A musical journey back to the late eighties

This weekend my colleague Stevie and I had decided to go the Sunset Strip Music Festival. A jolly music festival where a large portion of the Sunset Strip had been blocked to host 2 outdoor stages. A number of the clubs along the strip were also part of the party, including the legendary Whiskey a Go Go. Headlining the festival were a number of acts from very small to huge international names - the one thing they all had in common was they weren't exactly the most contemporary of artists.

My main reason for going there was Smashing Pumpkins who closed down the bigger of the 2 outdoor stages at 8.20 pm. It's never been my fortune to see them live before, and although I wouldn't claim to be a fan of theirs I have to admit I'd simply forgotten how incredibly powerful their music really is. It was a walk down memory lane with a band led by a Billy Corgan who was really on fire that evening. He was charming and fun, and even played his guitar with his teeth at one point. I managed to record him giving a speech listing his musical inspirations followed by one of their many great rock songs "Cherub".

We actually missed some of the other big acts in the street like Common, Slash & Kid Cudi, but that wasn't too important, as the big thing was Smashing Pumpkins, and that concert in itself was well worth the $65 dollar entry.

After the concert we went to a couple of the bars along the way, starting with a double Jack Daniels on Whiskey a Go Go, enjoying a show by the Greek/American rock vocalist Electra and band. That performance seemed to set the theme for the night, as it featured a geeky band with a really slutty lead singer doing late 80's metal with high pitched screaming and singing. It was very hard to say for sure if they were for real or not, but it was certainly great fun. The lead singer and the band all were excellent musicians, but it sure was tacky ...

We went next door to the Cat Club, which consisted mainly of a scene where you could get really close to the artists. We saw the end of the concert with Dirty Sweet, and they were actually pretty good - although the lead singer did use quite a large amount of time explaining how they really couldn't stick around after the concert, as they were moving on to play a charity gig at some church.

Next up was Prohibition Rose, and the fun was starting to peak, as the slutte lead singer / geeky band combo was taken to a whole new level. Unfortunately I had a computer crash today, and my iPhoto images weren't recovered with Time Machine, so I can't document it, but the lead singer certainly compensated for her lack of vocal skills in her sexy and scantily clad performance on stage. Stevie and I were all the way up front during the beginning of their show, and it got pretty intense at points, especially since Stevie insisted her mom was in the audience. This time I'm pretty sure the band was dead serious about their attitude, so I simply have to admit I don't get it.

The next band were simply too cool to be true. Diamond Lane have the coolest hair, the coolest late 80's heavy rock and the coolest logo. Not to mention their on stage attitude, which was absolutely hilarious.



They even had a their own crew of groupies with enormous tits and goth makeup directly in front of stage. At the end of the concert, one of the guitar players threw his plectrum out into the crowd. I found that kind of funny, wince it's impossible to see a plectrum in a dark concert hall. When a drummer throws out his drumsticks, you can at least see it, but how can you ever hope to catch a plectrum? Nonetheless I held out my hand, and the plectrum landed in my hand - a perfect 2 year wedding anniversary gift for my wife the next day.

After that amazing show we went back to Whiskey a Go Go. There were a huge crowd gathered at the time to listen to some Guns n' Roses cover. I really hate cover bands, but after having listened to this for a while I had to admit that they were doing a pretty fucking amazing job at covering Guns n' Roses - being the GnR ignorant that I am I was soon to learn the reason for that. The cover band were Adler's Appetite led by former Guns n' Roses drummer Steven Adler, and they did a fine job. I did actually go after one of the drumsticks this time, since that would be legendary, but the fight proved too much.

An incredibly funny journey back to the late eighties and early nineties was completed with a killer version of "Welcome to the Jungle", and I have to say that the music scene in Los Angeles is certainly proving itself. I love it. Next up is (hopefully) Big Boi, House of Pain and Eminem at the Epicenter Festival in late september.

The music scene in the America

So, one thing I've really been looking forward to is the concert scene over here. We've already seen a bunch of really good concerts, and they certainly are plentiful over here. Also concert tickets are really cheap, so we get to see a lot.



On the first weekend I had my wife over here, we went to Hardfest 2010 in the Los Angeles Historic State Park in downtown. A 1 day electronic festival featuring a pretty impressive lineup of US and UK electronic acts. And 1 headliner from Belgium. It was my first opportunity to see both Diplo, Major Lazer and Caspa, and all at the same time. And a lot of other cool acts on top of that. Great atmosphere, lots of people and great music too. Oh, and my first really annoying encounter with a pretty flawed US alcohol policy, but that's a topic for a later post of it's own - still need to research some more. Here is a little bit of the Diplo concert recorded on my iPhone:



Lots of kids dancing with too little clothes on - Also a topic to be covered in a later blog post. But here is a sneak peek:




We live in Marina del Rey close to Venice, and Venice is full of all kinds of live music all the time. We went to Danny's Deli on Windward Avenue on a weekday night, and had the pleasure of seeing a very traditional jazz orchestra. After the concert this lovely couple gave a duet.



Last weekend we went to the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance. A 2 day festival where they close down a couple of streets in Silverlake and have 6 stages featuring a lot of different underground acts. We were only there on Sunday and only caugt a couple of acts. One of them was Meshell Ndegeocello. I didn't know her before, and her Indie/Funk style isn't exactly what I would put on my stereo at home, but in the setting sun with a lot of happy gay people it was a really good experience. I'm definitely going back to that festival next year, hopefuly for both days this time.



This coming weekend features the Sunset Strip Music Festival with the Smashing Pumpkins, Slash, Common and others. I hope I can convince my wife to go, but she claims she is too young for Smashing Pumpkins, which is sad, cause I think they're really good. Also Chemical Brothers are playing Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl, so plenty to do this weekend.