Seraphina Lotkhamnga on October 20th, 2014

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The Culture Collide festival chugged on Saturday with the busiest lineup of the weekend. With bands from Thursday and Friday all playing somewhere in Echo Park one last time, there was plenty of music to be heard and seen. However, attendance remained less than stellar (when compared to previous years), and the World Stage and its performers often stayed by their lonesome throughout the day. Even Clap Your Hands Say Yeah played to crowd not much larger than Cloud Nothings’ audience from the previous night. Although headliners were a bit lackluster this year (with the exception of the get-up-out-of-your-seat set from Quantic), there were still plenty of pockets of music that blew one’s hair back or delivered goosebumps. 

Our highlights from Culture Collide, Day 3:

Quantic

If there were an award for who threw the best party during their set at Culture Collide, the winner would be Quantic’s headlining show at the United Methodist Church. Upon arrival, the sounds of salsa, cumbia, bossa nova and much more. Led by founder Will Holland, Quantic’s fusion of Latin music with funk, jazz and trip-hop were simply magnetic and infectious. With more than half of the room wildly dancing in the aisles and in near the alter, Holland chuckled at his own joke (“This is a great congregation”) and suggested “Let’s meet at the same time next week.” There was even a conga line going around the pews, but the special moment came when Holland dedicated a salsa tune to the late Ikey Owens.

Delta Riggs

Australia’s Delta Riggs were the bad boys of the night with their rowdy set inside the Champagne Room. Perfectly slotted to follow Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s final song outside, the room filled up with festival-goers who weren’t quite ready to leave just yet. Frontman Elliott Hammond bounced around stage and in between his band members but got an awakening when a woman tugged and pushed back when Hammond went head first into the crowd and took her friend by surprise. “You’re a strong lady,” Hammond exclaimed. It was a fun set all round with their sound shifting back and forth from punk and funk. Although, someone should tell these guys Taix is not in Hollywood nor Silver Lake.

PUP

Thrashers found a home in the Champagne Room just before the Delta Riggs when Canadian rockers PUP took the stage. Diving into their adrenaline-rush-fueled songs, Pup was loud and especially riotous when the crowd was elbowing or moshing their way up to the stage. Aside from Australia’s Dune Rats and Bad // Dreems, Pup was the band for garage- and noise-rock fans on Saturday.

PINS

Straight out of Manchester (and perhaps the dreams of those who fancy Warpaint, Dum Dum Girls and the Runaways) came the all-female rock quartet PINS. Taking the crowd by surprise, Faith Holgate, Lois McDonald, Anna Donigan and Lara Williams slinked and rocked with droning melodies and punk yelps. Being attractive certainly doesn’t hurt these girls, but PINS definitely delivered the goods. Even with classic rock influences shining through their set, they were fresher than anything Clap Your Hands Say Yeah mustered afterward.

Gateway Drugs

Sometimes things can be beautiful when they’re messy, and Gateway Drugs are just that. With five members on stage all playing their hearts out while surprisingly perfecting the apathetic stage presence, the local rockers kept our feet glued the carpeted floor of the Champagne Room just as they did at the Echo during Echo Park Rising. Psych-rock draped the Champangne Room as the group chugged through one song after another and shed a bit more clothing with each tune. Was their set a bit hazy-sounding? Yes. Were there actually drugs being taken in the room to provide gateways to other realms during their set? Who knows.

||| Also: Friday’s highlights, Thursday’s highlights

Photos by Seraphina Lotkhamnga