WITH MY KNEES ON THE GROUND AND A STICK IN MY BACK ...

does anyone else find it interesting that we as americans celebrate the american worker {and our earthy and laborious roots} by earmarking one specific weekend to be especially lazy? you would think 'labor day' would be a day when we work our collective asses off for twenty four hours; the entire country, doing the most strenuous and punishing work imaginable. it would be a glorious, mass-produced, sweaty maelstrom of old-fashioned productivity. we could all write blogs.

instead, i chose to take the train up to seattle for the annual bumbershoot festival. stupid name. good lineup. sweet town. i'm all in.

i was mildy vexed by my girl leah spending her break in new york with her boyfriend, which meant i was left to endure seattle on my own, but she was gracious enough to let me stay at her place. {eat her food and sleep in her bed.} the view from her apartment is outrageous, and is far superior to my awe-inspiring view of a brick wall. unfortunately, i wasn't in seattle to hang out with her cat and stare at lake union. i arrived pretty late on saturday, was pretty exhaused from the walk from the train station to queen anne, and wasn't feeling pathetic enough to drink by myself in a bar, so i drank by myself in the apartment. Halley {Leah's blind cat} and i busted out a sweet hang over a decent bottle of chardonnay and watched baseball tonight. needless to say, Halley doesn't like to spoon.

bumbershoot wasn't just a celebration of music, but also a gigantic stage to showcase several types of media; from comedy to musical poster art to crafts. i really wasn't there to see anything other than the music, though. the bands i witnessed included:

the new pornographers > excellent show, pretty much up to my high expectations, but the songs were identical to the album versions. but who am i? funny story: these lame teenage hipsters i stood next to asked me where i was from. i told them i was a writer for The Pitch in kansas city, and was on the scene to write a review of the festival. needless to say, they thought i was completely full of shit, scoffed at the idea of living in the midwest {they were from san francisco}, and quickly returned to their unbearable discussion of kanye west's relevancy in modern hip hop. i wanted to murder both of them.

spoon > incredible show. perhaps the best show of the day. spoon continues their reign as my favorite band. i will say that britt daniels was showing off quite a bit at the beginning of the set. i think he felt a need to do so with all the drooling photographers and impressionable indie-kids in the audience. one of the supreme highlights was when britt announced they would have a special friend come on stage and visually interpret their next song {The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine} for the hearing impaired. their 'friend' happened to be dave cross, who was also performing at the festival {some collaborative act; 'tinkle'?}. he did some funny poses, ran around in circles, fell of the stage, and then mooned the crowd. legendary.

jeremy enigk > this guy and his 'band' were playing before the mates of state. bluntly stated, this was a complete waste of time. if buckcherry and creed had a sloppy make out session and then were flushed down the toilet, this is how they'd sound. i'm being gentle, too. i made a list of the cloud formations that i came up with when i decided to ignore the band and stare at the sky for fourty five miserable minutes. notables include;

• the bat signal,
• chevy chase,
• yoshi from super mario brothers,
• mrs. buttersworth.
  

the mates of state > i have just recently been introduced to this band. the fact that they happened to be performing at bumbershoot {and that they're from lawrence} was an added bonus. i was extremely impressed. if the new pornographers were even more 'sing-songy' and cute, this is what they'd sound like. they're an extremely creative {and good looking} husband|wife duo. it's interesting how they stare at each other the entire show. perhaps this is a poetic way of validating their marital 'connection'? anyone? anyone?

zero 7 > my only real exposure to zero 7 has been the garden state soundtrack, which i probably haven't listened to in a good six months. so i was entering this show with an 'oh, why not' attitude. big mistake. i was flabbergasted {yes, that's what i said} how well they performed. the shock value alone might have catapulted their set above that of spoon. {ehh, maybe not} the gorgeous platinum-blonde lead singer bounced all over the stage, she swore in a sexy british accent, one of the three keyboardists continually speed-jogged in place, and each member mixed drinks on stage between songs and passed them out to the rest of the band whilist they all jammed. needless to say, i was thoroughly impressed.

oh yeah. i also visited oma's public library. as luck would have it, the holiday prevented me from entering. i plan on returning sometime soon, and drooling uncontrollably.

don't forget to tip your watresses.

corbeano.

{oh yea, pictures.}