It’s the first weekend of May, so it’s time to kick off the 2024 festival season with the BeachLife Festival in Southern California. Launched in 2019, BeachLife has become a new favorite for music fans drawn to checking out a diverse array of rock bands and pop artists in a laid-back “West Coast best coast” setting in Redondo Beach. Headliners are set to feature Sting on Friday, Incubus on Saturday, and My Morning Jacket on Sunday.
Friday is the only day that sells out completely, with an 11,000-capacity audience packing the High Tide stage area for Sting’s 9:00pm set. But the field is so crammed that navigating between the stage and the soundboard becomes impossible. There are diminishing returns for those who didn’t stake out a spot earlier with no extra speakers to reinforce sound for the back half of the field (no doubt due to local decibel level ordinances). It therefore seems like 11,000 may be too many people for this space. Sting delivers a set of crowd-pleasing hits, though, including seven songs from his influential career with the Police. The shimmering “Walking on the Moon” sounds particularly sublime here at the beach.
The situation is much improved on Saturday, 4 May, when the festival is well attended but not uncomfortably so. Some are surprised to see Chevy Metal on the bill again, as in 2019, since the hard rock/metal cover band was led by the late great Taylor Hawkins. But Hawkins’ son Shane has stepped up on the drum kit to keep the project going in his dad’s honor. The set makes for some great early afternoon rocking with Hawkins and stalwart singer/bassist Wiley Hodgden leading the band through classics like Thin Lizzy’s “Bad Reputation” and the Rolling Stones’ “Bitch”. Punk legend Lee Ving from Fear is welcomed out to play harmonica on Black Sabbath’s “The Wizard”, with a rousing take on Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” to end the set in honor of the Van Halen set the band delivered here at BeachLife in 2019.
Steel Pulse are another returning act from 2019, playing the Low Tide stage in the sand in the 3:00pm hour. The vibe is challenged by overcast skies and brisk winds that border on chilly, but the British reggae kings warm things up with their groovy sounds and subversive attitude. Guitarist and singer David Hinds speaks of how they are still rocking against racism, police brutality, and injustice, and the title track from 2019’s Mass Manipulation does precisely that as it warns against deceptions from the powers that be. Covers of “Don’t Let Go” and the Grateful Dead’s “Franklin’s Tower” boost the energy level even higher, with the band’s horn section augmenting the Garcia/Hunter classic in groovy fashion.
The sun starts breaking through the clouds at 4:00pm, making it a good time to have happy hour cocktails from Gray Whale Gin. The California craft gin maker has elevated the sustainable cocktail game by sourcing botanicals from the migratory path gray whales travel along the California coast. A portion of profits from each bottle sold goes to Oceana for marine conservation, adding an extra benevolence to each sip. The “Beachside” mixes the gin with pineapple, cream of coconut, lemon juice, and mint for a downright tasty beverage.
Those Gray Whale cocktails hit the spot during the 5:00pm set from Grace McKagan at the Riptide stage. The intimate stage is sponsored by Tito’s Vodka from Austin, Texas (still one of the best American vodkas for warm weather), so there’s plenty of beverage variety. The 26-year-old McKagan fronts her band with a punk rock swagger and fashionable style that one might expect from the daughter of Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and supermodel wife, Susan Holmes McKagan. A cover of Romeo Void’s “Never Say Never” cranks up the retro sex appeal, while “I’m Ready (to Get Fucked Up)” provides a festive opportunity for McKagan to raise her Tito’s beverage to toast the audience. “Surrender” closes the set with some fuzzy riffs and intriguing alt-rock power as McKagan belts out the anthemic vocals.
Devo draw a big crowd at the Low Tide stage, where the legendary new wave band’s innovative blend of striking visuals, sci-fi themes, and synth rock power come together with great style. Influenced by members witnessing the horrific National Guard massacre of peaceful anti-war student protesters at Kent State University in 1970 (on this date, no less), Devo’s concept of “de-evolution” satirizes American society’s rigid repression that seeks to crank out conformity.
“Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)” ignites a truly festive electropop dance party, which goes to the next level on “Girl U Want” and their classic hit song “Whip It” (with numerous fans donning their red-tiered helmet hats from the original “Whip It” video.) DEVO’s unique cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” transforms the 1960s hit with their sound to keep BeachLife rocking through time and space, while “Secret Agent Man” conjures a cool James Bond/Austin Powers vibe. Few bands can mix big fun with a subversive undertone as skillfully as Devo.
