Beach Dazed
Taking over the grounds of a giant furniture import warehouse called Out of Asia, Beach Dazed offered free ice cream, a blow up Slip n Slide, face painting, Korean taco truck, and two stages. After enjoying a typically spot-on Pizza! performance, I found an over-sized rattan couch where I could wait for the next band, sweating all over the upholstery with a group of tweens wearing floral print mini-dresses and leather boots. Oh, how happy I am to see the ’90s coming back! The lovely Mapi of KXLU fame adorned my face with some psychedelic war paint before I got back up to check out Best Coast.Best Coast reaffirmed my theory that all two-human bands in Los Angeles should include Bobb Bruno, though perhaps that’s not so much theory as observation. How much music can that man make? He provided the perfect backing band—bass, guitar, beats and all—for (former?) Pocahaunted member Bethany Cosentino’s beach blanket ballads. Her sincere delivery and love letter lyrics make singing about heartbreak feel so good I wish somebody would dump me right now.I missed Haim cause I was really busy doing 360s and trust falls on the Slip n Dip out back but Daiana said they were pretty cool plus they’re sisters which is always nice.After drying off, we slipped out the gate- past the baby faced organizer and his dad (who was wearing a sharp pin-striped suit and a gold ring that read “DAD”)—to find some food. Supper became quite an adventure complete with an African drumming circle, a dare devil puppy who almost got crushed by oncoming traffic, and free vodka drinks at a fancy Laxart opening. We found some tacos then headed back to the parking lot to chug Bud Lights before Busdriver.Busdriver is awesome! The pink-polo shirted Regan Farquhar commanded the stage, spouting rhymes I didn’t even try to keep up with while his heroic sidekick, Anti MC, calmly manipulated a swath of drum pads and synth sounds, an electric guitar and pedals without breaking a sweat. I was having a hard time keeping my cool ’cause a pair of teenage lesbians were getting’ freaky right in front of the stage, grabbing each others’ crotches and grind dancing. Oh, how happy I am to see the ’90s coming back!