LA short for LAME

How was my weekend you ask? My weekend was wonderful and thanks for asking!
Friday- Hanging with the friends to prepare for Saturday
Saturday- Union Line and Aushua Show at Karl Strauss festival(one six pack of water bottles and literally seven cases of beer and two kegs for 20 people backstage)

Enter...Saturday night.

I moved to LA/Silverlake about a year ago and thus far no huge complaints. I have always really thought that any place you decide to live is as good as you decide to make it. That is not to say of course that LA doesn't come with its own unique character and guidelines that one must try to follow especially when hanging out in the local music scene. In my neck of the woods there are a good amount of great indie venues and a handful of great indie bands. We have played the circuit a few times and are working our way to try and become one of the few. Lets just say its a close knit scene in our area and as indie and artsy as we all want it to be, at the end of the day LA's local music scene is run just like any other entertainment industry here. You gotta know somebody who knows somebody who needs a favor and knows someone who can get you what you want. So goes the nature of the beast.

With that being said on Saturday I happened to know someone who knew someone at Los Angeles's annual Detour Festival in Downtown LA. I would have to say being completely honest that I have been the last three years and each year has taken a step or two down from last and this year was no exception. On paper, an event such as this seems like the ultimate horaaaaay! for LA music loving locals. You get to see and hear great music from big and small artists who for one day take over city hall and let us all experience downtown LA in a whole new wonderful light. The reality is, that if you don't know someone(which I'm sure more than half the crowd did) for $45 you get a chance to see a few good artists and $7 cocktails. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the ingenious system they installed for purchasing food and drink this year(lathered in thick sarcasm). Upon entering if you happen to have the hearing of a rabbit with elephantiasis in it's ears, you come across a man shouting the guidelines for deciding to purchase food or drink. To expedite the process and keep the lines moving quicker you first purchase an "Event Card". The overjoyed people at Event Card Tent will put your hard earned cash onto a small plastic card which you can then take to the various drink/food stands. Once you arrive to the stand of choice the employee will swipe this magical card which electronically takes the cash from the card in exchange for the goods you ordered. What a world we live in! Wait, this "Card" reminds me of something.....oh yeah its called a fucking Credit Card and we all already have and use them! On top of the annoying "Event Card" process which most people didn't find out about until getting to the front of the drink line after waiting for 30min. They also forget to mention that you needed to go to a separate booth to get an id wristband if you wish to consume alcohol. I know, I know, we all have been to many festivals where this is the case and at every single festival we all think the same thing: "These id booths are retarded and a pain in my ass!!" After all, waiting in three lines for a cocktail is much better than one.

In light of keeping my head from exploding I'll stop here. In conclusion being a new local LA music citizen is fun and good, just in a really weird way that may lead to some opinions.....some much needed opinions.

Andy
Local Natives