Bumbershoot First, Ask Questions Later

Seattlest may have spent Saturday sweating our asses off and getting seriously sunburned, but we managed to catch some of the best of the best of what that Bumbershoot thing had to offer.

The first thing we did was head over to the mainstage to check out Olympia-based supergroup Gossip (we hear they dropped the "The"). Gossip rocked so hard we forgot to take notes - we were too busy thinking "hells yeah!"

Then came Blondie - remember them? Debbie Harry used to be sexy as shit, and she's still got it going on. Decked out in neon green - from the cowboy hat to the wrist band to the capri pants - Debbie Harry was just a big stud. They opened with "Call Me" and played all the hits. The only mystery was whether or not the teenagers in the stadium actually had any idea how cool it was that Blondie can still rock it.

After Blondie, we headed back to the Mural to check out Laura Veirs, whom we adore. Laura is just so damn cool. Her songs are pretty, her band is tight, and she's every bit a rockstar on stage, even though she doesn't really act like one. She played a smashing set, complete with songs from every single album she's made with her band. We loved live renditions of "Galaxies," "Jailhouse Fire," and other Laura Veirs classics; and we were amused by the throngs of 14-year-old boys who were stacked against the stage, drooling in her general direction.

Later in the same place, came Alejandro Escovedo. Escovedo writes some great songs, but we got sidetracked by the fact that the Rat City Rollergirls were kicking some ass in Key Arena, so we headed over there. We couldn't stay too long, though, because Ms. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings were coming on. Besides, we needed to stake our claim for a space to watch the SOV.

Lady Sovereign may look like she's a pre-teen, but she spits rhymes more fierce than you've ever heard. She opened her set with the crowd pleaser "Ch-Ching" and a brief episode of truly pathetic burping. SOV rocked so hard that it was effortless for her to get the crowd in a little game of "I say America, you say Fuck Yeah!" It was a pretty sweet way to round out the night.