Bumbershoot

Randy Oxford Band Blues trombone; I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone play thetrombone with the exact same style as this guy, but he sure as hell could play. A good backing band as well. I stayed for a good portion of their set which was being fronted by a female vocalist with a decent voice, but not all that much energy. Randy Oxford made up for that with a bit too much energy. At that point at which I’d started to get up to leave the lady left the stage and the bass player took the lead vocalist role and what little I listened didn’t sound too good. Was glad I caught these guys though, pretty good bad.

Olympic Sound Collective So there was a game show way back in the day, which I’ve never seen nor played, called I-76. What I do know of the game is that it had a kick ass sound track. This 70’s funk/rock, bass driven stuff that I can’t listen to without my head bobbing along. Anyway, these guys come pretty close to that sound, at least as close as anything I’ve run across. They’re from Seattle so I’m definitely going to check them out more.

The Village Green I went down today planning/looking forward to seeing these guys. I’d stuck around at the other two venues so long that I only caught their last song and to be honest I’m glad that was the case. Maybe it was just the song, but they didn’t really do anything for me. oh well.

Brett Dennen Paul Simon with a hint of Jack Johnson thrown in. He was decent, nothing special though so far as I was concerned. Seemed a bit odd when he’d talk in between songs. I guess that turned me off of him a bit.

Particle This L.A. based group kind of has a game soundtrack feel to them, which was backed up when they played a song that’s being included on an upcoming game Scarface: The world is yours. I liked these guys quite a bit, not as much as OSC though. They had a funky feel to them as well, but were less rock and more soul/techno/something-or-another. I saw and watched the better part of their setleaving only as they started to play a pink floyd cover that I could of done without, thank Lexington’s WQKK for playing Pink Floyd in to the ground for that one.

Bits and pieces of other acts. At this point I was pretty tired of being around 9 billion people in the hot sun etc. I caught a couple more acts before calling it and heading home. Granted I didn’t get my full 3 days in, but I sure as hell got $50 worth of music in. I’ll definitely be getting the 3 day pass again next year. Bumbershoot was very cool.

Bumbershoot

West Valley Highway (Marysville) So I wasn’t impressed with these guys. They just seemed like they were trying to hard or something, not with the music, just to be alt country guys or whatever. My main peeve were the vocals though, it just didn’t have the right sound to it for the type of music so far as I was concerned.

Art Exhibits – There wasn’t quite as much to the art exhibits as I was expecting. There was some sort of benches thing sponosred by Starbucks that was ok. In the next area there were alternative crafty stuff. For the most part normal crafts dipicting odd things: two headed animals, odd wooden people, etc. There was a nother room or two of crafty stuff, the one really cool thing was a really large display of crochet work, lots of reds, very intense, warm and fuzzy. The last two exhibits were pretty cool. There was a photography exhibit, the work of 3 photographers hired to record the 35th aniversary bumbershoot (2005.) Some pretty cool pictures in there. Finally there was an exhibit on Second Life and art within the virutal world. At some point during the day there was a talk about Second Life and art which I probably would attended provided I’d seen it in time.

Jim Knapp Orchestra (Things For Now) So nothing too special here, good large group jazz. I only stuck around to see about 15 minutes of it before I headed off to the next thing, but I enjoyed it while I watched.

Rubberbandance Group Awesome. I won’t really be able to do this justice as I haven’t been able to when I’ve told people about it so far. I guess it would be best classified as something between ballet and hip-hop (the dancers you see on stage beside the lip-syncers.) Definetly more artistic than anything you’d see in a music video, story and all. If I ever have a chance to check them out again I definitely will, not that I think I’ll find myself in Monteral any time soon.

Dengue Fever (Escape from Dragon House) Yet another group that I have a song of on my i-pod thanks to KEXP. Wo-pop, a fast paced, (especially live, a bit too fast tho) layered, intricate, and generally entertaining. I don’t think I’ll buy their album, but they’re worth checking out.

