So I posted about my entire weekend at Bumbershoot 2014 as viewed through my twitter stream, but that was not the whole story. The 3 day pass was a Father’s Day present. I wasn’t able to travel to see The Replacements (more on that in a later post) but the band was a featured headliner at the local festival and Laura knew how much I wanted to see the band. So I went to Bumbershoot all 3 days for the first time in a long time.
Saturday I took August and Déla – Laura and I used to take Kyle all the time and it would be fun to share the experience with them. Déla was free so I just needed to get a ticket for August. I would have taken Ciárán but he wouldn’t have enjoyed it.
The first thing we did when we got there was to check out some craft booths and get lunch. The falafel stand had a short line so that was our lunch. We then went to see a theater performance of storytelling by The Moonshine Revival Tent. The collective’s entry to the festival was titled Alligators & Debutantes, featuring two “tall tales” enhanced by some music and singing, but the emphasis was on the outrageous stories themselves. I found a posting of the second story in an audio file.
Déla didn’t enjoy it as much as August or I, and afterwards we started wandering around eventually ending up at the main stage where Panic At The Disco were performing. Here the tables were turned as Déla enjoyed them while August and I didn’t. And the band’s cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” left me with a bad taste in my mouth because it fell short. It was a very normal cover but not nearly as dynamic as the original.
I was glad we had brought our umbrella as we needed it. It rained and got a bit chilly. The three of us were glad to have our coats, especially later as the evening wore on.
After this we went to check out the visual arts, of which there were a few really good offerings. In years past there would be, from what I remember, not a lot of great stuff to look at, though art is a very subjective medium.
A few of the installations really captured our attention. Finger Power by LETS Collective was one we not only spent time on but went back to. Then there was Interstitial Theatre’s light and sand project which we spent more time with than planned. A few others were decent and of course a few we just didn’t like. Still, I was rather pleased with the visual arts offering. In years past we would blow through that whole section of Bumbershoot in 15 minutes. This time we spent nearly two hours around the visual art.
Dinner was next followed by the main attraction. Pun intended.
We made our way to the main stage a little early because I wanted to make sure we had decent seats. I liked the way the main stage was set up this year in the stadium with two stages. That’s another topic though. So we’re sitting in our seats, a decent vantage point for Elvis Costello when he comes out and we’re listening to Shelby Earl perform on the second stage. It was a decent experience to be able to share that with my kids. Sort of what in my mind Bumbershoot was all about. Seeing somebody you wanted to see, experiencing some other stuff and discovering things you didn’t expect.
Elvis Costello came out and performed a great set of material spanning his entire career. His band The Imposters was tight, but unfortunately the sound wasn’t as good as it should have been. The stadium really did his set a disservice, and I know the sound could have been better (and it was for everything else seen at that venue).
Laura picked up August and Déla as I was going to stay for Mavis Staples. I tried to get into a comedy show to pass the time until she came on but it was full. I then stumbled upon The Both, the project of Aimee Mann and Ted Leo. I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was.
Sadly I left after The Both and before Mavis Staples. I knew the next day would be a long one and I wanted to get some sleep. Besides, in the morning before heading down I would be helping Laura cut out a bunch of stuff for her classroom and didn’t want to be tired while holding scissors.