Your Weekend Marching Orders: Aug 14–16 on the Strip and Beyond
Three nights, a dozen bands, and one boulevard that never learned the word "quiet." Here's where to point yourself this weekend.
Friday, Aug 14. The Troubadour opens the weekend with Krooked Kings and Pink Skies — the kind of double-bill that fills that famous wooden balcony with people who'll claim they were there "before." Over at the Echoplex, Saliva brings the nu-metal muscle with Satellite Citi in support; expect the low end to rearrange your ribcage. Upstairs-in-spirit at the Echo, Will Swinton plays a gentler hand with Tyler Vincent. East Hollywood's Gold Diggers hosts The Crotches in that 175-cap sweat-box where the band's practically in your lap. And on the Strip, the Whisky a Go Go wheels out The Rockett Mafia, featuring Rikki Rockett of Poison — yes, that Rikki Rockett, behind the kit on the very boulevard that made his band.
Saturday, Aug 15. The Troubadour keeps rolling with Couch Dog and The Sols. The Echoplex takes a hard left into art-rock with Man Man and American Tomahawk — beautifully unhinged, exactly as intended. Gold Diggers offers John-Robert for the songwriter crowd. And the Whisky doubles down: The Rockett Mafia returns for a second night, while the room also throws a Jim Morrison celebration featuring Wild Child — a Doors tribute in the building where the Doors were the 1966 house band. The symmetry is almost too on-the-nose, and we love it.
Sunday, Aug 16. Recovery day? Not here. The Echoplex hands the stage to BIA, whose bars will not be attending any nap. Down at the Echo, the free "Grand Ole Echo" Americana series does its weekly Sunday magic — pedal steel, daylight, and a cover charge of exactly zero dollars, the best value in Los Angeles. The Roxy closes the weekend with Niina Soleil, and Gold Diggers sends everyone home with Crumpler.
The strategy, if you're pacing yourself: hit the Strip Friday for the loud stuff, wander east Saturday for the weird stuff, and let Sunday's Americana afternoon put your soul back together before the workweek. Or don't pace yourself at all — this is Hollywood, and nobody's grading your recovery.
Doors vary, so check each room before you commit, and buy ahead where you can; the Troubadour bills and that Whisky Morrison tribute have a way of selling faster than you'd bet. Bring cash for merch. Tip your bartender. And if you only pick one thing, make it a Whisky night — two Rikki Rockett sets and a Wild Child séance in the house that go-go built is about as Sunset Strip as a weekend gets.
See you in the pit.
Sources: Troubadour Calendar; The Echo; Whisky a Go Go Calendar