Music: Bumbershoot turns into Bumbersuck, or I Was Assaulted By Bumbershoot Staff

On Sunday night I was planning on writing about how great The Weakerthans were, and how people think that the song, "Plea From a Cat Named Virtute" is actually, "Virtue" those people are wrong(apparently it's from the Winnipeg motto “Unum Cum Virtute Multorum” (one with the virtues of many). And then follow it up with talk of how just fucking amazing Battles were.

But right now I can't focus on any of that. Yesterday I was physically assaulted by a Bumbershoot staff member, and it was while I was outside of the festival on a city sidewalk.

I bought a poster at flatstock, and I left the festival to go put it in my car for safe keeping. I was walking on the sidewalk, they opened the fence to let in a van or something.

The fence swung open right in my face, so I stepped to the curb and kept walking. A dude in a staff shirt stepped in front of me and said, "Everybody stop" or something similar. At this point, we were like a foot apart so I kept walking and
he pushed me.

I rolled off his push and stepped down with one foot on the street and I was past him at which point he grabbed me, forcibly and hard from behind by my hoodie and yanked and pulled me into the street.

My hoodie was unzipped. If it was zipped I think he would have ripped it, and/or thrown me to the ground in the street. Instead I just stumbled in the street and regained my balance.

I was shocked to be grabbed at all, let alone in such a forceful way. I immediately threw my hands up in the air and screamed, "I am on a public sidewalk, you are not a law enforcement officer!" repeatedly.

One of the other staff people said, "Let him go," and he did finally.

I spun around, still with my hands in the air, and I said, "What are you doing? I am on a public sidewalk!"

He had rage in his eyes and said, "You are/were in in the street impeding traffic." I said, "YOU are NOT a law enforcement officer!" The only reason I was in the street was because that was the direction that I was forcibly thrown in.

He took two steps towards me, at which point other staff people stepped in and got him away from me.

It was frightening, and absolutely ridiculous. I can not believe that this happened to anyone, let alone to me who was just legally walking down the sidewalk, not even inside the festival grounds.

That was the third day of my first bumbershoot experience. It was again oversold and overcrowded. I bailed before the evenings headliners.

A few tips for Bumbershoot 2009:

-Put the food in a court with an entrance to the area. Look at how the Capiol Hill Block Party had their food area set up, learn from them and implement it. It was impossible to walk past the food area for most of the festival.
-Hire staff that won't try to physically restrain pedestrians on sidewalks that are located outside of your festival.
-Sell at least 1,000 fewer tickets per day. Your monetary greed leads to an unsafe and unfun environment for your audience. Also, the overcrowding can cause your staff to go fucking nuts and attack your law abiding concert goers.

Music: Bumbershoot Music Festival Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of Seattle's 3 day Labor Day festival: Bumbershoot. Due to my work schedule I was only there in the latter part of the day yesterday(I will be there for a similar amount of time today, but I plan on attending the entire last day tomorrow.).

When I walked in the gates at Seattle center yesterday afternoon/early evening all of the mainstage passes were gone/accounted for. You see, despite having a festival pass you need an additional(free) pass to get into the mainstage to see the last two performances each night on that stage. Day 1 headliner was Beck, and I was already planning on seeing M.Ward instead of Beck anyway, but I was very disappointed to learn that I would not be able to see Band of Horses(denied!).

Upon walking in to the fest I approached the info booth and asked for a schedule/festival map. "We're all out," I was told. "You're kidding right? This is the first of three days isn't it?" I retorted. They were not amused.

I was close enough to an energy drink sponsored stage to hear the announcement that The Walkmen were next! So I made my way over to catch a few songs. I walked by the table of said energy drink company as their volunteers were emptying cans into paper cups and there were literally hundreds of cups on the table and probably a thousand in the trash cans around the table. "Hey can I have as much as I want?" I inquired. "Absolutely!" responded the excited and caffeine fueled rep. "So why are you wasting so many paper cups if this is a carbon neutral event?" She was not amused.

