Theresa Wayman of Warpaint (Photo By Michael Verity)
Heavy bass vibes and thrashing guitars were the order of the day as Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival crashed into Day 2 with the [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Jim Jones Revue[/lastfm], [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Thee Oh Sees[/lastfm] and [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Butthole Surfers[/lastfm].
Though folks who wanted to be indoors and grooving to a mellow tone had some options early in the day (like Thomas Marriott‘s Human Spirit jazz set), loud and proud under more sunny skies and 75-degree temperatures were what most of the thousands at Bumbershoot were looking for.
They weren’t disappointed. For early arrivers, local favorite Massy Ferguson got things rolling with an energetic set of good old fashion American rock and roll, one part Wilco, one part Springsteen, one part R.E.M.
Indoors a small group of hipsters bounced their heads to a set by DJ Justin Timberline while over at the Fountain Stage things were much more, um, energetic.
Dressed as hillbillies gone surfer and tatted from top to tail, Jim Dwyer and his punkabilly surf band, Thee Oh Sees, were, literally, whooping and hollering to what can only be described at rock and roll for a bad dream on a good stretch of dark highway.
The set of the day easily belonged to the [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Jim Jones Revue[/lastfm], launched at 4 o’clock at the Starbucks stage, the blinding sun pouring into Jones’ and company’s eyes. It only seemed to make their music that much more hardcore and needle-sharp, Jones and his crew banging out an hour-long set that pulled influences from everything between Little Richard and the MC5, with some Humble Pie tossed in for good measure.
[lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Jessica Lea Mayfield[/lastfm]‘s brand of introspective folk-rock softened the edges at the Starbucks stage during the following set but, back at the fountain, two new bands were holding court. [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Tennis[/lastfm], the pairing of Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, played music they wrote while spending months alone at sea (yes, at sea), a rolling and tumbling bit of lo-fi pop.
For entirely different reasons, the second best set of the day was from [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Warpaint[/lastfm], the LA based quartet of strikingly beautiful young ladies who play a subtle yet muscular brand of pop. Far more musically adept than many of their colleagues in the indie pop world, there were touches of [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]New Order[/lastfm], [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Primal Scream[/lastfm] and [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Pink Floyd[/lastfm] from the band named one of NME’s most promising artists of the year.
Elsewhere, [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Leon Russell[/lastfm] turned in a workmanlike set, backed by a quartet of young cats; [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Butthole Surfers[/lastfm] did what they always do, created the kind of in-your-face mayhem that’s beyond description; and the [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Kills[/lastfm] crafted a dark dreamlike growl that pierced the growing darkness of a Seattle Sunday.
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