Roy Jurgens on April 25th, 2018

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For a sum likely less than the production budget for one art installation at Coachella, BROKE LA staged its eighth annual festival in and around the Regent Theater over the weekend, expanding to two days for the first time.

Breaking out of the gritty warehouses that hosted previous incarnations, this year organizers of the DIY affair (founded as Brokechella) partnered with Spaceland Presents, the promoters behind the Regent. Spread across four properties, the 1,100-capacity Regent, Prufrock Pizza, the Love Song Bar and a parking lot across the street, the festival was designed in a way that one could easily move among the four venues. The Prufrock was the scene of comedy sets while the parking lot across the street served as a hipster flea market of sorts. Food trucks, retail vendors and a beer garden cornered a small outdoor stage, which hosted singer-songwriters and DJs later in the evening. The tiny Love Song was often filled to capacity while simultaneously the main room of the Regent was found wanting a bigger crowd.

And the overall fare was typically all over the map. Of course, there was your usual indie-rock acts, and a couple of interesting outliers. It was refreshing to see L.A.’s spectrum of race, gender, sexuality and culture represented on stage. There was quite a bit of electronica, and sadly most of it was underwhelming, often veering into lazy bedroom DJ territory or even worse, Soundcloud rap. But 24 arduous hours of festival across two days brought some artists to the forefront.

A dozen highlights:

Holy Wars: Here’s an act that could have been at Coachella. Stadium-ready and fierce, this monster of Kat Leon and Nicholas Perez’s checks every box on a big label A&R rep’s list. Leon is a consummate performer, serpentine and sultry. She has that certain fearlessness that all great frontwomen share.

The Guidance: They’ve been called future grunge and darkwave pajama pop, but what Arizona transplant Stefan Pruett really is is a shaman. This electro trio proved that you don’t need guitars or convention to convey the true spirit of great rock ’n’ roll. 

Drac & the Swamp Rats: Every now and then a joke gets out of hand. Every now and then that out-of-hand joke becomes a hilarious horror-punk band with actual songs. The bass player is a mummy who wears a fez, nuff said.

Jen Awad: This Peruvian/Egyptian soul goddess will tell you all about how love is dead. Her eight-piece R&B outfit does well to keep up with this fashionista, who also designs her own line of women’s wear, to be worn as she kills that aforementioned love dead. 

Vōx: Oh, how one fights the urge to call Sarah Winters goth. This irreverent songbird performs her vulnerable torch songs whilst under a shroud. Unsettlingly precious and ethereal, yet one fears that any moment someone will dump a bucket of blood on her and she’ll turn into “Carrie.” 

The Top Shelf Brass Band: Imagine a marching band who ran away from school and became a pack of strays and you’d get the Top Shelf Brass Band. Yes, the Riverside group played spirited pop covers on shrieking horns, whispering carelessly (“Careless Whisper”) how it wasn’t me (“It Wasn’t Me”) to gangsters in their paradises (“Gangsters Paradise”). Post Jen Awad’s set there was a ruckus on the dance floor as the aforementioned stray marching band had grabbed their instruments, crossed Main Street, and invaded the dance floor for another set of sublime covers while the next act was setting up. 

Low Hum: Collin Desha’s dreamy ballads sneak up on you. Wistful and airy, they build slowly until you’re in the midst of a psychedelic guitar freakout.

SAÍGO: Fresh off his residency at the Bootleg, SAÍGO’s smooth neo-soul gets better every time you see him. 

Clara-Nova: Sydney Wayser’s alter ego is that icy French girl you can’t work up enough nerve to speak to. Worse yet, her songs are cool and carefree and she doesn’t know you exist. 

Axel Mansoor: Mansoor’s electro-pop project is bound to disappoint his parents, who are likely insisting that he finish medical school first and forget about this music nonsense. Seeing as he’s got a couple YouTube videos well into the six figures, mom and dad have reason to be worried.

MetronOhm: You cannot help but smile whilst watching multi instrumentalist Annabelle Maginnis weave her way through her blissful, intricate pop songs.

Tillie: Too polished for her own good, Tillie could use a little dirt in her act. She’s put the work in and she’s clearly talented, but she’s not letting go.

There were myriad other reasons to stop, rest the legs and enjoy the panoply that was BROKE LA. Among them: Blushh, who plays Breeders type songs better than the actual Breeders; One High Five, a Long Beach outfit perfect for that five keg rager you’re throwing this summer; Lion Goodwin, a northern Virginia rapper who approaches hip-hop as a storyteller, which was a refreshing turn; Dana & the Wolf, the hipster-hop duo who are tailor-made for a yet-to-be-named HBO series about an au pair who sells weed; and Indigo Kid, a coffeehouse singer-songwriter from Portland who has a beautifully vulnerable voice that sings beautifully vulnerable songs, the kind that collects a lot of girl’s phone numbers.