Summer Review

Summer just ended and I haven't reviewed my progress in a while so it's time to look back a bit.

When I did my Summer Update on August 22 I'd seen 230 bands/performances, 203 for the first time. Sasquatch! and the Capitol Hill Block Party were in the books.

I got an occasional Vera show in like the Braille, Theory Hazit, Knowmads and Friends show

and the Olivia Tremor Control/the Music Tapes/Megabog show, the Quixote Radio Veracity set

and the Finn Riggins, Atomic Mama, Neighbors and Chung Antique show

Add all of the Vera shows and the running totals up and we get to 244 bands, 215 for the first time.
Bumbershoot figures prominently, of course! All kinds of great bands on Saturday, I've been a fan of Brite Futures doing songs about hair (Hot damn! It's everywhere!) since they were Natalie Portman's Shaved Head at the EMP Sound Off a few years back

Kris Orloski did some awesome stuff, and Champagne Champagne ruled like always:
Presidents of the USA are climbing up the "most seen bands" list, this is at least the sixth time I've seen them, and my son Ben's first trip to Bumbershoot with the girls and I. Ben saw the Presidents twice already (sneaking into the private Microsoft show and early this year at the Showbox) and the girls have seen them 3 or 4 times, I think.

Yuni in Taxco, Vasen, Valient Thorr, PS I Love You, Shabazz Palaces, Pentagram and Vetiveer, Little Dragon and on and on. I ended up tiring out and missing the last few bands (sigh) but it was still a wonderful set of performances. We went home tired and happy!
Sunday was similar if not better with Sol, the Gail Pettis Quarter, Kasey Anderson, Kore Ionz, Davilla 666, Whalebone

and on and on: Lonely Forest, Mad Rad - Party Mountain is one of the most reliable live songs ever!
and yet "You Only Live Once" totally gives it a run for it's money with the air keyboards. Mad Rad are one of the most consistent live hip hop outfits I've seen this year. It's probably mostly that I'm a total geek for cellos.
Massey Ferguson, No Means No, Broken Social Scene, Thee Oh See, so many good bands, it's making me tired just looking down the blog at the videos!
Das Racist was in fine obnoxious form, Warpaint and Butthole Surfers and I finally got to see Macklemore at the Key Arena, the crowd loved him and he totally fed off of the enemy. He has a susprising well of charisma and kept the key buzzing and entertained for his whole set and totally pulled off the "and we danced" bit with the wig and everything. One of the more memorable Bumbershoot shows I've seen, but poor time management left us way up in the nosebleed seats far away so the visual was disappointing and the crowd engagement wasn't as good. It was still an excellent show, one of the better Bumbershoot shows - we ended up sitting up in the seats at Memeorial Statement at a fair share of mainstage shows in prior years too, it happens, and if the show is good enough it doesn't matter much.

and we caught the Kills and Carbon Leaf on the way out.
Monday we saw yet more wonderful music: the Horde and the Harem, Motopony

Legendary Oaks, Fly Moon Royalty, Curtains for You, Quadron and Ravenna Woods, Head Like a Kite, Yacht, Dom, Dennis Coffe, Ian Moore and the Lossy Coils, Lake

Greensky Blugrass, Sharon Van Etten, Vendetta Red, Urge Overkill, Fitz and the Tantrums, Over the Rhine, Phantogram and the Reverend Horton Heat to close us out

We saw so many great bands it was ridiculous: 80 performances, 62 for the first time. Add that to the total so far and we're at 324 bands/performances, 277 for the first time.
I also managed to get to the free Globes show at Nectar

and saw 15 bands (7 for the first time) do the EMP Nevermind 20th Anniversary Benefit for Susie Tennant, bringing the final tally to 341 bands/performances, 285 for the first time.

That leaves me a bit over 3 months to try to get another 24 bands/performances in, should be achievable. I plan on going to Reverb which should get me 10 to 12 bands, and I've got 3 Veracity shows and 2 or 3 regular shows to steer, that gets 15 or 18 further bands which should just get me to 365 even on the low side of the range, and perhaps get me up into the 375+ range, especially considering I'll probably catch a bit of Christmas music and an additional Vera show or two, most likely.