Sunset Junction Fair Finds Eclectic Edge

For 17 years, a strip of Sunset Boulevard has been transformed into a loose-limbed party for denizens of Silver Lake, Echo Park and Los Feliz. On Saturday, during the first half of the two-day Sunset Junction Street Fair, translucent-skinned punkers mingled with moms with strollers, and an emcee in a lemon-meringue-like bouffant entertained boys with shaved heads and lowriding jeans.

In tune with the crowd, the music was a stylistic and cultural mishmash, from ska-rockeros to sexy country-blues divas, political hip-hop mavens to raunchy punks. It was a mind-boggling mix unified by an iconoclastic mind-set and good-neighbor attitude--and bolstered this year by a big-league headliner in L7.

Street Fair organizer and activist Micheal McKinley has tried to build that attitude since 1981, when he noticed tension escalating between local gangs and the growing gay and lesbian community. “We wanted to do something to tear down the wall that separated us,” he says, “so we decided to throw a big block party.”

McKinley estimates that Saturday’s crowd topped last year’s tally by 50,000, reaching more than 150,000. The newest addition was a big-name sponsor, as Groove Radio (103.1 FM) set up a makeshift disco that drew large crowds with throbbing dance beats.

At the Hyperion Avenue stage, acts were more rootsy, reveling in female talent led by blueswoman Mickey Champion, veteran L.A. outfit Strange Fruit and country-blues belter Candye Kane.

Champion’s act blended impressive vocal power with irrepressible high spirits as the singer abandoned the stage and her microphone and wandered into the crowd. Kane continued the good humor with a steamy set of songs about big women and big love.

Strange Fruit overlaid hip-hop and jazz with pointed political lyrics for a set that was galvanizing and incendiary.

Sadly, enthusiasm at the Bates Avenue stage was deflated by no-shows Redd Kross and Tito & Tarantula, but Tijuana No tried to make up for it with a heady blend of ska and rock en espanol that suffered because its complex music came across as one-dimensional and tinny over the sound system.

The border band paved the way for the most eagerly anticipated homecoming of the night--the arrival of locals L7. Playing to an arena-sized crush of a crowd, the group delivered a hard-hitting set of guttural rock.

L7’s oversized show underscored the large scale of the Sunset Junction Street Fair this year. But the real surprise was that--despite an expanding audience--the fair’s music still captured the political edge and cultural clash that originally spawned the carnival-esque party.