Band of Horses

It's really almost all over and coming down to the last show of the week, an outdoor bill at Pioneer Courthouse Square. No morning KEXP shows, and no club dates tonight. I note this winding down, though, with neither regret nor relief, but just an acknowledgment of what is. My sense of the passage of time has been profoundly altered during the course of this trip, and last weekend's Bumbershoot activities (which lasted through Labor Day Monday) now seem like a month ago to me. Even the earlier, initial MFNW events feel like they began a lot longer than five days ago. But after today's events, I finally leave Portland and the Northwest, not to mention a certain living-in-the-moment approach to life (although it will be nice to resume practice). Listening to live music doesn't have to end, though - Broken Social Scene, whom I missed due to a case of the flu the last time they played Atlanta but finally caught at Bumbershoot, are opening for TV On The Radio Tuesday night at the Tabernacle in Atlanta.

Way back on July 12, amid the stiffling heat and humidity of a typical Georgian summer, I had to choose between seeing Knoxville's Royal Bangs at 529, Lower Dens and Cass McCombs at The Drunken Unicorn, and Dent May and Real Estate at The Earl. I chose the latter show, and today I'm able to make up for part of what I missed as Cass McCombs is playing Pioneer Courthouse Square as a part of MFNW.

Bobby Bare, Jr. and a band called Morning Teleportation are also on the schedule.

Band of Horses are the headliners, and I'm still looking forward to seeing Lower Dens some day.  But meanwhile, I can't help but wonder: how is it possible to attend not one but two music fests in the Pacific Northwest and not have seen either Black Mountain or Menomena? Or, for that matter, The Decemberists?