bumbershoot
friday, september 3 - monday, september 6, 2004 • seattle center, seattle wa • review by janice • pics by mike


review: It's Labor Day weekend, so yup, you guessed it! --- it's Bumbershoot time again! And because Mike and I are gluttons for punishment, we decide to hit every single day of this weekend-long festival...this is the first time we've ever attempted such a thing.

friday, september 3rd
I pick Mike up from work, BUT instead of heading straight for Seattle Center, which is what we would usually do, we decide to park the car at home and take the bus into the city, to avoid the parking hassle. Big mistake! And it just adds another dimension as to why I hate the bus: the bus was 30 minutes late! Grrr! As we waited impatiently at the bus stop, I kept sending panicked text messages to Jeremy's cellphone...

To Janice: where r u?!?!?!
To Jer: arrrggh! i h8 the bus! have they started yet?!?!?!?!
To Janice: not yet. but hurry...!

The bus finally arrives, we ride up to Seattle Center, and hit the ground running when the bus lets us off at our stop. Thank goodness there were still wristbands left, but as we sped towards Memorial Stadium, we could hear the dancey techno beats fill the cool evening air. Arrrgggh!!! We were missing the show!!! :O

We get inside and get as close to the stage as we can. Lots of people are having fun and dancing, but much to my dismay, more people should've been dancing...I mean, really now! United State of Electronica are the most fun band in Seattle right now! No one else can get the party started like they can!...or, err...sometimes can. :/ But the party couldn't start for me until I found Jer. He and I have been dying to see U.S.E. live ever since their CD hit the copacetic offices (a.k.a. my apartment). Through a series of cryptic text messages and pointless cellphone calls where I'm screaming "HELLO?!!?" but I can't hear anything anyway (just try making a phone call standing next to a gigantic stadium-sized speaker...go on, i dare you...), Jer and I finally managed to find each other in the crowd, just in time for pumping our fists in the air and singing along to fun dance numbers like "Emerald City" and "There's Always Music".

U.S.E. are so adorable live! Their keyboard player was wearing these incredibly shiny silver disco pants, and they had pink-wigged dancers on the side of the stage. How cute! Admittedly though, the dour expressions of the Death Cab fans who were tapping their Converse-d foot impatiently was kind-of a downer. Jer and I look forward to seeing U.S.E. in a smaller, more intimate club setting.

After their set, we got to meet Jeremy's most adorable friend and co-worker Kelly, and we all stepped out of the crowd to get some $12 bottles of water, but the thing is, this year you weren't allowed to have the bottle! The vendors would pour out the contents of the bottle into a cup instead! :/ Whazza? The cashier seemed kinda embarassed about the whole thing and explained that they instated this new rule to keep people from throwing the plastic bottles around...but the thing is, they weren't enforcing any rules at the gate! We brought plastic water bottles in with us for the following three days, and never had them confiscated! So much for the new rule...

As Death Cab for Cutie took the stage, we managed to speed past all the 15-year-old emo kids and get pretty close to the stage again, making sure our petite new friend Kelly had a clear view of her future husband, Ben Gibbard.

Death Cab were adorable, duh. They played "Title & Registration" and "The New Year" among others from the latest CD, and even played some old classics like "A Movie Script Ending". People were singing along with every word and were compltely caught up in the music, which was lovely. Some people were starting to mosh, and Ben and Chris Walla said things between the songs like, "Be careful out there!" and Walla's classic, "Safety first!" You could so take those boys home to meet Gramma.

After their set, we all decided to go home. *Yawn!*

saturday, september 4th
Today was kind-of a weird Bumberday, 'cause there were plenty of things we were interested in checking out, but nothing that we were dyyying to see. With this in mind, I actually kinda approached the day with a very rare laid-back attitude, such a switch from my usual panicked, stressed-out state at this weekend-long fest. In our relaxed-state, we even thought to pack picnic lunches and bring our own water (in plastic bottles!!!) to avoid the jacked-up festival prices.

Our first destination after getting through the Seattle Center gates with plastic water bottles in hand was the Comedy Stage. Now, we knew from reading the schedule that Mary Lynn Rajskub of Mr. Show was gonna be in town...what we didn't know, was that hosting the whole comedy stage shebang was fellow Mr. S alum Paul F. Tompkins! Yay! His brief set was great, and then sadly, I remember nothing about Tim Young, not even from looking at Mike's awesome pics! (Sorry, Tim!)

Mary Lynn was so weird it was...weird. At first, I was like, "Oh ha ha, she's so wacky and irreverent!" as she stumbled out on stage carrying a tote bag and her jacket, like she had just showed up and was running late or something! And then she took out some notebook paper and started rustling with it uncomfortably on a nearby music stand, and that's when I was like, "Ohhh. Maybe she really was late?" but then later as she started awkwardly and breathlessly doing a "Let me entertain you..." song and dance, I nodded to myself, "Okay, she's just a loveable nut."

[[ed note: And, sadly, here's where the review ends, as I found this review two months later and realized it was unfinished and my memory had gotten fuzzy on what else happened! Sorry about that! For the next Bumbershoot, I promise to do better...]]