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Sunset Junction w/ The Henry Clay People & Gram Rabbit @ Bates Stage, 8/24/08
Part three of three.
Monday: Radars to the Sky, The Happy Hollows, Castledoor.
Yesterday: Bodies of Water, Johnathan Rice.
Today: The Henry Clay People, Gram Rabbit.
Two weeks ago, the 28th annual Sunset Junction Street Festival (MySpace) took place in Silver Lake. Like Saturday, Sunday's lineup at the Bates Stage featured several buzzworthy artists from the indie music scene, starting with another local covered previously here -- The Henry Clay People (MySpace) -- backed by members from I Make This Sound (MySpace) and Le Switch (MySpace), followed by Voxhaul Broadcast (MySpace), Oliver Future (MySpace), Gram Rabbit (MySpace), Health (MySpace), The Germs (MySpace), and Beachwood Sparks (MySpace), and ending with !!! (MySpace) and The Black Keys (MySpace).
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Again, both Travis Woods at Web In Front and Mouse at Classical Geek Theatre covered the festival, with Woods relieved that "Day two of the 2008 Sunset Junction Street Fair was, in terms of sheer fun, an almost complete reversal of day one’s staggeringly ridiculous ebb tides of operational ineptitude —- while the event was still inordinately pricey, the glinting sun was still oppressive, and the heat-shimmered asphalt was acne'd with a bizarre array of detritus (most interesting constellation: a condom, a Harlequin romance with a picture of Conor Oberst for a bookmark, a half-eaten chicken leg, and a crumpled headband of rabbit ears, all lying in a quickly drying oasis of Red Bull), it was at least on time and the music was, for the most part, a revelation (and went on longer than fifteen minutes per set, which in and of itself was a minor miracle)," and Mouse observing that it "...was a smoother operation than the catastrophe the day before. For one, the Will Call booth was prepared to receive customers before music started. (Though it's badnews when that goes in the 'bonus' column.) The heat was worse but the crowd was smaller and less... less oblivious."
Indeed, The Henry Clay People's performance started a mere minute late, whereas on Saturday, Radars to the Sky's (MySpace) was delayed by an entire excruciating hour due to circumstances that were wildly beyond their control.
As for upcoming local shows, The Henry Clay People's are on September 18th at Alex's Bar (MySpace) in Long Beach, September 20th at the Long Beach Lobster Festival, and October 3rd at Spaceland (MySpace) in Silver Lake as a release party for their debut album For Cheap or For Free. They also performed a special acoustic set on Monday as part of Death to Anders' (MySpace) month-long residency at The Echo (MySpace). Meanwhile, Gram Rabbit's on October 2nd at The House of Blues in West Hollywood.
Special thanks to The Henry Clay People, Gram Rabbit, and Spaceland Productions.
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