At this point I tried to make it to the theater where they are having plays during the festival. I really wanted to see Reefer Madness: The Musical! Not having a map made this trek seemingly impossible. For one, I didn't really know where I was going. Suddenly I was at the food lines, and there was no pathway around the lines. I had cut through line after line of hungry concert goers. This was quite possibly the worst layout of any festival that I have ever attended.

I was lost and disoriented. I found another info booth. I asked for a map/schedule. "We are all out, but you can look at the schedule that we have here." "I don't need the schedule, I need the map so I know where things are, and so I don't get lost trying to find Reefer Madness: The Musical!, do you know where that is playing?" The person at the info booth stared at me blankly, and then she suggested that I wander around until I find a map/schedule on the ground that someone had discarded. I am not making this up, that's what she told me.

I was becoming increasingly frustrated, and the other info booth volunteer(a hot punk rawker) could tell, and she took pity on me and told me where I might be able to get another one. Then she pointed and told me how to get to that building. Finally, I was able to acquire a map!

I got to where Reefer Madness: The Musical! was playing, and I was 15 minutes late and they would not let me in. At this point, I seriously needed a drink.

I ran into Dan, and he had a photographer's press pass. I went into a building with him that I should not have had access to, but they saw Dan's pass and just assumed I had one too I guess. I was able to get free coffee, an apple, and I was able to use a bathroom instead of one of the too few for the amount of people in attendance porta-potties. Did I mention that this was a really poorly laid out and organized event?

I think this is when I made my way over to see Saul Williams. He came out in full Niggy Tardust regalia with his face painted, feathers in his hair, and a brightly colored outfit. I have certainly seen better Saul Williams performances, but this one was definitely a high energy affair which the crowd was really eating up. The sound was not the greatest, and I couldn't hear his politically charged vocals for the first part of set. My friend Jessica said that there were sound issues all day.

Saul Williams waited until before his last song before he talked to the crowd about change, revolution, and how exciting of a time it is that we are living in today. I was really hoping for this to lead to "Om Nia Merican" from 2001's Amethyst Rockstar, but instead the set closer, and highlight, was the song, List of Demands (reparations) from his self titled release.

M. Ward was my day 1 headliner, and the one performance that I was most looking forward to this weekend. He did not disappoint. He opened with One More Goodbye and I was immediately giddy. After the first song he thanked everyone for being there and said, "I guess you've all heard Devil's Haircut on the radio enough times," which elicited laughter from the, mostly under-aged, crowd.
Fans swayed together, some danced, some shoe gazed, but overall the crowd was filled with a childlike wonder and we all held on to every lyric. When the band left the stage the crowd refused to yield. "I've never seen an encore on the side stage," said Jessica who was standing beside me. Well there's a first time for everything and the band came back out to play Big Boat from the album Transistor Radio. M. Ward thanked us again for choosing to be in front of this particular stage and he added, "I'm here for all of you!"

Despite the rather horrendous start to my first Bumbershoot, it couldn't have ended in a better way. Well, aside from Jessica and I walking a mile or so before we got a cab- but that's a story for another blog I'm sure.

Today I am most excited to see The Weakerthans! And right now I'm still not sure if I am seeing Tapes 'n Tapes, Final Fantasy, or Thee Emergency in the evening spot. I can guarantee that I will not be seeing Stone Temple Pilots, but I do hope that I can get a mainstage pass so that I can see The Black Keys tonight. I do love them so, and I have never seen them live.

Music: Devotchka - "We're Leaving" live at the Capitol Hill Block Party

Music: Capitol Hill Block Party Day 2

The first band that I saw on day 2 was Seattle's own Man Plus! That's the uber-charismatic Jared pictured performing in the crowd.

Watching Man Plus perform is a high energy affair. By the end of the show it's difficult to remember things such as, "How many people are in that band?" The current answer is 6. It's hard to remember not because there are so many people on stage, but because one man dominates your attention for the entire performance. That one man is lead vocalist Jared Mills. He danced, he crooned, he screamed, he lost pints of sweat, and he even bled for the Man Plus faithful who had gathered to witness their performance at the Vera Project stage.

