However, I do want to share some of the photos I took for your enjoyment. These are my favorite pictures from the 3 acts I enjoyed the most. Jason Webley, Truckasauras, and Metric.
My favorites from each: (many more after the jump)

Jason getting the crowd “wasted” for his final song of the set before the parade out to the fountain.

Truckasauras playing in front of the MASSIVE digital screen at EMP’s Sky Church

The stage lighting of the Broad Street Stage where Metric played was pretty terrible, but I like how this photo came out. Metric killed it. I’m actually surprised Metric did not play the main stage.

Jason Webley

Truckasauras

Metric

The Lonely Forest packed the EMP tight enough that they were asking everyone to move at least a half step forward. I had no idea they were so popular, but clearly, I am dumb: these Anacortes boys brought the sort of powerful rock music to the stage that makes it difficult to take photos because I’m too busy dancing around. I might be late to this party, but I am really glad I haven’t missed it altogether.

The Devil Makes Three was less ragtime-y than I had hoped, but I still really enjoyed their three-part harmonies and hoe-down songs. Last year I felt like I was suffering from alt-country fatigue at Bumbershoot, but this year I really needed a little goth country in my afternoon.

Trying to get in to Metric in the KEXP lounge turned out to be a ridiculous proposition, so I headed off to see Dead Confederate, which was the correct decision. They were Southern and loud, loud enough to sound pretty good even in the sound hole of the Exhibition Hall.

More surprising sound came from Franz Ferdinand at the Mainstage. I usually skip Mainstage shows because I’m just not very down with the muddy sound and being elbowed in the head by stoned teenagers, but Franz Ferdinand have become a total stadium band and they sounded great in there.

I walked down the stairs to see 3 Inches of Blood next to a couple of teenage boys, who had been waiting all day for that show. The crowd was almost solidly male and sparse at that–everyone else was at Modest Mouse or Metric–but who needs a giant crowd when you can have a smaller one of superfans? 3 Inches of Blood stomped and raged and made loud, loud metal sounds, and everyone in the crowd ate it up.

So let’s talk about Bumbershoot magic. For me Holy Fuck stole a lot of the show, and there was a moment during their Broad Street set where the drummer and the bass player were locking eyes and playing hard, and the other two were synced and intense, and that gave me goosebumps. It was perfect. I walked in to the Exhibition Hall for Dead Confederate during their soundcheck, just a few people and a giant empty room and a loud rock band playing for the moment just for us, and that was quite sincerely a Moment. Magic also happened when the sun came out in the beginning parts of U.S.E. and when Matt & Kim stopped what they were playing to tell the crowd how sincerely thrilled they were to see so many people so excited to see them.

This was a great Bumbershoot, I think. Metroblogging readers, what were your favorite parts?

photo by Scott Cahill Rude [flickr] via our group pool [#].

For Team Metblogs, our longstanding dream of having an intern, caddy, or sherpa help us with the grueling challenge of on-the-scene coverage of full-day festival fun finally came true on Sunday when we recruited our pal Carinna to tag along as our assistant on Sunday. Throughout the day, she had plenty of time to absorb and observe the all-important teen scene at Bumbershoot. Below are some of her observations from the field:

As a high school teacher who 1) has spent a whole summer doing strictly “21+” things, and 2) has to start teaching again on Wednesday, I was keenly sensitive to the teeming presence of teenagers, many of whom were in need of stern teacher looks, at Bumbershoot yesterday.

The most important thing to know about teenagers is that they are usually so wrapped up in themselves and their buddies that they don’t know when they’re being observed. This was how I managed to avoid conversation with all of the former students I saw, and still manage to observe the movements of my normally captive creatures out in the wild.

I saw ponytailed teenaged girls benignly smiling during their first crowd-surfing experiences at the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and then later being exited from MSTRKRFT for doing the same thing.

At the Fisher Green stage, pot-smokin’ teenagers freaked out so loudly about Common Market’s zombies that I had to leave to keep from chastising them. Next, a raging windstorm sent sane festival-goers inside to Flatstock, Kerfuffle, and the Art Jam, while drunken teenagers amused themselves by hurtling into the cold, wet International Fountain.

At both U.S.E. and Holy Fuck shows, I overheard teenagers talking about how weird it was that their parents “actually listen to these guys.”

But the most entertaining teenagers I eavesdropped on were sitting on the ground next to me at Todd Snider’s set. These two Nathan Hale students, the kinds who use bonus point vocabulary words to make their jokes funnier and say things like “boss,” spun absurdist tales to pass the time before the show started. Just before the music began, the boys had a conversation that I will remember for the rest of my days because it reminded me why I like my job.

“That’s my favorite kind of wolf! They shoot beams of awesomeness out of their mouths and decapitate horses!” // “Yeah, Chief Laser Fang!”

Many thanks to Carinna for playing along and keeping her ear to the ground. Have an idea for an exciting new guest column for Metblogs? Send your scheme to us at seattle.metblogs at gmail.com

Delhi to Dublin were a close second place, though.