Spoon (Gimme Fiction) Score another one for sucky-sound-guy. These guys were decent, I didn’t not like them, just didn’t really enjoy them all that much, oh well. They seem to be rather popular and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard some of their stuff on KEXP, might even have something on my i-pod by them…

Crystal Skulls (Outgoing Behavior) Hadn’t heard of these guys before and didn’t intend on checking them out, but was glad I walked by on the way to lunch and stopped for a bit. Primarily guitar driven, with a popy 70’s REO Speedwagon (or something like that) feel to it.

Matt Costa (Songs We Sing) Something in the vicinity of Jack Johnson, gental rock lead mostly by bass lines and clean guitars. It makes for good background music, but not really something I reach for when listening to music is the activity. Wasn’t a particuarly exciting show, but given the type of music it would of been quite odd if they were. Someone I want to check out a bit more.

Common Market (Common Market) I really liked these guys, a really exciting show, the crowd was really in to them. Good songs, good lyrics, good beats, nothing not to like. DJ was pretty good, complete with scratching solo’s. I’ll probably end up with their album.

Blue Scholars (Blue Scholars) So how could I not like a group that sings a song about the neighborhood I live in (Southside Revival, Beacon Hill.) How cool am I to live in a place with a rap song about it. Oh and I have it on my i-pod, and you guessed it thanks to KEXP.

So I waxed poetical last time about sound guys and I feel the urge to talk about something so here it goes. I am very pleasently surpsied with the variety of stuff going on, both in music and “arts.” I didn’t really expect that going in, figure it would be mostly music stuff and not all that much variety. I kinda tried to spend a decent amount of time today going to non-music stuff and was really glad I did, if nothing else seeing the Rubberband Dance group was worth the trip down for the day, and there was plenty else.

Bumbershoot

Derby (This Is the New You) a three piece rock band that blends the Bealtes and Greenday. The were the first band I heard, right as I walked in the gate on the Backyard stage. I liked them quite a bit, great sound, solid songs. If I’m ever in Portland (and I plan to be sooner or later) I’ll check them out if they’re playing.

Gossip (Standing in the Way of Control) is another three piece and you guessed it, they’re from Portland (there’s a pattern here.) So I’d heard of these guys, in fact I have one of their song on my i-pod thanks to KEXP’s song of the day podcast. Female drummers are hot, so they have that going for them too and this one is pretty good. They’re lead by powerful female vocals, which are layered on simple drum and bass/guitar backing. The sound is somewhere between funk, disco, and punk and regardless it is was really catchy, enough so that I just bought their album. Check out their myspace page for sample tracks.

Blondie (Greatest Hits) So my guess is that you don’t want/need my opinion on them so I’ll mostly keep it to myself. They were a pretty darn good show. It’s kinda werid seeing a 50+ year old woman up on stage dressed in lime green (read very 80’s) doing the whole 80’s dance/rock star thing. I was surprised how many of their songs I recognized.

Epoxies (Shop the Future) Here’s where the sound guy sucks stuff begins, and this one wins the awards for the shitties sound I’ve heard in a very long time, so loud everything was muddy and couldn’t hear a trace of the vocals, couldn’t even tell when she was singing. I guess, maybe, possibly, I’m not in the target audeience for this band considering that I was probably 10 years older than 90% of the room, but they’re a pretty good band, amazing energy (thanks to a spastically hot lead singer.) Which reminds me of a theory I have that continues to get proven out: members of a popular band are nominally 10 years older than their target audience. In a cround of 14-17 year olds these guys are balding or just generally look old(er) and when I say older I mean my age.

Texas Rollergirls – So I’d seen something come across BT a while back about roller derby that I didn’t bother fetching, but got me curious. Apparently rollerderby which I vaguely remember from back when I was very youngis making a return of sorts. I say of sorts b/c it’s not even close to what I remember. I think they’ve tried (and probably succeeded) to make a real sport out of it. The stuff I remember was more akin to wrestling with the rail around the outside of the track for fliping over. We watched parts of two matches and were bored pretty much out of our skulls, oh well, at least we didn’t pay anything (specifically) to see it.

