KEY:
⭐ Don’t Miss
📍 Local!
⭐ 📍 ANTHERS
This comparison will only resonate with maybe six people, but I’m gonna say it anyway: If you loved long-defunct Seattle punk rock noise makers pleasureboaters, go see ANTHERS and party like you’re at Healthy Times Fun Club circa 2008. Not a 40-something who lived in Seattle nearly two decades ago? Fine. Here are some more rock bona fides—ANTHERS’ latest singles, “Soup” and “Collector,” were recorded by Ben Verellen of Helms Alee and Joel Cuplin of Constant Lovers. And in 2024, The Stranger’s contributing concert photographer Brittne Lunniss—who attends hundreds of shows a year—said the band delivered one of her favorite performances, writing, “ANTHERS was the best car crash I’ve ever been in.” Hell yes. (Upper Courtyard Stage) MEGAN SELING
📍 Aryana León
In a 2024 interview, Aryana León recalls standing in front of the mirror as a young teen, practicing her “lightsaber introduction” as if she were a star on the Disney Channel. Today, she’s flourishing as a pop/R&B artist on the rise, having played her first Capitol Hill Block Party in 2024 and releasing her first EP, PLEASURE, in 2025. Her voice is incredible, warm currents over songs that play like smooth passenger-side car rides by the bay—perfect for a late August day under the shade of the Needle. (Upper Courtyard Stage) ROB MOURA
📍 Bexley
Lead singer Amanda Hardy is the dark-hair-in-her-eyes girl at your high school who exclusively wore baggy Alice in Chains and Soundgarden T-shirts. Her band Bexley keeps that spirit alive by fusing overdriven, heavy riffs, soulful wails over guitar solos, and a Zeppelin/Sabbath foundation of ’70s rock. Your dad will tap his toes, and you might bang your head. We hope to hear “Female Hysteria” in Bexley’s Bumbershoot set, as its core, Nirvana-like riff evolves into a Kim Thayil–worthy guitar upswell. (Upper Courtyard Stage) SAM MACHKOVECH
⭐ 📍 Bikini Kill
When Bikini Kill embarked on their first reunion tour in 2019, I traveled to Los Angeles to see it, fearing it’d be a one-time thing. (They’ve since performed approximately 10 million times in cities way closer to me, but I’m not bitter about it, I swear.) See, the Olympia feminist punk band is the reason I went to Evergreen State College; the reason I wasn’t afraid to stand up to know-it-all dudes at said college; the reason I ironed the words “kill me” on a Forever 21 dress in high school. Despite my riot grrl phase blossoming in the 2010s, lyrics to their early ’90s songs like “There are no boundaries on what I can feel” (“Feels Blind”) and “Don’t need you to tell us we’re good / Don’t need you to say we suck / Don’t need your protection / Don’t need your dick to fuck” (“Don’t Need You”) were still just as fresh, jolting, and resonant as they were two (and now three) decades before. (Mural Stage) AUDREY VANN
⭐ Blood Orange
It’s been 10 years since Dev Hynes, aka Blood Orange, dropped his iconic album Freetown Sound, and I, for one, have never been the same. The lush, dreamy ’80s R&B- and funk-influenced songs soundtracked a sun-soaked summer in my 20s and seeped into my memories. Hynes has collaborated with artists as diverse as Britney Spears, Solange Knowles, Tinashe, Carly Rae Jepsen, Debbie Harry, Sky Ferreira, and Mariah Carey. His last album, Essex Honey, is a meditation on grief and his upbringing in Essex, as well as how music has bolstered him throughout his life. I just know that his Bumbershoot set is going to heal me. (Fisher Stage) JULIANNE BELL
⭐ Cain Culto
Are you ready to party your ass off? Because no one can do it like a gay icon who used to be an evangelical worship pastor. Born Andrew Padilla, this alt-artist started going by “Cain” as a reference to two things: (1) Cain in the Bible, the scripture’s first recorded bad boy; and (2) the Spanish word for “worship” is “cain,” which hearkens to his Colombian and Nicaraguan heritage. Cain Culto raps, sings, and plays electric violin while dancing like you’re on the floor at your favorite gay bar. While it’s pop music meets Latin rap, there is still an element of worship in Cain Culto’s music. Except now, he’s not asking you to follow Jesus, he’s singing of queer joy and “Uh, fuck Trump, fuck ICE, free Palestine. I’ma say that shit again: free Palestine.” Hallelujah! (Mural Stage) RACHEL STEVENS
Chase & Status