Man Plus live video
The highlight of the show can be seen in the above video link as Jared jumps down into the crowd to perform, "Not For All the Cocaine In the World" from the album The Hungarian Suicide Handbook.

You can catch Man Plus next on August 16th at the High Dive in Seattle. It's a show that you won't want to miss.

When I arrived at the Block Party on Saturday I walked in to see Kimya Dawson finishing up her set on the main stage. I stood there for a moment and wondered if this is one of the largest crowds that she has ever performed in front of. The one time that I saw the Moldy Peaches in 2002 they played to a crowd of about 400. Since I have moved to Seattle Kimya has played solo shows at the Dearborn on Woodland which is a tiny TINY space which can not hold much more than 50 people. And 50 would be absolutely packing that place. She also played a gig at a house venue, The Green House at the end of last year in a small basement place of similar capacity. It was a little mind boggling to see her in such intimate spaces to playing for a few thousand in the middle of Seattle.

I spent a lot of the early evening inside King Cobra drinking strongbow and eating sweet potato fries. I highly recommend the sweet potato fries.

At this point in the day I went around to check out all of the groups who were tabling. I made my way to theBabeland table. They had a ringtoss game where you had to get the rings to stay on strap-on dildos that were strapped to Star Wars character standees. I won a silver bullet vibrator, thanks babeland!

From there I walked by the Democrats table (the republicans were nowhere to be seen) and I glanced over at the buttons that they had laid out. "Oh my god!" I exclaimed, "What do I have to do to get that one!" "It's a dollar." "SOLD!" And I walked away giggling at my new "For those about to BARACK, we salute you!" button. "BARACK" is written in the ACDC font.

After the tables I met up with Jessica who manages Man Plus. I told her about the performance earlier. She was stuck behind the merch table and did not have much of a vantage point to actually see them play. Her and I almost randomly wandered back over towards the Vera Project stage. Neither one of us had bothered to check out the schedule to see what band was playing. We just decided to see what was going on over there. I am so glad that we did.

As we approached San Diego band Grand Ole Party was already playing to a good sized crowd. A song into being there Jessica and I were saying to each other, "Hey, they are really good," and she made the first Pretenders reference to the band.

Lead singer/drummer Kristin Gundred had us captivated with her amazing voice that she was really letting loose on this night. Two songs in we said, "They are really fucking good!" And three songs in Jessica and I retreated to the merch table to buy their album while I talked about how I am now in love with Gundred.

As we continued to watch the live show Jessica and I also perused the liner notes. While I was overly excited to learn that Blake Sennett(Rilo Kiley, The Elected) produced the album Jessica pointed out that Gundred has a wedding ring on in one of the photos. "So? People don't stay married forever!" I retorted.

I also sent a text message to several friends at the Block Party that they needed to stop what they were doing and head over to see this band. I asked Jessica if I could have her all access wristband. "Why, so you can go ruin a marriage?" "Absolutely!" She declined, and I was left with only an album to remember the experience.

After my new favorite band
finished up I was able to get about 4 people deep from the front of the mainstage to see Devotchka close out the entire weekend. DeVotchka continues to put on one of the best live shows that I have ever seen. Despite Nick Urata being without a bottle of wine the band was in top form. Watching Tom Hagerman play the violin live is a spiritual experience, and something that I will never get tired of seeing. Their set included covers of Frank Sinatra, Ted Thacker, and the Velvet Underground(Devotchka does one of the best covers of "Venus In Furs" around).

The biggest crowd pop of the night was when the opening synth of "How It Ends" hit. During the chorus Nick turned the mic around to face the audience and seemingly all of Seattle sang along.

Devotchka closed their set with, "Such a Lovely Thing" which is very fitting. The song's lyrics include:

you only love me when I’m leaving,
you only love me ‘cause I’m leaving,
you only love me when I’m leaving,
you only love me ‘cause I’m leaving tonight

The crowd wanted to see an encore so bad, but it was 12:00AM on the dot and the show was over. Devotchka played for almost a full hour and a half, and it was an amazing, and fitting, end to the weekend.

Music: Capitol Hill Block Party Day 1

Day 1:

In the beginning, there was Menomena...

