The Ramshackle Highs of Bumbershoot 2024

While better adjusted folks might spend their Labor Day weekend celebrating the end of summer with a trip to the wilderness or hanging out at a barbecue bash with friends, more often than not I can be found at Seattle Center weaving in and out of hordes of strangers while trying to catch some live music. For those of us Washingtonian music addicts, the Emerald City’s Bumbershoot festival is the unofficial send-off to summer concert season.

After relaunching in 2023, following years away due to the fest changing promoters multiple times and COVID shutdowns, Bumbershoot strived to feel familiar once again this year.

Here are a few of the highlights and observations that stuck out from two days at Bumbershoot 2024.

HITTING THE PAVEMENT

One of the best things about rock music is that feel matters more than just about anything. The greatest technical guitarists on the planet can often be put to shame by folks who just know how to craft a messy melodic song. And perhaps no band has ever captured a level of undefinable ramshackle magic quite like Pavement.

The iconic indie rock band headlined Saturday’s festivities at Bumbershoot with a collection of their best blissfully messy slacker anthems. Considering the band hadn’t played a gig since May, there was a certain feeling out spontaneity as the group shredded and yelped through fan favorites like “Summer Babe,” “Range Life,” “In the Mouth of a Desert” and more over the course of just over an hour. At times there was a casually humorous disarray between numbers, but as soon as the first notes rang out on a given song, the band was locked in — though their version of locked in also includes frontman Stephen Malkmus slamming his guitar around the stage and wild screams from percussionist and accent vocalist Bob Nastanovich (the band’s unique sonic linchpin and fun-loving spirit).

Like every Pavement show I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying, the band’s Bumbershoot set was perfectly imperfect.

YOU ARE THE (ANXIOUS) DANCING QUEEN

In a world chock full of tiny people with extreme anxiety who I adore, Lauren Mayberry remains a truly top tier tiny person with extreme anxiety. The lead singer of CHVRCHES has been working on her solo material in recent times (her first solo album was supposed to be out pre-Bumbershoot), and on Saturday evening she showcased that she can do more than just fine on her own. She strode around the stage with a confident swagger while playing singles like the rock-edged “Shame” and delicately emotive “Are You Awake?” When her new album does eventually drop, there’s an extremely high probability of it being excellent.

That said, she did have a few on-brand moments of anxiety throughout the set like freaking out about the wording of her between songs banter being misconstrued and most notably bailing on a version of the CHVRCHES song “How Not to Drown” mid-way through because she felt like a song about suicidal ideation was a bad mood fit for a Saturday night and partially because she thought her CHVRCHES band members would be mad at her for playing it. While that line of thinking is frankly absurd and the rest of the sets sharpness was stellar, shout out to the realness of a relatable overthinking anxiety queen.

(Dear Iain Cook and Martin Doherty, can you please tell Lauren it’s okay to play a CHVRCHES song or two in her set — you know, the same way basically every singer who goes solo does a tune from their band — so she’s not hyperventilating about it in the future? Thanks in advance!)

AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE   

In my book, you can’t consider a music festival fully successful unless you come away with at least one band/artist who you didn’t know prior and now want to explore their catalog more deeply. This Bumbershoot, that band was the LA fem post-punk trio Automatic. Feeling slightly like a cross between the gravely slept-on mid-2010s Seattle band Crater and Franz Ferdinand, Automatic toes the line between chilly new wave and cooly disaffectionate dance rock with drummer/co-singer Lola Dompé bringing some Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney) vibes to the kit. Those craving some cold dark music to melodically sulk to need look no further.

PUNKS NOT DEAD, JUST KINDA OLD

If you’re gonna lean into booking a festival for an older demographic, one fun approach is looping in bands who are doing album anniversary tours. Such was the case when Ted Leo and the Pharmacists took the stage to perform the entirety of the band's acclaimed 2004 album Shake the Sheets. While Leo and crew might not be the biggest draw, the band joyously ripping through an album with a pack of diehards near the front of the stage singing along brings a certain energy and cohesion that certain festival sets lack. That Shake touches on themes like how to stay punk as you’re growing old, only made it more fitting for the setting. 