For non-musical acts, I really liked Flexion by Wise Fool New Mexico’s acrobatics.

SIFF’s programming of the One Reel Film Festival was brilliant as always with every segment screening to a full house. The four films in the “Made in Seattle” screening were a true testament to the great filmmaking that’s going on in the NW but no matter which program you saw, you saw some good films.

Additional photos of both Monday and Saturday here as well as in the Seattle Metblogs Flickr group where we encourage you to share yours.

1:45 PM – Manic D Press at 25
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

3:30 PM – Writers of LOST w/ Jeff Jensen
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

5:45 PM – Seattle Noir
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Night Shift: A Story and Six Songs
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

7:45 PM – Youth Speaks Seattle w/ Staceyann Chin and Prometheus Brown
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

Hey you guys, today it has been raining off and on. FYI.

It turns out that U.S.E has the power to both make it rain and make it stop raining, among other talents like creating dance parties and wearing gold spandex. They’ll be having a cd pre-pre-release party at Havana tonight.

Holy F**k played in the KEXP lounge earlier–you may have heard them–any they’ll be on the Broad Street stage at 7:45 probably ripping the clouds back open with their robot dance party. I still don’t understand how they make all of those noises, but it’s guaranteed to be a good time.

Have you heard post-punk cute boys Romance? I think you’d like them. They were a member short today–their keyboard player’s wife just had a baby last night–but it didn’t seem to slow them down at all.

Hotels

Past Lives

Akimbo

Matt & Kim
The Whore Moans

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground

(More Day 1 photos can be found here.)

Bumbershoot program, 1993, courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives. From our Flickr pool.

12:00 PM – Christian Lander: Stuff White People Like
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

1:45 PM – Spencer Moody: The Enablers Have Spoken and You’re Fine
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

2:00 PM – ReAct Theatre: The House in Town
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Elliott Bay’s Tenth Annual Staged Play Reading Series continues with a Seattle premiere reading presentation of Richard Greenberg’s recent Broadway play, The House in Town. The time is New Year’s Eve, 1929, and a Jewish department store tycoon and his shiksa wife bid their last few party guests with a parting wish: “A better year ahead.” But, as that pivotal year begins, the shadow of the enormous new apartment complex under construction looms over their home. The shadow also portends Wall Street’s impending collapse, and the growing strain upon the couple’s marriage. Don’t miss this extraordinary play.” –EBB
[LINK]

3:30 PM – SE Hinton
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

3:45 PM – Melvin Van Peebles
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

5:45 PM – Zak Smith: We Did Porn
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

7:30 PM: iLL-Literacy
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

8:15 PM – David Cross
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

Are you looking at Metblogs on some sort of mobile device? Are you at least willing to let me pretend that you might be? Elvis Perkins in Dearland will be playing on the Northwest Court Stage at 8:30. They played in the KEXP Music Lounge this afternoon with at least three times as many instruments are there are band members, including the extra special one man band drum cymbal combination pictured, and now I sort of want to kidnap them all and make them be my own personal bluesy rock soundtrack.

If you are here, you should be preparing to watch them.

The Exhibition Hall (Rockstar Energy Drink Stage) continues to be one of the worst places ever to see a band, but Australia’s Sick Puppies made it worth suffering the less-than-stellar acoustics. Turn the amps up to 11 and it’s a party wherever you go.

Less loud but no less fun was the far-too-short acoustic set by the ridiculously adorable Whore Moans in preview of their evening spectacular set to hit the Sky Church stage in just a short click of time from now. It’s not often that you get to hear a chipper modern take on “Da Doo Run Run” followed by a peppy “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”, but it really ought to be.

Off the stages there’s still plenty to see and enjoy. Every year I think that next year’s visual arts programming can’t possibly be any better and this year I am happy to be proven dead wrong. “Kerfuffle” is a fascinating exhibit of art about how human commerce affects the environment which presents powerful messages on sustainability that avoids the academic dryness that awareness art sometimes suffers.

Mimi Allen’s “A Silence More Irresistable Than” invites fest goers to take off their shoes, climb into one of her specially designed pods and ponder in silence, presenting their post-pod thoughts for her collection and further reflection.

“Dada Economics” is a dynamic installation of mixed media art that’s provocative and frequently LOL funny. Bumbershoot patrons gets a chance to be both fashion designer and model by creating ensembles from the eclectic wardrobe of clothing and accessories on hand. Performance artists protest performance art in a poster/sign and video combo. Found objects and items from the grocery store are repurposed in colorful new pieces. A city is built from paper.

The Gage Drawing Jam returns giving anyone the chance to draw from a live model with a wide variety of artistic media including charcoal, pencil, ink and chalk. Too intimidating or elaborate? Be sure to stop by the charming Snackbar, a booth offering popcorn or toffee in exchange for your drawing of anything you want.

The five minutes I spent watching Katy Perry shall never henceforth be mentioned again.