Playing Bumbershoot is a rite of passage. For some, it can be a long road to acceptance. Others have an easier time of it. To apply, one must subscribe to Sonicbids, a website that matches musicians with promoters at a cost of $8 a month to the musician. Noah Gundersen, who does not use the service, simply emailed One Reel booker Chris Porter, asking to have his name thrown in the hat anyway. “ I had little expectations, but it worked out,” he says.
“Every Seattle artist wants to play Bumbershoot,” Gundersen continues. “My fan base has been more national than local, and Bumbershoot signals the potential for a change. It could mean we will get a little more attention in Seattle over the next year. “
“Sometimes, as a musician, your triumphs are triumphs only to yourself, but everybody acknowledges the importance of Bumbershoot,” states Sam Watts, whose band, Ghosts I’ve Met, was invited to Bumbershoot through his management. Bryan John Appleby also had managerial help in getting his Bumbershoot spot. “This year has brought a lot of unexpected opportunities that I have been surprised by and grateful for,” he says. “It’s the first time Bumbershoot has seemed possible.” Appleby first visited Seattle on a road trip from his home in Santa Cruz seven years ago, saw Jeremy Enigk at Bumbershoot, and two years later decided to make his home here. “Playing Bumbershoot is meaningful to me, especially since I’ve been in Seattle for awhile now.
Gundersen, Watts, and Appleby are part of a surge in a new kind of acoustic music that has been emanating from Seattle in recent years, with bands such as Fleet Foxes and The Head and the Heart garnering national attention. Appleby has ties to the latter, having been friends with the band since their early days when they used his basement as a practice space. After Bumbershoot, he will be opening for them on a national tour. Members of Ghosts I’ve Met include Bill Patton, who played pedal steel with Watts in 2005 before joining Fleet Foxes, then started playing with him again during a break in the Foxes’ schedule.
Gundersen has few such helpful friends, having been steadily at work building his career since the age of 16 by touring out of state and placing his songs on various television shows. He will appear at Bumbershoot with his sister, who sings and plays violin. “I don’t pay a lot of attention to trends,” he says, “but I see there are a lot of people doing well under the folk moniker, although I don’t know if that is an appropriate title for the genre.”
Appleby feels that exploration is part of the nature of art. “Acoustic sounds still appeal to me because they are very tactile, “ he says, “but I find myself working less and less within traditional formats. At some point, you want to be surprised.”
One group that will never be confused with folk music is Floyd McFeely’s Super Geek League, a conglomerate of circus, steampunk, and robotics that will bring a 25-member troupe to Exhibition Hall.
“If you’re a musician in the northwest, to be invited to play at Bumbershoot is a huge honor, McFeely believes. “It is the pinnacle of festivals. Being part of it makes us feel like we have finally been recognized.”
The group has applied five times since 2003. “We were kind of messy and crazy in the early days, and they were a little concerned about the level of insanity caused by our shows,” admits McFeely. “Then I developed a rapport with One Reel’s Chris Porter, and through constant lobbying and keeping him posted on what we were doing, we finally landed it. It was a matter of perseverance while the band got better and better.”
Super Geek League has a reputation that is as hard to live up to as it is to live down. They nearly got kicked off the Warped Tour in 2006 for the chaos they created, but worked it out by agreeing to a list of what they were and were not allowed to do onstage. Although they finished the tour on a high note, drawing bigger crowds than the act on the mainstage, they were never asked back. But this summer at the Gorge, they worked three stages for 12 hours, with more than a hundred people in the show, including a marching band.
“We have committed ourselves to a path on which people expect something a little bigger every time. And we are now at a point where the options become limited, “ McFeely explains. “We are the way we are so I guess we are committed to do what we do. There are limitations, but when you get a chance to play Bumbershoot, it’s all worth it.”
Ghosts I’ve Met plays Monday Sept. 3 from Noon -1pm at the Promenade.
Noah Gundersen plays Monday Sept. 3 from 1:30-2:30 pm at the Promenade
Bryan John Appleby plays Monday Sept. 3 from 6-7 pm at the Promenade.
Super Geek League plays Monday Sept. 3 from 1-2 pm at Exhibition Hall