Weird Scenes Inside the Silver Mine

From old-school heads to prepubescent punks, Silver Lake is where L.A.’s indie rock heart still beats

A A A Comments (1) By Sam Slovick Wednesday, Dec 6 2006

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“We played backyard and street shows,” Albert says. “The kids over here are more exposed to music, instruments and offbeat bands. They’re not gonna experience parties that go on all night and then wake up to Mexican oldies blasting from next door.”

Honest Abe sums it up: “I know it sounds cheesy, but the cholos down my block were like, “Yeah, you did it. You got out of the hood and went somewhere different and made it happen. Everyone was giving us credit. I wanna take this to a Third World country and play for people who never seen some shit ?like this.”

Such a dirty girl: Giant Drag�s Annie Hardy can trash-talk with the best of them (Photo by Wild Don Lewis)

Cali-fornication: Mr. Dewitt, Echo Park�s pied piper (Photo by Wild Don Lewis)

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Meanwhile, back inside the Echo, hard-rockin’ tweensters the Jack Bambis are just finishing their set. Shit is tight too. Room is full. It’s a kind of blues-influenced punk with a girl-singer thing.

“I’m in it for the money,” 13-year-old scruffy-blonde guitar shredder Indio jokes. He’s working a perfect Cobain as Jimmy Page, in a Led Zeppelin T-shirt. “Really, I don’t think we’re trying to get rich and famous. We just don’t wanna be so unknown that we can’t share our music.” But I doubt obscurity will be an issue for the Jack Bambis. They played at Sunset Junction and their calendar is filling up fast.

Lanky 12-year-old singer Lia says, “I just wanna express myself musically and hang out with my friends.”

I ask the precocious 12-year-old bassist, Jasper, where he hangs out in Silver Lake. “I don’t go to clubs,” he tells me flatly, “I’m 12.”

“Super Bowl!” beams 10-year-old drummer Cash, a pintsize firecracker with a Mohawk, when I ask where he’d like to see the Jack Bambis go. As for his musical home base, Silver Lake, Cash adds: “It’s fun. The people are cool. I live here, by the Vista.”

Ah, the Vista, right where this whole party got started, at the Onyx. Full circle back at ya with the JBs. And the dream goes on forever.