but you can read about it here (part one) and here (part two) if you want the play-by-play. It’s a gripping read, and one you might not soon forget. Or I could be wrong. In any event the pictures from the trip (three pages worth) are here on the photo page. Click on the first small photo to see the larger image and then you can either click through them or watch the slide show. Have fun and leave me a comment afterwards!!

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Saturday September 5
After a year of waiting, today was finally the first real day of the 2009 Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. Yeah! We monorailed it over to the festival grounds, and headed for the hospitality room. Included with our Gold Passes was three day access to this room, an oasis with free snacks, drinks, tables and chairs, and indoor clean restrooms. That last item become more important later in the day since the restrooms on the festival grounds can get a little funky. But we don’t worry about that. Anyway, we perused the day’s schedule for the 15 or so different stages and decided to first see a band called Everest.

We watched five or six songs. They were good but not awesome and we left, wanting to get a good spot for Katy Perry at the main stage. Don’t laugh! I know she’s kind of a joke but the show was pretty entertaining, better than she comes across on CD. I wouldn’t spend money on her, that didn’t change. But she was campy and fun and that worked for the 75 or so minutes she performed. After that sugary pop, we headed into “the pit’, the Exhibition Hall stage, down in the basement of one of the buildings for a set by Sick Puppies, an Australian band that our pal Jared had recommended. They were energetic and noisy, very in-your-face modern rock, but the hooks were there and they did it really well. We ended staying for their whole set. A nice surprise.

Next it was time for some comedy. We saw a few different Washington-based comics performing routines under the name of Lo-Ball. It was funny. Not hilarious but still funny and we enjoyed it. Then we saw a new artist, singer-songwriter Eric Hutchinson, who we both liked a lot. We’ll be watching for his CD. He was deceptively simple and his catchy folk-pop songs were good. The crowd was singing along, so obviously we were catching up with them here, but it was a high point of the day. He improvised a rain song when it rained for about five minutes. Oh, and I should mention while I think about it that we were eating on and off, all of the festival days. The hospitality room always had food. And besides that, there was plenty of festival food. Petra’s favorite was the “Green Cossack”, which is cooked red potatoes smothered in a creamy dill sauce. I tended toward the Pad Thai, a little spicy, with a little peanut sauce added. Mmmm. And other stuff too, as I’ve said before, “You gotta eat or you’ll die!”.

Petra headed out to watch a drumming and dancing group called Cobu, while I went to the other end of the festival grounds for a band called Uh Huh Her. I’d heard a song by them somewhere but after watching part of their set, I wasn’t impressed. It was allright but nothing special. And in a festival with all these stages, that meant venturing out again to see what else was happening. I hooked up with Petra coming out of her event, and we went loooking around. We caught a song or two by old school hip-hoppers De La Soul and we both thought it was pretty awful so on we went. We saw the very end of Kay Kay And His Weathered Underground. They looked interesting but we only had a little to go on. Still, overall it was a great day with a lot of cool music and fun. Yahooey! We all went back to the hotel, poured a beverage and headed up to the Cloud Room on 11 to talk about the day and look over tomorrow’s schedule.

Sunday September 6
We got to the festival a little damp, thanks to some rain and puddles on the way. After a snack, Petra and Robin went to an art event where you can design an outfit from various articles of clothing, vintage and otherwise. There will be a picture of their outfits posted here when I get the pictures done. Check back for that. For now, keep your eyes right here! Well, keep reading, I mean. So I hung out and watched. Then Petra and I went to the main stage to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. We have an album of theirs that is a little strange but pretty cool. They sound kind of like a more upbeat Siouxie And The Banshees if that helps. We watched most of their set and then went to see some comedy. Petra is a big fan of Reggie Watts, and his set was very surreal and pretty funny. The other comics were Matt Braugner and Todd Barry. Matt was the funnier of the two but both were good.

Of course, we were snacking and eating during the day too. Oh yeah. Then it was back to the main stage for Michael Franti and Spearhead. We have all (or at least most) of his CDs and have seen him a couple times before in concert. He always entertains and his music is great. I really like his Yell Fire CD but the others are good too, for the most part. Anyway, this was another great live show. He performed many songs from his latest album, and a good assortment from other albums too. For the last song, pop/rock star Jason Mraz came out and sung along with Michael. It’s hard to go wrong with Michael Franti in concert. After a short break, it was time for the day’s headliner (on the mainstage anyway). Petra is a big fan of Jason Mraz, the headliner, and I like him too. We had a good spot to watch from, fairly close but out of the big packed mess right in front. Jason entertained the crowd, doing most of his latest hit album and other crowd-pleasing songs too. Lots of kids in the audience were singing along. Big fun, and a great way to end day two of the festival. Then it was back to the hotel and, you guessed it, a beverage and up to the Cloud Room to talk about the day and figure out who to see tomorrow. Mama O and Liz showed up too, along with Larry, Robin, Petra and me.

