Bumbershoot Review: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women Love Marie, and So Do I

Who: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women
When: Sunday, 6:45 p.m.
Where: Starbucks Stage

This whole I-hated-the-album-but-loved-it-live thing is starting to become a theme for me this year, because I really, really didn't like Dave Alvin's last album with the Guilty Women. And I was expecting to. I wanted to. The musicianship was there, but the songs just weren't that interesting. I'd actually planned on skipping the band's set entirely. But I was walking by on my way somewhere else, and they started playing "Marie, Marie" -- originally a Blasters song, I believe -- and I felt compelled to stop for a moment. That moment stretched into the rest of the set. A fellow writer I encountered, Steve, said that you can evaluate how good a band is by how many of the Bumbershoot passersby stop to listen to a band and stick around, and I think that's probably an accurate assessment, because this time I found myself doing just that.