So in case you’re still playing along at home, here’s the view of Bumbershoot’s final day (Monday, September 1), from my cramped perspective.
The Great: La Luz, per usual, oozed kitten-in-a-motorcycle-jacket coolness for their early set; Smokey Brights continued to forge a catchy through-line between heartland rock, new wave, shoegazer music, and garage rock—and they did it with buckets of energy and passion live; Shaprece commanded the End Zone Stage while her band and producer IG88 lent able accompaniment. If you’re looking for a beating, soulful heart amidst the incalculable coolness of modern electronic dance music, look no further.
Speaking of the future, four international acts set world music expectations on their ear and provided some of the most exhilarating, forward-thinking sounds of Bumbershoot 2014. Hoba Hoba Spirit, a rock outfit from Casablanca, spiked traditional Moroccan melodies with hard funk rock (think The Clash, rocking the real Casbah); Mexican Institute of Sound (AKA DJ/producer Camilo Lara) cut an almost comic figure in his derby and t-shirt as he and his band roused the Fisher Green crowd to a sweat with an electrified blend of dance pop and Mexican folk tunes (Mextronica?); Colombian groove collective Bomba Estereo pumped up the dance jams even more furiously thanks to Liliana Saumet’s seemingly boundless energy; and Ukranian quartet DakhaBrakha jolted their traditional folk tunes with subtle 21st century touches: acoustic percussion laid on with almost mechanized precision, and a smear of effects distortion on Nina Garanetska’s cello that turned the instrument into one unlikely but intense psychedelic instrument.
The Reverend Horton Heat closed out Bumbershoot 2014 with a galloping hot rod of a set played to an ever-lovin’ T—rockabilly as bad-assed yet tongue-in-cheek performance art—and just watching the Rev coax all manner of twanging, pinging, and locomotive roars out of his Gretsch guitar was a show by itself.
The Really Good: Rose Windows’ marriage of sunny sixties pop and darker lysergic sounds really clicked live, like The Mamas and the Papas growing a set of rainbow-painted brass ones as they stomped on the distortion pedal. Jacco Gardner took things even further down the rabbit hole with impeccably performed chamber-pop songs that tapped into the druggy lushness of vintage ‘60s bands like The Left Banke and Love.
Seattle quartet Tangerine delivered unashamedly bright and pretty pop, winsomely sung by front woman Marika Justad and anchored by Toby Kuhn’s solid guitar, Miro Justad’s feisty drums and Ryan Baker’s impressive bass playing. And Real Estate’s introspective indie-rock felt like a perfect companion piece to the waning of the weekend, with plenty of bittersweet chord changes that felt like memories being made and remembered, all at once.
The Rest: For the second day in a row, I really liked—or loved—everything I heard. Well played, Bumbershoot.
Crap! I missed it: Jonathan Richman; Nada Surf; Campfire OK’s dependably-solid live performance; Tendai Maraire’s non-Shabazz Palaces conscious dance party, Chimurenga Renaissance.
