Bumbershoot '07--Saturday

Bumbershoot this year was awesome. Tom, some other Ferndale kids and I headed down Saturday morning. Somehow, we had a room in the Marriott Hotel--there were about four of us on the floor each night.

Every year around Bumbershoot time, the weather people predict rain (personally, I think they just say that when they haven't done their research--they can get away with it in Seattle); and every year it is hot and sunny as hell.

We checked out the Vau de Vire stage on the Fountain Lawn first. There was a man playing this eerie sounding piece on a cello that was spray-painted gold, and a dehydrated-looking woman strutting about on a pair of stilts.

Acid Man was there, too, with his mischievous (perma-fried) grin and patriarchal beard. He's getting noticeably older and slower, but his Huskies-colored [kilt? drum majorette skirt?] totally hides his true age. Lots of X-rolling kids danced around with him or took pictures. Gotta love that guy.

I met up with Alyssum, as we had planned on busking a bit. The only problem was that we had no music to dance to. Emily, always the hero, dug a couple of empty pop bottles out of the recycling bin and started playing a beat that somewhat resembled Beladi, so I joined in on my zils until we both ran out of steam. Seattle people are shy about giving tips, apparently, so we only made about $4 in that half-hour. We had a hell of a time, though, and next year we'll have a doumbek for Emily.

At the Bumbrella stage (which kicked ass this year), we saw an L.A. based ska band which I forget the name of but was amazing--totally high energy. I ran into Eden, who I hadn't seen all summer, and we got some Lebanese food before heading back to Bumbrella to see Common Market, a hip-hop group from Seattle. They pretty much got everyone psyched for Gogol Bordello later that night.

The Gogol Bordello show started around nine, but the lawn was already swarming with punks and potheads by eight. Gogol Bordello is a New York-based gypsy-punk band that blends Balkan beats with Latin, punk and something like polka. The show was crazy; full of sweaty moshers and crowd surfers, myself included. They played two 45 minute sets, and kept the energy up the entire time. I'm still bruised from it.