Incubus Take BeachLife with Saturday Night Barnburner
Anticipation builds as 9:00pm nears for Saturday’s headlining set from local heroes Incubus. The alt-rock stars hail from nearby Calabasas, so playing BeachLife feels like a perfect fit with the feel of a homecoming show. Incubus aren’t billed to play their classic 2001 album Morning View in its entirety (as they’ll tour behind later this year with the release of the re-recorded Morning View XXIII), but it seems like a safe bet that these songs will be featured. The dynamic hard rock power of “Nice to Know You” and “Circles” fuels this theory early on as Incubus out swinging for a well-crafted set at the High Tide stage that flows at a sustained level.
New bassist Nicole Row fits right in, teaming with dynamo drummer Jose Pasillas to enable Incubus to continue to field one of the best rhythm sections in rock. Pasillas is like a force of nature, and Row is right there with him at every precise turn. A picture of actor Richard Dreyfus from 1977’s classic film Close Encounters of the Third Kind appears at the end of “Circles”, at the kitchen table with his pile of mashed potatoes and a caption of his quote, “This means something.” Singer Brandon Boyd has mentioned personal UFO sightings over the years (even blogging in 2022 about his first mind-bending close encounter), so it’s inspiring to see Incubus providing metaphysical food for thought here.
The incendiary “Pardon Me” strikes a chord as always, a song from 1999 with a zeitgeist that keeps on growing as Boyd sings lyrics about “the burdens of the planet Earth, Like gravity, hypocrisy, and the perils of being in 3D, But thinking so much differently…” Incubus insert a more recent song into the set with “Karma, Come Back”, a heady number with a simmering groove that Row builds skillfully toward an explosive chorus as Boyd pleads for us all to do better. A cover of the Beatles’ “Come Together” continues a theme for collective unity before a tasty deep cut with Morning View’s “Are You In?” The atmospheric major key tune generates even greater unity as the BeachLife audience come together under this uplifting groove.
Guitarist Mike Einziger generates a majestic sonic landscape with his atmospheric psychedelia, augmented by DJ Chris Kilmore’s dazzling effects and Rowe’s nimble bass line. Boyd is akin to a shaman as he calls the tribe together, including a crowd-pleasing segue into a bit of the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm”. The band rocks hard on “Vitamin” from their 1997 debut, but it’s “Warning” from Morning View that generates another moment of collective unity. Featuring some of Boyd’s most compelling lyrics for fellow deep thinkers, it’s a song that grows even more prophetic as the years slide by when he sings, “I suggest we learn to love ourselves/Before it’s made illegal/When will we learn? When will we change? Just in time to see it all come down…”
There are a lot of serious Incubus fans on hand singing along, making this feel like more than a typical festival set. Their Saturday night fiesta strikes sonic gold again with a fabulous percussion jam that finds Pasillas and Row rocking an infectious groove, which generates multiple dance circles of friends getting down with each other. It’s almost like the band is playing a beach bonfire party, and it feels special to be immersed in such friendly vibes before Incubus pours gas on that metaphorical bonfire by taking the drum jam into a surprise cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” to kick the festivities into overdrive.
As the 90-minute set nears its time limit, Incubus bring it down with a great acoustic version of their hit song “Drive” that conjures a big singalong. It looks like this could be it, but no, Incubus keep going with Morning View’s “Wish You Were Here”. The catchy rocker is nearly compulsory here at BeachLife, with Boyd singing about being on a beach at night and “counting UFOs” that he signals with his lighter. It feels like a climactic finale that goes just past curfew, but the band pulls one more masterstroke by staying on to play their quietest song with Morning View’s beloved closing track “Aqueous Transmission”. Einziger plays a Chinese instrument called a pipa that sounds downright sublime here, with Boyd singing of mystical transmissions.
Sunday, 5 May
Sunday’s BeachLife Festival is a big draw, with a number of prospective attendees drawn solely to Sunday’s jammier lineup featuring My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, the Trey Anastasio Band, ZZ Top, and Margo Price. Local Grateful Dead tribute band Wall of Sound gets things going with an early afternoon set at the Riptide stage that features a groovy late 1970s-style arrangement of “Dancing in the Streets”. St. Paul and the Broken Bones deliver a vibrant set of their Southern soul at the High Tide stage, with singer Paul Janeway venturing into the crowd toward the end of the set to get up close with those further back.
