The Off Sunset Festival

Sunday July 7th was the first Off Sunset Festival in the Silverlake neighborhood Los Angeles. The festival took place on Santa Monica Blvd just off of Sunset Blvd. running for two blocks. The festival consisted of booths of local businesses and organizations running down both sides of Santa Monica with a DJ stage at one end and a music stage at the other. The attendees were an interesting mix of punk rockers and the gay S&M scene.  These crowds co-exist as there are a lot of similarities. Black leather seems to be the great equalizer.
The S&M crowd tended to stay nearer the DJ stage that was set up outside of the Eagle a local leather bar. The music stage was attended by mainly the punk rock crowd. I spent the majority of my time at the music stage as I was friends with members of a couple of the bands. The line up for this Los Angeles event had a distinct San Francisco flavor. Four of the six bands are based in San Francisco or formed there.

The line up started with LA based Black Sabbitch an woman Black Sabbath cover band. They were so rocking that if Black Sabbath played as well as Black Sabbitch I may have liked them more. Next up was San Francisco's Hunx and his Punx. They have a sort goofy surf-y, campy sound. My favorite song of the set was the super short "Don't Call me Fabulous".

The next band was the legendary San Francisco all punk rock woman band Frightwig. Frightwig has been on a hiatus but are back at work playing shows and recording new music. The next up was Prima Donna an LA based band. Prima Donna had the most stag antics of all of the bands and are a lot of fun to watch. Next was queercore sweethearts Pansy Division. Fast and funny Pansy Division are always fun to see and never disappoint. The Headliners of the show was Imperial Teen. Imperial Teen reformed after a shorty hiatus and are releasing new material. The show consisted of new songs and their past hits.

Being a show that was sponsored by among others The Eagle and Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Frightwig in a nod to the sponsors had to jock strap and harness wearing Go Go boys shaking it during their set. The crowd all enjoyed the show and this was a tough crowd. There were a lot of very well known punk names in the audience.
This was the fist Off Sunset Festival and it hopefully won't be the last. If they are able to produce it again next year it would be smart to hire another great line up of bands like they did this festival.