The Walkmen and The Kaiser Chiefs - April 24, 2007 at The Commodore in Vancouver

Hamilton Leithauser - The Walkmen

I've liked the Walkmen and the Kaiser Chiefs for years so a triple Bill of the Little Ones, The Walkmen and The Kaiser Chiefs was almost too good to be true. I'd missed the Kaiser Chiefs on their first jaunt through town when they'd had another incredible triple bill with Ok Go and the Caesars!
Ricky Wilson- The Kaiser Chiefs

The only bad part was that I'd just come off a fabulous vacations and was pretty tired.

The Kaiser Chiefs are the biggest party band I've seen in awhile. Such incredible energy and such fun, sing-a-long songs that it was like being an Karaoke bar where everyone is singing.
Ricky Wilson - The Kaiser Chiefs

The Kaiser Chief photos don't really reflect this energy because I was pretty far back, out of the swaying crowd. It's been a long time since I'd seen that kind of enthusiasm for a band, and tired or not, I'm glad to have been there.

Bumbershoot-Day 1 August 29, 2008

I'm starting with my favourite of the day, West Indian Girl.
Mariqueen Maandig

Robert James

West Indian Girl were my second favourite of the entire fest actually. This was my first show at the EMP Sky Church (um, second if you don't count the unmemorable Mono In VCF which is following)

A Myspace discovery, I wasn't really expecting them to be as cool as they actually were. Mariqueen is actually my new girl crush!

One of my favourite songs of theirs is "To Die In LA" which was rewritten after recording This new version was slower and missing the cool vibe of the recorded version. Another favourite is Blue Wave which you should totally check out on their MySpace!
Francis Ten


Okay, now let's try for some order. We started the day seeing Neko Case. I hate the Main Stage, and think I'm vowing not to return unless some serious changes like video screens are added.
Neko Case

Love her in the New Pornographers, but not such a fan of her country career.

Then it was off to the Rockstar stage for Seattle's own Barcelona.
Brian Fennell

After our first Happy Hour of the weekend and well fortified, we started our afternoon in earnest with the Walkmen. I've liked them for ages and have seen them before.
Hamilton Leithauser



Our next choice was Mono In VCF as they'd had an okay vibe when we checked them out on myspace and we were going to EMP Sky Church anyway for West Indian Girl.
Kim Miller


Hunter Lee


Skipping around now, as I've already written about West Indian Girl, are Nada Surf, one of my favourite bands of all times. This is despite the fact that I've never even contemplated suicide.
Matthew Caw

Nada Surf were great despite the notable absence of bassist Daniel Lorca who was absent due to an inconvenient knee injury. Daniel had also written a hilarious Bumbershoot primer for The Seattle Weekly publication.

Ended the night with Beck. As you'll see again and again, I hate the Bumbershoot Main Stage and will be forever banning it.
Beck

The sound was awful, and it didn't help hat I've never warmed to Beck's music.