Sunset Strip Music Festival 2011

For the 3rd year in a row, the Sunset Strip Music Festival came to block off the famous section of Sunset Boulevard known as “the Strip,” thus creating both an awesome musical experience and a traffic nightmare. – Colette Claire

As if people weren’t still recovering from the night before when Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek played the Whiskey and Buck Cherry played Roxy to kick off the festival, numerous bands came to play the East and West outdoor stages as well as the Whiskey, Roxy and Key Club on Saturday, August 20th. And if there weren’t enough bands playing to keep you amused, there was also the Jack Daniel’s Experience traveling museum detailing the history of the Whiskey company and a Gibson booth complete with Gibson guitars plugged in and ready to play.

She Wants Revenge
Reported by Colette Claire

She Wants Revenge was one of the acts playing the west outdoor stage earlier in the day. The band, which is normally a duo, had a drummer and a couple guitarists accompanying them on their danceable goth rock which, unfortunately, didn’t translate as well in a live setting. “Tear You Apart,” one of the band’s best known songs, was rendered unrecognizable with lead singer Justin Warfield playing a few weird notes on the guitar and singing with no accompaniment. With its monotone vocal style and long winded lyrics, the song quickly became more repetitive than epic and left one wondering why they didn’t utilize the musicians standing there doing nothing. Luckily, they didn’t try this treatment on equally catchy songs “Out of Control” and “True Romance,” which both sounded decent, though still better on the album. The best performance of their set was on the band’s current single “Take the World,” which uses a bit more instrumentation than the band’s previous albums and translated better live for it.

Matt & Kim

Reported by Aisha Humphrey

Welcomed by the Mayor of West Hollywood and the city’s council members, New York indie pop duo Matt & Kim took the stage to make their Sunset Strip Music Festival debut.  Preparing the audience for their honest, infectious, candy-coated, super cute fun show, Matt threw massive, deflated beach balls into the crowd. With infinite amounts of sunshine-infused attitude, Matt, armed only with keyboard, and Kim, with a basic drum kit (a la Meg White of the White Stripes), incited a party as they enchanted an early evening crowd.  Hands in the air, fans bounced around as they sang along to hits like “Good Old Fashioned Nightmare” and “Block After Block.” Their set also included genre-crossing covers like DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat” and Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Jump On It.” Leaving all glossy perfection to their pressed recordings and kitsch, sometimes violent and artsy videos, the music in the live show felt rough, a bit empty and quickly strewn together — something more tracks could have helped.  In many ways, this kept the energy flowing with the awesomely unexpected, like the hordes of blue balloons tossed into the crowd for the audience to blow up, Kim standing on her bass drum encouraging the audience to clap, Matt doing chair acrobatics while playing keys and Kim exposing her shorn, flame-tattooed crotch as reward for audience participation during “Lessons Learned.”  Despite their good-natured, offbeat gimmicks, they literally strayed off-rhythm and off-key at times while some songs sounded and ended similarly to something YouTube’s infamous “Keyboard Cat” would play. Still, the audience lapped it all up. Maybe the world is longing for an imperfect live show, taking the listener back to very basic keyboard triads and rudimentary plucking, calling out to the inner-child who’s first learning to play the piano and drums.  If one is looking for that long overdue return to innocence, Matt & Kim’s live show is indeed the answer. Whatever you’re looking for, they definitely leave a lasting impression.

Bush
Reported by Colette Claire

Later in the afternoon after an unexpected twenty minute delay, the newly reformed Bush took the audience on a ’90s nostalgia trip, opening their set with an passionate version of “Machine Head” from their 1994 debut Sixteen Stone. Though Bush is from England, it was radio play from Los Angeles’s KROQ that really helped launch their muti-platinum career. During “Everything’s Zen,” lead singer/guitarist Gavin Rossdale started quoting The Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” singing “You may ask yourself, how did I get here?” in reference to how Bush found its biggest audience in the US partly because of this. Bush pretty much stuck to the hits with new songs sprinkled in from The Sea of Memories, which will be the band’s first studio album in ten years.

Judging from songs like “All My Life,” the material from Sea of Memories will sound much better live than it does on the studio recording. It had an upbeat, almost punky quality lacking on the version found on YouTube. Sounding better live isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It proves they can really play and don’t just rely on fancy recording equipment, despite the fact that founding member and lead guitarist Nigel Pulsford decided not to rejoin the band. Rossdale played and sang his heart out and had a penchant for getting as close to the audience as possible. He played “Glycerin” almost entirely by himself and even let the audience sing a good majority of it for him which was surely an epic moment for everyone who remembered being a teenager with that song constantly playing on the radio. “Comedown” was equally as epic with the audience again singing a majority of the song. The only complaint might be that the set was much too short.

Voxhaul Broadcast
Reported by Aisha Humphrey

Voxhaul Broadcast were dealt a slightly unfair hand during their performance, as the mega-band Bush started their set 45 minutes into theirs just outside the Key Club’s doors. Huge crowds accumulated near the entrance of the Key Club, making it that much harder for Voxhaul fans to enter, but that didn’t stop this Orange County quartet.  As humble as ever, frontman David Dennis thanked the audience who stayed as they played to a thinned out crowd through their set. They were definitely a surprise treat.  Elements of their vibe were reminiscent of Silversun Pickups with Doors-esque organ sounds. If one didn’t know better, it wouldn’t be too absurd to think they were from across the pond.