Monday September 7
Another day, another monorail to the festival. Dry this time, although the day did drizzle a couple times later on. You know the drill, our first stop was the hospitality lounge for some food. Then we watched a few songs from Anomie Belle. It was raining a bit but we were under a tree with umbrellas so it wasn’t bad. Then we wandered into the art exhibits. Earlier in the week we had built some paper houses for an open art exhibit. The winners were to be determined by random selection. We didn’t win. I guess we weren’t random enough. Then we went to a different stage for some songs by Visqueen. They were ok but not more than that, so we ventured into the Sky Church stage for part of a set by Point Juncture WA. This stage is inside the Experience Music Project museum and has a huge, and I do mean huge, video screen behind the band, showing electronic patterns. Very nice. Next up, we staked out a good spot at the main stage for the set by the Black Eyed Peas. I’m not a big fan of the latest album, but like some of the other stuff. We saw them in the same venue about four or five years ago and they were good, and sure enough, this time they were good too. Even though some of the songs are dumb, the stage show was decent and they worked it. So, better than I expected. Not great but very entertaining.

After that, we watched Forgive Durden, a band that had been recommended to us. They were performing their rock opera live but we weren’t feeling it at all. We moved along and then we stopped in at the beer wine garden and saw part of a set by The Devil Makes Three. Good-timey folk music, nothing deep but they were having a good time. A few songs were enough. Next we went to see some comedy. It was Doug Benson doing an act called The Benson Interruptions, where he has other comedians on and then as they tell stories he interrupts and asks questions, makes comments, etc. It was pretty funny. Next it was back to the main stage for Franz Ferdinand. I liked their hits on the radio but never bought any of their music. But seeing them live, I was impressed. They were really good live and totally rocked the house. There was crowd surfing all over the place and they played a tight and smoking hot set. They surprised me with how good they were. The headliner after that at the Broad Street stage was Metric, a band I’ve been liking a lot recently. I saw them in the same place a few years ago and was impressed with their mix of modern quirky rock, great woman singer, and cool interesting songs and lyrics. And they didn’t disappoint. We were a little ways back and the first few songs the vocals were a little under-volumed, but they played a very good set. They played most of the songs from the great 2009 album Fantasies, and also some from their previous three albums. A great “unknown” band. And that was the end to yet another great Bumbershoot Festival. Awesome! I can hardly wait until next year!!

Tuesday September 8
Not much to report here. It was a bus ride to the airport, then a quick and uneventful flight home.

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We recently went to Seattle for a week, as we have done over Labor Day for the last nine or so years. The big attraction is the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. It’s a three day festival with entertainment on about 15 stages, plus a variety of other stuff going on too. You can find out more at www.bumbershoot.org. Anyway, between that and some side events, most of the week in Seattle is taken up, and in a great way. But we managed to fit in some other fun things too. Here’s what we did…

Tuesday September 1
We caught the plane to Seattle in the morning. A nice quick flight. Then we took the Seattle city bus from the airport to the hotel. Lucky us, the bus stops right across the street from our hotel, The Camlin. It was before check-in time but the hotel stashed our luggage so we could explore the city for a while. We walked a bit and then took the monorail to the Seattle Center area. Ninety seconds of zipping above the traffic, nice concept! We walked through the center, looking at the preparations for the upcomong Bumbershoot Festival, and walked over to Kidd Valley burgers for a lunch of gardenburgers and onion rings dipped in tartar sauce. Next stop was down the street to Easy Street Records, a nice new-and-used music store where we always find things we need want.

It was sprinkling off and on but we stayed pretty dry and walked over to the State Liquor Store to pick up some supplies for the week. Washington State has some weird liquor laws. A state employee sold us some booze! Between the CDs we bought and the necessary liquid supplies, the old backpack was getting pretty darned heavy. But we bravely traveled on, walking a bit to Silver Platters record store. Of course we found a few items there too. Really, we are just trying to stimulate the economy. If you’ll believe that.

