Latest Review: Magic Lantern – High Beams

Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]

Last night at the Eagle Rock Music Festival

More like a street fair than a festival, the Eagle Rock Music Festival, celebrated their 9th annual six block hurrah of local music, art, and business on Colorado Blvd last night. Opting to head to Eagle Rock over the only what can be described as the downtown cluster fuck better known as Detour Festival, I was immediately greeted by a culturally diverse family friendly enviroment that saw people of all ages mingling together. And much to my surprise, the sight of kids on skateboards not be hassled by the cops, in fact I didn’t see one incident all night between the police and the folks enjoying the festivities, though that may be attributed to lack of a major alcohol sponsor and the fact that beer was limited to the confines of the few restaurants lining Colorado, though wine seemed to be allowed on the street.

I mostly stuck to the Emerging Stage that boasted a line up of Teddy’s Cheer Club, The Monolators, Bodies of Water, The Pity Party, Dengue Fever (picture above), and Under The Influence of Giants, of which the first three acts are no strangers to the local stages of the All-Star Lanes, Mr. T’s Bowl, and Pehrspace. A recap of each band’s set could be led off with “in spite of the sound”, Bodies of Water had quite the set up but ultimately failed to draw me into their hippie happy-go-lucky display, The Pity Party really have something going (Sonic Youth and Autolux fans take note) and make me want to see them in club with a decent PA, Dengue Fever were my favorite band of the night and a muched needed injection of melody to the stage, and Under The Influence of Giants were a good capper to the evening for the older crowd, which for most of the night saw acts that could be characterized as “what the kids are listening to”.

Props should also be given to whoever made the cinematic selections of which films that were projected onto the screen behind the Emerging Stage as they seemed to align perfectly with each band’s style of play.