Bumbershoot '07--Monday

Just let me get this out of the way before I explode in anguish: It's Bumbershoot, not Bumpershoot. Enough said

*twitch*

Anyway, Monday was by far the best day of Bumbershoot. The weather was really nice; warm, but overcast with clouds that were trying to look menacing but weren't doing very well. Our day there pretty much lasted from noon until when Wu-tang ended.

First, we saw Adrian Xavier, a reggae artist, at Bumbrella. That was a nice, mellow way to start the day. Ohmega Watts, a hip-hop artist, was up around 2:00. A very nice transition into the high-energy sounds of Kultur Shock, a Balkan rock band with a kickass Slavic vocalist, a Japanese bassist, an American violinist with a wicked beard, another Slav on guitar and an awesome drummer from somewhere. They are even better live than on cd, and they come up to Bellingham a fair amount.

Next up was Lyrics Born, a Japanese-Italian funk/hip hop singer/rapper. His voice is like nothing you've ever heard, and he was accompanied by a very classy looking dame with a voice like a steam engine.

We had just enough time to grab some dinner before going to the Mainstage, so we got some delicious Thai food (of course, we also had our Zone bars...).

Lupe Fiasco was pretty chill; mostly I was just excited for Wu-tang later that night.

The Wu show was great. Fucking beautiful. The energy of the crowd was awesome; so many fans of real hip-hop. I can't even describe Wu-tang, you know, they're gods. After the show, they invited everyone (21+) to the Hotel 1000 for an after party and advised them not to "bring sand to the beach."

R.I.P. ODB