To attend Bumbershoot, Seattle’s annual Labor Day orgy of the arts, is to understand all that is good about the Seattle music and cultural scene: the vivacity and seemingly boundless creative energy, the true breadth of artistic offerings, and the wide-ranging musical tastes of the audiences that support this incredible scene.
For the uninitiated, Bumbershoot is a three-day (formerly four) extravaganza of all things art, held in “Seattle’s backyard,” the Seattle Center (home of the iconic Space Needle, among other things). Drawing huge crowds (also arguably the biggest drawback of the festival), Bumbershoot offers a music poster display, a literary stage and indie press offerings, theatre and dance, experimental art offerings, indie craft vendors, and, easily the biggest attraction, more musical acts than one can count. Drawing heavily on Seattle’s talented scene, the festival also pulls in some of the biggest names in music, this year including acts such as Kanye West, Badly Drawn Boy, Blondie, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Attending the first day of this year’s event, this author had the opportunity to see a number of over-hyped (and generally fine) bands, as well as three bands deserving of extremely high praise: Seattle act Awesome!, San Francisco area band Halou, and Minnesota-based Cloud Cult.
Awesome! is quality, quirky pop music for the intellectual set, with an infectious – and humorous – energy that had the audience giddily laughing, clapping, and dancing along. Featuring seven suit-clad men, Awesome! addresses themes of loneliness and group-think, all sung in beautiful multi-part harmony and accompanied by their obviously extremely skilled instrumentation. The performance had a strong theatrical bent – indeed, it was something akin to watching a talented group of ex-music students exploring their theatrical sides.
[image8628 align=""] Halou, by their turn, is a trip-hopesque band seemingly bent on updating, and even improving, on the sound made famous most notably by Portishead. Playing as a quartet comprised of a captivating lead singer (in Rebecca Coseboom, who seemingly always performs in vintage costume), guitarist, drummer, and upright bass/keyboardist, Halou explores the same dark-tinged musical avenues traveled by their predecessors, with an evocative sound that bears repeated listening. Their hauntingly beautiful melodies seemed a bit out of place on the sun-drenched stage that was their home for Bumbershoot, but Halou succeeded in engaging the crowd.
Finally, Cloud Cult is an indie band unafraid to break convention, eager to engage their audience while simultaneously retaining a down-to-earth humility that is entirely captivating. Accompanied on-stage by two talented interpretive painters, the group explores themes of loss, politics, and discovery, all through gorgeously-arranged melodies and the plaintive vocals of lead singer Craig Minowa. Opening their set with the best version of Dylan’s “Tambourine Man” this author has ever heard, the group took their engaged audience for a musical whirlwind of a ride, varying between electronic-tinged, up-beat danceable numbers and more sentimental downbeat numbers, all before moving into angst-filled political commentary (such as the as-yet unreleased “Deaf Girl,” in which Minowa comments that, if people could only shut up, perhaps we’d actually hear one another). Overall, this is one of the most engaging, committed acts to come onto the national scene in recent memory – an act all the more impressive for their environmental and social commitment, values that to date have kept them from signing any major label deals (due to the labels’ inability to guarantee the upholding of ecological values held by the band vis-à-vis distribution, touring, and etc).
Beyond these three stand-outs, one returns to the balance of Bumbershoot’s musical acts: the “they’re fine” set. While it must be noted that the myriad acts performing throughout all three days of the festival make it is easy to catch parts of the sets of many different artists (and as such to miss the “highlights” of a particular band), the festival has no lack of bands with little to offer that is unique or provocative.
In that category for this author were, among others, up and coming acts such as Sirens Sister and Of Montreal, one couldn’t help but feel they were re-treading familiar ground, offering precious little in the way of a re-imagination of the same. Sirens Sister, already anointed one of Seattle’s “next big things,” seems an energetic cross between older U2 and the Mission UK, doing precious little to update their sounds. Similarly, Of Montreal convincingly produced a sound as familiar – and unoriginal – as their glam look. Overall, Of Montreal is likely a band for the masses – but seems to offer little in terms of breaking new ground.
Therein, then, lies the challenge of the festival: separating the truly amazing from the pedestrian. In the case of the Saturday of the 2006 Bumbershoot, this author was pleased to have had the chance to experience Awesome!, Halou, and Cloud Cult.
