Fun at Bumbershoot 2007!

For the first time in eons, yours truly hit Bumbershoot, Seattle's biggest Music and Arts Festival, on Labor Day (Monday, September 3) with pals Bob Suh and Bob Bohan in tow. And a good time was had by all.

We were each bound and determined to get our $35 worth (I'm geezer enough to remember balking at a $15 all-day ticket: Ouch), and blessedly, we did. It was a textbook Bumber-experience in almost all the right ways.

We enjoyed an only mildly patience-eroding stay in line.Strange/wonderful art/hobby displays (in particular, some nifty Lego constructions by a Seattle Lego-builders' Club) awaited.



God bless America, and God Bless strange performance art.

Then there was the music...


The wait at Memorial Stadium for Brit soul prodigy Joss Stone had most of the crowd (us included) sweating like pigs, but her cool soul stylings were worth the wait. She's barely old enough to legally buy a beer here in the states, but possesses a set of elastic, soulful pipes that owe more to Dusty Springfield and Gladys Knight than this week's show-offy assembly-line yelpers. I'd give fellow limey rhythm and blues goddess Amy Winehouse the edge on consistency of material, but Joss's emphasis on groove and nuance over immediacy gave the proceeds a sultry, hypnotic vibe (the heat helped, too, I'm sure). This was my first exposure to her music, and it won't be my last.




...And Comedy...


After Joss Stone, we took in some fun improv at the Vera Project: local improv trio Blood Squad fabricated Cthulhu High (a hilarious mock horror flick) onstage, and veteran Seattle troupe Jet City Improv ran through a lively inventory of improvisational theater sports, including a very funny mini-musical based on a small object (the object--suggested by one particularly brilliant audience member? Tom Cruise).




More Music...


The mighty Roky Erickson stood as the highlight of the day from this corner (yeah, I'm biased--see preceding entry). Looking fit and happy onstage, the psych-rock legend hit his hour and twenty-minute set with a vigor that was nothin' short of astonishing. The passage of time may have chipped away some of his unearthly upper register, but the guy's rock and roll growl still packed more ass-kicking power than 99.4% of the competition out there. His backup band the Explosives (particularly virtuoso guitarist Cam King) absolutely cooked, and Erickson remains the only human being so godlike and cool that I officially excuse him from rocking a mullet.




Solo gems like "Creature with the Atom Brain" and "Cold Night for Alligators" took up the bulk of the set, but he and the Explosives also pulled out a ripping version of "You're Gonna Miss Me" and a drop-dead gorgeous rendition of the Elevators' finest quiet song, "Splash 1 (Now I'm Home). 'Twas, simply put, rock and roll heaven.




..And the chance to rub shoulders with a Legend.


The garage-rock icon stuck around after his well-received performance, shaking hands and gladly autographing stuff. One on one, the gentle, sweet, and vulnerable man at the autograph table sat in sharp contrast to the demon onstage, but he seemed truly happy to get some adoration from a couple of generations' worth of fans. Meeting him was, if you'll pardon the mawkishness, awe-inspiring.




Oh, yeah, we also caught Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' great, caffeinated set of power pop, too. They were awesome, and I'm hoping I'll be able to catch 'em when they're back in Seattle in October.


Sorry for the lack of structure here, but I wanted to get somethin' about our nifty day up and at 'em. Good night, all.

Comments

Sarah said…
This is entirely the wrong post to attach this comment to, but I works with what I got,

(Deep breath)

Ohmyg-dTonyhaveyouseenthis????
http://theyrecoming.com/
Squeeeeeeee!
10:39 AM
Unknown said…
You even got to meet the guy! Wow. I wish I could have gone to Bumbershoot that day. I opted for Sunday (friend obligation) and got to see ... Fergie!
8:09 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Re-Issued Audio Yummies: Easybeats, ELO, and Divinyls

Image
Work's been clubbing me upside the head so thoroughly that I haven't been imbibing in much pop culture anything lately. Put bluntly, I ain't had the time...With one exception. Unlike most sane working stiffs who actually use their lunch breaks to, you know, relax and eat lunch, I hit the pavement and walk my metaphoric arse off during that precious half-hour. Headphones rest on my noggin, connected to an ancient Discman as I get a lungful of fresh air and an earful of music, old and new. Here's what's been getting the blood pumping (and the feet moving) of late--old stuff division. The Easybeats' biggest claim to fame may have been their international hit, 'Friday on My Mind' (covered by David Bowie on his covers LP, Pin Ups ), but Varese Sarabande's compilation CD The Very Best of the Easybeats proves that classic tune was no fluke. With all due respect to the Bee Gees , the Easys really were Australia's closest equivalent to the Beatles, a Br
Read more

An Interview with Joe Dallesandro

Image
( I wrote this interview for Seattlest.com , and it is reprinted on the Petri Dish with their kind permission. ) For a minute, it looks like the perfect photo opportunity. Joe Dallesandro—former bodyguard at Andy Warhol’s fabled Factory, star of several key Warhol-sponsored cult films in the sixties and seventies, and accidental avatar of the Sexual Revolution—stands outside the W Hotel in downtown Seattle, his back to me. He cuts an almost dangerous-looking figure. Clad head to foot in black, his compact body sits atop slightly bowed legs in an almost pugilistic stance as he smokes his cigarette. A soul-patched, dark-haired kid stops to bum a smoke, and both figures huddle, almost silhouetted thanks to the overreaching shadow cast by the hotel building, as vaporous off-white ribbons of smoke curl above their heads. But then Dallesandro begins to turn, and I don’t want to come off like some stalker before a formal introduction, so I retreat back into the hotel lobby. The sublime noir
Read more

Character Actor Heaven: Hollywood Collectors Show, Feb 2005

Image
Hollywood Collectors' Show, February 18/19, 2005 Character actors are the building blocks of cinematic life. And like a lot of important foundations (architectural or otherwise), they get little credit from the outside world for their contributions. Fortunately, there's the bi-monthly Hollywood Collectors' Show , where fans of all stripes can show these hard-working but underappreciated fixtures of film and TV some serious love, and even get some love back. Expect to make a bit of an investment for that love. Daily admission is $15 ($25 for a two-day pass), and all of the celebrities in attendance charge for their autographs (more on that later). But for a real film (or TV) nut, a Hollywood Collector's Show is absolute manna from heaven, and totally worth the extra change. Imagine a Star Trek convention stripped to its absolute essentials--ample celebrity guests and heaps of cool merchandise--and you get the idea. My wife and I saved our pennies for several months and
Read more