[From The Seattle Times, 6 September 2004]

My Bumbershoot: Better than real life

By Robyn Hitchcock
Musician

This is my fourth visit to Bumbershoot, and I've enjoyed it so much that I've already asked if I could be booked back next year. The sun is shining and people walk everywhere, especially with the Monorail being broken. The Space Needle still towers benignly over the Bumbersite, looking from beneath like a spindly giant mushroom that is about to discharge spores out of its gills. Hopefully Democrat spores.

The only show I've seen was The Presidents of the United States of America, reconvened in the kind of cricketing gear that my grandfather wore in India in the 1920s. They played their legendary five-strings-between-them set with enormous joy, to a pulsating herd of kids who must have been tiny when the Presidents were originally spawned. The Presidents' disregard for cool has made them a perennial groove.

My own show was Saturday night in McCaw Hall, where my voice came back to me onstage strengthened by the acoustically simpatico ceiling. I was able to hit a lot of notes that I can't hit in real life. The crowd graciously sat through my two piano numbers mid-set and were rewarded with the Anglo harmonies of Sean Nelson and the SeaTac tones of Scott McCaughey at the end of the show. I got to play "Are You Experienced?" in my capacity of a rock 'n' roll tourist.

Now I'm just off to have dinner with Scott and some friends prior to our traditional assault on the Two Bells, where hopefully Sean Nelson, The Presidents, Scott, Kurt Bloch and I can kick out the jams till we all meet next year.