Weezer with all hands on deck. (Photo courtesy of Shurui Sun)
Sorry Saturday, the second day of Bumbershoot just Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the mopey stuffing out of you. Acts off the mainstage kept the energy pumping through the surprisingly sunny afternoon, while the Memorial Stadium headliners gave a potent dose of 90s nostalgia, for a day that was entertaining from top to bottom.
To gawker’s delight, Courtney Love the rock star not Courtney Love the zombie-drug-marionette showed up for the ‘shoot, and Weezer put on a well-coordinated display that unearthed the classics and the crazy-entertaining, rather than the crazy-batshit side of professional anti-hero Rivers Cuomo. It’ll be difficult for mainstream Monday to match this exuberance, but day three is more than welcome to try.
A few recaps of Sunday’s highlights after the jump…
The Seattle drum-centric Unnatural Helpers dropped an abrasive dose of garage rock on the small crowd of punk kids who dragged themselves out into the sunshine early. Curiously fronted by the man in the back, Dean Whitmore on drums, the gritty outfit ground out the set well enough to earn a few head-bangs from the assembled fans. But as their second and more recent album Cracked Love & Other Drugs clocks in at 25 minutes, it wasn’t really that surprising when the band peaced from the stage halfway through their one-hour set.
How many people does it take to get to "Rio?" (Marisa Landicho/treeswingers)
Even as the Unnatural Helpers were winding their amp cords, people were streaming toward the Broad Street Stage for another Seattle band, this time for seven-piece orchestral-pop group Hey Marseilles.“This is an unnecessarily significant number of you,” said humbled singer Matt Bishop, whose clear voice beautifully burst through reworked hits off their debut album To Travels & Trunks (earning what must now be a terrible sunburn). Favoring a waltz beat, breaking into joyous handclaps and playing hot potato with their many and quirky collection of instruments, the band moved the crowd with their lush layers and grinning sincerity. Flanked by brothers Anderson on strings (Samuel on cello, Jacob on viola), Philip Kobernik managed to make accordion sexy on ballad-turned-rock-jam “Hold the Morning,” and Bishop hit a poignant note, singing alone on stage for a new song about returning home from war. The already quidditch-team-sized band then added four more members to the stage for closing favorite “Rio,” getting the whole crowd clapping and shouting as they held aloft two marching band bass drums to beat out the last hits of the whimsical single. Definitely a band to watch.
Bringing a tougher energy to the new Center Square Stage, guitar-less rock band Crash Kings almost tore the Space Needle down with their pulsating performance. Launching the most crowd-surfing set of the day, the LA trio rocked some serious stadium-ready anthems, anchored by the sweet keyboard melodies by fedora-ed singer Tony Beliveau.
The testosterone-charged energy continued Sunday afternoon back on the Broad Street lawn with indie rock veteran David Bazan, performing as a solo act after heading previous Seattle projects Pedro the Lion and Headphones. Aided by his similarly bearded backing band, grizzly bear frontman Bazan delved into his archive for the solid rock set, staying fairly true to his recorded originals. As he sang on “Fewer Broken Pieces”: “I still run the show/don’t you forget it.”
RAH-RAH for riot. (Photo courtesy of Shurui Sun)
The photogenic indie-darlings Ra Ra Riot brought the strings back to the Broad Street Stage with a rousing set that combined material from both their debut The Rhumb Line, and their new album The Orchard, released just a week and a half ago. From opener “St. Peter’s Day Festival” to bouncing finish “Dying is Fine,” the band were on point with their string arrangements and harmonies, only disturbed by the bass drum pedal breaking during “Oh, La.” “Thanks for dancing. I don’t have my glasses on but I see some kind of blur,” said singer Wes Miles, who jumped down to the pit to high five the crowd before finishing the day thrashing at the keyboard.
Free hugs. (Photo courtesy of Shurui Sun)
The most danceable performance of the day, however, belongs to Ra Ra Riot follow-up Delorean, straight off the plane after playing LA’s FYFest the day before. If they were road weary, the Spanish foursome didn’t show it during their charged synth-crashing set. While the crowd was surprisingly thin for the techno-rooted Barcelona band (they were up against the hometown charmer Courtney Love), Ekhi Lopetegi et al. kept their stomping energy up through the knob-turning, electronic delirium that was heightened by the well-executed instrumentals. The first crowd surfers went up at the machine gun start of “Warmer Places” and didn’t let up for the rest of the hour, all destined to end up in the arms of the grinning security guard.
A triple booked 9:15 slot of LMFAO, The Dandy Warhols and Weezer had fans set hopping on Sunday night, with the high schoolers headed to Fisher Green for a shot, shot, shot, shot, shot of hip-hop duo LMFAO. The sparkly rapper pair took to the stage late due to “crowd problems” and enjoyed a highly expectant (and just plain high) packed-in audience, who ate up the aptly-titled entrance “Get Crazy.” The set just went downhill, though, as LMFAO covered the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” and it became clear the crowd wasn’t old enough to get some more Coronas.
Yeah, Cuomo is a kook. (Photo courtesy of Shurui Sun)
We learned a few things from the show-stopping closeout show by Weezer: 1) Rivers Cuomo is one spry, speed-walking champ, 2) Lady Gaga has truly infiltrated everything and 3) a full head of hair is unnecessary to rock the hell out. The band knew how to work the stadium, sticking to old material off the Blue Album and Make Believe to inspire even the VIP yuppies to sing along to hits like “My Name is Jonas” and “Undone (The Sweater Song),” putting up the ‘rock-on’ horns in appreciation. It was the 30-minute encore, however, that shot the set into the Bumbershoot stratosphere, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the crowd’s “Oh my god’s” went viral. Maybe when he climbed up a storage unit on stage right, or maybe when he shot the other direction and climbed up to the second rafters on Memorial Stadium’s opposite side, lighting crews huffing to keep up with him. Or possibly when Weezer erupted into a cover of MGMT’s “Kids,” segwaying into “Poker Face” as Cuomo donned a blond wig a la Lady Gaga. Definitely by the time he was star jumping on stage and dry-humping a giant beach ball, as the band shredded through classic “Buddy Holly.” All that’s certain is that as all the members jumped onto the drumkit for the finale, the collective hive mind was blown.
Treeswingers’ Top Three
Hey Marseilles- Hold the Morning (download)
Delorean- Warmer Places (download)
Weezer- Kids & Poker Face (MGMT & Lady Gaga Cover) (download)
A version of this review appeared in The Stanford Daily on Sept. 9, 2010.
Whats the top song in the treeswingers top three? it doesnt give a name or link, great songs btw
nevermind ,lol i have a cold!
Marisa this is freaking rad. I’ve enjoyed every bumber-post of yours so far its motivated me to NOT do my own reviews on the event. Is that horrible?
What kind of recorder did you use? more important, what kind of mic?
@Blair: Thanks! Though I was pretty blottoed by the third day of coverage. Sadly, I actually never recorded anything, outside of interviews; the Weezer song was captured by some other talented soul at a show in 2009 I think. They do that MGMT thing every gig, but it’s still cool.
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