Sunday, August 31, 2003

Bumbershoot, Day Two: The Day Is Long

All the fabulous shows were fabulous to me alone today. Kevin is a sleeper and Margot wanted to see Macy Gray and stuff, so I went to the grounds alone.

I was about 20 minutes late for the Dead Science's set, but the half I did see was fantastic. Two girls were talking behind me, saying that they'd never heard of this band but they were so good. I've only heard of them because they opened for Jason Webley once--I think at the Killing Time show--and the bassist is Webley's usual bassist. I remembered liking their stuff back then, but haven't bothered to go see them until now. One of the girls commented that these were the sounds she heard in her dreams. Hee hee.

I had every intention of checking out the Minus the Bear show. I enjoyed their EP that I picked up at a show they headlined at the Paradox eons ago, but by the time they were onstage I was too tired to really enjoy what was happening. This show was in the Exhibition Hall, 2003's answer to previous years' Key Arena for rising indie and semi-indie rock and hip hop bands. The Ex Hall is the space that you used to walk through to get to the Opera House at past Bumbershoots. It has a lot of tall columns and high, echoey rafters to block your view and kill the sound quality. It's possibly even worse than Key Arena for these shows, except they don't make you dump out your water bottles and ditch the food in your backpacks.

Anyway, as it was, I didn't stay longer than three songs because there was nothing really to see or dance to (although they encouraged dancing... whuh? MtB is even less danceable than Death Cab for Cutie) and made a beeline straight for the comedy stage, where there was no wait for the show starting in 15 minutes.

Too bad the show Underdog was, in fact, two of the three comedians I'd already seen playing off each other and repeating bits from their other show. Funny, but not worth my time.

I ended up having a lot of time to kill, though, so I guess it could have been spent in worse ways. After that, I called Kevin and woke him up, then let him go back to sleep. I got some coffee at a little dessert shop just off the grounds and some sushi at Larry's Market. The coffee was good and put me back in a non-shitty mood. The sushi was tasty and filling. The weather in the fountain was way too hot, so I went to hang out in the Center House for awhile. Quickly browsed the band posters and wanted to eat all the junk food I saw parading by. Filled out a survey for the Bumbershoot volunteers. Exciting stuff.

Around 4:15, I went to wait to get into the Sky Church for Kinski. I got in just after the Pale finished their set. I called Jana and told her to meet me here if she possibly could, grabbed a spot along the barrier, and watched the door. At 5, the set started and there was no sign of Jana. It was a packed house, though, so she could've gotten in and I just didn't see her. I sat back and enjoyed what was a fucking fantastic show. They grabbed me by the pit of my stomach and ran. Quite enthralling.

After that, I ran around trying to find Jana. We finally met up, said hi, then went our separate ways. She didn't get into the show. The I tried to find Kevin, since he had said he wanted to be here for the 5 p.m. Mary Lou Lord show. No such luck. I perused the indie lit booths before trying to get into Aesop Rock--again, no such luck. So I did a whole lot of nothing until he called, we met up, and he wanted to get into the Tribute to R&B thing because he digs Bonnie Raitt. I know.

We sat on the ground near a family of two young parents and four girls, all clapping and dancing to the bluesy sounds. I sat on the ground, took my boots off, and massaged my feet and stretched them because they hurt like hell. After only about 20 minutes of actual show, Kevin decided he didn't like it and was cool with leaving.

We tried to go find his friend Simon, who had been over by Key Arena was supposedly nothing to do until the Dandy Warhols show, but he wasn't there. We walked around a bit before deciding to try to get in ourselves. The line was massive. They stopped it right before we were to enter and made us wait five to 10 minutes before it was determined there was enough room for us to go in. Yay.

So we sat for almost an hour while they soundchecked their way 30 minutes into the alotted set time before we called it a bust and left.

That was about the extent of my day: Good show, good show, then too much walking and standing and pain. But I spent time with the boyfriend, and that is never an entirely bad thing. And I saw Jana, and I miss Jana.

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