OUT TO SEE: SILVERLAKE JUBILEE – DAY ONE
Getting there. I was digging through the Silver Lake Jubilee website and couldn’t help but notice their emphasis on the environment. I came across a video that gave directions on how to get to the Jubilee. It focused first on biking and the metro before giving directions via the car. I decided I’d go along with their green theme and took the metro (though I knew it’d take me less than ten minutes to just drive on down).
Total sidebar, but it deals with music. Saturday morning started off with a 6 a.m. wake-up call. My upstairs neighbors decided that vocal exercises at 6 a.m. are totally appropriate in an apartment complex along with 6:30 a.m. bass practice followed up by 7:00 a.m. piano exercises. I call this the downside of living in an apartment complex.
Day 1, first impressions, conversations, side stories, observations:
Psychic Friend. Catchy tunes with a unique vocal sound. If someone blindfolded you and took you to their set, you’d say, “I know that voice, that’s Psychic Friend.“ In the middle of their set, their friends showed up. Greetings were exchanged, “Hi.” My opinion, this band should have gotten a better timeslot. Note that the band name uses the word “Friend” not “Friends.”
Marvelous Toy. This band powered through songs like they owned them. Earnest to the core. Conversation on stage: “That was a drawn-out ending.” “Building up the tension.” And as with Psychic Friend, it is “Toy” not “Toys.”
Pangea (total honesty, I think it was Pangea). Punk rock stripped down.
Finches. There were some technical problems before their set. Wires weren’t getting plugged into the right sockets. I noticed the tech guy with one massive diagram opened up in front of him. “That’s #14,” I kept on hearing as they worked through the issues.
As for Finches, feather heads that provided a wistful sound.
Jean Wilder. No, Gestapo Khazi. No, Holy Roller. I got to the Santa Monica stage thinking I was about to see Jean Wilder or maybe some other band listed on the set time print out. I wasn’t really sure as I wasn’t familiar with Jean Wilder and had spent a significant amount of time at the Sunset Stage (Psychic Friend, Marvelous Toy and Finches all played at the Sunset Stage). Later, after coming across a schedule at the festival, I concluded the band was Gestapo Khazi and that Jean Wilder must have cancelled. After posting photos up on Intraffik, we got an e-mail correcting us (Thanks Adler Bloom of American Pancake ). The band was Holy Roller. Agh. “Burn the Evidence” provided some good anger to the Silver Lake Jubilee.
After “Jean Wilder, no, Gestapo Khazi– hey. you messed up they are Holy Roller,” I took a quick break from the music. I was talking to a friend when a young lady came by. She hadn’t brought her ID along so she was hanging out just outside of the Beer Garden, waiting for her boyfriend to come over with a beer. She informed us that she was in media. She was once on the Oxygen Channel where she was involved in an experiment where she gained 30 pounds. Men were asked their opinions pre- and post-. At 30 pounds, men considered her more compassionate and more likely to get married. I personally was thinking, why would someone put on 30 pounds in a couple months just to get men’s opinion on the two different body types.
Anyway, the conversation turned to where my photos would get posted. I told her Intraffik.com. The conversation shifted to Rock N’ Roll Camp for Girls (my friend was wearing a t-shirt). It was mentioned that the editor of Intraffik was involved in this camp. A request was made for her phone number. And then the big put down, “I want to learn more about the Rock N’ Roll Camp. Not Intraffik – that sounds boring.”
Lady Danville. Comment in my notebook, “Lady Danville is blowing me away.” I say, does any band use a cajon drum as well as Lady Danville? Conversations on stage. “We’re giving temporary tattoos until supplies last . . . or real tattoos. I have a knife.” After taking a photo of the crowd. “Tag yourselves on Facebook.” “We’re putting it only on Myspace.” “We’re bringing it back.”
Black Flamingo. Three girls chanting. One guy dancing across the stage. It works. Check them out.
The Lovely Bad Things. During Black Flamingo, I was handed a note that read, “At 6 p.m. Please shoot The Lovely Bad Things. The band on the Eagle stage. At the Eagle Bar, walk along the wall, behind Pacific Auto. Part of the Jubilee.” If someone is taking the time to hand me a hand written note, why not? I went to check them out. Garage Rock. The band was having some issues with the sound equipment, “Sorry about all the technical s*!t.” No need to be sorry. They weren’t having any more difficulties than a lot of the other festival bands.
Jail Weddings. I love this band. I couldn’t help but notice the keyboardist wearing a surgical mask. First thought, Japan/nuclear plant. There was a lot of dancing on the speakers. Conversations on stage, “Someone traded in my boots for ballerina shoes today.” “We have the Holy Trinity left.” “Hi, we’re Jail Weddings. This song will go on for another three minutes.” They sang “What Did You Do With My Gun?” for their last song. I realized I had a big smile on my face. To prove the point regarding the additional three minutes added to the last song, the lead singer jumped into the audience to create a mosh pit that included hugs for everyone.