If Turnstile’s hardcore isn’t your thing, head over to the Mural Stage where London-based DJs Chase & Status (aka Saul Milton and Will Kennard) will close out Saturday night with what’s sure to devolve into a dizzying drum ‘n’ bass dance party. No, they haven’t won a Grammy like Turnstile, but they have won a Brit Award, which is the UK equivalent. Pick your poison. (Mural Stage) MEGAN SELING
Die Spitz
Die Spitz popped off—first in their home city of Austin, then nationwide—based on their live performances wherein the band’s all-femme roster would trade vocal leads and put out punk so incendiary it would damn near burn the venue down. After winning their local Album of the Year award (someone should start that here!) for their ferocious 2023 EP Teeth, they secured opening slots for bands like Sleater-Kinney and Amyl and the Sniffers. For better and worse, the group has hype coming out of their pores; fans of loud music should strongly consider catching their set. (Fisher Stage) ROB MOURA
Joey Valence & Brae
Joey Valence & Brae have been collecting Beastie Boys comparisons for years, at least since releasing their 2023 full-length Punk Tactics, and I wanted to hate it, tbh. But their chaotic punk-laced hip-hop tracks that, yes, sound very much like the Beastie Boys and the days when rockstars and rappers collaborated are bursting with sincerity. They sound less like a rip-off and more like a whole-hearted celebration of all the musicians who inspired them to pick up a mic. Hard to be mad at that. (Fisher Stage) MEGAN SELING
📍 Juliet Daniel
Ever wonder what quitting your tech job at Microsoft to make bedroom pop would sound like? It sounds like Juliet Daniel, because that’s what this hero did. Daniel’s boppable music was born and bred in Seattle, and it sounds like taking the leaps we all want to make but probably aren’t confident enough to take. This sentiment shines brightest while flooded with 2000s nostalgia in the singer-songwriter’s song “Stare You Down.” The parting lyrics would be everywhere on AIM away messages, if only we were all still doing that: If you don’t {want me} ~*~*~I think you’re crazy~*~*~ (Upper Courtyard Stage) RACHEL STEVENS
⭐ Lucy Dacus
Out of the three boygeniuses, I’ve always had an affinity for Lucy Dacus. With her introspective, storytelling lyrics and her impressive Goodreads profile, she’s truly a writer’s musician. I love the depictions of nascent queerness in songs like “Kissing Lessons” and “Christine,” the crackling slow burn of “Night Shift,” and the righteous fury of “Thumbs.” Her 2025 album, Forever Is a Feeling, finds the singer-songwriter in her hopeless romantic era, with swoony, intimate ballads like “Best Guess” and “Ankles.” I attended her Remlinger Farms performance last summer and watched her officiate a wedding ceremony for seven couples during the show, which will be a difficult feat to top—nevertheless, I’m eager to see what she has in store for Bumbershoot. (Fisher Stage) JULIANNE BELL
📍 Meat Hair
If you love local Sub Pop darlings Deep Sea Diver (and who doesn’t?), then definitely don’t miss Meat Hair, an experimental jam band in which members of DSD get real weird. (Upper Courtyard Stage) MEGAN SELING
Molchat Doma
Minsk, the capital of Belarus, is a weird city of contrasts: gold-lined facades on its main streets, and gothic counterculture seeping in its Eastern European shadows. Dark-wave trio Molchat Doma thus sound appropriately Belarusian. Bearded men hunch over synthesizers and guitars—and occasionally a standing, dance-friendly electric drum kit—to bang out shimmering-yet-devilish techno that sprinkles Gregorian chant into New Order’s formula. Don a trench coat and dance darkly, fellow mavens of the night. (Mural Stage) SAM MACHKOVECH
⭐ 📍 Oblé Reed
Oblé Reed made the most of Seattle’s post-pandemic plate shift, rushing into the city’s devastated hip-hop scene via a tsunami of well-produced, well-written hip-hop titled LINDENAVE! He followed that up with an equally compelling visual EP (Retrovision) and a second album on which he broke local containment and brought even more underrated national talent into the fold (LINE LEADERS). Today, it’s safe to say that the 24-year-old artist is near the top of the most notable rappers to spawn from our waterlogged loam this decade. Considering he’s one of the few rappers at this year’s Bumbershoot (besides fellow local hero Travis Thompson), you owe it to yourself to see the man work a crowd. (Upper Courtyard Stage) ROB MOURA
⭐ Peaches
