Millie Jackson, The Elected and The Strays
Sunset Junction Street Fair
August 26, 2006
Silverlake, Los Angeles
By Victoria
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
Photos By Victoria
Sunset Junction is the biggest, coolest and oldest street fair in LA. Held on the weekend before Labor Day in the Silverlake District, it’s the last blast of summer in So Cal. Located between Hollywood and downtown, this Uber-cool hood is home to artists, musicians, hippies and gays. A lot of ex-patriots from San Francisco end up around here. Lots of hills and charm.
Sunset Junction is in its 26th year and benefits local charities. Two days, four stages, a hundred booths and a dozen rides populated with every age, color and gender bender. The doggies had Mohawks, dig? The eats diversified from Roasted Corn on the Cob to Puerto Rican Shish-ka-bob. Think County Fair on X or My Own Private Coachella.
The local crafts and artisans are spectacular. We saw mini-shrines to the BVM, Frieda Kahlo and Che. We saw hand-painted vintage luggage from DeLuna. Icon studded circular rugs from Kind Family. Gleaming Wind Spinners and here’s the best; vintage rock tees turned into skirts with lacy fringe from local designer, Linda Stevens.
There are 100+ music artists featured so we had to be picky who we saw and who we skipped. This was on tough call. We missed the Mulhollands, BMRC and The Cramps.
We did catch The Strays. Our hero, John Arakaki of Silver Needle and promoter of the Kiss or Kill Rock Showcase did his own fest inside a fest on the stage of El Cid, a Flamenco nightclub on Sunset. The Strays are wicked cool, pretty punks who did a nice nice cover of “Spanish Bombs” our fave rave Clash song. Very Ramones with fast guitars and chops. The pretty blonde haircuts bring the East Coast thing west.
Next we wandered over the main stage and caught a little of The Elected. Fresh from an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel they were havin’ fun with the big crowd on Sunset Boulevard. “It’s great to be playing here. I’ll see ya later at the Zipper Tilt-a-Whirl.” They did a nice slide guitar with a country alt kinda thang.
From there we walked back to the middle stage to see Millie Jackson; the Diva to end all Divas before there were Divas. Soul singer Jackson came to prominence in the 70’s with Al Green. Millie turned her hits “Hurts So Good” and “If Lovin’ You is Wrong” into a cult with her X-rated soliloquies mid-song on her live recordings taking her cues from Richard Pryor.
Millie Jackson is 62 years old. We know this from search for a rhyme “I’m sixty-two; F*ck You!” She took the stage backed by a 10-piece soul orchestra and three back up singers. Pretty bouffed out for a street fest, man!
Millie wore diamonds and white denim. The band was in tuxes with white spangled tees. Lavish. She did her hits and she did her jokes. One song was called “The Lies We Live With” was peppered with “who are you sleeping with” and “weapons of mass destruction.” The lady is sharper than a laser beam doing eye surgery.
The crowd of rockers, musicians, gays and black folks squealed and screamed. Miss Jackson knocked em dead. The pretty lady singing back up got a big hand too that grew when Millie intro’ed her daughter, Keesha.
New CD from Jackson is aptly called “Not for Church Folks” on her own label Weird Wreckuds. It was a wonderful way to watch the sunset on Sunset at Sunset.
