Sunset Junction at a crossroads

This year's Sunset Junction has had the most turbulent lead-up in the Silver Lake music festival's recent history. First came the passing of soul legend and Junction headliner Isaac Hayes, which was a blow to vintage R&B fans and curious indie kids angling to get a lesson from the "Black Moses" about what soul really means. Luckily, Sam Moore, one half of Sam & Dave, is able to step in and pinch-hit.

But there have been other changes. The 28-year-old festival has grown from a free, for-the-locals get-together into a major production with international headliners and a thicket of food, shopping and local artist stalls, and the Junction is having to carefully negotiate its place in the more image-conscious (and high-priced) real estate of Silver Lake. Due to some complaints from local businesses about the festival's footprint (and, more importantly, its coveted foot traffic) and City Council snafus, this year the festival has been gerrymandered to cover Sunset Boulevard from Edgecliffe Drive to Fountain Avenue, and Santa Monica Boulevard from Sanborn Avenue to Hoover Street.

"We've had it in the same location for 26 years, and the neighborhood at the time was full of broken windows and empty spaces, and the festival had a huge impact on the neighborhood," said Michael MicKinley, lead organizer of Sunset Junction. "We're listening to their concerns, but it's been a difficult process. Sunset Junction has an image and a name. Nobody wants it to stop, they just want to get in for free."

Even as of Thursday, there were still some last-minute petition issues to hammer out with the city for the festival this weekend, but it's all growing pains for what remains the Eastside's biggest weekend. This year's lineup of acts is deep and diverse and includes indie rock boldface names and vintage soul and pan-Latin party starters. Here's a few of our favorites to look out for:

SATURDAY

Sam Moore Tribute to Isaac Hayes, 9:30 p.m., Hoover Stage.

Hayes' inimitable baritone and crack musicianship is a tough act for anyone to follow, but the "Soul Man" Moore is as apt a pick as any could hope for. As part of the R&B duo Sam & Dave, he recorded many of Hayes' early tunes for Atlantic and Stax Records, and he finally seems to be riding a deserved wave of retrospective acclaim. Word is that he's as nimble and warm-hearted a vocalist as ever.

Cold War Kids, 9:20 p.m., Bates Stage

The Fugazi-meets-bar-blues Long Beach quartet will preview songs from their hotly-tipped second album "Loyalty to Loyalty." Early hints at its sound have suggested even more open spaces for singer Nathan Willett to deploy those fiery, desperation-dripping pipes of his.

Entrance Band, 4:10 p.m., Bates Stage

Power trios are a dying breed, but this monster Led Zeppelin-inspired act (who, if you've even driven down Sunset Boulevard in recent months, you've probably heard live at least once) might be this year's local breakout.

Jeane Carne, 8 p.m., Hoover Stage

Sunset Junction's long made a priority of showcasing veteran jazz, blues and R&B artists, and rangy-voiced Carne can pull off all of those genres with sass and aplomb.

SUNDAY

!!!, 6:45 p.m., Bates Stage

Funkier than a high school locker room and sporting some of the most stylish hot-pants-on-dudes combinations in modern music, this sprawling ensemble (sometimes pronounced "chk-chk-chk") is ferociously single-minded in moving hipster tuchus.

Health, 3:20 p.m., Bates Stage

From the first spazzy notes of guitar noise until they fall in an exhausted heap, this local avant-garde punk quartet doesn't let up for air. Anything and everything may be deployed as an instrument, including broken guitars, rats' nests of electronics or one another's bodies.

Kinky, 8 p.m., Sanborn Stage

This Mexican punk-funk group might just be the future of Latin music in America -- there's plenty of big brass and cowboy hats to go around, but also delirious house beats, brash guitars and a cosmopolitan flair that's a testament to the silliness of musical borders.

Stephanie Mills, 8 p.m., Hoover Stage.

She put some soul in the role of Dorothy for the stage version of "The Wiz" in the '70s, and the R&B, disco and gospel veteran has brought fireworks to stages ever since.