Musicfest Northwest
Saturday, September 11

Due to some prior commitments (spending all weekend surfing the net in my boxers), I only had time to catch one show at this year’s Musicfest Northwest. Logically I chose a bill featuring BOAT, Seattle’s feel-good pop heroes, joined by New Jersey’s own Titus Andronicus.

Going into the night my knowledge of the latter extended no further than the length of the lead singer’s impressive beard, which I’d seen previously in pictures posted across the world wide web. “Sure he’s very talented when it comes to growing facial hair,” I thought to myself as I stumbled into Backspace, a popular all ages venue located in the heart of historic downtown Portland, “but can this man also sing and play guitar?” The answers to this question and several others would soon be revealed.

Bumbershoot 2010
Saturday, September 4

I strolled into the festival grounds around 3 P.M. and headed straight for the Center Square Stage to see L.A.'s HEALTH. I’d seen theM about three years ago in a tiny bar in Northern California playing to a crowd of less than 20. Since that time, they’ve increased their media exposure, notoriety and level of popularity. Rightly so. HEALTH’s clusterfuck of sound falls somewhere in between electronica, post-punk and noise madness destruction. Basically, they're post-everything, which is brilliant as it is hard to categorize and comes off refreshingly original and innovative.

The band played a majority of the material off 2009’s Get Color. The songs on this, their third album, are slightly more subdued, with mellow vocals frolicking over the swirl of chaotic noise below. I was psyched to see such a great performance by the first band of the day.

On my way over to Flatsock, the massive exhibition of rock n’ roll poster art, I ran in to Nat Damm, drummer from Akimbo. He had a booth set up and was selling his original designs. We’d met once before, so I said hello and discussed mutual acquaintances. He noticed my NadaMucho.com press pass and said he was familiar with the site and appreciated the positive press Akimbo had received in the past.

As I walked to the Broad Street stage, I noticed a yellow helicopter flying overhead.  “Hey, maybe Bob Dylan’s in there,” someone beside me commented.

Bumbershoot 2010
Sunday, September 5

I arrived on Sunday not knowing a single act on the bill, mostly because no-one had any Canadian in them. If Alannis, Bryan Adams or even Tom Cochrane had been playing I would have been there in a second, but with no-one from beaver country on board I hoped to find something acceptable to my young mind and palette. 

I looked through my leaflet and found a band with "gravy" in the title.  Since "gravy" means "sweet" in Canadian I went to see Eldridge Gravy and the Court Supreme. They were super. They played choice songs and were totally gravy. 

After lunching in on a meat stick with my mouth I satisfied my stomach munchies and went to see Sweet Water since they had "sweet" in the title. They played some fierce rock and roll and really played their guitars very well and they had a drummer who was slicky good. The vocalist also sang and was almost as good as the Canadian pop band "Heavy Aquatic Mammal", but since he didn't have a Canadian accent he was just good and not super good.  Me and Kris P. Kreme then mouthed down a sugary treat from a box cart and went to see The Lonely H. 

Bumbershoot 2010 Review
Monday, September 6

Monday saw smaller crowds, which made it easy to get around. With our 6 and 4 year-olds in tow, we ventured to the Broad Street stage to see personal faves Bobby Bare Jr. He was in fine form for such an early set, adorned with a stylin' green polyester suit and cowboy hat and backed by an equally scruffy lookin' cast of Blue Giants. He got right to it with an acoustic version of "Nashville, Tennessee" and then did the full-on dirty, distorted version of "Terrible Sunrise" before settling in for some of his patented between-song banter. Highlights included the suggestion that everyone kill the one they love and asking the crowd if there were any necropheliacs in the audience. Songs from his brand new album A Storm, A Tree, My Mother's Head sounded better live with a full band and he threw in staples like "I'll Be Around" and "Valentine" to boot.

Bumbershoot 2010 Preview
Contributors Share Their Memories of the Yearly Festival
Introduction by Matt Ashworth

As humans, we've got an innate desire to connect with other humans. Music, art, comedy, film...these are simply vehicles to foster those connections.

Consuming such media can be a solitary pursuit, but it's the connection we make with the artists and their work that touches our souls. And, ultimately, when we share in the consumption of art and music with others, the experience is more profound because we create a shared memory. It may take me awhile to recall my favorite live shows, but once I zero in, I can almost always tell you who was standing next to me.

Bumbershoot, Seattle's oldest and most comprehensive yearly festival, has provided the opportunity for humans to create shared memories through the consumption of music and arts for four decades. In preview of the 40th installment of the annual event - which takes place this weekend at the Seattle Center and contains the promise of many new musical memories from Health, Atlas Sound, Bobby Bare Jr., Trampled by Turtles, See Me River, Fences, Unnatural Helpers, Fatal Lucciano, Garotas Suecas, Lisa Dank, Weezer and dozens more - we asked the contributors covering Bumbershoot for us to share some of their favorite memories.  Share yours over on our Facebook or Twitter thingies, or post them in the comments section of this article if you're one of the lucky few for whom registration works. 

Capitol Hill Block Party 2010 Review: Villagers
Sunday, July 25, 2010

A hush settles over a quiet audience as a lone performer begins his next song. As I scan the room, all eyes are transfixed on this magnetic character as he lightly strums his acoustic guitar and sings in a voice so full of conviction, it’s stunning.

This was the scene at Neumos as Dublin’s Conor J. Obrien (Villagers) performed a solo set on the last day of this year’s Capitol Hill Block Party.  Evidently his accompanying band could not make it as he “couldn’t afford” to fly them to the show. 

Lucky for us, Villagers’ music seems to have more of an impact when performed solo. Hearing the debut album, Becoming A Jackal, full of instrumentation and production takes something away from the incredibly intimate nature of O’Brien’s songwriting.  It’s this intimacy, honesty and conviction that managed to captivate hundreds of intoxicated festival-goers, even in a venue as large as Neumos.