Rogue Wave (Descended Like Vultures) While they might not be 10 years older than their target audience, which I assume is me since I’ve heard of them before and have a track on my i-pod (again thanks to KEXP) these guys are their target audience. The lead singer formed the band after losing his job in the dotcom bust. They too reminded me of the Beatles/brit-pop with a little bit of general fuzz-rock throw in. In fact they even covered a Beatles song. I liked these guys, their album is on the wish-list.

Hawthorne Heights (If Only You Were Lonely Version A) So I didn’t care too much for these guys and their sound guy made matters even worse. They’re probably the only band I saw today that I didn’t enjoy. They’re top-40 rock. Their songs kinda all started to sound alike to me after a couple. Oh did i mention their sound guy should be fired.

Yellowcard (Lights and Sounds) Didn’t care too much for these guys, at leat i won’t be buying their album or seeking them out, but I enjoyed watching them. They were pretty much the same as Hawthorne Heights, but slightly more interesting musically and most importantly the sound guy didn’t suck. These guys were pretty lively and put on a good show, I wasn’t dissapointed I saw them.

AFI (Decemberunderground) Fresh off their MTV award these guys put on a hell of a show. I won’t be buying their album or anything, but they were a pleasure to watch. They had one of the best sounds I’ve ever heard at a live performance, enough that it took me a long time to convince myself that they weren’t lip-syncing. What helped them out a lot was the lack of on-stage monitors, it was all in-ear, but I’m sure you really care about that. So what these guys had that the two previous acts lack was musical diversity. Their songs had a lot going on, they consisted of more than 3 chords stuck together repeatedly, … I liked them, I’d even go watch them again, though I probably wouldn’t pay what it would cost. If you get a chance to check these guys out, do so.

So here comes my rant on Sound Guys and I say guys delibertly b/c I didn’t see any females running sound today. I’ll also throw in that one of the best front of house sound people I know, personally, is female, so I don’t think it’s a gender biased job. Anyway, I’m not sure what the hell the sex aside is all about, I had a point and I should probably get back on it. Nothing can ruin a good band’s show like a suck-ass sound guy. Like anything else there are people who can do the job and their are people who can DO THE JOB. Small time bands are pretty much SOL when it comes to sound guys unless they just get really lucky. I would imagine the really good people are hard to come by and get paid a bit more than they can lay out. Here’s my tip though, hire as good a person as you can afford, if you move up a notch and can afford someone better get them. Don’t keep the same person around b/c they know you and they know your sound or whatever. A festival like bumbershoot is really good for illistraiting the differences in abilities. There are no bad bands, they all meet some minimum level of ability and every single one of them is worth watching. There are no shitty systems. All of the systems are better than average to really good. So the two previous points are the reason you get to see the differences in ability, you get to see good systems with good bands and hugly varrying sound guys. At a festival like this they nearly make or break a performance. When over 3 hours I listen to 3 bands on exactly the same system (the main system at the festival) and hear everything from shit to bliss the only significant difference being whos turning the knobs.

What makes good sound (I won’t say how to b/c I don’t necessiarly have a clue, but I can tell you when it’s wrong.) It’s loud enough, but not painful. You shouldn’t have to wear ear plugs if you’re sitting several hunderd feet away in the stands, Maybe if you’re in front of the speaker tower, but otherwise it should be bearable. When it’s loud everything is muddy, you can’t heard the vocals and everything else loses definition. A more specific case is bass. Some people seem to max out bass for the kick you in the chest feel, which is very cool, but again more is not better for the same reason as above. So anyway, I’m tired of writing and I’m sure most people could care less about my thoughts on sound guys, So I’ll shut up…

more to come tomorrow…