With fog eerily swirling around him, hair in his face, the doe-eyed David Dennis was a sight to behold as he banged his head and allowed his entire body to contort with the music as he sang in an impressive falsetto on a few of the songs, and his strong, full voice commanded the audience. The shaggy-haired bassist Phil Munsey absorbed the music, adding a soulful groove to the melodies as he sang along. Keyboardist Anthony Aguiar sang along as well while drummer Kurt Allen pummeled the kit.  A highlight of their show was their performance of “Leaving on the 5th” from their current album Timing is Everything.  They closed with the haunting “The Backrooms” to audience cheers. This band has earned its rightful place in the ranks of those worthy of being the next big thing in rock!

Public Enemy
Reported by Aisha Humphrey

This was a long-awaited reunion of the original front-men of Public Enemy: Chuck D and Flava Flav. The audience lost their minds more than any other band before this performance, impressive considering this was primarily a rock festival. Still, like rock stars, Public Enemy pulled out all the stops by performing with a live band as well as a DJ and their trademarked militant posse, who stood and marched on stage like big, buff security guards. Oceans of fans pooled before the stage, forming a densely packed tide that reached from just outside the Hustler Coffee shop almost to the Roxy, a hearty two “Los Angeles blocks” (read: long) away.

Fists pumped, weed blazed and civil unrest spilled off the tongues of fans spanning generations as they rapped along to lyrics of angst, militance, uprising and political awareness dating back 24 years that still echo true today. Songs like “Don’t Believe The Hype,” “911 is a Joke,” “Power to the People” and “Fight the Power,” though violently strong, brought the audience closer together.  Though nearing their fifties, Chuck D and Flava Flav still have the intensity they did in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Flava Flav jumped around on stage, revealing his trademark clock when the audience yelled out “Flava Flav!” en masse. Meanwhile, Chuck D schooled the audience about how they “ain’t no normal rap group” and how “you don’t last 24 years for nothin’.”  He even tied their songs to today’s plight, by stating that “America’s in a financial recession…many of us know about the blues.”  Public Enemy confronted any raised eyebrows about a rap group at a rock concert by featuring their guitarist who riffed a ball-kickin’ rock solo later followed by surprise guest Scott Ian of Anthrax who sang and played guitar on “Bring the Noise.”  Upping the surprise ante, Flava Flav grabbed the bass and began to play flawlessly.  This show was definitely one of the highlights from the Strip.

Motley Crue
Reported by Colette Claire

Of course, the biggest audience flocked to the West Stage for headliners Motley Crue, who as Tommy Lee so aptly put it, “have stumbled down these streets so many times, played that club, threw up in that club, done it all on these streets.” The image of the Sunset Strip is practically synonymous with Motley Crue, and they were a perfect choice for this festival. The Crue came out with the same energy, pyrotechnics, and half naked girls they have been providing their audience for nearly thirty years, opening with “Wild Side” and the extremely appropriate “Saints of Los Angeles.” The set continued with expected hits like “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Shout at the Devil,” and “Doctor Feelgood,” though this particular performance had an extremely personal feel, as if they were playing a show at the Whiskey back in 1982. It was especially moving when Tommy Lee took to the piano for mega ballad “Home Sweet Home,” though they often perform the song.

Some unusual highlights were a cover of Gary Glitter’s “Rock N’ Roll Part 2,” played as the intro for their cover of “Smokin in the Boys Room”; and Tommy Lee’s drum set rotating in a circle like a carnival ride taking him upside down and sideways during his drum solo. Then surprise guest Deadmau5 joined him on the upside down drum ride for a techno version of “Love Rollercoaster,” proving that the Crue still has some surprises up their sleeve as well as the tried and true hard rock they do so well.

Divinity Roxx
Reported by Aisha Humphrey

It increasingly seems that rock and rap are becoming increasingly married, and the Sunset Strip Music Festival definitely showcased how lovely the two can coexist. One sort of begets the other, as embodied by the multitalented artist Divinity Roxx, the physical manifestation of rock and rap’s love-child.  With a roar, this gorgeous Atlanta native tore up the Whiskey A Go-Go stage with an energy unparalleled as she played thick, gritty bass lines while rapping over them.  Her carefully crafted, urgent lyrical flow is on par with Lauryn Hill, Common and Zack De La Rocha — far superior than most of the top rappers of today.

As wayward festival patrons rolled into the club unprepared, they began to shout out, “Who ARE you?” and “Oh My GOD, you ROCK!” Having been guided by bass greats like Victor Wooten and Bootsy Collins, she plucks the bass like a pro beyond her years. The bass itself raps along with her and you can tell they’re inseparable.  Although her recent accolades include being Beyonce’s music director and bassist, she’s clearly meant to be front and center stage as her featured hit song and current, heavy-driving single “Get Here”strongly indicates.

Not one to hog the stage, she gives time for her entire band (Omar – guitar, “Moots” – bassist/guitar/vocalist, and Ron – drummer) and friends to shine.  Along with their solos, there was a mind-blowing Tap Dancer versus Drummer battle in which her tap dancing friend hopped on a small side stage and with a mic angled at his feet, kept up with the drummer creating complex percussion rhythms with his feet (a la Savion Glover and Gregory Hines).  From there, the tap dancer added additional percussion to the song.  Other highlights included her fierce renditions of “Black Betty” as well as Rage Against the Machine’s “Killin’ in the Name Of.” She owned these two covers as if she wrote them herself, and if one didn’t know better, one would think they were hers.

Whether she’s grinding out funky guitar riffs while writhing on her back on stage or even licking her guitarists’ faces, locks whipping around her face, this woman let’s it all out and isn’t shy to bring her passion and sexy feminine prowess to the audience. She’s definitely one to watch and was another gem in this year’s lineup.