Echo Park Rising, It’s Only The Beginning, Thursday August 16th 2018
Lujuria
Echo Park Rising started last night with already loads of bands playing in many clubs along Sunset and Glendale Boulevards. It was just an occasion to wet my feet because let’s face it, Thursday is still a school night, and the event will really start tonight, with the main stage behind Taix restaurant. More than 450 bands are participating in this festival, which is an impressive amount of music, and what the festival has to offer is as diverse as you can imagine. I went to different places yesterday night, more or less randomly, not knowing much about the acts who were playing, but it doesn’t take long to realize that EPR reflects the many aspects of the always surprising and buoyant Los Angeles music scene… How can you possibly give a honest account of such diversity? How do you cover such an event? I obviously cannot give you the full picture, I will only share a few snapshots of the event, which has to become the most important musical event of the year in LA…
Here are a few pictures of last night, with the harsh and devil-like sound of Lucifurnace, the cool soulful R&B dancehall of Amindi K Fro$t, the folk-noise experimentation with violin of Spain, the hip hop dancefloors with a social consciousness of Def Sound, the liberating cute punk assaults of Whaja Dew and the pop melodies of Cones… And this was only happening at the Echo and Taix’s Champagne room, whereas Lot 1 was the place for rockers, with the sexy Kill My Coquette’s frontwoman, who even covered Iggy Pop’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, but it’s true she was already topless, just like the punk godfather. The small venue was stuffy and extremely hot, but it didn’t prevent Lujuria to raise the volume to new deafening heights during an arena-rock set with a Queens of the Stone Age vibe, followed by a surprise appearance of Boots Electric, better known as Jesse Hughes (Eagles Of Death Metal)… Even with his status of veteran rockstar, he seemed to be very happy to be part of this (Up) Rising of Echo Park, an event usually reserved for almost beginners.
Boots Electric
Cones
Lucifurnace
Kill My Coquette
Amindi K Fro$t
Def Sound
Spain
Whaja Dew
Boots Electric
Cones
Spain
Lujuria
Whaja Dew
Boots Electric
Def Sound
Lucifurnace
Kill my Coquette
Amindi K Fro$t
