Photo Recap: LA Weekly's Detour Festival

This past weekend, the second annual LA Weekly Detour festival brought together what had to be the largest collection of old-school Air Jordans and fluorescent shirts to ever coalesce around downtown Los Angeles's City Hall. While more "traditional" rock-oriented acts like British headliners

Bloc Party knocked out well-received sets, rampant enthusiasm for French record label Ed Banger's acts (e.g. Justice, Busy P, DJ Medhi) and a neon "nu-rave" fashion seemed to take the day.

Justice (photo by: Alexis P. Roberts)

Despite heavy competition, however, Chicago-based hip-hoppers Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish of The Cool Kids earned the best-dressed award with bright cardigans and vintage kicks that perfectly matched their infectious mix of tag-team rap and throwback beats, which ranged from NWA to "The Safety Dance" and featured a few amazing verses over a sample of The Beastie Boy's "Paul Revere." Further proof that it was all about the look came from Scottish band The Aliens, who received a lukewarm reaction from the crowd until lead singer Gordon Anderson donned a green space helmet and Star Trek visor that inspired cheers from the crowd during their electro-funk single "Robot Man."

Shingai Shoniwa (photo by: Alexis P. Roberts) | A Noisette (photo by: Alexis P. Roberts)

But the real party was playing out at the DJ stage, where Busy P, DJ Medhi, Sebastian, Kavinsky and So Me teamed up to deliver three-and-half hours of nonstop mash-ups. The predominantly under-18 crowd required more security than expected as kids began crowd surfing onto the small stage as So Me spun "Pump Up the Jam" into Nirvana’s "Territorial Pissing." As Kavinski took the dance party’s reigns, a slightly older crowd gathered around the main stage to enjoy the danceable, upbeat indie-rock of the Shout Out Louds, while the lead singer of post-punk outfit The Noisettes, Shingai Shoniwa, wailed on vocals and bass just down the street.

Shout Out Louds (photo by: Alexis P. Roberts)]

Hampered by technical difficulties at this year's Sunset Junction festival in LA, indie noise-rockers Autolux took the stage as night fell and turned in a much more confidant performance that reached its apex as bassist Eugene Goreshter climbed on the drum riser to jam with drummer Carla Azar during "Blanket." Following on Autolux's momentum, local boys Moving Units managed to kill the party, putting on a show that could be considered lethargic at best—the band flubbed the beginning of one song so many times that concertgoers began yelling at them to "move on" or get off the stage.

Autolux (photo by: Alexis P. Roberts)]

But the Ed Banger-launched DJ duo Justice (now on Vice Records in the US) were the act everyone wanted to see. As soon as the Units moved on, neon-clad fans began flooding the main stage. As the Frenchmen took the stage to the theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the crowd erupted into anarchy. But once the initial rib-crushing mayhem dissipated, the scene turned into the day's most high-energy dance party as

Justice cranked out jam after jam while pulling the classily pretentious move of withholding their smash hit "D.A.N.C.E." As the new club icons closed their set with "Build Me Up Buttercup," fans heading back to their cars could be seen dancing down the street in the fading light.

—Jay Watford
10.08.07