Recent Stories with tag labor day weekend

Penny Arcade Expo 2010 is over now, and some 60,000 gamer nerds have gone back to their basements with backpacks stuffed with free decks of Magic cards, wearing Portal 2 t-shirts, and clutching fistfuls of beta invites for new online games like Firefall and Rift: Planes of Telara. The free stuff is nice, but the unabashedly nerdy companionship at the Convention Center this weekend was better. Until next fall, when PAX returns, the community will have to settle for bullshitting on the forums, gathering in homes for D&D and Munchkin Cthulhu, or playing games together online. No one could blame them if they are, as I am, suffering from a mild but pervasive post-PAX depression.

I went to PAX Prime (as opposed to the newer East Coast version) primarily as a curious observer, since the closest I've personally come to the hardcore gaming lifestyle is plunking down at my computer for marathon hours of Solitaire. How can such a huge convention throw down in Seattle every year with such little mainstream press? Well, we're a music town, and Bumbershoot is usually this same weekend.

But game giants like Valve, ArenaNet, Nintendo, and Microsoft live here too, and I'd venture to say that gaming generates significantly more money than music in Seattle does—and has just as much emotional impact on its consumers. Penny Arcade itself has a hell of a human interest angle or two I'd like to see more fully explored (funny, insightful Northwest gamers with wives/kids/a webcomic make big, use their influence to create a safe and rad place to be a gamer, raise many dollars for kids with cancer, remain humble while doing so). Plus, PAX has music too! For PAX Prime 2011, we must do better, Seattle.... (more)

This sums things up nicely.

There is once in a lifetime, and there is once in a lifetime. Yesterday, a small group of about two hundred Bumbershooters (lucky End listeners, some VIPs, and yes, mostly press) gathered in a tiny room upstairs in McCaw Hall to see Courtney Love give a very intimate Hole performance.

Ultimately, it took up the biggest chunk of my Bumber-day, as we all excitedly waited in line for an hour, then waited for Courtney for half an hour, and then got four songs and a whole lot of talking from Ms. Love over the next hour.  I didn't know quite what to expect, and yet it went exactly as expected.

"Do we have an African-American child in our family now?" And so it began.

Over the next scatterbrained hour, Courtney went on to mispronounce "schadenfreude," rail against the Weekly's recent cover story on her ("the most irresponsible thing I've ever seen"), and occasionally answered a question from Red, The End DJ trying to conduct a Q&A--though it did take Red asking a question about the forthcoming Kurt biopic thrice to get a semi-coherent answer.... (more)

Plants and Animals

Yesterday was a good way to kick off Bumbershoot: the weather was just warm enough, we got a little sun, and Seattle Center wasn't too crowded. I'm vowing to make this year's fest a laidback experience. I'll catch what I can catch, and I'm not going to stress about it. Besides, it's easy to see a little bit of everything, if you're like me and start to get itchy after twenty minutes of a festival set. (Be sure to follow us @thesunbreak on Twitter, to catch our collective Bumbershoot observations as they occur.)

Saturday I started things out with Montreal's Plants and Animals, who combined their fuzzed-out, prog-leaning surf rock with words of wisdom: "It takes a good friend to tell you you've got your head up your ass." Their sped-up version of La La Land's "Tom Cruz" ended with a drawn-out jam. From there, I caught the tail-end of The Constellations, who played some cowbell from the photo pit, before closing their set with a cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man."

I made some time for one of the comedy stages, for the showcase with Joe Mande, Chelsea Peretti, and Donald Glover (Doug Benson is acting as MC, as well as appearing on Mark Maron and Chris Hardwick's live podcasts during the fest). Joe Mande covered his "hate crime fantasies," Twitter fights with celebrities, and the erotic origins of milk. Chelsea Peretti discussed the self-righteousness of owners of three-legged dogs. And Community's Donald Glover had a polished, easily excitable set that drew on everything from Michael Cera playing Shaft to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a "homeless man's fever dream." Thankfully, all three made fun of vegans.... (more)

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend (see our takes on Saturday and Sunday's lineup), and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategery:

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). The $22 Saturday tickets are already sold out. Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater. On Monday, you'll probably want to bring an umbrella and waterproof jacket, just to be safe. 

By the time Bumbershoot reaches Monday, everyone is pretty damn tired. But if you're still able to summon up the energy to make it to Seattle Center early, there are plenty of good options, in the form of rootsy Bobby Bare Jr. (12:30), country and banter care of Brent Amaker & The Rodeo (11:45), the big pipes of Nouela Johnston in People Eating People (12:30), and JEFF the Brotherhood (1:15), who are neither brothers nor named Jeff.

Monday is also your last chance to check out those things you've been meaning to do all festival, like hitting up the short films in SIFF Cinema, the Counterculture Comix retrospective (curated by Larry Reid and our good friends at Fantagraphics), or seeing some dance, theatre, or comedy. Especially if it's raining outside. We've been giving shout-outs to comedy throughout the festival, but I'd like to give a special mention to Kumail Nanjiani, who specializes in the fish-out-of-water humor of being a Pakistani in America. (I also went to college with him--jealous?) He's performing as part of a comedy nerd lover's dream showcase with the also-very-funny John Mulaney and Nick Kroll (3:45).... (more)

June is here (sorta, if you don't look outside), and with that comes the first wave of artists tapped for this year's Bumbershoot.  It's the festival's 40th anniversary, so that means trotting out musicians both old and new, which in this case means Bob Dylan and Hole. Dare we dream of a croaky-voiced Courtney Love-Bob Dylan trainwreck duet?

Single-day tickets are available online as of today, and via Ticketmaster this Friday. Just a reminder on how the tickets are different this year: 

The Bumbershoot Standard Ticket ($40 advance/$50 gate) includes guaranteed Mainstage admission, as well as first-come, first-served access to all other Festival venues. The Bumbershoot Economy Ticket ($22 advance/$30 gate) gives ticketholders first-come, first-served access to everything at Bumbershoot except the Mainstage performances in Memorial Stadium. Economy Ticket holders may be able to purchase Mainstage Upgrade Tickets on-site for $30, if space in the Mainstage is still available day-of-show.

There's one more Mainstage act to be announced (mayhaps Soundgarden?), along with the literary, comedy, performing arts, visual arts, film and theater artists, and whatever other music groups get added to the bill. Check out the lineup by day, and the full list is after the jump.... (more)

Along with their sold-out performance at the Gorge this Memorial Day, it's just been announced that fresh-outta-Coachella reunited indie icons Pavement will also be playing an all-ages show at the Paramount Sunday, September 5th. Yep, that's right smackdab in the middle of Bumbershoot--so make it work, people. Apparently, Stephen Malkmus and Co. really like Washington State for the long holiday weekends.

Tix start at $35 and go on sale this Saturday, April 24th at 10 a.m. Full details after the jump. (Video of Pavement kicking off their show last week at Pomona's Fox Theater with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain's first track "Silence Kid" above.)

Date: September 5, 2010 @ 8 p.m.
Venue: Paramount Theatre (all ages)
Price: $35, not including applicable fees
Seating: General Admission (Flat Floor) & Reserved Seating (Balcony)
On sale date: Saturday, April 24th @ 10 a.m.

Ticketing information: Online at tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box office (M-F 10 a.m.-6 p.m.), 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) 784-4849, or online at stgpresents.com.