Saturday at Sunset Junction was a blast. Which is saying alot cuz I showed up sick and not in the best of moods. There’s something about being around hundreds of drunk folks that either makes me jealous or claustrophobic.
Loaded up Bessy with some goodness and headed to Silverlake. Knowing parking was going to be a bitch, I threw my bike in the back. perfect. Paid the measly ten bucks, locked up my bike and rocked out to Black Mountain on the Bates stage. So far so good. As much as they seemed like one of those bands that is never meant to play in daylight, they held their own and plodded through guitar centered rock tunes which somehow landed them a recent opening slot on the Coldplay tour. Met up with Flounder and he snapped a few shots before heading over to the Sanborn Stage for Gravy Train!!!
Luck had it that they the stage was running late and Hey Willpower was still doing their thing. Not sure exactly what that thing was but, damn, it was cool. Catchy songs over computer tunes with lots of scantily clad dancers bouncing around. They rounded up the set with “Hundredaire” which was a perfect segue way to to the upcoming Gravy Train set. You can only have so many “bands” play on a stage together that don’t have many instruments. It all starts to sound a bit repetitive. So Gravy Train is up there doing their thing and everyone’s having a good time. It’s kinda hard not too when there is so much energy in the air. More erotic(?) near naked folks getting their groove on and obviously having a good time.
Wandered around a bit, stopped by to introduce myself to Shakespeare and Aurelito and check out their I&I reggae ice cream truck. Check out their cool little NPR story here. Seen their truck on Sunset a handful of times and have been looking forward to meeting them. Cool guys, gave em some stickers and a movie and some bubble gum.
Hit up The Walkmen back at The Bates Stage but things were starting to get a little crowded, sticky, and drunken. I guess they’ve gone through some recent line up changes but thankfully they held onto the drummer and I guess the frontman is kinda cute and holds down the frontman status well enough. Ok, so the motto is, if your a Spaceland band, your not meant to play in daylight. Left a little early and headed up to Farmer Dave’s for a little BBQ action. Ah, yeah, lifesaver. Couple Pacificos, a burger, and some good company was just what I need to revive the engines to return to the festivities. Thanks Dave!
Wandered around a bit more and slowly made my way back to catch Rilo Kiley. I guess I’m in love with Jenny like EVERYBODY else there. Check out the pics for Coachella to help understand why. They hail from the Silverlake area so it was a sort of homecoming that drew out numerous rabid fans. Which is good because happy people create smiles which makes everything better. So a few things I realized and they plowed through “It’s a Hit”, “Does He Love You”, and just about every other track from More Adventurous
+ Not only is Jenny hot but she can rock the bass, guitar, keys, and harp
+ I think every song she sings has the word love in it
+ The rest of the band has definitely mastered their trade
+ They put on a great live show
After appropriately finishing the night of with “Portions for Foxes” (that “bad news” song) I stood enchanted for a moment the ran into Jade who told me the one and only Cobra was around. I’d been picking up random Cobra gifts up and down the west coast and wanted to unload them from me backpack. After some serious search and rescue attempts I found them chilling in a corner just outside the fest. Unloaded the gifts then he got on his new uber phone giddy-up and summons another ice cream truck. If you haven’t figured it out yet, he’s got a thing for ice cream.
Leyla rolled up in her nice and shiny pink Heart’s Challenger truck and dispensed some unique tasty treats. The lemon bomb pop hit the spot. Isn’t her truck cool? So now we’ll be coming at you from two fronts, cute girl and, uh….me. If you need one or the other, we got ya covered. We’re going to form a little Ice Cream Collective and unite what’s left of the decent trucks in the LA area. Actually that’s her plan but I’m down for it too. Keep your ears open cuz she’ll be rolling around LA full time hittin’ up the cool events like the one we we’re just about to say goodbye too. Thanks for the treats and thanks to everyone who made Sunset Junction possible, especially the folks at Spaceland.
Don’t forget to buy your tix for Arthurfest next weekend. We’ll be there dispensing the goods. The park only holds a couple thousand folks and with the crazy-stoner-art-avant rockin’ line up they have you don’t want to miss out.
