One of those amazing days in Los Angeles due to uproarious wind the night before, it was spectacularly clear and gorgeous. From downtown LA you could see mountains and blue sky and imagine how it got so crowded here. All the stars were in alignment because this was the day of the second annual LA Weekly Detour Festival. Last year it oddly was competing with a festival down the street the exact same day with Kinky headlining down the street. This time Kinky was part of the Detour Festival with the rest of the excellent line up. The theme this year seemed to be new bands that have old-school roots. Big progressive rock sounds, soul and (gasp!) real solid guitar licks.

We were glued at the City Hall East Stage for most of the afternoon. Starting out unfortunately with The Pity Party, somehow voted as the winning local band, and hardly worth the title - the stage’s line up built up, up, up from there - with one exciting artist after another.
City Hall East

Pity Party – One of LA’s most overrated local bands, annoying and well-titled, almost unlistenably off-key, a duo that would not be improved by more band members.

Nico Vega – A band with classic rock roots, large sound evocative of big hair, looking for a center, but solid chops.

Kinky – LA meets Mexico in the dance party of the year every year. Crisp Latin grooves mixed with techno heart and soul.

Satellite Party – Perry Ferrell’s new project was the anticipated buzz of the day. Surprisingly languid and layered like Flaming Lips, the band harkened back to early Jane’s Addiction, Perry’s roots. Also able to speed rock they covered a wide stance.

Bloc Party – UK’s spiky sounding arguably most defining export of this millennium. Gang of Four meets the Futureheads. Their lead singer was charismatic as ever.

Justice – the one band so much anticipated we schlepped to another stage for. The dance tune duo from France didn’t live up to the hype but laid down so irresistible grooves and catchy sing-along hooks.

This was just some of non-stop music on four stages, the City Hall East stage was far and away the best line up. LA Weekly’s Detour Festival proved once again that downtown LA has finally made it’s mark as an entertainment center and worth the detour from the freeways it is surrounded with.


 

June Caldwell lives amidst drawers stuffed with an array of earplugs, clipped wristbands, and notes scrawled on ticket stubs… splitting her time between concert reviews, and doing radio airplay promotions for Indie bands at Bryan Farrish Radio Promotions. She covers the LA music scene for artrocker.com, the largest bi-weekly new music publication in the UK, and www.fly.co.uk with her shutterbug hubby Roger.

June’s always interested in Indie bands looking for promotion, and can be contacted at: junejer@gmail.com.