A long list of US bands brought a DIY aesthetic to this year’s F Yeah Fest in Los Angeles.
When financial backers pulled out at the last minute, festival organiser Sean Carlson put himself into debt so the show could go on. The result was a diverse array of musical acts that performed at the Echo and Echoplex over Labor Day weekend.
Glass Candy delivered one of the highlights of the festival, entrancing the crowd with deep driving beats and synth sequences. Ida No‘s flamenco-style dancing inspired a crowd member to storm the stage and mirror her moves. No handed him the microphone to sing a few lyrics before security escorted him off-stage.
Later, when an audience member handed her a book titled ‘Man, Myth and Legend’, she read from it while Johnny Jewel added synthesizers to create an impromptu song.
The Portland band also debuted a new tune called ‘Beats Alive’ during their energetic, sexually-charged set.
Self-described tropical LA punks Abe Vigoda got the crowd dancing despite a guitar malfunction. Several audience members sang along to ‘Skeleton’, the title track off of the band’s new album, as the band closed their set.
Brooklyn duo Matt And Kim brought their trademark joyful energy to the proceedings. Matt constantly shared funny stories between songs and Kim maintained an ear-to-ear smile throughout their entire set.
Matt played a few bars of Beyonce‘s ‘Crazy In Love’ on his keyboard before saying, “Just kidding, how about this one?” and segueing into a cover of the hook from Dead Prez‘s ‘Hip Hop’, which prompted an audience sing-along.
A joyous rendition of ‘Yeah Yeah’ got people moshing and crowd surfing, before the duo ended their set with ‘It’s A Fact’.
LA’s No Age closed out Saturday with a punch, performing a cover of LA punk band the Urinals‘ ‘Male Masturbation’ and working the crowd into a frenzy.
The duo assaulted the crowd with their short, loud and intense songs, and encouraged the crowd to get rowdy. “You guys tired? Fuck that. If you’re not tired let’s tear this up,” drummer Dean Allen Spunt told the audience, who complied.
Randy Randall then asked security to hang back as they had been trying to curb the constant stage-diving during the set, and invited anyone who knew the lyrics to The Misfits’ ‘Night of the Living Dead’ to join them on stage to sing along.
Organiser Carlson came on stage and threw the microphone into the audience, and Randall did a final stage dive, bringing their set and the rowdy night to a close.
–By our Los Angeles staff.