Bad Brains and Fishbone – at Sunset Junction – Silver Lake, CA

Sunset Junction, a neighborhood in the Silver Lake District of Los Angeles, have annually shown there participation in the LA alternative music scene. In an effort to calm the hostility between it’s Latino and Homosexual residents in 1980, the small neighborhood have since then hosted annual two-day music festivals. The shops and general area close down their streets for two days and allow visitors to participate it what ever mayhem they please. Past visitors have included the Circle Jerks, The New York Dolls, The Buzzcocks, Sonic Youth and X, so the mayhem that would ensue later may or may not have flabbergasted its promoters. In hindsight, it seems they should have known the severity of their situation when inviting BAD BRAINS to headline. Boom.

The crowd was full of different people of many races and diversities but still a beautiful sight to see for those who aim at unification, which is what the whole festival was looking for. There were people of all races, sexual orientations and ages. For the older crowd it may have been comforting to see the next generation taking in independent music. For the young it may be comforting to be under the watchful eye of older Punk rockers ready to spring into action and show the kids a thing or two in the pit.

Amongst the first bands where the B-Side Players, a San Diego multi-genre band since 1994. The B-Side players themselves stated were grateful for surviving 16 years in the music business. Their music conveyed a musical approach that of a jazz, reggae, funk band but with a definitive Latin music influence that echoed the music played at parties of the Hispanic residents of Silver Lake and other districts of Los Angeles.

Their pungency of Latin music was definitely felt and clearly pronounced in their cover of Bob Marley’s "Could You Be Loved". With breaks in between stanzas of the verse to throw in a speck of Latin music before reverting back to reggae, it was clear the band gave a new approach to a Bob Marley Classic.

After noting their experience with the Hispanic version of a sweet sixteen party, or a "Quincienera", the band played an all too familiar Hispanic tune that was seen uncontrollably escaping the lips of many Hispanic audience members. The song was "Rosa Maria", and it was the last song of their set before a half-hour interim.

Connie Price and the Keystones were up next, having already established a reputation for backing up Hip-Hop artists such as "Biz Markie" and "Percee P", the band once again teamed up with Big Daddy Kane for the sunset music festival. The soul/funk band has already made a name for themselves since starting in the earlier part of the decade in Los Angeles. Today however, they would be backing up a well known hip hop artist.

After a small opening set with the band by the emcee Soup from the hip-hop group Jurassic 5 and playing pretty well known recent songs such as "What’s Golden", Big Daddy Kane came up to lead the band.

Big Daddy Kane, a Brooklyn Hip-Hop emcee and producer, is one of the more influential and innovative artists to come out of the "Golden Age of Hip-Hop". An musical era which dominated the top charts with artists such as De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, and of course the Punk rockers turned emcees The Beastie Boys.

Today it seemed that some of the fans from his earlier work had arrived to come see him play. Big Daddy Kane rocked the stage playing classic Hip-Hop songs, with the live funk/soul band. The crowd was well receptive, especially the older crowd who must have recognized the songs from twenty years ago. After
playing hit from albums such as "Long Live the Kane", he then announced a new project with the band that would incorporate the hip-hop and soul genres. He played two songs from his new project, and one of them being a close and personal song which visibly made him emotional on stage. After shaking it off however, he reverted back to his Hip-Hop self and delivered another classic jam before leaving the stage.

After Big Daddy Kane there was a complete change in audience members, people who looked familiar to those at Punk Rock and Ska shows flooded the vicinity of the stage. This was very much a reminder that Fishbone was next.

Not many artists can garner audience participation like Fishbone can. Derived from the same Los Angeles scene as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone can make the audience move by their own volition, or by force…you’ll see why.

It can very well be stated, with extreme justification, that a band with a wide range of musical genres can get the crowd to do whatever they please. Circle pits, skank pits, stage dives, mosh pits or what have you can all be done when bands like Fishbone are playing. However, the whole day was without much of that action. The earlier music didn’t seem to have a correlation to audience participation with that of skanking and circle pits. The crowd was still receptive in dancing to reggae, funk and soul but this was the first Ska/Punk band of night. This may have been why the first song didn’t have as much participation as Fishbone songs usually have. After coming to terms with that, it seemed that a light bulb had suddenly flickered atop of Angelo’s bald head.(the lead singer/saxophone player)

Anyone who has had a previous Fishbone experience may have had a small expectation of seeing Angelo jump into the crowd. I had seen him do this my first and only previous experience at the Warped Tour in Carson Last year. Angelo leaped into the crowd during the middle of his set, whilst being none the wiser to the fact that his rear-end was visible the whole time. The Crowd Laughed.

This time, with the intention of getting the crowd to move like a real Fishbone show should, Angelo leaped into the crowd with his pants, thankfully, around his waste. Thus assuring the crowd that this really was a Fishbone show, and that’s when the mayhem started. Angelo was taken to the right hand side of the crowd, where immediately a skank-pit started. Some of the crowd still managed to keep him semi-airborne in an attempt to bring him back to the stage safely. This mission was very much threatened, due to the fact that where seemingly normal sidewalk should be…a huge skank pit was in full swing.

A little bit of everything was visible in this embodiment of destruction, especially during their songs "Alcoholic" and their long beach style cover of Sublime’s "Date Rape". The crowd was very much alive up until their final songs which included "Party at Ground Zero".

After Fishbone it was the only time where the crowd did not completely disseminate at the end of a performance. The crowd was pumped and here to stay, which is probably due to the obvious connection and relationship in music between Fishbone and Bad Brains. The crowd grew to an enormous capacity and right in the middle there were a few big guys in the middle making sure there was enough space to start a pit, this was truly a sign of things to come.

Bad Brains finally came out after a small little girl went on stage to ask where her mother was. This being a bad move in the world of advertisement since the crowd was more than ready to show Bad Brains the type of appreciation they deserved. After the debacle was settled, the band was finally ready and was greeted with a huge applause by the audience.

Fans who have seen videos of Bad Brains earlier work may have been slightly disappointed in the behavior of the band, especially HR. Some were prepared, but some where lacking the knowledge that HR has a completely different approach to the stage. He is much calmer, and has the mannerisms of older reggae artists before his time. With that said, the reader may come to the conclusion that crowd equally returned this behavior. However, this is where the power of music overcomes any conclusion you may have come to. No matter how much the band may change in its approach, if they stay very close to the music the fans are equally receptive. Even if the reception appropriate, is that of a riot.

The first song was a mellow reggae one, but even skank pit was of epic proportions. Then when the song led into "Attitude" the intensity of the crowd was elevated, tenfold. Even the people to the outer rims of the audience could not escape the mayhem. If you were up close, in the middle, or to the side you could undoubtedly feel the wrath of the pit. Atop of a usually peaceful street during the 363 days of the year, was now the scene of a Punk rock phenomenon. The number two bus stop where people usually stand at to take the bus up and down Sunset, was now used as a threshold for crowd surfers to jump off of. The scene was a spectacular, and the crowd did it’s best to ensure nobody was seriously harmed. Anyone who hit the ground was picked up off the pavement and saved, an unwritten rule amongst concert goers. After playing songs such as "Sailin’ on" and "The Regular", the band informed the audience to "Pay To Cum" see them the following day in Solana Beach.

This concluded the Bad Brains and Fishbone visit to The Sunset Junction in Los Angeles. The audience asked for more as usual, but was turned down when told that the police where going to shut the place down. It’s the only way to end a show like this.

-Gabriel R.-
Big Wheel Music Scene Contributor

 
 

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