It was Saturday in Echo Park and Polartropica (moniker for Ihui Cherise Wu) was closing out Echo Park Rising's KG Bakery stage. The stage was outdoors and the temperature was hitting 97. That had Wu telling the kids in the crowd, "You can swim in the pool, if you want." The stage was in the parking lot and someone took the initiative to decorate it up with inflatable palm trees and a kid's pool.
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| Polartropica at Echo Park Rising |
Echo Park Rising was advertised as a Saturday / Sunday event, but the festival had a "kick-off" on Friday evening / night. There were four stages involved. It was technically supposed to kick off at the Echo Park Farmers Market, but there was a delay and so the kick off was at The Echo with Ellery Harper playing to the 5 p.m. early arrivals. The night was filled with a nice mix of bands and singer-songwriters that I'd seen before as well as new ones. (FYI: I wrote specific posts about BEL, Creakbed, and WINN WINN so they're not being mentioned here).
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| American Sigh at Echo Park Rising |
Like I've been doing for the past couple years, I posted on Instagram the three day Echo Park Rising schedule. I put together the schedule, because I like seeing things a certain way and figure others might have the same preference. Someone made a comment that for the Friday night schedule that I should catch Winn Winn at the Sticky Rice stage.
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| WINN WINN at Echo Park Rising |
Friday was the kick-off night for Echo Park Rising and BEL (Isabel Whelan's mononym) was headlining The Echo stage. My fading memory had me thinking that I came across her once at WFNM. Taking a more careful look, I realized that it was in fact at the Silverlake Lounge back in 2022 when she played with one of my favorite singers Gracie Gray. Her bio describes her music as a blend of "a folk songwriter's heart with the alluring polish of a classic pop artist."
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| BEL at Echo Park Rising |
It was off to Echo Park Rising with my press pass. Though the festival was advertised as a Saturday / Sunday event, there was a Friday evening kick off that featured the core stages of Sticky Rice, The Echo, and The Semi-Tropic. I made it a three day celebration of the Los Angeles music scene and was off in search of bands to feature in my Song Spotlight articles. As soon as I heard Creakbed over at The Echo, I knew two things right off the bat. I planned on including them on my annual list of favorite discovered bands and I had found the first band of the festival for a Song Spotlight write-up.
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| Creakbed at Echo Park Rising |
Mimi Pretend (moniker for Miriam Nissan) closed out a great night of music at The Airliner Bar (a Rocknite showcase event). The night included Katrina Weissman and Small Shake. With this post, I've written up articles on all three. So yeah, it was a great night of music and not just for me. All three had the crowd pressed close to the stage. When I see something like that, I feel like it validates my music tastes.
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| Mimi Pretend at The Airliner Bar |
Sometimes I just can't make it from my work to a WFNM showcase at Hotel Ziggy in time to catch the full set of the opening band / artist. That was the case for Kingstarlight (moniker for Julian Bell) where I missed the first song of the set. When I walked into the venue, the vibes of the set got my pulse racing. I squeezed through the crowd to get to a spot to take my photos and enjoyed the rest of the set.
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| Kingstarlight at Hotel Ziggy |
Ali Blake was the opening act at the Bigfoot Lodge for a recent Americana Joy showcase. She's a Chicago native who currently lives in Atwater Village so perhaps she walked over to the venue to play her set. Her bio describes her music as "Inspired by the natural world, the human experience, and a wide range of artists from Etta James to Fiona Apple, there is always a soulfulness that comes through."
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| Ali Blake at the Bigfoot Lodge |
Piper Leone (Piper Thrams), the die hard UCLA Bruins fan (graduate) from the age of 8, took the stage at the Bigfoot Lodge for an Americana Joy showcase night. Not on the setlist was her anti-USC song "You & Usc." Yes, the SC is not capitalized. I see this as a friendly rivalry diss, because if there was a real hatred there the song would be titled "You & usc." I will say that her UCLA vs USC stance is seen in a positive light for me. Just to be clear, I am a Duke fan, but when it comes to Los Angeles rivalries, I'm in for UCLA.
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| Piper Leone at the Bigfoot Lodge |
Semi Trucks fronted by Brenden Sepe brought a raw power to Zebulon on a recent Monday night. They were the opening band for Bondo's record release party and their gritty performance immediately injected energy into the evening festivities. The crowd gathered around the stage with a focused attention throughout the set. The band split their set between songs from their sophomore album Georgia Overdrive as well as testing out new material. Their new material was well received. In fact, the crowd seemed to enjoy their final song of the night, the unreleased "Drunken," the most.
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| Semi Trucks at Zebulon |
Opening up for Johanna Samuels' recent Zebulon record release party (presented by Sid the Cat) for her album Sorry, Kid was Small Shake (fronted by Aarin Wright). I covered the night for US Rocker Music should you be interested in reading the review. Why the name Small Shake? According to her brief Spotify bio, she's into sweet cakes and milkshakes.
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| Small Shake at Zebulon |
A Handful (Bucketful) of Show Alerts
Sunday, Aug 30th: Final day of Echo Park Rising.
Sunday, Aug 30th: Gal Musette at Scribble. Doors at 7:30 p.m.
