The four guys of Slang Chickens invited people to get closer to the stage on Sunday afternoon, they were visibly happy to be there, joking between the songs ‘Oops I almost called it Sunset Junction Fair’, but no they were playing at the Silver Lake Jubilee instead.
They are a young local band, and they were eager to show it, proudly saying at one point, ‘We rehearse down there, this is our own fucking street!’. Being a local band probably means being able to absorb some of the numerous influences of the prolific music scene and beyond… they cite lots of bands on their facebook page, such as he Gun Club, X, Devo, Neil Young, Everly Brothers, Mississippi John Hurt, Flying Burrito Bros.
And they have incorporated many of these. With the use of an occasional banjo beside the traditional guitars and bass, their songs generally exploded into some high energy and fast rhythms, with much sonic damage and guitar shredding. But the banjo was not the only country instrument they used, as one of them also played a lap steel guitar on some of their songs, clearly mixing a country sound with surf reverb guitars.
There was a little bit of that Californian beachy vibe there, I guess even the band Wavves came to my mind occasionally, or may be it was the lead singer Evan Weiss’ vocals which were reminiscent, as if the music was speaking a sort of Californian familiar language with a country accent, rather a catchy country accent delivered with punk humor …
‘We’re Odd Future’ said the singer half show. Actually they didn’t need to be this famous rap band to be asked for an encore, a rare thing in these street festivals with their strict time schedule.