KEY:
⭐ Don’t Miss
📍 Local!
📍 American Flats
If you need a break from all the modern music pummeling your eardrums, catch local American Flats, who describe themselves as “a rock and roll band with Americana and punk influences.” It’s not revelatory, it’s not perfect, but it’s a warm hug if you’re longing for those days of seeing Tom Petty at the Gorge every summer. (Upper Courtyard Stage) MEGAN SELING
ATARASHII GAKKO!
If you love J-pop, synchronized dancing, matching outfits, and songs about burnout culture, you’re gonna love Atarashii Gakko!, a self-described girl group from Tokyo whose antics have amassed more than seven million followers on TikTok. (The highest of any Bumbershoot performer by far.) In 2024, ahead of their Coachella debut, Nylon profiled the group, writing, “Onstage and off, Atarashii Gakko! radiate a chaotic energy, ping-ponging off one another like kids who’ve had way too much sugar…” Sold! (Fisher Stage) MEGAN SELING
📍 Daughters of Venus
Daughters of Venus, a Seattle-based “alternative rock girl band” (their words), play music that could be the soundtrack for a dramatic reveal during an episode of ABC Family’s hit teen drama Pretty Little Liars. I mean that as a compliment. I fucking loved that show. (Upper Courtyard Stage) MEGAN SELING
⭐ De La Soul
It’s hard to really capture the wonder De La Soul’s debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, produced when it dropped in 1989. And the condition of wonder is produced by something that seems to have appeared from nowhere. One other hip-hop album produced, at the time, a similar effect: Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). But De La Soul went on to release a string of brilliant albums, such as De La Soul Is Dead and Stakes Is High. Sadly, because one of its members, Trugoy the Dove, returned to the essence in 2023, this show will feature the remaining two, Posdnuos (rapper) and Mason (DJ), of a trio that completely changed the game. (Fisher Stage) CHARLES MUDEDE
⭐ 📍 Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie? Let’s talk about their tune “Soul Meets Body,” no matter how briefly. Those familiar with the ancient tradition of Western philosophy will not fail, upon hearing this gorgeous indie hit by one of Bellingham’s best, to think of what I rate as Aristotle’s greatest work, On the Soul. The question in that work is precisely the one presented by Death Cab for Cutie. Is the soul identical with the body? Or are they different substances? What is for certain is that my soul is moved by the sensations my body experiences while listening to this tune. (Fisher Stage) CHARLES MUDEDE
Goldie Boutilier
Smoking cigarettes is bad. But if you’re gonna smoke a cigarette or two, might I suggest listening to Goldie Boutilier? (Not at Bumbershoot, tho—smoking is not allowed, because they care about your health, okay?!) Boutilier’s music hearkens back to a time where you heard new music in a smoky dive bar after your crush dropped coins in the jukebox and pressed a combination of buttons you never thought to put together. Her music is a combination of chill disco, ’70s glam rock, and alt-country. After hearing this music, you find yourself counting the coins jingling at the bottom of the very deep pockets of your high-waisted Wranglers, hoping you have enough to run that newest Goldie Boutilier song back one more time. (Mural Stage) RACHEL STEVENS
📍 Hannah Duckworth
While music from bands like Evanescence and Flyleaf is having a resurgence, you don’t have to zip open your old CD binder under the passenger car seat to hear this sound, because Hannah Duckworth exists. This Seattle singer-songwriter-rocker has been on the scene since 2023, playing music that makes us remember how much we love pop-punk of yore. From a Duckworth concert, expect everything from acoustic solo guitar strumming to a beginner-friendly mosh pit. Eyeliner and a T-shirt over a long sleeve shirt are not required, but don’t be a loser. (Upper Courtyard Stage) RACHEL STEVENS
⭐ 📍 Lucha Luna