We took the thousand pound backpack and hopped on the monorail back toward the hotel. Once there, we got our luggage and unpacked. Then we took a walk down to the Seattle waterfront. That’s alway pretty and pleasant. From there it was just a short walk to Mama’s Mexican Food and, hey, you gotta eat! So we had a tasty meal and since it was still happy hour we had a couple margaritas. We hung out there for a while and decided, that since we were not driving, we would have one more margarita. We had to change tables due to a party coming in, but because we did that, they gave us the margarita free! I was ready to change tables all night! Then we wandered out into the evening. We walked to a grocery store and bought a little fruit, cheese, and crackers to get us through at least part of the week. Then we walked back to the hotel and took a beverage up to the 11th floor “Cloud Room“, with glass on three sides and a nice view and a great place to relax at the end of a fun day.

Wednesday September 2
We had some fruit in the room for breakfast and then headed out into our second-favorite city of Seattle. Down near the waterfront, across the street from Pike Place Market, we had a snack at Piroshky Piroshky. Great filled dough with lots of options for the filling. Then we took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, about 35 or so minutes each way. It’s such a peaceful and pretty ride on the water. We walked around on the island for a while, perusing the tourist shops. Eventually we ended up at the end of the area and, lo and behold, we came across a little place called Emmy’s Vegehouse. Yow! A totally vegetarian shack with some tables, we were all over that. Pretty good food, too. Good thing we were going to walk off all the food on this trip. Then we took the ferry back to downtown Seattle. Surprise, right near Pike’s market was another record store. What could we do? Then we walked around the huge Pike Place Market a bit and headed back. A quick stop at the Old Navy for a scarf for Petra and then back to the hotel.

We taste-tested some of that cheese and crackers and determined they we really good. So we tasted some more! Then we headed down the block to see Wicked, the big hit play. I had read the book and we’d heard good things about the play. The theater there, the Paramount, is really nice too. Long story short, the play was great, we both really liked it. The book was dificult in spots but the play was great, clever, fun, and really well done. By then it was getting late but we were hungry. Lucky for us, a block away is Cyber-Dogs, a really good vegetarian hot dog place. This place is so cool and so small. But the topping combinations she puts on the dogs and unique and delicious. I love this place. Then, after a long day, and nicely stuffed, we went back to the hotel.

Thursday September 3
We started the day again with some fruit in the room to get us started. Then we monorailed to the Experience Music Project, the world’s coolest music museum. We spent a little while there and saw the new exhibit and also played a little on some instruments in their Sound Lab. After that, we met up with our friends Larry and Robin, who had flow into Seattle that morning. Our friend Mama O and her various posse members were due to arrrive later today and over the next couple days also. Anyway, the four of us checked out the Bumbershoot Festival preparations and walked a block or two to the Bamboo Garden vegetarian chinese food. Hundreds of menu items and no meat at all. Wish the whole world was like that

Full again, we monorailed back to the hotel and walked a while to the Pioneer Square area. Today was the First Thursday Art Walk so we looked at a bunch of art in a bunch of galleries. There were vendors too, of course. And lots of people. We were hoping to meet up with Mama O but it didn’t happen that day. We did, however walk a while and hooked up with a different Mama. Yep, we were back at Mama’s Mexican Food! Ole indeed! More food, a few drinks, and a nice walk back to the hotel. The four of us headed up to the cloud room to relax and talk. A nice end to another fine day.

Friday September 4
The four of us headed out into Seatlle, first taking a walk to a downtown jewelry store that Robin had read about. We looked around there for a few minutes and then went on to the grocery store for some supplies. Soon after that we were on the monorail to the Seattle Center once again. We had a gardenburger lunch at Kidd Valley and then went back through the Seattle Center and first thing, picked up our Gold Passes for the upcoming (tomorrow) Festival. We touched base with John, the Gold Pass leader. What a nice guy, he remembered us and said he thought he saw us earlier in the year in Palm Springs! Small world and sure enough, that would have been on our Indio trip. Anyway, he was great the whole time this year, as always, making sure everything went fine for us.

