Duff McKagen’s daughter breaks out the blood, bombast at Bumbershoot
Sep 2, 2016, 11:12 AM | Updated: 3:46 pm
Grave - aka Grace McKagen - leads Los Angeles' Pink Slips. They'll perform Sunday afternoon at 3:45 at Fisher Green. (Lucas David photo)
(Lucas David photo)
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Death Cab for Cutie. Billy Idol. Kygo. There’s no shortage of big names at this year’s Bumbershoot festival.
You can thank concert giant AEG in large part, which brought in its muscle and money to bolster the festival after years of financial peril.
This year there are even two main stages — in Memorial Stadium and KeyArena.
Related: Bumbershoot returns to its roots thanks to firm financial footing
But for my money, one of the best things is just wandering around and discovering something that blows you away.
This year, I can’t wait to catch up-and-comers like Seattle’s Deep Sea Diver, or a little in-your-face punk-pop in the spirit of Blondie, The Kills and Alice Cooper from Los Angeles’ Grave and the Pink Slips.
Lead singer Grave promises to “melt some faces.”
“Just wait. You’ll come to the show and you’ll be dancing and you’ll have an amazing time. We still dance. It’s still a show. What I want to do is put on a real show, a performance, an intro, theatrics, all of it. Like Ozzy Osbourne,” said Grave — aka Grace McKagan.
The 19-year-old singer’s last name might sound familiar. She’s the daughter of Seattle’s own Guns and Roses bassist Duff McKagan and a former Seattle University student.
So playing Bumbershoot is a bit of a homecoming – and another shot at stepping away from her famous father’s shadow.
“I really want to be my own individual artist. I want to express myself freely without having preconceptions because of my last name. And also Grave is this alter-ego that I can be on stage and not be in real life. She’s powerful,” McKagen said.
She promises that includes plenty of theatrics, including an extra helping of stage blood. And even though she’s playing in the middle of the day, she promises to bring it.
“I can’t wait for people who haven’t seen us before to be blown away,” she says.
You can catch Grave and the Pink Slips Sunday at 3:45 p.m. on the Fisher Green.
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