There’s a lot of open beach at the Low Tide area when Margo Price hits the stage with her compelling psychedelic rock anthem “Been to the Mountain”, but the crowd keeps growing throughout her 60-minute set. Price has been winning hearts and minds in recent years with her outspoken voice for social justice, her revealing autobiography Maybe We’ll Make It, and her strength as a songwriter with something to say. While she lives in Nashville, her latest album, Strays, was recorded in Southern California at producer Jonathan Wilson’s Topanga Canyon studio. Price recently blogged about why she left country music and why she’s coming back to kick its ass, as she continues to mix country and rock songs into her sets as few others can with charming tunes like “Weakness” and “Four Years of Chances”.
“Change of Heart” hits the mark with a bluesy rocker that seems to feature some Tom Petty influence, before Price goes for the heartstrings with her heartfelt vocal on “County Road”. A smoking jam featuring Price crushing it on a second drum kit for “Cocaine Cowboys” shows off how this band can really rock out when they want to, with the lead guitarist tearing it up. The short set can’t quite capture the full power of Price as a headliner (like last year’s sensational show at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium), but there’s no doubt she’s winning new fans here.
Courtney Barnett keeps the festival rocking with a strong set at the High Tide stage, which reveals that the Australian singer-songwriter has a far more powerful sound than one might gather from her radio hits. A heavy guitar-driven vibe suggests Neil Young & Crazy Horse as an influence, with the amps turned way up. “Living Down the Street” is an upbeat number with a reference to “springtime lethargy”, featuring a fierce jam that’s anything but lethargic. Her hit song “Depreston” includes a timely lyric about a “Californian bungalow in a cul-de-sac”, with an easygoing groove that fits right in at the beach. There’s a massive peak toward the end of the set with an energetic jam on “Write a List of Things to Look Forward To”, which gets folks dancing with its melodic riffage and feel-good groove. The song even seems to mirror Incubus’ “Warning” with its wry lyrics, “Sit beside me, watch the world burn / We’ll never learn.”
The wind is picking up at the Low Tide stage, where the renowned blues rockers of ZZ Top are on at 4:30pm, but the sun is still shining bright. Billy Gibbons and the band drew a huge crowd and rock through their hits from the 1970s and into the MTV age of the 1980s, where ZZ Top videos were a staple. The wind continues to increase, with Gibbons even asking if someone can “turn down the fan?” A BeachLife highlight occurs with “Jesus Just Left Chicago”, a fitting song with the lyric about going “out to California”, and “Just Got Paid” sounds particularly tight with Elwood Francis rocking a nifty double neck bass.
The winds keep picking up, though, and the earlier satire from Gibbons turns into a serious buzzkill when the band’s set is halted about five minutes short due to the very high winds, which are now causing the speakers to sway a bit. Gibbons plays a quick tease of the riff from “La Grange” as a signoff, but then that’s it. An announcement is made asking everyone to evacuate the festival site for one hour to let the winds die down. Many attendees aren’t taking this seriously, but security soon rolls through to sweep everyone out.
Those hanging out near the entrance can catch a brief glimpse of guitarist Trey Anastasio being shuttled out on a golf cart with his guitar, which raises brief hopes that the festival will soon continue. But when he comes back in the same golf cart without the guitar, those hopes are quickly dashed. The final announcement then comes down – the rest of the festival has been canceled for safety reasons (with winds reportedly reaching 40 miles per hour.) The delicious spicy margaritas across the street at the Redondo Beach Hotel’s bar help drown the sorrows to some degree. Still, many Sunday-only attendees are bummed about not getting to see the Trey Anastasio Band and My Morning Jacket. But for those who were just as motivated to catch the sensational headlining set from Incubus on Saturday, the trip to BeachLife remains worth it.
It only takes a few days for festival organizers to announce that they’re planning to come back strong in 2025 and that Sunday refunds will be made available to those who feel they deserve them. What could be planned to mitigate potential high winds again is unclear, though, so this could be a test of the viability of beachside festivals. However, Redondo Beach has proven to be an excellent setting for the BeachLife Festival over the past five years, so fans can only hope the technology is out there to reinforce the staging and avoid any more windy party crashing.