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As an all-knowing, all-seeing hivemind, Seattlest has your Bumbershoot recommendations handled. If you're going to brave the crowds, bathroom lines, and ever-present corporate tents, you should at least be equipped with the right kind of inspiration to make it all worth your while.
Start off early at the Rockstar stage with Seattle’s own Throw Me the Statue (12:30 p.m.) or if you’re feeling a hint of Pierce County pride, you can venture over to the Mainstage to witness Tacoma’s adopted indie darling Neko Case (1:00 p.m.).
The streets of Barcelona may smell like warm piss but the music of the "indie pop powerhouse" of the same name (2:15 p.m.) is anything but. If you're leaning towards something a little more intellectual and socially redeeming, Pat Graney’s Prison Project (1:45 p.m.) at the Literary Arts stage is an invigorating and uplifting walk inside the efforts to give voice to the struggles and demons inside our state’s women's prisons. Hey, it can’t be all guitar solos and beer gardens.
At the Center House Theatre check out local actors running the gauntlet of human emotion as Unicycle Collective (2:45 p.m.) performs a series of short sketches of varying seriousness and comedy.
The One Reel Film Festival will be showing two films highlighting some of the better cinematic work coming out of Iran (5:45 p.m.). The critically acclaimed Angels Die in the Soil and Snowy Day’s Night will be shown back-to-back so festival-goers can freshen up on America’s newest potential invasion should McCain prevail in November.
If your idea of an arts festival doesn’t incorporate films from third world countries, you can stay at the Rockstar stage with the rest of the unworldly, shallow rock kids and enjoy the Walkmen (5:45 p.m.), hailing from New York City and guaranteed to erase any concerns about the plight of the less fortunate in underdeveloped nations.
As night draws near, festival-goers should consider checking out West Indian Girl at the EMP’s Sky Church (8:00 p.m.), or dart off to the Mainstage to join the hordes of frat boys and everyone else who will be rocking out to the quasi-Seattle tunes of Band of Horses (7:30 p.m.), whom you may remember from Ford car commercials geared towards hip twenty-somethings. After all, it’s not selling out if every other band is doing it.
Finally, it's Beck time (9:15 p.m.) at the Mainstage, and if you’ve never seen him before, attendance is mandatory. Seattlest saw Beck at our first Bumbershoot in 1997 and was blown away. Since then we’ve seen him perform on Jools Holland and bought the myriad of excellent albums he continues to produce. In an age where so many artists are just content to sound like each other, Beck continues to push the envelope and broaden his sound while maintaining his excellent live shows. There is no excuse for missing Saturday’s headlining act so don’t even consider it. (Ed: But if you must go against our good advice, see honey-throated troubadour M. Ward at the Rockstar stage at 9:45 p.m.)
Photo courtesy of Andrew G Davis from the Seattlest Flickr Pool
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I first saw Beck in 1997. To judge by Sasquatch two years ago, that was the highpoint of his career. For sure.
Beck is still making good music, can't say the same for STP.
The Bumbershoot website is giving me "Website Down" messages from a onereel.org domain on many of their links. I like how they didn't plan to have enough web servers for all the traffic they're getting the day before Bumbershoot. :(
"Hey, it can’t be all guitar solos and beer gardens." Oh... but it can! IT CAN!