You’ve already seen The SunBreak’s Saturday Bumberpicks. Now it’s time to turn our focus to the Labor Day festival’s second day:
Josh’s pick, as An Old who goes to a couple shows per month instead of a few shows per week and therefore needs to see a whole crop of local bands that have been garnering high praise: The Lonely Forest (1:30 p.m., Key Arena). Tough call between Thee Oh Sees (Fountain Lawn) and Broken Social Scene (Key Arena) during the 3-4:15 p.m. timeblock. Decide based on your immediate preferences for sun vs. cool dads.
Audrey: I pick Broken Social Scene, even in Key Arena. I will also likely catch some Tennis (5 p.m.), Warpaint (6:45 p.m.), and Toro y Moi (8:30 p.m.), all at the Fountain Lawn Stage. I’ve heard good things about AgesandAges, so that means a trip to EMP Level 3 stage (4:30 p.m.), especially since I’ve not seen Kaylee Cole since a Musicquarium happy hour set many moons ago (6 p.m.), and I’ve been meaning to catch the blue-eyed soul of Allen Stone (7:30 p.m.). And I’ll definitely hit up the Decibel stage at EMP Sky Church for the melodic twins in School of Seven Bells (8 p.m.) and Lusine’s deep techno (9 p.m.).
But there’s a bigger task at hand. I still need to strategize on how to best catch all the comedy I’d like to see during three days of Bumbershoot: Hari Kondabolu and Eugene Mirman of course, maybe the autotuned tracks of the Gregory Brothers, Deon Cole (aka the black guy on Conan), Paul F. Tompkins, and Doug Benson for the umpteenth time.
Tony: Screw the Neil Young comparisons: Whalebones do Brian Jonetown-style psych-rock better than damn near anyone in town right now (1:30 p.m., Fountain Lawn Stage). And count on a debauched, nonstop party with Seattle’s favorite bacchanalians, Mad Rad (2:15 p.m., Fisher Green Stage). The Jim Jones Revue, meantime, crack skulls with Jerry Lee Lewis and The Sonics, and it hurts damn good (4 p.m., Starbucks Stage).
I’m curious to see if the Butthole Surfers can still summon the lysergic trainwreck energy of their 1990’s prime in these recessionary times (7:30 p.m., Fisher Green Stage). And I’ve gotta hear The Kills. Alison Mosshart’s voice could pretty much peel wallpaper–and the paper on my walls could use peeling about now (9:15 p.m., Fisher Green Stage).
Shawn also wants to see The Kills and Butthole Surfers, along with–in backwards Bumber-order–Anti-Flag (6:30 p.m., Exhibition Hall), Atari Teenage Riot (4:45 p.m., Exhibition Hall), and NoMeansNo (2:45 p.m., Exhibition Hall).
MvB: Did we already mention “Bumber by Number“? That’s the art exhibit featuring local artists trying their hand at paint-by-number, curated by Marlow Harris and JoDavid (all day, Seattle Center Pavilion). Early on, there’s Kristin Hersh not just singing but speaking: Paradoxical Undressing is her solo spoken word and musical performance. Get to know teen Hersh, wrestling with issues of mental illness, creativity, teenage pregnancy, and the pressures of sudden fame (12:15 p.m., Bagley Wright Theatre). You can catch Hersh again with film composer Nathan Larson and hip hop chronicler Nelson George at “From Music to Literature” (3:30 p.m., the Leo K. Theatre at Bagley Wright).
To cool off from predicted 80-degree temps, duck into the audience favorites of SIFF 2011’s short films (4:30 p.m., SIFF Cinema). Hear about X:144’s experience of the Egyptian revolution this past January at “Why Censorship? Why Revolution? Why Now?” (5:15 p.m., Leo K.).
Puppet This brings you Manos: The Hands of Felt, the story of fertilizer salesman-turned-director Harold P. Warren and his run-in with an evil cult. It’s a musical! (6:45 p.m., Center House Theatre). If you feel like YouTube didn’t give you the full impact, Dan Savage and Terry Miller are presenting It Gets Better live and in person (7 p.m., Leo K.).