SERENE DEAN

To be perfectly honest, Sunday was a rough day personally (yay clinical depression!), so some softer vibes were a necessity. Thankfully, mustachioed Seattle singer-songwriter Dean Johnson — who has garnered considerable buzz over the past year — felt like a soothing sonic balm on a sunny Sunday afternoon as he sauntered through songs from his album Nothing for Me, Please with a soft hand and unassuming demeanor. Under the metaphorical shadow of the Space Needle at the Mural stage, his set was a tender, gentle, and caring breeze.

HOLDING COURT

Aussie indie rocker Courtney Barnett also played a killer set on Sunday night, but by that point my brain was a bit too exhausted to properly encapsulate it. She was great! She’s always been great!

DON'T MAKE THIS HARD

It’s clear that not every aspect of Bumbershoot is firing on all cylinders yet under New Rising Sun’s management. Over the two days, I heard more than a few accounts about things being needlessly complicated for artists performing, such as comedians being delayed entering the Seattle Center grounds because they weren’t "the right type of artist" to get in at the artist check-in or Bumbershoot trying to nickel-and-dime bands into paying to use the fest's backline audio equipment (and not letting them easily bring their own).

Just an FYI: It’s hard to have a festival return and thrive when you’re doing dumb little things to upset the local community of artists.

SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT TIME

So what can Bumbershoot do to continue to improve in future years? Here are three quick ideas:

1. Go Back to Allowing Reentry

Currently the festival lineup is very much targeted at a white Gen X and Millennial audience while striving to be family friendly. You know what’s hard for families? Not being able to leave the Seattle Center grounds over the course of an 11-hour day. Allowing reentry with your wristbands would simplify things greatly and provide a boost to nearby local business. Would there be more security checks and probably some wristband reselling? Sure. But the welcoming community atmosphere would probably make up for it by drawing in people who don’t want to commit to being essentially locked in the festival grounds all day.

2. If You’re Gonna Do Arts, Commit to It

New Rising Sun tried to bump up the non-musical offerings this year, but it’s still a far cry from what Bumbershoot once had. If they want it to not just be a music fest, then they need to try to go more all-in. Comedy used to be a huge part of the festival with legitimate headliners performing to at-capacity crowds in Cornish Playhouse. But this year the comedy was confined to a small inflatable dome that could maybe hold a few dozen people. The comedy on display was great — loved Joketellers Union show — but it shouldn’t feel like a hidden secret. While they made an attempt to boost up the Animation District, it was mostly something that could be walked through in a matter of minutes and lacked speakers that were going to draw people to the festival just to see them talk. The pro wrestling of Bumbermania and a skate park ramp with various showcases were fun for those who found them, but they were off in a corner by MoPop not positioned between any stages, so drawing foot traffic in was minimal.

If the cost is simply too much these days to fully engage in the arts, perhaps accepting that and going all-in on music would be a better route than giving the other arts what feels like a half-hearted try.

3. Diversify the Lineup

While it’s essential these days for a festival to zero in on its target audience, Bumbershoot at present seems to be narrowcasting to a fault. There’s just extremely little to be excited about on the lineup if you’re not in the aforementioned target demo of Gen X/Millennial indie rock fans. It’s not that there were only white faces across the lineup (apart from rapper Freddie Gibbs), but even acts that break that mold are still the ones firmly in the KEXP and NPR universe like Thee Sacred Souls.

Maybe strict adherences are a financial necessity in this age, but I long for a time when Bumbershoot felt like a place without a homogenous crowd. Where people from various walks of life might have a chance of stumbling on something way out of their wheelhouse: A Lorde fan watching Vince Staples, a lover of The Roots seeing Tacocat perform, EDM kids seeing Odesza after catching the Shook Twins the prior day.

I might be longing for a past that no longer exists, but it’d sure be great if a Bumbershoot crowd looked more like Seattle does as a whole and less like a collection of the modern tech yuppies you'd find in an Amazon Zoom meeting.