The Good, The Bad, The Bizarre: Venice's Inaugural Spring Fling

Andrea Domanick

Tracii Guns

Saturday marked the first Venice Beach Spring Fling Festival, a new seasonal counterpart to its Summer Music Festival showcasing local bands and artists. The locally sponsored Fling is only the most recent effort from the community to prove that there's more to the boardwalk than hippies and head shops. But did it manage to escape its stereotype? Here's a breakdown of the good, the bad and the bizarre:

The Good

Andrea Domanick

Tracii Guns Bastard Blues Band - Decidedly the day's finest act, so it's a damn shame the fest's crowd of sun children had dwindled by the time TGBBB took the stage at 6 p.m. Despite a glam metal pedigree, including L.A. Guns founder and one-time GNR member Tracii Guns, the band delivered a refreshingly straightforward round of hurts-so-good blues in their second public show. Notably, frontman Bronx Style Bob (Ice T, Zulu Kings) unleashed a set of pipes that gave Charles Bradley's performance at the Echo last week a run for its money.

Andrea Domanick

School of Rock - Contrary to what you're thinking, they dragged their moms down here. These tikes remained dutifully gathered at the stage throughout TGBBB's set, bobbing their heads and making iPhone recordings as they watched their music teacher/bassist Muddy Stardust play. Oh, and they're in a band. How long have The Rockaholix been together? "Two years. Can we go watch the show now?"

Andrea Domanick

Tone Def Punk Rock Karaoke - What's more fun than playing Clash and Iggy Pop covers with your high school punk band? Playing them again with guys who actually know how to use their instruments. Not quite a cover band but in no way traditional karaoke, the fellas of Tone Def showcased their devoted karaoke "all-stars" for a sing-a-long that drew the day's largest crowd at just 2 p.m.

The Bad

Andrea Domanick

Baby's on fire - Not in the Brian Eno way.

Andrea Domanick

Is that Howard Stern? - While the afternoon's slew of generic ska/reggae outfits was an appropriate, if not forgettable, fit for the festival's hula-hooping, bleary-eyed attendees, the inclusion of hard rock outfit Venrez at 4 p.m. ended up being little more than a stylistically disruptive bathroom break for the crowd. Confused references to Howard Stern, Audioslave overheard throughout the set.

The Bizarre

Andrea Domanick

LATFTH - Look At This Fucking Ten-Year-Old Hipster