Post by Katherine Stanhope

Many came by car, some by bike and others on foot, but no matter what form of transportation used, droves of teenagers and twenty-somethings congregated at Echo Park Lake Sunday afternoon for the L.A. Scavenger Hunt -- the main event for the second day of the F Yeah Fest.

The scavenger hunt spanned the entire city of Los Angeles, kicking off at 2:30 p.m. at Echo Park Lake and ending in downtown at around 7:00 P.M. on Santa Fe Avenue. Tired participants were treated to not one, but two celebratory concerts at the hunt's end location -- acts included Dan Deacon, Strike Anywhere and Paint it Black. There was a wide cross-section of teams competing in the scavenger hunt, from the Sex Panthers -- who decorated their own vibrant t-shirts -- to the aptly-titled Underage Controversy, who came dressed in full matching ensembles (Red and yellow leotards to be exact). Other groups included the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the M&Ms -- I get the feeling that these guys were unaffiliated with their supposed corporate sponsors.

The list itself included L.A. Scavenger Hunt classics such as having a team member kiss a senior citizen and more extreme choices, like finding anything Bobby Brown-related, photographing an entire team playing air guitar in a McDonalds, getting a permanent LA tattoo, shaving an eyebrow and obtaining a stack of canned corn. Despite all of the participants' sacrifices, the F Yeah Fest made these tasks and the excuse to spend an entire afternoon dressed in costume in August, worth it. The winning team will receive $500 cash, a Gibson guitar, tickets to see Hot Chip & Mogwai, 10 CDs a month for a year and much more. Winners will be announced Sept. 14.

Post by Sammy JC

Even while the daylight shown brightly through the Echo's doors, Paint It Black kept the mood dark and foreboding. They played a set of brutal hardcore anthems inspired by Black Flag, complete with their own shirtless and muscular lead screamer.

At one point, an audience member climbed onstage and put the frontman in a headlock before quickly diving off the stage again into the slam dancing audience below. Nonetheless, it was all in good fun and much more the musical equivalent of the tongue in cheek WWE than the rancourous Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Post by Matt Kivel

With a name that inspires second-looks and suspicions of pre-pubescent speech impediments, Best Fwends are pranksters with a simple agenda -- to play loud music recklessly without pretense. A swelling crowd crammed into the undersized Annex venue two storefronts down from the Echo to dance and thrash to a rapid set of homespun karaoke freak-outs. The duo, comprised of Austin-based performers Dustin and Anthony pumped-fists and sang their hearts out to a series of ipod backing tracks, which ran the gamut from dance-floor friendly electronica to barroom, Pogues-style punk.

It was one of the more popular shows hosted at the surreal, linoleum-lined Annex venue and the group's extreme DIY aesthetic seemed to resonate with the F Yeah faithful on a visceral level. It's music that doesn't wait for the corroded wheels of bureaucracy to turn, completely obliterating the pedestal we so often place our musical heroes upon.

Photo by S. Cass

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by Matt Kivel

The first day of the F Yeah Fest in Echo Park proudly displayed a veritable all star team of bands from Los Angeles' vibrant counterculture. Hipsters and teenagers decked out in florescent t-shirts and wide-rimmed spectacles engulfed the three block stretch of Sunset Blvd between Glendale Blvd and Echo Park Ave, within which which the Echo and Echoplex venues reside.

Festivities kicked off at around 3: 30 PM and for the most part, early concerts enjoyed moderate attendance. The Mae Shi proved to be an exception. Fans packed into the Echoplex at around 4: 15 PM to catch a glimpse of the band's spastic punk rock -- a refreshingly unpretentious blend of seemingly incongruous musical sub-genres. Some of the songs employ long, avant-garde freak outs and Kraut-flavored improvisations while others borrow unashamedly from early 90s mainstream FM radio with epic hooks and gleeful crowd-bating chants.

Band members propelled themselves across the stage and the lead vocalists screamed and shouted in tandem, echoing each other's refrains and hammering home the choruses. The Mae Shi set was galvanizing in the best of ways, revving up the crowd and uniting concertgoers from different ends of the musical spectrum. Hardcore and punk fans pumped fists with pop-lovers and ska fans alike -- that sort of unity among fans regardless of musical preference continued throughout the night and made for a celebratory concert experience.

Photo by Faith Crawford

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

F Yeah Fest founder Sean Carlson chats with Variety's Abe Burns about the history of his 5 year old festival, the LA music scene and the importance of DIY venues.