Summer Darling will energize YOU.
Ximena Sariñana. She has a voice to love. Conversation on stage. “At this time of night, my English starts to disappear.” She has the most beautiful way of saying, “Thank you.” She was called to do an encore. She went up and played mime on the keyboard until the sound came back on. She was the biggest draw on Saturday – at least at the Sunset Stage. I can see why. She came across as someone who creates a great rapport with her fans.
Ceci Bastida. She kept dancing throughout her set. The set ended with a big band sound. Awesome.
Geotic/Baths. The schedule listed Geotic, but it was announced that we would actually be entertained by Baths. Electronic heaven. I say Baths has the fastest hands in the west. I had a difficult time capturing a photo of Baths. My camera kept on focusing in on his laptop computer. I’d look at a photo and the laptop would look as bright as day. In contrast, Baths’ face reminded hidden in the night’s darkness. I decided to switch out lenses to see if that would help. Not really. It was nice to see that other photographers were switching out lenses. I saw one photographer try three different lenses. This was a set I wished I had brought along a flash. A couple flash shots and I’d have gotten my shot and then sat back to enjoy an awesome end to the night.
Regrets: Seriously wished I’d gotten to see all of Summer Darlin’s set. I wish I could have caught Restavrant and Stab City. So little time.
SILVERLAKE JUBILEE DAY 1
(click on images to enlarge)
PSYCHIC FRIEND
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MARVELOUS TOY
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PANGEA
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FINCHES
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HOLY ROLLER/GESTAPO KHAZI
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BLACK FLAMINGO
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LADY DANVILLE
Notes from Vivace’s November Playlist
Automatique: “Stepping on Your Feet”
Funeral Party: “Carwars”
Leslie and the Badgers: “Los Angeles”
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The Eagle Rock Music Festival
by Notes from Vivace
Eagle Rock Music Festival. I came across the Eagle Rock Music Festival three years ago. Since that time, I’ve placed it on my calendar as one of those yearly Los Angeles events I like to attend – such as the LA Times Book Festival and the International Tamale Festival (November 13-15, 2009, by the way). This year, I had a heightened excitement for the festival, because last year I skipped it. If I recall correctly, I thought it was going to rain and so I discounted it as a possible evening outing. When the weather turned out to be perfect a sense of disappointment swept over me, because I’d already made other plans with some friends – I know, somewhat pathetic since it is just a music festival.
When the band list came out on myspace I immediately took a look. I quickly realized that I was going to have a different experience this year versus my first year at the festival. This year was going to be fabulous, because I knew so many of the bands playing. The first time I’d gone, I hadn’t heard of any of the bands and it was a night of exploration. Exploration versus familiarity.
As the night of the festival came closer, I checked in with one of my friends to see if she planned on going. She was a go and gave me the name of the first band to see: Leslie and the Badgers. They were on at 6 p.m.
I spent Saturday afternoon hanging with some friends at Barnsdall Park. When 5 p.m. rolled around I said my good-byes and told a handful of them where I’d be if they wanted to hang out later in the day. All declined except for two friends who seemed rather excited about heading out. I told them where to find me and off I headed to Eagle Rock. (I never ran into them at the festival so I just assumed that they had decided not to come, but a week later one of them came up and told me how awesome the night was.) I parked at the Eagle Rock Shopping Mall where there was a free shuttle to the festival. Being a bit naïve about this since I’d always just parked closer to the event in previous years, I stood near the bus stop looking for a shuttle. I didn’t see anyone else hanging around for a shuttle so I just took off on foot.
I arrived at the Emerging Stage a little after 6 p.m., but the bands were a tad behind schedule so I got to see Leslie and the Badgers’ full set. I ran into my friend as well as a couple other friends during the set. After Leslie and the Badgers ended their set, we roamed around for awhile. During our roaming, we ran into another couple friends. This was suddenly becoming an awesome night of not only listening to bands, but also getting to hang with friends. A smaller group of us decided that we needed to get something to eat so the group split up with some of us crossing the street to Oinkster. Oinkster was crowded and I was concerned that we’d miss seeing some bands that we wanted to see, but the service was fast and the Oinkster staff was great.
We next headed over to the Razorcake Stage, but got sidetracked briefly at the Pep Boys stage where French Semester was playing. They sounded great, but we didn’t stick around too long as we wanted to continue up to the Razorcake Stage. (I have to say that I want to catch the French Semester sometime, because they really did sound good.) We then got sidetracked a second time at the Welcome Inn where Bonne Musique Zydeco played on the second floor walkway of the inn. There was a nice dance crowd in the parking lot. This is also where I found myself temporarily separated from my friends. I sent off a text message. I figured that perhaps they had continued on over to the Razorcake Stage, but when I got there none of them were there. I checked my phone and still hadn’t gotten a response back. So I circled back down and found them at the Welcome Inn. They were dancing away. Stupid me for not doing a full exploration of the Welcome Inn parking lot before heading off to the Razorcake Stage. (more…)