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So as your official Weekly Volcano tour guide to this year's installment of Seattle's biggest and best weather-scoffing arts festival, let me say this: I will have very little to say about most of these bands.

There are a fare share of bands I know and like coming out this year. Some of them I'll see, some I won't. But for me, Bumbershoot is all about the bands I don't know. Descriptions that strike my fancy, band names I like, or whatever I happen to be walking past. Something I've heard of but never heard.

The point being, I want to tell you who I plan to see, but I won't be able to tell you much about the bands. So with that in mind, here's how I think I might be spending today at Bumbershoot, subject to change if I feel like it.

11:45 p.m. Starbucks Stage: Becki Sue & her Big Rockin' Daddies

Let's start things off right, with a band I've never heard. Apparently they are the "most celebrated blues band to ever come out of Washington." I don't know about that, but they are the first music act of this year's festival. So onto the list they go!

12:30 p.m., Broad Street Stage: The Submarines

I'm not sure that "pretty and pleasant" is the most thoroughly positive review of a band I've read, but The Submarines apparently fit the bill. Cheerful-sounding pop songs about depressing subjects? Maybe it'll be good. Not that it matters too much...

1 p.m., NW Court Stage: Caspar Babypants

... I'll be jetting shortly for the opposite side of the festival, to catch Caspar Babypants. Otherwise known as Chris Ballew, lead singer of Seattle's Presidents of the United States of America. Singing songs for 3 year olds.

2:45 p.m., NW Court Stage ; Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers

I'm not much for country music, but at Bumbershoot I'll try a little bit of anything at Bumbershoot. So it's back Northwest after lunch for Zoe Muth.

3 p.m., Starbucks Stage: The Maldives

Once I get sick of country, it'll be time to move onto ... well, more country. But rockinger. Presumably. Mostly it just sounds like they'll have more guitar solos than Zoe Muth.

4:30 p.m., NW Court Stage: The Round

Apparently I'll be spending a lot of time at this stage, at least on day one. The Round is an experience of songwriters, dancers, and other visual and performance artists that has infiltrated Seattle and Tacoma over the last few years. Plenty of groups will be playing, but the highlight for me is Tacoma group Goldfinch, writers of some of the best songs in town. Well worth being the first band of the festival that I've seen previously.

5:30 p.m., Mainstage: The Decemberists

Of course, I'll follow that with a band I've seen a good half-dozen times. I first caught the Portland-based Decemberists at Bumbershoot on their Picaresque tour, and while they've yet to release an album I liked as much as that one, they have not ceased to put on great shows every time they come around. And now they are opening for Bob Dylan. Cool.

7:30 p.m., Broad Street Stage: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

What's this, a Tacoma music writer skipping out on a Neko Case set? Yes, it's true, her being from Tacoma interests me about as much as her music does. Which is approximately none. Instead, a break from the Mainstage is in order, to catch ... these guys. I'm not sure what "a sound reminiscent of mythical '70s California" is, but I guess I'll find out.

8:45 p.m., Starbucks Stage: Solomon Burke

I can't in good conscience miss an opportunity to catch at least one song from soul legend Solomon Burke. I left his last Bumbershoot set for Modest Mouse, and let me tell you what: epic mistake. For Solomon Burke was being awesome, and Modest Mouse were very much not.

9 p.m., Mainstage: Bob Dylan

But this, of course, is the show of the night. I am not a huge fan of where Dylan's singing voice has gone over the last few decades, but that's not going to stop me from seeing a living songwriting legend. Nor is his reputation for rearranging all his popular songs every tour, sometimes to an unrecognizable degree. The man gets bored. That's allowed.

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you which bands I actually saw. I reserve the right for it to be a very different list.