Musicians and music lovers were making up for a year- and-a-half of lost time this weekend.
There were three music festivals happening , July 8-10.
The Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina picked up the banner that Backstreet South left behind by hosting a three day musical soundtrack to Street Machine weekend.
While there was no official cruise, that didn’t stop a cornucopia of flashy cars, motorcycles, hot rods and street machines driving up and down Mayor Magrath and most of third avenue, though part of that was blocked by construction.
Friday night was the best attended of the three days at the Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina. Their Sunday afternoon ended up being rained out. Saturday was not as busy as Friday.
I caught a handful of bands on Friday, all of who were dusting off their live chops.
I arrived in time to catch a trimmed down Dead Army. Rob Morrison’s original modern rock act played with a drummer as they worked through a heavily distorted, multi-layered set of energetic detuned original rock reminiscent of late ’90s, early 2000s acts like Buck Cherry.
The inside was a complete contrast as local country singer Dusty Dee Litchfield held court with an intimate set set of classic country and rock and roll songs including “Tulsa Time,” “Hard to be Humble and an acoustic version of Johnny B Goode.
After Dead Army, El B
urro
Esparkalo (Sparkle Donkey, named after a brand of tequila) brought an ’80s party to the stage. They feature most of frontman Dave Chomiak’s Def Leppard and Whitesnake tribute acts.
They took a while setting up and getting their sound just right.
I stuck around for a few ’70s and ’80s hits including Trooper’s “Raise a Little Hell” and the apt “Boys in the bright White Sports Car,” and Autograph’s “ Turn up the Radio,” before I had to go to other shows.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
