At Bumbershoot 2013, some wily musical vets have stolen the show. Who knew that Gary Numan had other songs and an awesome set still in him, up to and including “Cars”? Or that Eric Burdon would turn in a hoodie-clad performance with The Animals?
The ladies of The Breeders hit it as hard as ever, and thundered through Last Splash like it’s 1993. And of course The Zombies would have to play a couple of their jazzy new songs, but if you stepped away from the Starbucks stage and took a hot lap around the Seattle Center grounds, you could have been back just in time to hear them blow the non-roof off with their finale, “She’s Not There.”
Among Bumbershoot’s young turks, Kris Orlowski played a golden-hour set Saturday under the Space Needle and in the shadow of the EMP. Far too often, Kris Orlowski is lumped in with the sensitive Seattle singer-songwriter crowd, which is unfair, since a) he’s not a solo act — it’s a four-piece band that dabbles with the occasional orchestra — and b) Orlowski is not another boring, whiny nice guy. Just a handsome bastard with a great ear and a charismatic frontman to boot. #TeamDREAMBOAT
Over at the Sub Pop stage, Washed Out had to contend with technical difficulties that delayed their set by sixteen minutes, and the resulting audience of big spoiled babies just looking for an excuse to boo. Once the Bumbershoot A/V club got all the loops up and running, the mix was off for the first couple songs, but the chillwave set quickly found its groove. With new album Paracosm, Washed Out has moved into more disco and reggae territory, but don’t worry, they definitely played the Portlandia theme.
The night ended with the atmospheric sounds and sometimes hard-to-look-at visuals of Crystal Castles, while Sunday night involved going from The Zombies to fleeing from Bumbershoot-goers lurching around as zombies. Can we call it a Sunset of The Dead already?
Marc Maron had been on my Bumbershoot to-do list for Sunday, but I ended up seeing him with Patton Oswalt the day prior. I figured he would just use Sunday’s WTF session to further expound upon his anxieties about an impending third marriage and worries about the potential for becoming a father for the first time, but correct me if I’m wrong. Besides, twenty minutes of Marc Maron is pretty much the perfect amount of Maron.
@thesunbreak @stoatno1 @pattonoswalt Horrendous coverage. fyi.
— marc maron (@marcmaron) September 2, 2013
So the only comedy must on the Sunday Bumbershoot schedule was the roundtable discussion with the writers of Parks and Recreation. The Stranger’s Paul Constant introduced the panel for what he calls the best-written show on television, thanks to the individual voices of all the characters, born of a strong writing staff. The team includes old-timers like Alan Yang and Aisha Muharrar, and relative newbies Joe Mande and Megan Amram (both Twitter-famous) who joined the writing team for P&R‘s fourth season.
We got a sneak peek at the fifth season of Parks and Rec: The gang goes to London (Andy thinks it’s Hogwarts), Tom Haverford and Rent-A-Swag faces some new competition, and Leslie Knope wins a women-in-leadership award (complete with Heidi Klum cameo).
Facing the prospects of having to write off Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe, the writers felt that they had crafted satisfying departures for Ann Perkins and Chris Traeger in taking the characters to the end of their arcs. With regards to pacing the comedy, Yang pointed to the importance of clarity and simplicity and the continued need to tell the emotional story. And when in doubt, cast the funniest person possible for the part.
What then followed was an occasionally cringeworthy Q&A with Paul Constant, who twice lost his place in the novella of notes in his hands, and humblebragged “I know some people who work in government.” Constant’s question about gender ratio on typical television writing staffs was a good one, but awkwardly delivered and eventually trailed off. Luckily, the P&R writers have amazing chemistry, which carried the rest of the conversation, including a shout-out to the Bechdel test, the usefulness of Jerry as a punching bag, and the fun fact that Nick Offerman smells like mahogany.