Photo by Victoria Anderson.

A friend and I trekked up to Anacortes yesterday to take in the festivities put on by Know Yr Own and friends. We started at the yard sale at the Department of Safety, where Karl Blau recommended Steve Reich and Leonard Cohen albums to a young man perusing the boxes of LPs culled from Mr. Blau’s collection. Then we headed over to Shipwreck Day, the ginormous rummage and antique sale that engulfs Commercial Ave. one Saturday a year, and where you can buy anything from crab pots to ashtrays made of moose hooves. Shipwreck kicks my ass every year. By the time I reach the last stretch of vendors, I don’t even know what I’m looking at, but I can’t stop until I’ve scrutinized every stall.

Anyway, we got a picnic lunch at Safeway and took it to Causland Park, where a free, outdoor show had been going on since noon. After spreading our newly-purchased quilt in the sun, we watched Alex Mayhem (or Mayhan? Whatever, Mayhem is more appropriate) who was a surprise guest from London, couldn’t tune his guitar, stopped midway through all his songs to change the key, did a charming cover of “Human Highway” by Neil Young, and exhorted the audience to chant “Whoomp! There it is!” after each song in lieu of clapping.

Up next was The Gift Machine, Dave Matthies of Vibe Control Studio’s band, who played mellow, thoughtful pop songs accented by a paper-muted ukulele.

Then Nate Ashley took the stage (or the ground in front of the bizarre bandstand crafted of colored rocks). His lyrics were wordy, his band dressed like it was the ’30s. The songs reminded me of crunchy alternative rock from the turn of the last century written by a sophomore lit major at Berkeley.

The closer was The Lonely Forest, native Anacortesians (and 2006 Soundoff! winners). Midway through their set a gentleman rode up on a yellow bike and requested a Dan Hicks song (I think it was “How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away?). John Van Deusen’s singing and screaming and power chords sounded good in the sun. No keyboards, though. Did I miss something? I thought they had keys. They played a lot of melodic, emo-tinged songs from their upcoming album, We Sing The Body Electric!, which they’re in the middle of recording, and did an excellent cover of XTC’s “Statue Of Liberty.”

This was the fourth year I’ve gone to What The Heck and the mellowest for me, too. We didn’t stay for the evening show at City Hall (sensory overload from Shipwreck, I think) so missed Your Heart Breaks, Kimya Dawson, Little Wings and others, not to mention everyone who played the other days.

If you’re in the same boat, you can catch Kimya Dawson and Angelo Spencer next Saturday at Capitol Hill Block Party. Or mark your calendars for next year’s What The Heck! Okay, so they haven’t announced dates yet, but it’s usually mid-July.