Day Two of Bumbershoot 2015 wasn’t completely free of the unfavorable mojo that plagued Day One–Dead Moon lead singer/guitarist Fred Cole (a double-bypass recipient less than a year ago) was rushed away by paramedics during the band’s set. That major exception aside, though, the second day of Bumbershoot 2015 went off with relatively few hitches Sunday.
For my part, I took it easy yesterday, choosing quality over quantity. That axiom paid off for me, as I found myself liking or loving every live act I took in today. Below, please find what I caught, what I did not, and what I thought.
The Great: The best back-to-back sequencing at Bumbershoot 2015 so far (again, My Opinion Division) occurred Sunday afternoon at the Starbucks Stage. Chimurenga Renaissance, Shabazz Palaces member Tendai Maraire’s other musical project, served up down-to-earth, organic instrumentation rooted in Meraire’s Zimbabwean roots, and in the Congolese lineage of guitarist/co-founder Hussein Kalonji.
Meraire’s direct, Afrocentric lyrics and vocal delivery gained power and resonance live, and the band’s polyrhythms, stretched to elasticity with a pinch of dub, provided a perfect warm-up for Starbucks Stage follow-up Lee “Scratch” Perry‘s percolating set. Backed ably by his own singers and percussionist as well as NYC groove collective Subatomic Sound System, Perry presided like a full-on dub reggae shaman, and he sported the most ass-kicking wardrobe I’ve seen on a Bumber-performer so far this fest.
Anyone looking for their loud-as-fuck itch to be scratched found more than enough satisfaction from Seattle art-metal band Constant Lovers, whose weapons locker of shrapnel guitar blasts, squealing saxes, metallic backbeat, and Joel Cuplin’s unhinged screaming made for a whiplash-inducing (and strangely hook-filled) 30 minutes.
I don’t often get to Bumbershoot’s bigger arena concerts–simply put, you can usually catch partial-to-complete sets by four bands in the time it takes you to wait in line for one Bumbershoot arena gig. But breaking my usual policy of line aversion was worth it for Faith No More’s epic Memorial Stadium set. It was a comforting reminder of how deftly FNM’s always infused punk, metal, funk, psychedelia, and arena-rock with their own brand of fuck-you wit (literally: They opened with a blistering version of “Motherfucker”). And lead singer Mike Patton’s thick-necked mad-genius charisma still burns in spades.
Finally, the voice of a mournful angel named Neko Case sent out my second day of Bumbershoot 2015 propagating her continued reputation as one of rock’s great between-song patterers while still delivering her set of burnished original songs with clarion beauty. Her collaborator in backing-vocal harmony, former Visqueen frontwoman Rachel Flotard, lent haunting and lovely support.
The Really Good: Mikal Cronin is psych-tinged indie pop’s John Cusack–an earnest, unassumingly charming guy whose power-pop songs sneak up on you like a stealth bomber. Local boy Hibou likewise displayed similar effort-free charm with nimble, chiming guitar pop that sounded hand-delivered from 1988-vintage Liverpool.
New York-based trio Moon Hooch, meantime, took Bumbershoot 2015’s Shitty Band Name Award but more than made up for it with their ferociou and stripped-down dance music. Two saxes, each augmented with duct-taped road cones and God knows what else at various times, bleated out melodies and rhythm while one in-the-pocket drummer forged an entire disco orchestra manually with his kit. If the late, great Morphine planned raves, this’d be their house band.
The Rest: Again, this time out I liked (or loved) everything I heard.
Crap! I Missed It: Two legitimate Northwest rock legends, Dead Moon (get well soon, Fred Cole) and The Melvins; Fox and the Law’s potent groove rock.
