Sound Fest

Saul Williams and band tore apart the Fisher Green stage.

The spoken word hip-hop artist gathered around him a tribe of fans sporting green feathers in their hair to match his own head of orange feathers. They bobbed their heads and gyrated to near-industrial techno grooves and let out a collective holler when near the end of the set, Williams broke out into the rendition of U2′s “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” that debuted on his 2007 album, “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! ”

Midway through the song, though, he stopped.

“Wait, this isn’t Sunday, it’s Saturday …” from which he broke into the unacompanied spoken word of “Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)”, getting even further eruption of applause with the line, “And what you do is question everything they say do, every goal ideal or value they keep pushing on you.”

From there, he broke into the now well-known “List of Demands” (go find my earlier picks entry to see the Nike video from which it’s known), and it was good night to all.

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These five picks are all about randomness. Maybe it’s because it’s also at the Seattle Center, but I see Bumbershoot as a kind of musical Bite with a chance to sample a variety of music and art. In no particular order, here are a few things you might want a taste of:

The Black Keys (7:45 to 8:45 p.m. Aug. 31, Mainstage): This Ohio-born blues-rock duo pump out a primitive energy suited to a sultry Southern bar, the kind that smells of stale whiskey with floors covered in peanut shells. Guitarist-singer Dan Auerbach lays gritty vocals over fuzzed-out riffs while Patrick Carney can pound away on his drum kit like he wants to break it.

Saul Williams (7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 30, Fisher Green Stage; 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. Aug. 31, Bagley Wright Theatre with Canary Sing): To dismiss this artist for signing off his political “List of Demands” to Nike would be to miss one of the great voices of hip hop. His cadence is entrancing, the words enlightening.

In case you need a refresher or haven’t seen it, here’s that Nike commercial:

The Lonely H (12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Aug. 31, Sky Church): This quintet puts out rock that sounds like it could have come from a dusty ’70s-era record pulled off the shelf from its place between Bad Company and Led Zeppelin. Then again, they’re from Port Angeles.

Monotonix (2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 1, Exhibition Hall): This garage punk trio from Tel Aviv has become known more for on-stage antics that have ranged from lighting their instruments on fire to tossing projectiles into a crowd. The music’s OK too.

Here’s a performance they did in Tennesee. Check out the burning cymbals:

Australia’s Strange Fruit (various times in the afternoon all three days, Fountain Lawn): People on 15-foot poles doing choreographed swaying to music. They apparently got their inspiration from waves of grain — or maybe it was moldy rye.

— Angela Dice, Sun web editor and former 545.com diva