Kevin Bronson on August 20th, 2018

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■ Part 2 of three parts of our Saturday Echo Park Rising coverage

One of the best things about Echo Park Rising is seeing the bands that predate the rise of Echo Park. Like local legend Matthew Teardrop and his Manhattan Murder Mystery, who have been spreading guitar-driven, beer-soaked wisdom since there were exactly zero “boutiques” on Sunset Boulevard.

And holy gentrification, MMM still rages. Everybody at their Lot 1 Café set knew every word to their songs, mostly from last year’s album “Dumb,” highlighted by the title track and the anthemic “Too Tough to Survive.”

Not that such energy was in short supply Saturday. Smoke Season gave it their all on the Laveta Stage — so much so that afterards Gabrielle Wortman needed an ice pack.

Four more things we heard during a tour of the smaller stages, which resulted in very rewarding sets from Gypsum, Rachel Goodrich, Potty Mouth, Hydro Kitten and Katzú Oso (who kept on playing even after the sound cut out):

► “It’s Echo Park Rising, who fucking tunes.” (Potty Mouth, who ended their set with a cover of “What I Like about You”)

► “Have you thought you’ve never been at a bar and then you go to the restroom and you notice the graffiti and you realize you’ve been here drunk before? That just happened to me.” (Lucy & La Mer, at Little Joy)

► “It’s fucking hot. I know you can’t move, but come closer.” (Beach Cities at Lot 1)

► “We’ve been thinking about Mike Tyson and Tony Hawk.” (Canto at Spacedust)

And Moon Honey played a surprise set at Little Joy. Where were we?

||| Also: See our Day 1 coverage; Day 2 coverage

Photos by Notes From Vivace