Thus spoke Bumbershoot 2013: Memories and pics
Beats Antique
SEATTLE -- Lets get existential for a sec, shall we?
Can every moment in life, every passing period be reduced to a pinpoint memory -- an image, a sound, touch or smell -- that perfectly sums the moment? Can memory of a football game be reduced in one play? A childbirth with a feeling, a year of high school with a kiss? When you think of your wedding, do you remember the way the cake touched your lips, or how your uncle drank too much? Is your grade school experience the smell of fall and the chill of the wind while waiting for your school bus, or hand-painting with a lovable second grade teacher?
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe moments in time are an amalgamation of sights, smells and sounds; a running movie with certain parts clearer than others.
Either way, you must ask yourself: How will Bumbershoot 2013 be remembered?
Will it be a slow progression of moments, ranging from the high sun when you arrived on Friday, to !!!'s dance-worthy boxer set? Did you tour the booths full of elephant ears and colored masks before watching Heart's "Barracuda" and epic rendition of Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Were you crammed against the front gate as Crystal Castles closed out the show? Did you catch the Joy Formindable on the KEXP small stage and see the drummer call out to the crowd?
Or was your experience different? Did you smoke weed with a newly made friend while the Physics sent you on a lyrical journey. Maybe you shared a first kiss in the beer garden as Sally Ford and the Sound Outside belted away. Did you watch the Beats Antique improvise without their laptop, while standing next to a gorgeous ex you questioned if you should have left in the first place? Did you cringe as comedian Natasha Leggero kicked the toddler out of her set?
Again, maybe the memories of Bumbershoot 2013 are more concise; concrete. Kendrick Lamar's hand-waving. Blonde hair. Charles Bradley's silk shirt. Tank-tops. Flip-flops. Fun. MGMT. EDM at the EMP. !!!.
However you remember Bumbershoot 2013 is fine. But let us not argue that it was indeed memorable, in its entirety and in its instant.
Q13 Staff Photographer Nancy MacDonald
Freelance Photographer Tom Roth
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