Bumbershoot, Day 2

Oh, today was awesomeness. Even if it was way busier than it was yesterday.

Started off with Hey Marseilles. I hadn't actually heard their music before, so I didn't know what to expect. It was a really good mix of instruments, and I really enjoyed it. I tried to buy one of their CDs later, but they were apparently all sold out. It was crazy. And so packed, that it made more sense to find standing room in the beer garden than try to mush in with everyone standing in front of the Broad Street Stage.

After that I went and saw Crash Kings. I think they played a couple songs that weren't on their disc. They rock well, though, and their songs are just fun to hear. So that was also a good performance. Nothing really special to say about it, though, other than that this was also surprisingly packed. And that they finished out their (rather short) set by covering "War Pigs" :)

I made my way to the Redwood Plan from Crash Kings. I felt like I probably should have skipped them. I don't think I stayed for more than about 10-15 minutes. They were more electronic than I liked. They really didn't have much going for them.

I got a little break after that until the Bouncing Souls went on. I ran into a friend there that I was really surprised to see at a punk show, and lo and behold, she left after all of 5 minutes. I didn't stay much longer, either, as there's only so much punk one can take.

So I popped back into the EMP Sky Church stage for Slender Means, who unfortunately didn't have any CDs available. I really liked them. I don't really know what to compare them to. I guess I'd say they fit squarely under "indie rock."

When Slender Means was done, I walked over (and heard the end of the only song by the Bouncing Souls I actually know, whose name I can't actually remember right now) to Rise Against. I can't say their show was anything special. They even acknowledged that it's strange playing in an arena as a non-arena band. But it was still a really fun show. They had a great set, and they definitely were energetic and got the audience pumped up.

I left about fifteen minutes early to go watch Motion City Soundtrack, and regretted leaving early within minutes. I didn't miss much, and Rise Against was almost done anyway, so there was no value in going back, but Motion City Soundtrack was definitely more pop than I remembered, and the clientele was pretty homogeneous (pre-teens and high schoolers).

I went into the EMP hoping Fences was better. Their music was different, but I didn't enjoy them much more. They were very mellow. I could listen to them as background music, but as a live band, they weren't very exciting, so I came back out and watched the last couple songs of Motion City Soundtrack's set, including the only song I recognized by them, "The Future Freaks Me Out".

I was really disappointed that the Dandy Warhols were at the exact same time as Weezer. Whoever scheduled that must have been drunk. I ended up just watching Weezer. That was a great decision. I don't know what I missed, but what I saw was definitely amazing. They played a really good set list (mostly old stuff), and the new songs they played, they made a lot of fun, what with Rivers Cuomo running around into the stands for "Pork and Beans" and all. They even had beach balls for the audience during (and after) "Island in the Sun." The best part, though, definitely had to be the cover of MGMT's "Kids." Most importantly, halfway through, Cuomo put on a wig and sang some of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." That was definitely the most interesting set I've seen. There was just a lot of juxtaposition I wouldn't have expected.

Overall, a good day, and I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow, though I'll probably see fewer musical acts tomorrow since I'll try to hit up some comedy.