Seattle's three-day Labor Day weekend festival was back under the Space Needle with memorable performances from Pavement, Cypress Hill, James Blake and many more. Besides the music there was skating, cheerleading, burlesque karaoke, a parking lot of sculptures and all the wacky things you'd hope to find in a music festival based in the Pacific Northwest.
Long live keeping things weird.
Located in the Seattle Center in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, the festival took a three-year time out after 2019 due to the plague, but last year it returned with gusto.
This year they added even more pizzazz to the mixture and many are saying it was one of the best fests the center has ever seen.
We'll see about that!
Lauren Mayberry covering Chappell Roan's "Good Luck, Babe"
The Scottish singer and percussionist of Chvrches who has been releasing solo material last year stopped "How Not To Drown" (a tune Chvrches did featuring Robert Smith) 90 seconds in because she said it was too depressing for the vibe.
"Actually no, nah," she said while wearing the most adorable dress. "It's Saturday night, that one is a bit of a downer. No one needs a suicidal idolization song for their Saturday night. We're already struggling enough."
So then she introduced the Chappell Roan hit "Good Luck, Babe" by saying that unless you've been living under a rock you would know it. Oh we know it, babe.
James Blake covering Bill Withers into Radiohead
Blake was one of the headliners of the festival that first got rolling in 1971.
One has to be very careful covering Bill Withers these days since he is someone they love to judge contestants for on shows like American Idol.
And you have to be incredibly confident to wade in the waters of doing an earnest rendition of "No Surprises" at a fest where a good number of attendees either have an OK Computer tattoo or once considered it.
After testing it out once in 2020 at a private engagement, the Brit began covering it this summer and Bumbershoot was his 8th time pulling it off perfectly, unsurprisingly.
Marc Rebillet doing "Your New Morning Alarm" with kid dancers
DJs come in all shapes and sizes, but few have the personality of Marc Rebillet who can freestyle and create new fresh moments seemingly on a whim.
As he was getting his set going Sunday night, he had two young boys, probably 6 or 7 years-old dancing in front of his turntables.
The kids were adorable, but Marc, who has recently been touring Europe, loves to curse when he sings and perhaps that's why he did "Your New Morning Alarm" near the top of his set instead of at the end because maybe he was saying he needed the children to vamoose as it was cramping his foul-mouth style?
The song goes
Get the fuck outta bed, bitch, go
Get up, get up, you gotta going, uh
Time to wake up, time to wake up, bitch
Because, as The Replacements sung decades ago - kids won't follow - the whippersnappers just kept bouncing, like lil angels.
Marc is on tour this month and next. Most of the gigs are sold out so get your tix through his site while they exist.
Pavement continues to ride Spotify's wave
Two years ago in September we told you about an odd quirk happening at Spotify where a tweak in its autoplay algorithm turned "Harness Your Hopes" from a cd-only bonus track into The Most Streamed Song in Pavement's glorious catalogue.
It's a decent song but the 33-year-old band had only played it twice live. Well that began to change once their newfound fans began hopping along to the tune Spotify feed into their feeds when they asked for either Pavement Radio or Grunge or '90s songs.
In 2022 "Harness" could not be contained, dominating Pavement's actually popular songs with 80 million plays compared to 32 mil for "Cut Your Hair" and 27 million for "Range Life."
Today the tune, which live debuted on John Peel's radio show in 1997, has more than doubled that total, having been streamed well over 165 million times. They've played it at all of their 5 gigs this year and you bet they'll bust with it in Riot Fest. Get your tickets on the Pavement website.
Cypress Hill rocks Seattle while representing LA
Cypress Hill have already had a great year thanks to The Simpsons inspiring them to play The Royal Albert Hall in July.
With that under their belt, the rest of '24 should be gravy.
But speaking of that belt, what was that colorful bandana hanging out of B-Real's back pocket when the rappers performed at Bumbershoot? Snoop Dogg wears a blue one in his pocket to represent he's down with the Crips, so who does B-Real claim?
No need to call your homeboys, that's the rarely used official flag of the City of Los Angeles. B-Real is just showing some civic pride as he rocks the mic.
There was wrestling
Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan is such a fan of pro wrestling, he bought the NWA six years ago.
Like rock n roll, the spectacle of this form of entertainment will never die. What a great way for young and old alike to get to see professional wrestling up close than at a festival.
See all the setlists from Bumbershoot 2024 here.