Then we headed to the Bumbershoot Visual Arts exhibits. They open them up a day early and it is MUCH less crowded so we always go see them on Friday. And as always they had a variety of interesting art. Some if it was strange but in a very good way, so that’s cool. Four, five, or was it six large rooms of visual art, that’s a nice way to spend an afternoon. After that, we walked a bit and ended up at a nearby coffee shop where we had some liquid refreshment and a needed caffeine boost. And then it was back to the Seattle Center for the advance preview of the Film Festival. During the Bumbershoot Festival, there are three days of short films, but the preview is a less-crowded and more relaxing way to get a taste of it. Usually the Bumbershoot festival has so much else going on, that we don’t get to the film portion. With the Friday preview, though, we do see some of the films! Then it was back to the hotel, another nice day. And Bumbershoot starts tomorrow!!

Stay tuned for part 2 – including the actual festival! In the meantime…

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View the massive schedule of all the Bumbershoot performers.

If you want to make a suggestion for me, put it in the comments below. Now, now, keep it nice.

To view the Bumbershoot web site, go here.

This year, Petra and I will be up in Seattle for a week, friends Larry and Robin (their web site) will be there most of the time, and Mama O and her posse will be there from 3-5 days or so. Big fun for everyone. Recently, I wrote more about who to see at this year’s event in my earlier posts Bumbershoot – You’re Telling Me and Who Should I See At Bumbershoot.

Yah-hoo! I am SO READY!!!!!

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From Mike M

Franz Ferdinand & Modest Mouse are no brainers.  And don’t miss Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘cuz she puts on a great live show.  Also DJ Spooky is definitely worth checking out.  Have fun!

From Chris P

Looks like fun. If I were going, the ones I’d be most eager to see are:

- Old 97s

- World Party

- Sheryl Crow

- Soulsavers w/Mark Lanegan

- Todd Snider

From Kevin C

Katy Perry, Sheryl Crow, Maximo Park, Todd Snider, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, writers of LOST, Franz Ferdinand

From Robert K

World Party might be worth checking out.  Franz Ferdinand is real good too.  Sly & Robbie is good dub reggae.

From Jared P

Sick Puppies are good… they are from Australia. Super nice guys and girl. Played with them at the Boardwalk like 3 years ago. Forgive Durden is VERY good. He is from Washington. Thats all that I saw that wasn’t obvious. (Jason Mraz, Black Eyed Peas, etc)

Thanks to all of you for the suggestions! I won’t see all those people but I might see some. I really appreciate it. Anyone else have some artist suggestions for me? Leave me a comment below!!

My original post is here, along with the list I was thinking about seeing before I got all this great input!

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http://sched.bumbershoot.org/

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Bumbershoot Festival main web site 

Thanks…

One of life’s coolest and most wonderful things, Bumbershoot is three full days of 15-20 stages, outdoor and indoor, full of music, comedy, art, dance, literature, theater, film, vendors, street perfomers, visual arts, exhibits, activities, food, and tons of other arts-related stuff. Some of you already know how much I love this festival. Some of you might have even gone with us! Or might go this year? The festival is over Labor Day weekend (this year September 5-7), when the festival has been held for some 38 or so years. I only wish I had known about it sooner.

You can find out more on their web site, although they haven’t put the 2009 site up yet. But you can sure check out the 2008 site to see how very cool this festival is. For instance, you can see what artists played the festival from 1980-2008. Seriously, check it out. There are also some pictures of our Seattle/Bumbershoot trips from 2007, 2005, and 2004 on the photos page. If you want to be on my Bumbershoot email list, for the occasional scoop about the festival and who might be playing this year, just send me an email here or leave a comment below.

As always, open for commenting…

Monday 9/1

The last day of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. Yikes! So let’s enjoy it!! After a quick monorail ride to the festival grounds, we strategized in the hospitality area. And we ate. Hey, you gotta eat or you’ll die, right? We started the days entertainment with an hour containing two short independent fims grouped loosely under the title of Portrait Of The Artist. The films were a bit weird but harmless and not bad really. Then on to the main stage for recently popular modern rockers Paramore. They are a young and energetic band with a charismatic female singer, and we were up pretty close to the stage. I had ony heard a song or two by them but ended up liking their entire set. I’ll have to watch for their CD. Oh, and as a general side note, there will be pictures of them and the rest of the trip up on this site soon. Check back often! Then, when the pictures are not here yet, you can grumble “Why is Steven so slow?” Ha! It’s fun, try it! Anyway, Paramore was fun modern rock, you get the idea. There were people crowd surfing and young kids singing along with every song. Then of course after that we needed more food, a little at least.

