It’s been a hot minute since the end of the annual Labor Day weekend Seattle music ritual that is Bumbershoot. And now that I’ve had some time to process my experience with the only day of Bumbershoot 2018 I was able to attend, I want to share my thoughts, discoveries and observations.
In total I spent roughly 10 hours at Bumbershoot surveying the music offerings across four of the festival’s five stages (I ignored the Exhibition Hall because of its exclusive EDM and DJ sets). During that time I managed to see 18 different acts and watch four complete sets. I watched rappers, country singers, rising stars, singer-songwriters, punk rockers and one rock & roll icon. Needless to say, Bumbershoot’s offerings were quite diverse and I left the Seattle Center campus musically satisfied at the end of the night.
But before launching into all of Bumbershoot’s musical goodness, it’s worth noting some of the ways this year’s festival was different than past years. Things weren’t different in a bad way, or different in a good way. Bumbershoot 2018 just felt different.
- Attendance: While I only attended on day out of the festival, attendance seemed noticeably down from years past. The festival grounds weren’t empty, but I could easily make my way to the front of any stage I visited throughout the day and never felt claustrophobic or cramped in a crowd. Typically when attendance is down at Bumbershoot it’s due to the weather, but the temperatures reached the 80s and there were no rain clouds, so weather wasn’t a factor. The $130 price for a daily ticket might’ve contributed to what felt like sparse attendance. A 3-day pass was more affordably priced at $220, bringing daily cost to $73. To put that number in perspective, you can currently buy a three-day pass to next year’s Capital Hill Block Party for $125 and single-day tickets for this year’s Upstream Festival began at $60.
- Younger crowd, younger lineup: Tickets might have been more expensive than in the past, but that didn’t stop the under-30 crowd from showing up. If I had to guess the median age of attendees I would put it somewhere between 22 and 25. A lot has been made about Bumbershoot’s shift from programming legacy artists and moving away from programming genres like blues, folk and jazz into its lineups the past few years. That move has attracted a much younger crowd, which likely has a lot more disposable income, and it also shifted the programming to lesser-known artists and rising stars. This made the festival more of a place for discovery instead a place to see well-established artists or iconic headliners, which ended up being a good look for Bumbershoot 2018.
- Fewer acts, fewer stages: By my count there were 32 musical acts that performed on the final day of Bumbershoot, which doesn’t feel like a very large number for a major festival. Of course Bumbershoot is about more than just music. There were comedians, politicians, poets, spoken word artists and other performers on the bill as well. It is a music and arts festival after all. The lower-than-usual number of music acts were spread across a mere five stages (past Bumbershoots have had eight or more stages) which made bouncing from stage to stage pretty easy and allowed for maximum music consumption.
- Near gender equality in the booking: I was really impressed by the number of female performers on the bill the day I attended. The first five acts I saw happened to be female-fronted bands or female solo artists. It was pure coincidence and it was awesome. Gender equality in festival bookings has been in the news this year and it seems like Bumbershoot has taken note.
- Security emphasized: Maybe it was the smaller crowd that made Seattle’s Finest stand out everywhere, but it felt like everywhere I looked I could see a police officer. And it wasn’t just uniformed cops, there were also bomb dogs on site walking through the crowds. That, combined with the metal detectors at entry and the no re-entry policy made Bumbershoot feel very, very safe. The downside to that safety, if it is one, was that while I was watching Phoenix play “1901” at the end of the night loud fireworks went off to cap SZA’s set on a different stage. Upon hearing the loud explosions my initial thought was to run and start looking for cover. It’s an unfortunate reality of living in a post-Route 91 Festival time when mass shootings at music festivals are plausible.
Okay, now that all of that is out of the way let’s talk about the music. I won’t detail everything I checked out because there were some clunkers of sets that I didn’t particularly enjoy (I’m looking at you Cold War Kids, Kelela and Field Report) and some sets where I didn’t spend enough time to form a solid opinion (sorry, Bahamas, Pink Slips and Tinashe), but I will share my thoughts on what I enjoyed.
I mentioned earlier that the festival felt more like a place for discovery this year and for me it definitely was exactly that. A few of the discoveries I had this year were Jade Bird and Jillian Jacqueline. Both delivered excellent performances. Jacqueline, who was performing with Kenny Rogers when she was 8 and currently has a duet with Keith Urban on the radio, was a bit more spunky onstage that Bird. Bird, the more reserved of the two, is currently making waves with her single “Uh Huh,” which was recently featured as a free download by local alt-rock radio bastion 107.7. The End, so go get it!
Bumbershoot is at its best when championing local talent and although I didn’t get to see many local acts, I did see the kids in Great Grandpa and I’m so glad I did. The band (pictured at the top) were a ball of rock and roll bliss. They played an impressive 45-minute set at KEXP’s gathering space and are one of Seattle’s rising rock darlings. Hopefully they will get the attention they deserve and grow to become more than local grunge-pop favorites.
A few years ago I was able to check out a few hours of one day of Bumbershoot and during that time I caught Bishop Briggs on the Mural Amphiteatre stage. I was immediately drawn into her stage presence, distinct voice and catchy songs. For her return to Bumbershoot she brought that same stage presence, voice and group of songs — along with the new track “Baby” — with her and graduated to the main stage. She was all smiles throughout her set, jumping, running and bouncing around the stage all while not losing her breath and hitting every note. Her voice and her band sounded massive at Memorial Stadium and made me feel very lucky to have seen such her perform a seemingly intimate festival set a few years earlier.
Great Grandpa weren’t the only group making noise with guitars. Austin’s Black Pistol Fire and L.A. punks The Regrettes more than adequately rocked the Mural and KEXP stages respectively. I’ve been following Black Pistol Fire ever since I hard “Hipster Shakes” on an Apple Music playlist and was really excited to finally see them live and they did not disappoint. Their hard-hitting set of rock and blues was a loud, jolting, life-affirming burst of music that gave me a permagrin throughout their entire sweat-drenched performance.
