Favorite Artists: Jungle, Tycho, AM & Shawn Lee, Daft Punk, Radiohead, Bonobo, Kurt Vile, Washed Out
Latest posts by Brendon Goldwasser (see all)
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This year, on the first weekend of August, blocks of the world famous Sunset Strip were shut down in the name of Rock n’ Roll and Hip-Hop. It was quite an amazing experience, seeing as this section of the strip is usually bustling with fancy cars, heavy traffic, and the all too common, scantily clad jay-walkers. Though, that last one still might have been happening during this years festivities. Nonetheless, the setting allowed for fans to browse up and down the strip to see their shows on one of two outdoor stages, as well as at the classics like The Roxy, The Viper Room, and Whiskey-A-Go-Go.
The first ever Sunset Strip Music Festival took place in June 2008. It was created by the Sunset Strip Business Association, music venues and member businesses. The ultimate goal was and still is to “promote, preserve and perpetuate the live music scene on The Sunset Strip”. The festival has grown each year since then – expanding from performances in those famous venues previously mentioned to an all-day street festival featuring outdoor stages, an outside bar/lounge area, food trucks, and performances from more than 70 artists in the venues!
This year brought a great lineup, combining the biggest names in both Rock and Hip-Hop, which also made for an interesting mix of people, both culturally and stylistically. You had Rock heads checking out rappers and vice-verse, it was awesome! I love that type of crossover, after all, isn’t that what music is supposed to do? Some of the highlights and headliners included performances from Linkin Park, Wale, Awolnation, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Asher Roth, and many more smaller, up & coming groups. GroundSounds had the pleasure of speaking with two on-the-rise rock groups, Sad Robot and The Last Internationale, both of which are already on their way towards success. Look out for those interviews, which will be dropping soon!
Some of the highlights from this years festival include Wayne Brady coming out on stage during Doug E Fresh and Slick Ricks performance to freestyle. That was definitely unexpected and he was really good, too. Another surprise appearance came later in the evening, during the Wale show, the controversial being that is Chris Brown came onto the stage for some dancing and rapping. As I was walking around the streets in between shows, I also spotted a few people that I will now name drop…Fred Durst, Guillermo Diaz, and my personal favorite Shifty from one-hit wonders Crazy Town (you’re my butterfly, sugar…baby!). That’s right, it was definitely an interesting evening and a fun festival that I would most definitely recommend checking out next year. Who knows, maybe Shifty will make a comeback and headline the next one, after all, L.A. is a crazy town, where anything can happen.
