Day two is always fun when it comes to Bumbershoot. You’re all warmed up from the first day and aren’t fighting the urge to lay down like you are on day three.

For me Bumbershoot almost always includes an hour plus long commute and that is exactly how my Saturday started. Only this time, my brother joined me as my assistant for the first time in four years after being one of the original contributors to Lemonade back in 2010.

We decided to take a little walk around Seattle Center to start the day and see what caught our ear. As we passed the Starbucks Stage, both of us stopped in our tracks as New Jersey native Donna Missal was just getting started. Missal‘s banter couldn’t be more different than her actual singing.  The girl is an absolute powerhouse vocally and flat out slays each track and then turns into an adorable, soft spoken girl that you want to give a big hug to in between songs. Towards the end of her set, she launched into a cover of Beyonce‘s “Drunk in Love” which got every single audience member who wasn’t already into the show amped up. Shortly after, Missal went back to her original material with her song, “Stop The World”. It’s not often that I fully break out in goosebumps, but for so many reasons, I was completely moved by the song. As we like to say in sports, she left it all on the field with the track and almost breaking down in tears herself. It could be one of my favorite concert moments ever.

After that pleasant surprise, we headed on over to the Fisher Green stage to catch Reggie Watts, The Front Bottoms and JoJo. My brother’s main goal was to get a good spot for JoJo‘s show, but we were both genuinely curious to see Watts and The Front Bottoms as well. Watts showed up with a Guitar Center bag (guessing the Westlake Ave location received a visit from him earlier in the day) and proceeded to give the crowd a balance of some comedy and jazz and hip-hop infused music. As a Washington native (Watts grew up in the state as well), many of his jokes and banter was predictable in regards to gentrification and legalized weed, but the crowd still seemed to enjoy it and it’s no question the guy has a voice.

After Watts‘ tongue in cheek set, The Front Bottoms took the stage and although I am pretty familiar with them, I was still surprised to see the rather large following that they have in Seattle despite being an East Coast group. The Front Bottoms‘ somewhat Say Anything style of alternative rock was a complete change of pace for the day, but a very welcomed one for me, as lead singer Brian Sella‘s no nonsense approach to his shows lets his music to most of the talking. Die-hard fans went completely crazy throughout the show and Sella just continued to feed off of it.

In another complete change of pace, JoJo‘s pure pop sound took the stage for a half hour set while one of my favorites from earlier in the day, Donna Missal, watched on from side stage. Many of you probably remember JoJo as the good girl from the early 2000s, who’s biggest hit was “Leave (Get Out)”. The JoJo of 2016 has changed quite a bit and grown up just like the rest of us. Her dance moves have an edge now and her love for curse words (not complaining) and subject material have followed suit. Her audience was a good mix of youngsters just getting into her new stuff, as well as people my age looking to take a short trip back to high school and they were all smiles throughout, despite it being a relatively short set.

After sitting tight at Fisher Green for a bit, it was time to head on over to Memorial Stadium for Washington’s own, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Although the duo is now famous worldwide, they are Gods in the Evergreen State and the packed crowd they drew on Saturday night only supported that. For two hours, they tore through hits including “Thrift Shop”, “Same Love”, “The Town” and “Can’t Hold Us” while also playing many of their new tracks from This Unruly Mess I’ve Made such as “Dance Off”, “White Privilege” and what would end up being their encore, “Downtown”.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis give what they get, all the love that was pouring onto the stage from the crowd, was blasted back out onto the crowd. It’s a beautiful thing when a band or artists comes back home and when an act’s heart beats in unison with that city, it’s on a whole different level. They pulled out all the stops including throwing out Dick’s hamburgers into the crowd, as well as inviting the Super Bowl XLVIII Champion Seattle Seahawks onto the stage throw footballs into the crowd. The show was absolutely spectacular.

That would end the second day of Bumbershoot for me. All things considered another very enjoyable time at Seattle Center.

*Please note, limited photo passes were given out at Bumbershoot this year due to security concerns. At the time this was published, no photos had been uploaded by the festival of Donna Missal, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and The Front Bottoms. We apologize for the lack of live shots.

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