This past Labor Day weekend I attended one of Washington’s most popular music festivals, Bumbershoot. It was my first time actually just attending and I felt like this year’s event was definitely one for the books. The lineup featured some of America’s rising stars, a few legendary bands, and RMR was able to have full press access over the three days of performances! S/O to the two photographers who battled the wind, rain, and endless shoving from pre-teen hipster girls with me each day.
Overall I had a pretty good time and was able to experience a bunch of new music. The first day didn’t go as planned and that was really what made it so memorable. I started the day watching Raz Simone at the Rhapsody Stage and it was pretty much the best way I could’ve started off the festival. Raz showcased a few of his new tracks that we’ve been covering on our blog and hopped out into the crowd for a solid 20 minutes! One of his most popular tracks, ‘Hometown’, caused fans to absolutely wild making his performance under the Space Needle one I remember for quite a while.
A downpour and unexpected flooding kept fans inside the buildings and hiding under whatever tents they could find for a solid 3 hours. Lightning in the area caused a short delay for Jhene Aiko’s set but luckily our photographer, Brandon Hiza, was able to find a spot to hide while he waited for her to perform. I’m really upset I missed her set becauseI chose to go hide in Key Arena and find some food. Luckily, after paying ungodly amounts of money for a few average burgers and water, I was able to catch Borgore’s set with some friends. He played a bunch of his throwback slappers and all kinds of other dance music artists’ hit songs. It was awesome to watch fans really eat up all of Borgore’s #ratchetry. The energy in there was insane and I got to release my inner #ratchet nonetheless. I always hittin’ my cooking dance and maybe even a few wiggles.
After Borgore, the rest of the festival was basically a blur of incredible performance after incredible performance. I was able to see a few of my favorite vocalists live in action at Bumbershoot’s Memorial Stadium. The Weeknd and Ellie Goulding both killed it and fans in the pit were going pretty crazy for all of their big hits. Day 1 featured The Weeknd fresh off his VMA performance and he freaking killed it. He started off his set with ‘High For This’ then performed his new album and a few of his other hottest songs. Call me a fanboy or fangirl or whatever its called because he literally blew my mind.
I was honestly quite surprised and impressed with how well The Weeknd and Ellie Goulding could both sing live. Having only seen The Weeknd perform on television, I wasn’t exactly confident in what he was going to bring to the stage. Ellie on the other hand, I knew would be one of the performers who surprised everyone. Once fans filled up memorial stadium the energy really started to create the perfect environment as she got further and further into her set. The crowd really started to go crazy when she hopped on the drums and started killin’ it while she was singing!
Bumbershoot was one of the dopest three days I’ve ever had because it was full of new music experiences. Thanks to a diverse lineup of bands, comedians, and other performers, I was lucky enough to catch a few of the best performers that music has to offer! Atmosphere, Brand New, Hozier, and Brandon Flowers were all electrifying in their own ways and the crowd loved every minute of their performances.
I’m excited to start exploring more of their music and I’m glad I had the opportunity to learn about some artists I know absolutely nothing about!
My top 4 favorite sets from Bumbershoot 2015 were Flosstradamus, Robert Delong, Bassnectar, and Chance The Rapper. Flosstradamus was by far my favorite because of my connection to Key Arena. A packed out arena is something Seattle dance music fans doesn’t usually get to experience and Bumbershoot was genius for hosting most of the dance music artists inside of it. I love the key and these guys took my definition of a party to a whole new level.
Flosstradamus is basically one of the main 5-6 artists who really took trap music to the mainstream popularity level that the genre is at today and they definitely showed how they were able to make that happen. The audio and visual production for their set was insane and I could literally feel the bass in my chest. Shouts to Floss and their trap anthems for having Seattle in full on riot mode for an entire hour.
Robert Delong was another artist that was exceptional and it was because of how diverse his talents are. The man was singing, killing it on the drums, playing sounds using an Nintendo 64 controller, and sampling his live performance to create original mixes to his set! That wasn’t even all of it either. He was literally blowing my mind. Seeing someone perform at such a high level on so many different instruments and devices was beyond crazy.
On day 1, Chance The Rapper was someone I honestly wasn’t hyped to see going into the night. I have tons of friends who enjoy his music but I haven’t really found a track that stuck with me. His performance at Bumbershoot was filled with tons of energy and the crowd’s passion for his music was enough to sway me onto his bandwagon. Even though he planned out his encore, fans couldn’t get enough. His special fx and visuals were on point and the lighting in the venue really supported each song he was performing. His set was one of the dopest all weekend and it wasn’t necessarily because of his abilities as an artist in my book. Shouts to the visual production team for keeping a hater entertained!
My second favorite overall performance on the weekend was from an OG producer who is still running the game. If you were lucky enough to be inside Key Arena for Bassnectar’s set on Labor Day then you know exactly how much work that man put into his set. After seeing him perform at Paradiso for an actual EDM festival and now at a multi-genre event, Bassnectar proved that he is the only DJ worthy of actually being called a ‘bass god’. Truthfully I’m not sure Key Arena will ever be the same after his set.
Shouts to Hiza Fotos for covering the first two days of Bumbershoot 2015 with me! Mr. Hiza was an incredible photographer to work with and displayed incredible work ethic and abilities behind the camera.
If you’re in need of some photos or a unique video, please head over to his Facebook page and shoot him a message.
