Some of the first folks to celebrate were , Steve Chagollan of Variety, Harlan Lansky of Seany Records, Andy Sternberg of LAist, Tanja Laden of Flavor Pill and Brick Walh of LA Weekly, Andrea Dominack of LA Weekly, Kevin Bronson of Buzzbands, Jessica Wedemeyer of People Magazine, Jose Martinez of Venice Magazine, Abigail Parsons of Young Hollywood/Central Talent booking, Ronna Bronstein-Trumfio of Kingsize Sound Labs, reps from CBS Radio, The Huffington Post and a wide assortment of tastemaker/bloggers in support of the event. The artists, musicians and personalities in attendance were many and that included, Stuart Johnson, Shirli McAllen, Ryan Feves and Mike Bolger of Leftover Cuties, Marie Hall, Daven Hall and Jasmine Ash of Oh Darling, Travis Moore, Ilir Zeneli and Henry Lopez of Peg Leg Love, DJ Morgan Page, Nicole Eva Emery, Summer Spiro and Ruby Spiro of Ruby Summer, Jacob Maltinsky, Adam Kurtz, Sean Johnson and Maria DeLuca of The Damselles, Kate Flannery, Aaron Finley, Erik Desiderio, Steve-Z Brenner and Andrew Van Baal of Big Dick, Mike Hopkins, John Graney and Jake Gideon of The Californian, Nick Sandler, Mike Goldman, Matt Schwartz and Drew Beck of Chasing Kings, Matthew Teardrop and Katya Arce of Manhattan Murder Mystery, Steven Scott and Brian Canning of Shadow Shadow Shade, Alex Staniloff, Geoffrey Halliday and Sean Hess of Hands, Graham Fink, Jimmy James and Calixto Hernandez of Barrio Tiger, Holly Conlan, Carina Round, Dan Burns and Zack Rae of Early Winter, Betty Kelly of Martha and the Vandellas, Bob Lee and Jon Wahl from Clawhammer, Mike Fong, East Area Director for Los Angeles City for Mayor AntonioVillaraigosa, Native Wayne representing Indie 103.1 and Kat Corbett representing KROQ. On a side note, the Black Lips crashed the party, to hang out in the courtyard and soak up the radiating afterglow. Surely, there weremany more in attendance, but your eyes and my eyes would suffer from fatigue in viewing a longer list.
The atmosphere was more than gregarious: it was a blend of class reunion, a shindig, a hootenanny, a POB (Part Out Of Bounds) as we all mingled, greeted, got to know, laughed, shared stories, noshed from the fine dining spreadset before us and bellied up to El Cid’s comfy open bar. The craziness had gone on for hours and would have done justice to El Cid builder D.W. Griffin’s classic Hollywood standards. It was Ten-ish when Team Sunset Junction, that is: Micheal McKinley, Julianna Young, Jennifer Tefft and Marko Shafer took the stage to make announcements regarding this year’s Sunset Junction and to take questions from the audience. Michealwas channeling the excitement he’s held for years about The Junction to an extremely engaged audience. Micheal is a huge fan of Motown Soul, so he couldn’t hold back his excitement as he exuberantly introduced everyone to Betty Kelly of Martha and the Vandellas to a loud round of applause. It was a sweet and classic moment as Betty rose to receive some much deserved praise and recognition. This was also near the time Micheal and Juliannaannounced the news that El Cid would host local music artists as the the Sixth Stage of Sunset Junction. There was crowd pleasing cheers from the audience. There were a few more announcements, including the “Win A Slot”at Sunset Junction contest, in which bands compete to win a much-coveted performance slot this years festival. For more details, please visit www.sunsetjunction.org. Micheal then opened up the stage for Leftover Cuties and Peg Leg Love to perform and close out the mixer.
Leftover Cuties performed first, bringing a hipster vibe to the El Cid stage that was reminiscent of bands like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros or Amanda Jo Williams,with a Freak Folk sound that went over well with all attending. Then it was Peg Leg Love’s turn. Peg Leg Love rocked the house with some hard-driving blues/garage oriented rock. They occupied the stage for nearly 45 minutes delivering power to their hot licks and kicks kind of sound. Soon, I drifted out in the courtyard to cool off and take a break. I saw Zack Rae (keyboardist Alanis Morissette, Carina Round and Early Winter) first and then Carina Round near the stairs. It had been months and it was great to see her! We visited for nearly a half hour. I learned that she has been very busy and that’s why I and others in our circle haven’t heard a peep from her for the last few months. She’s been traveling, has been deep in the recording process for her new CD, and regularly gigging with Early Winter, a band she sings with on the side.
It was nearing the witching hour and the party had thinned. I was finally able to kibitz with Karen on how stunningly the mixer had turned out. There were a lot of great things that had transpired that evening because of her very capable handling of the landmark event, in a landmark space. That evening at El Cid demonstrated a most favorable precursor to this year mighty Sunset Junction Street Fair and concert event. The mixer highlighted how stunning and innovative this year’s musical line-up is becoming and really got everyone pumped and excited for this year’s much-anticipated event. I predict it’s going to close out this Eastside summer with an appropriate bang, thatcan only lift the bar that much higher for every other party or event for the rest of the year!