During one point, Black Pistol Fire guitarist/singer Kevin McKeown jumped into the crowd and fell onto a member of the crowd while playing a searing solo. I happened to be standing next to the gentleman who got clobbered (he didn’t seem to mind) and the neck of McKeown’s guitar was resting on my chest while he continued his furious guitar playing. I’ve seen hundreds (thousands?) of guitar solos in person and this one marked the first time a guitar solo was literally played on me. Pretty neat! Remember kids, rock and roll is a contact sport, so be prepared.
Another set that saw a little bit of crowd participation took place over at the KEXP gathering space. That’s where The Regrettes played a feisty set of adrenaline-pumping punk rock that had a near-capacity crowd of kids going bonkers. The spunky group ended their set by pulling out a choice cover, which was Rage Against the Machine’s classic “Killing in the Name.” They executed it pretty well and by the time the defiant “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” came along vocalist Lydia Night was in the crowd thrashing around and shouting it out with fans. Watching a throng of teens getting sweaty while dancing around to loud guitars and drums warmed this rock critic’s hardened heart. It made me feel like there’s still some hope for Generation Z.
I’d be lying if I told you Blondie wasn’t my main reason for attending Bumbershoot. Within the past two years I’ve started digging through the band’s back catalog and discovering all sort of good stuff I never knew existed. Plus, I’ve always wanted to hear “Heart of Glass” and “Rapture” live, so attending Bumbershoot during the day Blondie was scheduled to perform was a definite must.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers came out of the gate with “One Way Or Another” and from there it was a setlist filled with hits includig “Call Me,” “Hanging on the Telephone,” “Heart of Glass” and the extended version of “Rapture” complete with two verses rapped by a pretty spry 73-year-old Debbie Harry and a few great guitar solos thrown into the mix.
Blondie not only fulfilled the legacy act requirement, the band also drew one of the largest crowds at the Fisher Green stage. I didn’t think the younger crowd would appreciate Blondie much and I actually went all old man yells at cloud on Twitter after overhearing what I thought was an unappreciative teen commenting on how “adorable” she thought Debbie Harry was when she took the stage dressed in a polka dot cape and wig. You can read the full thread of my interaction with the seemingly disrespectful teen by clicking on the tweet below. I recommend giving it a quick read. It doesn’t end how you think it might. (Spoiler alert: she wasn’t being disrespectful, but I was being a little bit of a jerk on social media).
Teenager to my right looked at her mom and said “she’s adorable” in reference to Debbie Harry and her age. Yikes. Respect your elders kid. She’s not adorable. She’s a gosh darn trailblazing rock & roll icon and a national treasure. #Bumbershoot
— Travis Hay (@guerrillacandy) September 3, 2018
Headlining Bumbershoot has become a sort of rite of passage for recent Seattle stars with Odesza, Macklemore and Death Cab For Cutie recently topping Bumbershoot’s bill. Fleet Foxes‘ move to Bumbershoot’s biggest stage not only gave the fest its biggest local act it also was a sign of the band’s progression into the big leagues of Seattle music (if they weren’t already there). Sadly, due to the always lame music festival problem of conflicting set times I was only able to catch four songs of Robin Pecknold and company’s set, and what I saw was a mixed bag of good and just okay.
Accompanied by The Westerlies providing a brass section, the band sounded bigger, louder and tighter than I’d seen them in the past. Pecknold sounded great but when the rest of the band came in to provide harmonies it wasn’t the musical bliss I anticipated. Instead of sounding pretty and clean the harmonies sounded muddied and a washed out in the sound mix. It was disappointing to say the least. Thankfully, by the time the band ended its set with a tremendous extended “Helplessness Blues” the harmonies sounded much better, allowing the group to end the biggest set they’ve played in their hometown on a high note.
But the damage had been done by the three songs I heard preceding the closer and I was left with memories of the worst-sounding Fleet Foxes set I’d ever seen, which is still way better than the best-sounding sets from a lot of other bands out there. Of course I might have too many fond memories of hearing their harmonies soar at venues like Marymoor Park or Columbia City Theater to objectively judge whether they sounded good at Bumbershoot. But to my ears the stadium setting of the main stage didn’t work in their favor.
Finally, at the end of the night there was the difficult decision of whether to see headliner SZA or spend some time at the Fisher Green stage with the Frenchies in Phoenix. There was no wrong choice, but eventually I ended up spending a majority of the end of my evening enjoying the dance rock of Phoenix. They took the stage to Prince’s “Controversy” blaring over the PA before starting their set with “Love Like A Sunset.” I hadn’t seen the band live in more than five years and during that time the production of their stage show, and quality of their music, has greatly improved.
The group’s 16-song set was filled with synthy dance-pop tunes that had the fairly large Fisher Green crowd dancing in the moonlight underneath the Space Needle. The stage production included some slick video imagery behind the band on a pretty large HD screen and some great stage lighting. At points the group could only bee seen as silhouettes, making them come across like The Strokes if that band played quality dance music and cared whether the crowd was having a good time. Singing along to “1901” and Lisztomanianing with Phoenix (that’s a thing, right?) felt like the perfect way to end my night.
As I left the Seattle Center campus after attending my 15th Bumbershoot it was pretty obvious that it was a different experience. I headed home with my ears slightly ringing, a big grin on my face and thinking about tracking down music from all of the new-to-me artists I discovered. That’s exactly the same way I left the festival the 14 other years I attended. So while my experience with this year’s Bumbershoot may have been a little different than years past, it was also very much the same as it’s always been.