And back to the main stage for The Offspring. They have been doing their punk rock act since the 90s and are still doing it. In fact, their recent album is pretty good. They did all their hits and a good chunk of the new album too. The crowd was really wild during their set. Lots of crowd surfing and I do mean lots. (In case you don’t go to rock shows often, that is when a person is passed around (not gently) on top of the standing crowd. It can get pretty intense up there and eventually they get passed all the way to the front and the security folks pull them down. At that point some are pumped up and smiling, some are dazed by the ordeal, and a few look pretty scared. It’s not easy having fun, apparently). Back to the Offspring show. There were hundreds of crowd surfers during the 90 minute set, but the moment that blew everyone away was when people lifted a person in a full-size wheelchair up on top of the crowd and passed him, sitting in the chair, all the way to the front of the crowd. If I had not seen it I would never have believed it. It looked really dangerous but I guess he wanted to do it. Not sure why, though!!

Suitably stunned, we decided on a sit-down comedy show for our next venue. It was a variety of local Seattle-area comics being funny without actually doing standup. That’s what they said anyway. They were standing up, and they were funny. Next we tried to get in late for up-and-coming political rap/rockers Flobots, but there were hundreds more people than the venue held so we didn’t make it in there. Good excuse to go get a drink. We got three drink tickets as part of our gold pass package. Three tickets, three days, you do the math. Next Petra went to a live show called Cheap Wine And Poetry. She didn’t get wine there but the poets did. Two Buck Chuck (except that in Washington it costs three dollars). I saw the Old 97s, a rowdy country rock band . More rock than country, really. We met back up to see the headliner Death Cab For Cutie. And no, they are not a death metal band. Sheesh! They are a talented indie-type modern band with catchy songs and sensitive-but-clever lyrics. Their album-before-last Plans is one of my favorite albums. And tonight they did not disappoint at all. They were great, on both the rockers and the softer songs. The sound was mixed well so you could hear quite a bit of the lyrics and vocals. They have become very popular in the last few years and the crowd was singing along with nearly every song. It was a high point in a festival with a lot of high points. Another great Bumbershoot! This will be eight years in a row for us, and each time it was a wonderful experience. We already have a room reservation for next year, does that give you an idea how awesome this is?

Tuesday 9/2

Now that the Bumbershoot Festival is over, we still have a little time to explore Seattle. It is my second-favorite city after all. So we bought an all-day transit pass for ( I think) $5.50 or around there. Because we had to wait about five minutes for the employee, they threw in a bunch of free bus passes too. We’ll use some of those for the trip to the airport tomorrow. Thanks. Anyway, first we took the short walk to Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront. A nice, walkable park with large public art pieces on display. Then we took a combined walk/bus ride down the waterfront to a pier to catch the water taxi to West Seattle and Alki Beach. This was included in the all-day pass, what a nice deal. After wandering around there for a while we decided to head back. After all, the 3-foot tall replica of the Statue Of Liberty was not ready until the following weekend. Curses! We took a bus back, also included in the pass, and saw some of Seattle that we had not seen before. Nothing remarkable but still interesting. They have such a great transit system we never had to wait long at all. We ended up in the Pioneer Square area, full of shops, restaurants, people, galleries, and cafes. We shopped a while at a huge bookstore and wandered in and out of other stores. But we decided to go back over to the Lower Queen Anne area for dinner. We took another (free) bus and got off at the Seattle Center. They were starting to take the Bumbershoot decorations, stages, and displays down. It’s sad that it’s over but there’s always next year! We decided to have a drink before dinner so we went to The Funhouse. It’s a divey punk bar that a few years back our friend Cal described as the “evil clown bar”. Of course he has some clown issues. It was very punky but harmless, at least in the daytime.

Beginning to relax a little (more), we went in search of dinner. By that point we had scrapped our plans for dinner in Queen Anne and decide to walk or bus to the nearby Belltown area and mexican food at Mama’s, known as Seattle’s oldest mexican restaurant. The “Elvis Room” was taken but we still had a tasty dinner with equally tasty margaritas. I could go for a couple of those right about now almost anytime. Totally stuffed in a very good way, we walked the mile or two back to the hotel. Then we grabbed our remaining food and booze, changed into our jammies, and headed upstairs to the top floor Cloud Room to spend our last night in Seattle (until next time). Sigh. We toasted Seattle and Bumbershoot until we, too, were toasted. Then off to bed.

Wednesday 9/3

A bus (free, see 9/2) to the airport, some airport food, then home to Sacramento, CA. It was all over too soon. But as our lousy governor governator says, “I’ll be back!”

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