On the eve of Bumbershoot, I found myself enjoying a most un-Bumbershoot-like experience: a show at the Healthy Times Fun Club–a spacious basement venue/dwelling. This was my first time there and I was quite taken with it. It was anything but commercial. Admission was free–though donations were encouraged–and there was a communal crock pot of chili in the kitchen. And forget overpriced drinks. We rolled in with a case of PBR that we left on the kitchen counter to share. The place was packed with a larger crowd than I had expected, but enough people seemed to know each other that everyone was overly polite and considerate. Even if the bands had been mediocre, I would have been impressed.

But they weren’t. In fact, they put on one hell of a show. Snowman Plan–a bass-drums-violin trio, backed by a laptop–kicked the night off with some wildly experimental music: jerky, start-and-stop rhythms accompanied by a broad spectrum of strange noises and instrumentation emanating from the laptop. Next up was Dark Meat, whose set, due to its overpowering volume and the cumulative effect of a series of PBR’s, is pretty fuzzy in my memory. They put on a solid performance, but in the context of the night it seemed somewhat generic. It didn’t help that they were preceded by the Snowman Plan’s inventive, unique set and followed by the visual and aural spectacle of the Beep Family Orchestra–not a misnomer, as there were somewhere in the ballpark of 13 people performing on stage (apparently my friends and I are bad at counting, because we couldn’t agree on one number). Featuring members of Snowman Plan, 2 drummers, and about 10 other musicians, the Beep Family Orchestra blazed through a remarkably coordinated, mostly instrumental set that culminated in a rousing version of the theme from Top Gun.

All in all, it was an amazing night. If you have the means, I highly recommend it. I’ll definitely be going back some time for some more chili, cheap beer, and great music.