I ended up seeing Beehive, Neko Case, Band of Horses, and Beck on Saturday, day 1 of Bumbershoot.

Beehive was a great act, fusing alt-rock with electronica (namely drum & bass), and gluing the whole thing together with catchy choruses.

Neko Case was beautiful to both the eyes and ears. Alt-country isn’t my favorite, but compared to standard country, it’s like a freaking dream. Neko Case is an amazing artist and earns my highest respect.

Band of Horses was brilliant. Utterly brilliant. The music was great, the performance was second only to Beck’s amazing presence. There was tons of energy and each member of the band ended up breaking a beer bottle over one of the other members (at least once) by the time the show was over. I just heard of Band of Horses a few days before Bumbershoot. I walk away a definite fan.

And lastly… Beck. Oh, man. Beck. Even the name carries with it some sort of electrical charge after the epic performance that I witnessed. I can’t do it justice by chronicalling it in any sort of traditional way, so let me just spew forth a handful of adjectives that I feel describe it well: bright, deep, omni-present, creative, danceable, danceable, energized, fun, spontaneous and glorious. One particular song comes to mind in which Beck had all the band members (even the seemingly technologically impaired drummer) freestyling on wireless samplers. All the while, Beck is rapping into this enormous sports-caster headset which he claimed to be what he’d always wanted: “Just like N-Sync.” I was, and still am, floored. I would recommend a Beck concert to anyone, regardless of their taste in music. Win!

At this point, however, I’m so freaking tired (it’s Sunday night, or, technically, Monday morning), and I need to get some sleep. Look for a write up on the rest of the days of Bumbershoot (and a quick mention of Penny Arcade Expo) in the coming days.

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