Bumbershoot 2002

Like most festivals, Seattle's four-day music and arts festival, Bumbershoot, is a bit overwhelming when first confronted. The Seattle Center itself is a massive outdoor complex that not only houses two of the city's biggest professional theaters - the Seattle Repertory and the Intiman Playhouse - but is also home to the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project music museum; we're talking about a piece of property the size of several city blocks. Populate all that real estate with hundreds of artists - any number of which are simultaneously performing - as well as scores of food and merchandise booths and thousands upon thousands of people, and you've got a recipe for sensory overload. At any given time, Bumbershooters had to decide between, say, Lou Reed on the RealOne Mainstage, jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan in the Mercer Arts Arena, seminal alt-rock band Concrete Blonde in the Key Arena and sociopolitical reggae pioneer Linton Kwesi Johnson on the Funky Kingston Rhythm Stage.
As luck would have it, that particular choice wasn't one that I had to make; that was Saturday night's closing lineup at various Bumbershoot venues, and due to work restrictions, I was only able to cover the final two days of the event. Unfortunately, I missed Blackalicious, the Lifesavas, Lou Reed, The Pattern, Sushirobo, The Catheters, Si*Sé and many, many more.
On Sunday, after checking in with the press office in the early afternoon, obtaining the proper passes and throwing down a buck for a map and schedule of events, the sheer magnitude of it all started to come into perspective. The trick is to just accept the fact that you can't see it all, so the best thing to do is figure out a plan of attack, and be happy with what you get. After getting familiarized with the Seattle Center grounds and the festival's setup, the best way to go about it is to just throw yourself into the experience. If you've got a few spare minutes between scheduled events, wander.
Every corner of the grounds' pathways held a new experience in entertainment. Two local high school students with a penchant for masochism presented a Bindlestiff-like side show - one lying on beds of nails and broken glass as the other applied various forms of pressure, pounding nails up their noses, etc. - the whole bit. Up toward the Polynesian Playground area, another couple of stand-up young men in bow ties defied gravity and amazed the growing crowd with a juggling routine that involved sticks, string and something called a "Chinese Yoyo." But sideshow freaks and carnival nerds weren't the only artists on display. A crew of three textured, marbleized men set up around the property as statues that came alive when money was dropped in the bucket in front of them; African drummers and dancers pounded out soulful rhythms; a gypsy accordion player enthralled onlookers, all of whom were passed in the afternoons by a lavish and festive parade driven by deep drums and handing out beaded necklaces to bystanders. In the Snoqualmie Room everyday, the Circle Center Spin break dancers hit the dance floor while the Heavyweight Art Installation painters flexed some artistic hip-hop muscle in tune with DJed beats.
In fact, at every turn someone was presenting some sort of art, be it performance, music or just freakish displays of uncanny ability. But all the amusements proved to be mere distractions of fancy, and the massive crowds were often just huge groups of people migrating from venue to venue, stopping along the way to take in the sights, sounds and smells as they made their way to the next big show.
Things got started between noon and 1 PM everyday, though the real action didn't seem to get going until around 3 PM. On Sunday, that was the time that Modest Mouse took the RealOne Mainstage and played to the adoration of a crowd that was obviously in love with the powerhouse Northwestern indie group. At the same time, Kinks co-founder Dave Davies was putting in work at the Mercer Arts Arena and thoughtful indie pop purveyor Damien Jurado was performing on the Electric Sky Church stage inside the Experience Music Project (EMP). As 4 PM rolled around, the line to enter the RealOne Mainstage grounds was really long, packed out four-wide with kids chomping at the proverbial bit to see one of rock music's most pertinent and relevant acts, Sonic Youth. This show was perhaps the most attended single event at the festival, with thousands of show-goers filling the arena floor and packing in high-backed bleachers to enjoy the show, and Sonic Youth was happy to oblige; frontman Thurston Moore even referred to Seattle as the band's "home away from home," which elicited plenty of hoots and hollers.
Meanwhile, crafters of fine, lush indie pop, The Beachwood Sparks, did their thing on the Northwest Airlines Blues Stage…though I have a feeling that, after Sonic Youth, most people were looking forward to seeing unpredictable, emo-punk killers The Shins and the band they were opening for in the Key Arena, the nation's biggest little indie band, Death Cab For Cutie (featuring former Chicoan Michael Schorr on drums.)
As Death Cab rocked in the Key Arena and Sunday's festivities came to end, the day's "headliners," Everclear, graced the RealOne Mainstage, the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra kicked the funky African jams at the Funky Kingston Rhythm Stage, and John Wesley Harding regaled the crowd in the Kendall-Jackson Northwest Court Stage with his own brand of dark and slightly depressing pop music.
Monday's final day performances saw perhaps the most soulful shows of Bumbershoot - seminal bluesman Otis Taylor started the day at noon in the Northwest Airlines Blues Stage. Taylor was followed by the infamous and entertaining El Vez, a flamboyant, Hispanic Elvis impersonator who takes the music of classic soul and early rock 'n' roll musicians and reworks it to fit his theme of revolution through love and music. El Vez competed for a crowd with alt-country-flavored rock band Wilco, who primed the RealOne Mainstage for local favorite and former Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell. While Cantrell played to a packed arena, Marxist Irish punkers The Mekons pleased old fans and gained the loyalty of new ones on the Northwest Airlines Blues Stage. The Mekons were followed up by roots country sensations The Derailers, who played while former James Brown band horn player Maceo Parker got things jumping at the Key Arena. The Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra revisited the festival on Monday afternoon, right before The Saw Doctors, Michelle Shocked, Blonde Redhead and Jewel closed out the festival on various stages around the Seattle Center and a rave pumped on at the EMP Sky Church venue.
Considering the size of the Bumbershoot Festival, it was extremely well organized - every act started on time and, at least from my perspective, seemed to go relatively smoothly. Some of the Seattle locals I spoke to were less than happy about the traffic and sheer influx of people in the Seattle Center part of town, and a common complaint from local rock hipsters was that all the coolest bands that performed at Bumbershoot play Seattle clubs on a semi-regular basis, which offers the opportunity to see the same shows in smaller, more intimate settings. However, a standard four-day pass to Bumbershoot costs about $50 (the price of some of the bigger local club shows) and allows free admission to anything and everything happening within the Seattle Center confines. It also exposes show-goers to more music and arts than they would see at a club show, and that's not a bad deal at all.
- words and photos by Max Sidman

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