bumbershoot 9/6/04 last day = labor day 2004.
arrived 11:00 to find long lines waiting for gates to open and enter. waited 15 minutes, then cut in line and waited 10 more for wristband so we could see the pixies and built to spill. the 3 boys i brought went one way, i another. i had my camera .
a large red board with three familiar pictures caught my eye. people had painted individual squares and assembled them into a loosely recognizable painting. each was about 10 foot square: a monet, a picasso and something else (see pics). I sat down to work on a square for frida i got the chunk of monkey and her shoulder. interesting idea because each frame affects up to 8 others, none the same but close enough to look like the intended original. that took 45 minutes and i headed off to see toots and the maytals, a reggae band. the show was at the mainstage and i was close, off to the left. took some snapshots after talking with security. they said as long as its not a pro camera it's ok but the cameras today are plenty good. i don't know how the performers feel about everyone taking their picture and recording the show on their cell phones. I was impressed that i didn't hear one ringtone among the 100,000? people there. they use them like walkies talkies to find their friends. the crowd was young and not too stupid to handle their gadgets. even with such a packed crowd everwhere all day i didn't see pushing or meanness. toots had a small band pretty upbeat tunes, nothing too memorable, probably because il'd not heard of this jamaican guy. a lot of folks had as evidenced by several older women in full rasta hippie outfits and no shoes. felt like i was at folk life festival but the dreadlocks didnt smell. i left to check out more stuff and found another line forming for the main attraction the marley brothers. i think i dodged my way through the crowd for 45 minutes but i can't remember anything else besides the seasick feeling i got. all those waves of people, nobody i knew all day long besides the kids i brought and their friend who stuffed in the car for the ride home. I did talk to some old festival freaks who are always glad to be at these things. back in line for the marleys 15 minutes to showtime and starting to wonder if i would get in. turned out to be no problem got right near the front again and they put on a real show. lots of swinging dreadlocks and tight jams, 4 brothwers including ziggy and forgot the others. smiley faces and rasta on a partly cloudy late summer day. check out the guy waving the jamaican flag all show long non stop. pretty great stuff. they played an hour and a half some of their dad's tunes and lots of their own. since i don't know the new stuff here's a list of old: i shot the sherrif, exodus, lively up yourself, encore was could this be love.
left that show feeling good. found nick lowe on broadstreet lawn doing an acoustic solo set before 1000 people, packed again. that was the story all day until the main show, pixes BTSpill. BTS was first , good moody stuff for the 6000 twenty year old caucassians.
the pixies played short thumpy tunes nonstop for their time and we left at 11pm, home by midnight. my back hurt from the ancient bleachers in memorial stadium.
too bad work and school tomorrow. will skip it next year. too many people, didnt get see half of what i wanted too. good vegitarian gyro for dinner. did see the art shows, first time in 20 years.
Review of WEEN @ Moore Theater, Seattle, 10/1/03
