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Saturday 8/30

Today is the first day of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. We are totally psyched and even more ready. Lots of music and almost every kind of arts spanning what, 15 or so stages, and elsewhere on the grounds too. It’s huge and wonderful! Check out their web site! We got there and ended up standing in a bit of a line to get in, since it is such a popular event. Once in, we headed to the hospitality area. Since we had bought the “gold passes“, we got an indoor area (with private restrooms) and free snacks and beverages all day long. We were with friends Larry and Robin and we met up with Mama O and her posse there too. Then the various groups headed their various ways. Petra and I went to see Neko Case, a female singer-songwriter with an alt-country folk-rock style (if that describes it). She was good and we watched nearly the whole set before we headed out for something else. There is always so much going on and you miss so much, but then again you see so much too. Next we saw a live comedy show based on The Sound Of Young America (an NPR radio show), featuring female comedian Tig Notaro, an interview with Jeaneane Garofalo, and a humerous singer named Colton that did a couple songs. Then it was time for food, as so often happens. Petra picked up a Russian Green Cossack (potatoes with a creamy dill sauce that she loves. I had some Pad Thai that I could eat every day if the world were just a little bit different.

Then we were off to another live comedy show. This one was the MySpace show, and they basically picked people from the audience, showed and commented on their MySpace web page, and then did improvised routines based on that person’s page. It wasn’t a complicated idea but I was entertained. I should note that at various times during all three days of the festival we wandered in and out of the hospitality area snacking and picking up beverages for the day. We also got some free drink tickets for more, er, adult beverages. But then it was time for some more music. We saw Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby (now husband and wife). Eric is a longtime former new wave rocker from the Stiff Records days in late seventies England and Ms. Rigby is a folk-rock singer songwriter with some edge in her lyrics. Together they were charming and charismatic and played and sang some very real and enjoyable music. Then Petra headed off to see performance artist Christa Bell do a one-woman show called CoochieMagik. Let’s just say it was about empowering women, After all, this is a family blog, damn it! Well, whatever.

I stayed at the other stage for Tim Finn, the New Zealand singer-songwriter from Split  Enz in the 80s and Crowded House (for one album anyway) in the 90s. He’s had a solo career under the radar for a long time and has done some decent songs. Nowdays, his voice has lost some of it’s clarity and accuracy so after four or five songs I headed out again, with Petra now back too, for one of the many other venues at the festival. It was time for the headline act anyway, which was the quirky and very popular Beck. I like his offbeat music, his versatility, and his musical and lyrical cleverness, and those were in evidence tonight. Unfortunately, the sound system was muddy and gunky and what could have been a very good show was lost, at least partly, in the poor sound quality. Too bad. On the way back to the hotel we realized we were hungry (again!), so even though it was after eleven, we went by Cyber Dogs and got yet another great veggie dog with lots of exotic fixins. Yes, I wrote fixins, what a word that is, huh? Then it was back to the hotel for some visiting with friends and some sleep. In that order too, if you are keeping track. 😉  But why are you keeping track…??

Sunday 8/31

Another day and more food in the hospitality area. That’s a good way to start things off. Then I went to watch a little of a local (Seattle) alt-country singer and band, Star Anna. Meanwhile Petra went to another area of the festival where they were doing hair. And I do mean doing! They teased and tossed and then sprayed a bunch of pink on it! And it actually looked pretty cool! Then we went to see soul singer (and apparent diva) Keyshia Cole. In eight year of Bumbershoot, I’ve seen probably a hundred or more acts and none were ever more than a couple minutes late to start. But Keyshia was half an hour late for her already short set. She never apologized and acted like she was doing us a favor by being there at all. Uh-uh, no way, buh-by. We left after a few minutes. She can take that diva act somewhere else. But soon there was food and all was ok with the world again. Funny how that can happen. Then Petra headed out to see another one-woman show called Yoga Bitch.  She said it was funny and entertaining. Meanwhile I watched singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards, who was pretty good too. Then I saw a little bit of Strange Fruit, some modern acrobats who performed on tall poles.  That was also good but then I started watching singer Dale Watson who was exactly what I don’t like. It took only half a song of the ultra-twangy country before I hit the proverbial road. Ugh.

Time for more food! Petra and I met up with Larry and Robin and walked a couple blocks to the nearby Bamboo Garden vegetarian restaurant. Hundreds of chinese food items and none with meat! Not real meat anyway. So newly renewed (if that makes sense), we went back into the festival to see Jakob Dylan. Yes, he is the son of Bob, but their music is not too similar. Jakob did a couple Wallflowers songs (his former band), but mostly performed the semi-acoustic numbers from his recent solo album. I thought they worked well in the live setting and the large crowd seems to agree. After, we regrouped in the hospitality area. Petra and I went to see up-and-coming singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, a big sensation on MySpace and getting more exposure all the time. She was very young but pretty good and I think Petra liked her quite a bit. I thought her stuff was very catchy and radio-friendly with easily memorable melodies and choruses. We watched and enjoyed her whole set and then on the way back caught a few minutes of reggae legend Lee Scratch Perry. He was kind of repetitive and forgetable and we left soon after. But not before wandering over to the impressive International Fountain. It’s fun and peaceful to see the kids playing in it and to watch the water and it’s patterns.

More about the totally great trip soon, check back!!

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