Bumbershoot Day 3: LOST in the Mire

After mostly holding back during Bumbershoot, the rain pretty much ruled the final day of the music and arts festival. With the ground already saturated from the late night-to-early-morning buckets from the prior two days, the last day was pretty dreary. There were still plenty of acts to be excited about, but my expectations were once again dampened going in, as far as live music was concerned. However... I did have one indoor activity planned for the middle of my day that I was excited about, and that was the Writers From Lost panel, featuring Executive Producer Carlton Cuse and hosted by EW's Doc Jensen. [I'll leave details from that in a separate post.]

Once again, here's a small sampling of pictures from througout the day.
The Minus 5 at the Mural Ampitheatre

Scott McCaughey doesn't play enough for his old city these days, so it's always a party when he graces us with his presence. And he's always bringing his (semi)famous friends along for the ride. There's always R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, and this time out, The Minus 5 players include Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate) on guitar and Linda Pitmon (Zuzu's Petals, Golden Smog) on drums. While Minus 5 gets the marquee, it should be stated that this was also a The Baseball Project and The Steve Wynn IV show, as each got their turn. Besides the "contractually obligated by The Late Show with David Letterman" song "Past Time," they performed "Harvey Haddix," about the Pirates pitcher who took a perfect game into the 13th inning only to end up losing the game. Since they list all the pitchers who've thrown perfect games in the song, it was fitting that a 'Mark Buehrle' got thrown in for one of the choruses (sung like "Five Golden Rings"). Peter Buck even pulled out a 12-string for The Dream Syndicate's jangly hit "Tell Me When It's Over."

I was going to duck out a song early to check out Say Hi, but McCaughey & gang spoiled those plans with a blazing cover of the Sonics' "Strychnine." It was early and raining, so the crowd was a little thin, which is unfortunate as it just might have been my favorite set of the whole festival.

Janelle Monae at Fisher Green Stage

Monae's schtick is from another planet, quite literally. She's a true blue sci-fi diva, with robotic moves, crazy eyes, and with an amazingly tiny frame. She went on late (as was the case with many a Fisher Green Stage performer), so I only made it through one song before having to run off to the next set.

Akron/Family at Broad Street Lawn Stage

The freak folkers played during some of the wettest parts of a very wet day, but did not disappoint. Like Holy Fuck the night before, they had the crowd in trance, moving to the grooves they were providing. The rain ended up feeling more like a special effect than an act of God.

The Cave Singers at the Mural Ampitheatre

Seattle's latest buzz-y beard rockers, The Cave Singers can no longer be considered a collective, as even in the rain, the crowd gathered to see them seemed bigger than any of their respective acts (Pretty Girls Make Graves, Cobra High, Hint Hint) ever got at the festival.

Vieux Farka Toure at Fisher Green Stage

Being the son of Mali's greatest export means Vieux has big shoes to fill. Ali Farka Touré played Bumbershoot some 16 years ago when Vieux was just 12 years old, so it was fun seeing his son getting a similar ecstatic response from the crowd. While Vieux is a fine guitarist, his backing band was the attraction for me. The bass player, percussionist and even the drummer with dancing shoes made of shells all made the rain feel a lot less wet.

Soulsavers featuring Mark Lanegan at the Broad Street Lawn Stage

While it was great hearing Soulsavers revisit their 2007 album It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land with Mark Lanegan on vocals, after a few songs, everything started to sound the same. And since nobody was moving on stage, it pretty much looked the same. Lanegan's voice always makes me want to drink, and so a beer garden was in order, with Lanegan's baritone singing of a "Kingdome of Rain" still following us in the distance.

Previously: Bumbershoot - Day 2

The ghosts of 9/11

One of the things that made Rescue Me a great comedic drama right out of the gates when it first premiered back in the summer of 2004, was the levity with which it treated NYFD firefighters in a post-9/11 world. The victims lived on as ghosts in Tommy Gavin's world, fanning the fire of Irish Catholic guilt and alcoholism with survivor guilt and depression. A few weeks ago, however, the ghosts, led by Tommy's cousin Jimmy Keefe, up and walked out, signaling a sort of distance from the 9/11 storyline (and reducing the number of actors on the show by quite a bit.)

Tommy, and the series for that matter, need ghosts like Jimmy Keefe to keep him (and us) in touch with what he's lost, so it makes sense that Tommy would try to recreate Keefe's ghost. Tommy dons the old NYPD coat bearing the name 'Keefe' and piggybacks on to Truck 62 to fight fires, unbeknownst to his peers. With another September 11 on the calendar quickly approaching (Rescue Me's season finale falls the day after,) it seems only appropriate that the series 'touch base' again with the show's genesis. The sightings of the Keefe ghost are serving as a wakeup call to fellow firemen who are drinking and having a little bit too much fun at the expense of their work. One could say this goes for writers/creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan as well. They've been drifting the past couple seasons and, like the ghosts from a few weeks ago, a chunk of the audience has been giving up on the show. That they'd recognize this and write subtext as such into the plot is highly unlikely, though... right?

There is one ghost that appeared this season that's been lurking in the shadows, and my belief is that it's a pre-9/11 Tommy, or better yet, Tommy's faith... the part of him he buried in the wreckage that day six long years ago. Could it be that Tommy has figured that out and is using it to shake up the firehouse with his Keefe illusions? In the final scenes of last night's episode, Tommy fights a fire as faux Keefe, and the song that plays is the dark haunting atonement of "One Hundred Days" by Mark Lanegan. The lyrics go so well with this dramatic walk through fire:

There is no morphine, I'm only sleeping
There is no crime to dreams like this
And if you could take something with you
It would be right, something good
From my fingertips, the cigarette throws ashes to the ground
I'd stop and talk to the girls who work this street, but I got business farther down
Like one long season of rain, I will remain thinking of you
One day a ship comes in, from far away a ship comes in
One hundred days you wait for it
And you know somewhere the ship comes in every day

And that ship may be coming in next week's finale... the day after September 11th.

Previously: Nobody puts Baby in a river (Ep 407)

tags: music, television, soundtrack, dennis leary, rescue me, mark lanegan, 911, indie rock, fx