It’s 2026, and we need Peaches’ sexually transgressive electroclash hip-hop more than ever. Luckily, the feminist musician, director, and performance artist returned this year with her first album in over ten years, No Lube So Rude. “When the world is friction, lube isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity,” Peaches writes. “It’s how you turn that friction into pleasure, into power, into pride.” The icon’s seventh album does just as advertised by acting as a relieving salve for these dry times, slickening the constant thrust of dystopian news with empowering, funny, and celebratory tracks for the dance floor like “Fuck How You Wanna Fuck” and “Not in Your Mouth None of Your Business.” I haven’t seen her on this tour yet, so just take it from Reddit user Senhoegahara, who wrote, “This girl has CRAZY energy. She put on a helluva show. Couldn’t believe she’s almost 60. She was topless the entire show and crowdsurfed for a good 10 whole minutes. Lmfao.” (Mural Stage) AUDREY VANN
Pixel Grip
If you’ve been looking for a tighter, gayer, and synthier version of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chicago trio Pixel Grip would like to slowly sidle up to you at a very sweaty nightclub. Their drums-and-Moog brand of fist-pumping dance-pop might not befit a sunny Seattle Center stage, but their chunky, brzzt-brzzt Moog-synth jams may be worth slapping on your favorite sunglasses and black leather before stomping along to bangers like “Dancing on Your Grave.” (Fisher Stage) SAM MACHKOVECH
⭐ 📍 Sera Cahoone
*Picture the old lady from Titanic here* It’s been 14 years… since Sera Cahoone has played Bumbershoot! She’s basically writing directly to us with her brand-new album (out August 28, 2026), titled I’ve Missed You All These Years. Girl, we’ve missed you, too! Cahoone’s new music feels like it’s infused with a newfound joy that only comes from the other side of really going through it. Of the new album, Cahoone says, “I want people to feel what I felt and put themselves in the way I felt back then. I want them to think, ‘If she made it through, I can too.’” If you don’t yet know the magic of Sera Cahoone’s blues meets folk meets country, it’s never too late to pull up a chair. If you’ve been a fan for decades, welcome home. (Upper Courtyard Stage) RACHEL STEVENS
Silvana Estrada
Mexican singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada combines the sparse acoustic guitars and romantic poetry of South American folk revivalist artists Violeta Parra and Mercedes Sosa with the vocal chops of American jazz icons Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughn. (For fans of Joan Baez, Angel Olsen, and crying at concerts.) (Mural Stage) AUDREY VANN
⭐ 📍 Travis Thompson
In 2022, the gifted Burien rapper Travis Thompson made a little history by appearing, alongside Marc Maron, on what was then the coolest TV show, Reservation Dogs. Soon after this exposure, Thompson, who is part Navajo, released a music video for his slamming track “Corner Store.” It featured Macklemore, the last superstar rapper to come straight out of this city. Thompson also dropped the NW hip-hop classic “Need You.” Whatever you do, do not sleep on this cat. (Fisher Stage) CHARLES MUDEDE
⭐ Turnstile
Since their formation in 2010, the Baltimore-based hardcore punk band Turnstile have grown from hometown darling to mainstream breakout success, taking home two Grammys in February and drawing praise from the likes of Hayley Williams and fellow Saturday headliner Dev Hynes of Blood Orange. The group counts Bad Brains and Sade among their influences and mixes hardcore with melodic pop structures to irresistible effect. They’re especially known for their high-octane, mosh-heavy performances, which many fans describe as life-changing. I saw them at WAMU Theater last October, and the sense of joy and community in the room was palpable—I can’t wait to experience it again. (Fisher Stage) JULIANNE BELL
XCOMM
Teenagers? Playing music!? And it’s good???? It will never not be hilarious when grown-ass music critics realize that teens can play guitars. XCOMM from Los Angeles are the music industry’s current “omg they’re so young!” obsession. Their blistering skate punk is thrashy, fast, and injected with some nu-metal guitar wailing, and it doesn’t hurt that their debut full-length, Time to Burn, was recorded by Ross Robinson, who’s worked with bands like the Blood Brothers, Korn, and Slipknot. And yes, the drummer is like 14. Get over it. (Mural Stage) MEGAN SELING
Every band playing Saturday • Every band playing Sunday • Every Arts District