This weekend was Seattle's annual Capitol Hill Block Party. It was a rockin' good time, and I sort of feel like I need to sleep for an entire day to recover from the weekend.

One of the best parts of this festival, above all others that I have ever been to, was the actual "block party" feel to it. Both days I was running into people that I knew left and right. I would split up with a friend who wanted to see a band at one stage while I headed to another stage to watch a different band, and it wouldn't be long before I was enjoying music with friends again.

The band that I was most excited to see on Day 1 was Menomena from Portland, OR. Unfortunately the main stage schedule was off for a bit of the afternoon, and it was when Menomena was on stage that the organizers decided to stick to the schedule. They started a while later than the listed set time, but they only played until the listed end time. I had never seen them before, and I left their set feeling slighted. It's obviously not the band's fault. They were really great for about 5 or 6 songs, and then they were over. I will definitely try to check them out the next time they come through town.

Menomena puts out really cool interactive album art work. Don't download their music, you will want to hold it in your hands. Trust me on this one.

Next came Girl Talk, who had a much larger following then I could have imagined. This is when the pushing, shoving, punching, and beer spilling was at it's absolute worst. I guess everyone wants their 15 minutes on stage. Girl Talk live is the most fun that anyone can have watching a guy play his album tracks verbatim on a laptop.
While it started off super high energy and fun, after a while I felt like I was getting beer spilled on me so that I could listen to "Night Ripper". I was disappointed when he threw in a random Toadies sample never to come back to it again. He should have gone back to it, and maybe thrown in a little Spacehog for good measure.

From there I disappeared into the dungeon that was Neumo's and this one experience kept me out of there for the rest of the weekend.

The crowd inside Neumos would have enraged the fire marshal to no end. The stairs leading from the floor to the upstairs was even jampacked with people. I found myself in the middle of, what appeared to be, the designated couples make-out section. You know how there is always that couple at a show? Well I was completely surrounded by them.

I had never heard the Dodos before seeing them live. My friends Brian and Lyndsey were both very excited for them, so I decided to check them out. They did not disappoint in the slightest! The crowd was super hot and just in love with this band. You could literally feel the floor shake with so many people stomping and dancing. Eventually I had had enough of the heat and being packed like a sardine and I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment, so I bailed on the last part of their set to seek cooler air and water.

I caught part of Les Savy Fav's ridiculously high energy rock spectacle from way in the back, sipping on water. I was so dehydrated at this point that I went to order food and my brain froze. I said, "I'm sorry, I forgot what I wanted. I'm just so," "Drunk?" Said the food vendor, "No, dehydrated! I haven't had any alcohol today." I'm not sure if he believed me, but it was absolutely true.

Local all ages favorite, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head were up next on the Vera Project stage. Volunteering at Vera I have heard lots of rave reviews about this band from the younger volunteers.

I was rather unimpressed. The band members were all so excited to be there, and the crowd for them was the largest that I saw on one of the smaller stages all weekend. This was a mostly under aged crowd and they were absolutely madly in love with this band! The music wasn't bad, but it didn't do anything for me. I have to say though, watching their crowd was one of the highlights of the entire block party.

I caught a song of indie rock flavor of the month Vampire Weekend before fellow KEXP volunteer Susan was kind enough to give me a ride home. It was fun, and I saw them earlier this year at Neumos and didn't feel like dealing with the main stage crowd to watch them on this night.

I returned home ears ringing, dehydrated, exhausted, and covered in beer that was not my own.

Sub Pop is no longer a teenager continues and Birdwatchers United (maybe) play a show

The band that I really wanted to see at Sub Pop was festival closer, Wolf Parade. I have a ticket in hand to see them at Neumo's for tonight, so that was what I kept telling myself over and over again as I analyzed the lineup for Sunday.

I made plans to meet up with a friend, Jimmer, to see an early show at the Comet. The band, Seattle locals, Birdwatchers United! first came into our lives when we saw them open up for Tilly & the Wall a week or so earlier. Birdwatchers were a lot of fun, a high energy feel good pop band, and Jimmer and I each attempted to pick up their CD at the merch table.