If you didn’t already know (if not, where have you been??), Latin music has been thriving in the PNW for quite a while. Just cumbia alone has seen a growing list of fantastic acts breaking out in the area, from the Cumbieros to Orquestra Pacifico Tropical. Enter Lucha Luna, the duo of Eva Vasquez (of Toxic Tears) and Thomas Arndt (of Day Soul Exquisite), whose debut EP BRILLA BRILLA announced the act as fully formed—and aimed straight at the jugular. On stage and on record, Vazquez recontextualizes her other band’s punk energy through Arndt’s dense beats, creating a compelling fusion of rhythm and rage. They’re one of the freshest acts on this year’s lineup, and absolutely worth your attention. (Upper Courtyard Stage) ROB MOURA
⭐ 📍 Midpak
Within Seattle’s robust funk scene, Midpak are the hungry young guns on the rise. The quartet had their big break in 2024 with a phenomenal opening set for Colombia’s Balthvs at Barboza, and more recently they wowed a Hidden Hall crowd while opening for NYC Afrobeat ensemble Antibalas. Without a vocalist, Midpak rely on their extraordinary instrumental prowess to create dynamic tracks that funkify psychedelia—or psychedelicize funk, depending on how you tilt your head. Influenced by early Funkadelic, Santana, and Khruangbin, Midpak have also incorporated elements of house, cumbia, and various African musics. I’ve seen them play 12 times and they never fail to whip folks into a frenzy. (Upper Courtyard Stage) DAVE SEGAL
📍 Morgan Paris Lanza
There is no question that Seattle is pumping out incredible musicians at an impressive rate. Though Morgan Paris Lanza can regularly be found performing at Barboza, Nuemos, and Fremont’s newer Cosmic Cottage, she fully operates in what she calls the Lanza-verse. In the Lanza-verse, you’ll experience MPL performing a sultry combination of lounge singing and burlesque that sounds like jazz, R&B, and smooth pop. Her music explores love, loss, and transformation through a vintage filter, making you want to send a postcard to an ex-lover: “Greetings from the Lanza-verse! Don’t really wish you were here…” (Upper Courtyard Stage) RACHEL STEVENS
⭐ Noname: 10th Anniversary of Telefone
You’re trying to tell me that Telefone is already 10 years old!? It feels impossible, probably because 2020–2024 didn’t really happen. I don’t remember it. But it’s true, Noname is celebrating a decade since the release of her debut mixtape, which put the rest of the world on the horn with her and her fellow visionary young artists of Chicago: Saba, Ravyn Lenae, Raury, and Smino. In 2015, she explained that she hoped the album would feel conversational—like being on the phone with someone for the first time—incorporating everything from “the awkwardness to the laughter.” Ten years later, listening to Telefone still feels like catching up with an old friend. (Mural Stage) AUDREY VANN
Orville Peck
Nobody’s doing it like Orville Peck. (Well, plenty of people in Seattle are doing it like Orville Peck.) The South African–born gay country artist—and former punk musician, although the spirit never quite leaves you—has been selling our American tricks back to us for almost 10 years, albeit with a subversively queer twist. He endeared himself to our city almost immediately upon signing to Sub Pop for his first record, Pony, though he’s since ditched his indie rock roots to go full-on country, earning duets with Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, and other legends of the genre. At this year’s Bumbershoot, expect Peck to run through cuts off his newest equinely titled record, and expect to live, as always, for all of it. (Fisher Stage) ROB MOURA
PawPaw Rod
PawPaw Rod’s music is medicinal. It cures what ails you. His posi-soul R&B jams—the result of growing up on Maxwell, Prince, the Gap Band, and Bill Withers, he says—will lift you out of a rut and soften your sharp edges. And if there is a God, she will time it so PawPaw Rod plays “Hit ’Em Where it Hurts” during peak golden hour—“Sunshine, bathe me, lately life been crazy.” Preach, PawPaw. (Fisher Stage) MEGAN SELING
⭐ Racing Mount Pleasant
Racing Mount Pleasant, a seven-piece indie rock orchestra from Ann Arbor, MI, plays sweeping and dramatic songs that scratch the Velvet Teen-shaped hole in my heart. Their songs shift from whisper-quiet to explosions of horns and strings and harmonies while lyrics like “Call it easy, call it quits / Well, that’s not how your story ends,” remind you to keep breathing. Goosebumps. (Fisher Stage) MEGAN SELING
