The Southern California music scene is an incredibly rich and diverse one over the years. From the surf music of the '60s to the singer/songwriter movements in the Canyons (Laurel and Topanga) in the '70s to the famed Sunset Strip hard rock era of the '80s and the hip-hop movement of the '90s the music of L.A. has been as spread out as the famed mammoth geography that once prompted everyone to joke, "It takes 20 minutes to get everywhere in L.A."
While the music has changed, the core of the Southern California lifestyle and dream has remained the surf, sand and sun culture that has been celebrated in popular culture for decades.
That dream is being celebrated in a big way in 2019 by bringing all kinds of music to the beaches. Over the last two weekends I attended three very different beach festivals.
The weekend of April 27 saw Back To The Beach, a festival put on by Blink-182's Travis Barker and Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann and produced by John Reese's SGE. Naturally, with those artists curating, the two-day festival down in Huntington Beach celebrated the punk and ska scenes, with Blink doing Enema Of The State in its entirety as fans batted beach balls and a kid crowd surfed on an inflatable pizza slice to close out the sold-out Saturday night show.
Over the course of the two days the Used, the Story So Far, Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Anthony Green, with Barker joining in on drums, and more delighted the capacity crowds.
This past weekend saw two sold-out shows at Long Beach's Queen Mary Events Park, with Goldenvoice bringing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix, MGMT, Ra Ra Riot, Passion Pit, the Rapture, Peter Bjorn And John and many more to the park for the first ever Just Like Heaven fest. The lineup was repeated each day as the May 4 show sold out instantly so they added the second day, Friday, May 3.
Thirty to 40 minutes up the 405 in Redondo Beach saw the first BeachLife Festival, with approximately 10,000 fans coming out Friday to Sunday to soak up the South Bay culture and see a heavy nostalgic mix of decades with Berlin (from the '80s), Sugar Ray, Everclear and Blues Traveler and timeless icons Bob Weir, Brian Wilson and Willie Nelson.
Reflecting their unique roster and differing amenities, from the beautifully painted murals at Just Like Heaven to the remarkable Sidestage dining experience at BeachLife, each festival had their own personality and strengths., and importantly, their own demographics, proving that all three could co-exist and prosper while celebrating the Southern California beach lifestyle.
From a musical standpoint all three had their own highlights, but the magic of seeing Brian Wilson, the soundtrack of Southern California, was hard to top. He and his top-notch band closed out night two of BeachLife with an array of hits that are the music of 50 plus years of California.
Whether it was the more rocking and innocent good time feel of songs like "Barbara Ann" and "I Get Around" to the surf classics such as the opening "California Girls" and "Surfin' USA" to the sophisticated one-two punch of "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations," arguably two of the 25 greatest pop songs ever written, Wilson and band had the all-ages crowd dancing and singing to every song.
It was a quintessential Southern California moment. But it was far from the only musical highlight. Chevy Metal, the covers band from Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins, doing an all Van Halen set was an absolute joy and, in its own way, also a very Southern California moment.
Just Like Heaven had arguably the most picturesque setting with the Downtown Long Beach skyline and the iconic Queen Marty providing the backdrop for the alternative lineup. But musically the fest wasn't about California beach life or music. It was about an era of indie music that began a decade ago and that was celebrated joyfully with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix, the resurgent Passion Pit and Miike Snow leading the numerous standout moments from the two days.
Having three beach festivals within 30 - 40 minutes of each other so close together might seem to be a bit much. However, since each had their own personality and talent it wasn't a detriment to any of the festivals. Despite those differences though, there were some similar characteristics that unites all festivals at this point -- namely the food, drinks, art. And at the heart of all three was the common theme of the California dream, which the last two weekends shows, is as vibrant and compelling as it was 50 years ago.
