Over the ambitious three-day inaugural BeachLife festival, the most trafficked speck of space was a 20-foot wide piece of pavement bridging the Low Tide and High Tide stages. Only a few yards separated the two main performance areas, allowing for free and easy movement of the masses between sets. It was a simple detail, the kind of touch that becomes more significant as the hours of don’t-want-to-miss appearances accumulate, that helped make the first-year event an unequivocal success.
Take Sunday’s closing pair- Ziggy Marley at Low Tide; WillieNelson at High Tide- as the model. 12,000in the sand watching Ziggy work through an energetic slate of songs, mostlyfrom his latest albums and a few nuggets from his father’s catalog, as daymorphed into dusk. Only minutes afterthe final notes of Marley’s “Look Who’s Dancing” dissolved away, Nelsonstrolled onto High Tide’s stage; the thousands turned 180-degrees, casually crossedover to the immaculate faux lawn, and settled in comfortably as “Whiskey River”started flowing. Over Nelson’s rightshoulder, the backdrop of boat masts, palm trees, and a panoramic sunset playedalong in perfect timing. This was thelife.
Turn back to Friday, and another picturesque SouthernCalifornia day, when reggae transmitters Roots of Creation opened the High Tideschedule with their set dusted in Grateful Dead classics, including a lively“China Cat Sunflower” that segued into “Fire On the Mountain.” It was a prescient kick-off for Day One, withmost of the artists connecting back, in either style or substance, to thenight’s closer, Bob Weir and Wolf Bros. Donavon Frankenreiter delivered his easy winds, cowboy surfer slant,dipping into the Rolling Stones “Miss You,” while Bruce Hornsby, on theglistening lead from guitarist Gibb Droll, offered a beautifully extended “Overthe Rise.”
Reggae icons Steel Pulse, colorful and sharp as ever,brought their one-drop to Low Tide, as Chris Robinson, leading As the Crow Flies,reminded everyone there why he is a bona fide rock star. With unrelenting, hip-shaking magnetism, the untiringsinger punched out one vintage Black Crowes rumbler after the next, asguitarist Jackie Greene’s stinging, singing solos answered every one of Robinson’scalls. Back to the sand, SlightlyStoopid opened in laid-back, sit-down acoustic style, then went electric withthe arrival of Weir for a two-song romp through “Franklin’s Tower,” and a tipto Tom Petty on “You Don’t Know How It Feels.” Already packed in with highlights, Friday culminated with Weir and hisBros in what was a relatively standard set of songs for this combo, openingwith a decidedly slow “Jack Straw” and ending a little over an hour later withRobinson and Greene joining for an encore of “Not Fade Away,” and an audiencesing-along on “Ripple.”
Saturday skewed toward a variety of American rock touchstones,many with SoCal roots. Perhaps the mostfun of the afternoon party was Chevy Metal, the raucous rock cover band led byFoo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins, who split his time between frontmanduties and drumming on a set solely of Van Halen scorchers. Malibu’s folk-rock messengers Dawes gave anexceptionally heavier set, combining the ghosts of Laurel Canyon with modern,guitar-driven rock-and-roll. Ending themiddle day was a jukebox of America’s quintessential Southern California sound,as Brian Wilson, with Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin, laced one Beach Boys’ geminto the next.
The final afternoon started with Keller Williams’ GratefulGospel, and a spirited run that included a definitive festival highlight: awonderfully up-tempo take of the Dead’s “Eyes of the World,” with Stu Allendazzling on guitar. Blues Travelerrenewed the ‘90s blues rock fire with a performance that included a conspicuousand thoughtful nod to another SoCal legend, covering Sublime’s “What I Got.” A generational counterpart to Traveler, BigHead Todd and the Monsters sang their blues, and also dipped their toes intothe past, as well, on a raging run of The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated.” Back at High Tide, Grace Potter wowed with aswirling set of roots rock, also giving BeachLife its second “Not Fade Away” ofthe weekend.
All that was left were the back-to-back Ziggy and Willieperformances, and the feeling that in age of an ever increasing number offestivals happening around the world, BeachLife has the potential to become thenext can’t-miss destination event. Justa few miles north of the Redondo Beach site, it was raining in LosAngeles. Yet, over this sun-kissed trioof days in early May, it was, literally and figuratively, nothing but blueskies.
