Kevin Bronson on October 5th, 2008

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What Saturday’s third LA Weekly Detour Festival lacked in wallop it made up for in sizzle. The 11-hour shindig covering four blocks surrounding City Hall in downtown L.A. lacked the big, unifying headliner such as 2006’s Beck, and at some junctures it almost felt like promoter Goldenvoice was running a tryout camp for its spring blowout, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Between the eclectic lineup and the cool weather, which promised rain but never delivered, attendance was modest (note: this is only my estimate, backed by a couple other Detour veterans to whom I spoke). That, along with a favorable alignment of set times, made the festival very manageable. If you wanted to, and I did, you could cram a lot of music into one brisk autumn day, even if it felt more like a sampler platter than a feast. I started at LA Weekly’s kiosk (note ironic photo), and then … well, walk along with my tired legs:

Somehow omitted from the printed schedule handed out at the door, Funeral Party kicked the festival off with a set of sharp, noir-ish dance-punk. The youthful five-piece from Whittier at times recalls an adolescent, more spaced-out version of Moving Units — easy to imagine as superstars of backyard parties all over east L.A. County.

The Monolators are pretty irresistible. The Eastside retro-pop-punk outfit, which started as a two-piece featuring the husband-wife duo of Eli and Mary Chartkoff, blossomed into a quintet (with bassist Ashley Jex [pictured with Eli], Henry Clay People guitarist Joey Siara and I Make This Sound keyboardist Jillinda Palmer) for their Detour gig, which they earned by winning an online vote among local bands. Their pogo-worthy “You Look Good on the Train” could have been the theme song for Detour’s use-mass-transit campaign, and the stuff off their forthcoming album “Don’t Dance” (due Oct. 21) sounds as if it crept off of the shelves of your cool uncle’s vinyl collection.

“Anybody notice City Hall looks a little phallic over there?” Nico Vega guitarist Rich Koehler asked the crowd midway through the L.A. trio’s set. No, dude, we were all focused on your crazy get-up. And, of course, the vocal calisthenics of singer Aja Volkman, who reprised the band’s 2007 Detour appearance by decking herself out in virtually the same black leotard-and-silver paint costume. Like a goth sprite, Volkman delivered the goods, previewing a lot of the material that will be on the band’s debut on MySpace Records (due in early 2009). This is one band that gets a lot of mileage out of a three-piece set-up.

Then England’s Noah and the Whale charmed the bricks right off the street, even if a brief blast of mist made you think they brought their London weather with them. Armed with strings, horns and a vintage piano, the six-piece played a set of alternately serene and bouncy folk-pop that induced more than one young couple in the crowd to embrace. Yeah, that sweet. But vaguely dark, too — at moments I thought they could be the chamber-pop National. At other times, they were alone-in-your-room dancey, like on the ukelele-based “Five Years Time,” which seems to nick Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha.” But everybody needs a bosom …