⭐ Sextile
LA duo Sextile’s music exists at the intersection where agitational post-punk collides with sleazy EBM. Recording for the impeccable Sacred Bones label, guitarist/vocalist Brady Keehn and drummer/vocalist Melissa Scaduto (both handle electronics) are a galvanizing experience live, if the electrifying Freakout Fest show I caught by them at Tractor Tavern in 2023 is indicative. Their newest album, yes, please., abounds with sweaty and brazen bangers, and given how their songs seem best heard in dank underground clubs full of illicit activities, it may be strange to witness Sextile outdoors in the summer, with children in attendance. But childhood innocence is overrated, right? (Fisher Stage) DAVE SEGAL
⭐ Sudan Archives
Dropping at random into a Sudan Archives album, you could find yourself surrounded by neck-snapping Low End Theory beats, heart-stuttering tech-house rhythms, glossy Beyoncé-pop, warm sun spots of neo-soul, a sudden splash of dubby reverb, or lush, worldly violin tapestries. At her most captivating moments, the Los Angeles-by-way-of-Cincinnati singer/multi-instrumentalist finds ways to bend many of these elements to her methods at once, which are always punctuated by her sweeping vocals that oscillate between exploratory poeticism and asides that are sassy as hell. (Mural Stage) TODD HAMM
⭐ 📍 Suzzallo
If you like the Sunny Day Real Estate songs where Jeremy Enigk is especially pissed off, you’re gonna love Suzzallo’s ear-pummeling, guitar-driven rock songs. (Upper Courtyard Stage) MEGAN SELING
⭐ 📍 Takuya Nakamura
Takuya Nakamura is not your typical electronic-music producer. The trumpeter and keyboardist moved from Japan to the US in 1990 to study at the New England Conservatory of Music under innovative jazz composer George Russell. This was a big fucking deal, as Russell’s concepts influenced John Coltrane and Miles Davis’s modal music. Nakamura applied those ideas to his own playing, doing sessions with Quincy Jones, David Byrne, Lee “Scratch” Perry, the GZA, and many other notables. Check out tracks “BonJah” and “Caged Bird Flying” and the Jon Hassell–esque dub-jazz of Mysteries of the Cosmos for examples of his fascinating fusions. (Mural Stage) DAVE SEGAL
TOKiMONSTA
Los Angeles producer/DJ Jennifer Lee, aka TOKiMONSTA, has a well-documented sunny side, full of mid-fi disco and funk-inflected vocal house to keep summer festival crowds smiling. Her sets, like her albums, however, also have an impressive range of styles represented, dipping in tempo into ODESZA or Shlomo territory, as well as a thick bag of remix material to grab from. The variety of moods and counterpunches make for blissful ebbs and flows whenever she hits the stage. (Mural Stage) TODD HAMM
⭐ 📍 W.I.T.C.H.
W.I.T.C.H. are the standard-bearers of Zamrock, a short-lived movement in Zambia ca. 1972–1977 in which young African musicians emulated Anglo-American garage- and psych-rockers to spectacular effect. Unlike most of their Zamrock peers, W.I.T.C.H. have reunited, cut new music, and continued to tour—albeit aided by musicians from Switzerland’s L’Eclair. W.I.T.C.H.’s classic albums bear prime-time Rolling Stones DNA, and vocalist Emmanuel Chanda sang so much like Mick Jagger that he earned the nickname “Jagari.” But later releases such as Zango and Sogolo reveal shocking creative vitality, as evidenced by the songs’ more muscular, funky rhythms and heavier, wilder guitar riffs, while also exhibiting more traditional native styles. (Mural Stage) DAVE SEGAL
⭐ Yves Tumor
Yves Tumor is many things, but none of those is a shoegazey, progressive Brit-pop outfit, as I initially thought upon discovering their sprawling, psychedelic Safe in the Hands of Love in 2018. To the contrary, YT is the solo project (though rich in collaborators) of Miami product Sean Lee Bowie, who, through a fascinating touch on a multitude of instruments, a globetrotting lifestyle, and a fixation on detailed, texture-forward sound collageing, has found themself at the cutting edge of a genre-straddling sound that both proggy aesthetes and melody-seeking festival wanderers can get lost in. (Mural Stage) TODD HAMM
Every band playing Saturday • Every band playing Sunday • Every Arts District