Well, Birdwatchers United! were so awesome that they unloaded their CDs before my friend and I made our way to the merch. I became their MySpace friend the next day, and I sent them a message asking if they would have more CDs for sale at the early show, 7pm, yesterday. They responded saying that they weren't planning on it, but they would bring one just for me! I was more than excited.

While I was at work yesterday I received a text from Brian saying that he had another ticket for Sunday's Sub Pop if I wanted to head out to Marymoor. I asked when the headliner went on last night, he responded by saying that, "Wolf Parade goes on at 8:20." I went back and forth on this decision for a while before I decided, Fuck it! I really want to be part of the Sub Pop 20 celebration. Sub Pop is the first independent record label that was part of my consciousness. I had to be there.

At this point I decided that I was going to go home and change after work, go to the Comet to see Birdwatchers United, and then drive out to see Wolf Parade end the festival.

When I got to the Comet, Jimmer had a table and I ordered a drink. The bartenders are very heavy handed, which is a definite plus. Suddenly it was 7:45 and no one was playing, and in fact the band wasn't even set up yet.

Jimmer had plans at 8 as well, so we went outside and introduced ourselves to Emily and (I think) Tim of the Birdwatchers. We received our CDs and discussed their wedding plans before I informed them that we had to go, but we will be sure to see them again!

I hope that they played last night, and I bet it was a super kickass show.

At that point I took off for Sub Pop with, faulty, directions from Brian. On the way there I broke Washington state law and contacted Brian while I was driving to verify part of said directions. He said, "Oh crap!" and thus I got off the highway to turn around.

When I got to the festival grounds the sign said, "No parking after 2pm" and there was a cop at the entrance, I drove past him and parked. He didn't even look at me. There was no parking attendant for me to pay $5 to park either. As I got out of the car I could hear the opening notes of At Mount Zoom opener "Soldier's Grin". I met Brian at the gate and he handed me a ticket(he had actually won tickets while I was trying to win them). The employees didn't scan my ticket or anything, they just waived me in.

I spun around to gage the crowd and I said to Brian, "There's nobody here!" He said that Sunday was less packed then Saturday and that about halfway through yesterday people started to head home. I actually contacted a friend to tell her that I was going there to see Wolf Parade, she had tickets for both days and she told me that she didn't go the second day. I responded saying that she still had a chance. I mean, it's fucking Wolf Parade!
The show was awesome. Wolf Parade played for almost a full 90 minutes. They mentioned before their encore that they were told to only play for 40 minutes and that they were already pushing it. Then they encored with, "I'll Believe In Anything" from Apologies to the Queen Mary.

At this point much of the crowd in front of us had cleared out and I ran forward about 20 feet jumping up and down when I realized what song it was.

"I'll Believe In Anything" is, hands down, my absolutely favorite Wolf Parade song.
The sun was starting to set, the moon was already visible, it was Sub Pop's 20th birthday and I got swept away in the live crowd as we screamed along in unison, "Nobody knows you, and nobody gives a damn!"

So maybe I didn't see the Vaselines, or even Green River, but I did make it out to Sub Pop's birthday party, and I got to see my major music crush of 2008. I'll update tomorrow with a write up of tonight's show, which I am equally excited for.


Here is a link to the Birdwatchers United! myspace page:
Birdwatchers United

Sub Pop is no longer a teenager

I spent the second half of last week trying to, unsuccessfully, win tickets to the Sub Pop 20 festival that happened in Redmond, WA this weekend.

I failed, but I did win tickets to the Capitol Hill Block Party at the end of the month.

Saturday came and the Vaselines played their first ever show in the US while I was at work- wishing that I was there.

By 5pm on Saturday I was composing a list of reasons in my head that made it OK to not be at the festival. Reasons like, "The Fleet Foxes are playing the Block Party, so I'll just see them there," or "I saw Flight of the Conchords at Sasquatch just 2 months ago," and of course "I've already seen Iron and Wine!" These few mentions at least distracted me, albeit temporarily, from the fact that Mudhoney and the Vaselines were playing. You will have to excuse me for a moment while I cry at this realization....