Bumbershoot Saturday in Words

"The Main Stage" courtesy of Seattlest Flickr pool member supafly

In terms of music, Saturday was definitely our biggest day at Bumbershoot. We spent most of the time running from one partial set to another. Along the way we caught Thao Nguyen and her backing band, the Get Down Stay Down. Thao's breathy voice is much bigger than the tiny girl it comes out of, and with her solid, clap-happy set, she managed to be energetic (for a singer-songwriter) without verging into crazy territory (even if she did almost perform one song twice).

Yesterday must've been short set day at Bumbershoot, because Pwrfl Power only did half a set at the EMP Sky Church, while war-painted gypsy-pirate hooligans Man Man took the stage ten minutes late (skipping their introduction and sponsor thank-yous) and still ended twenty minutes early. !!! (chik chik chik), however, performed a full set inside the packed and sweaty KEXP lounge, so it's a good thing that lead singer Nic Offer was in shorts and their sax player was barefoot. They played mostly new tracks (with plenty of cowbell, natch), and "Heart of Hearts" had asses shaking in the upper rows. Meanwhile, Mono in VCF's moody down-tempo spy music was well-suited for the EMP Sky Church's light show, but we were unfortunate enough to leave *just before* Mark Pickeral joined the band onstage for a Lee Hazelwood cover.

Over at the Broad Street stage, The Walkmen performed songs from all their albums. Leather-clad singer Hamilton Leithauser was as raspy as ever, but his voice was strong enough for all the prolonged yells. They had a three-man horn section (which they later shared with Man Man), and the well-balanced set ran the gamut from the '50s twinged songs off their latest album to the thunder roll of "Thinking of a Dream I Had."

It looked like Beck would take the stage on time at Memorial Stadium, but even he was five minutes late. With a heavy bass, he surprised us by kicking off his headlining set with "Loser." He ran through tracks from his entire discography (and a Dylan cover), but his songs seemed to get lost in the expanse of the stadium, and the scrawny, long-haired, be-hatted singer looked downright small on the Mainstage. The floor was crowded beyond any sense of comfort, so after about half an hour, we left, stopping briefly at Nada Surf, before heading back to Broad Street for M. Ward. And with the raspy dulcet strains of "Post-War," our first day at Bumbershoot came to a close.