Bands, fans welcome return of BeachLife
Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell paused late in the band’s headlining set at the BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach to take in a scene neither he nor his bandmates nor the other bands on the bill Friday have seen much of lately.
“Nowadays it’s a real treat to get together and play for you guys,” Farrell told the thousands of fans who attended the first day of the festival. “It’s a rarity, man!”
That sentiment echoed from all four stages on the festival grounds at Seaside Lagoon throughout the day.
Cage the Elephant frontman Matt Shultz earlier told fans it was wonderful to see them on the sand in front of his band’s stage and moaned longingly for the day still to come when he can dive into their sweaty midst again.
Monique Powell of Save Ferris cracked jokes throughout her band’s set about the slothfulness of her pandemic pause — sweatpants and junk food and Netflix like everyone else.
It was great to be back for bands and fans alike on this beautiful day at the beach. Here are the five moments that stood out Friday.
1. JANE’S ADDICTION ROARED
The alternative rock icons haven’t done a proper tour in a decade, though Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Chris Chaney do pop up on festival stages every year or two. You’d have never guessed this isn’t a full-time gig for them, though, given how polished and powerfully they burned through 16 songs in 90 minutes.
Farrell, who looked a bit like a vampire who’d raided Liberace’s closet for the cropped jacket with footlong silver fringe down the sleeves, sounded just as he did when the band broke out of Los Angeles into worldwide fame at the end of the ’80s.
Navarro’s jagged, swirling guitar riffs echoed above the liquid bass lines and pounding drums of Chaney and Perkins, the latter of whom shed his kilt and his boots to play the show barefoot in boxer briefs.
Half the set, including “Up the Beach,” which kicked off the show, was pulled from their 1988 debut, “Nothing’s Shocking,” with highlights that included the hard grooves of “Pigs in Zen” and “Summertime Rolls,” and “Ocean Size,” which Farrell introduced with a call to save the natural wonder of the sea and sand that surrounded the stage.
Songs off the second album, “Ritual de lo Habitual,” also featured prominently in the show with “Been Caught Stealing” a rousing anthem, and “Stop!” another crowd favorite.
“Mountain Song,” played late in the set, earned a huge response, the crowd singing at the break near its finish. And “Jane Says,” the band’s signature song, closed things out with a lovely semiacoustic version on which Perkins played bongos and steel drums, Navarro switched to acoustic guitar, and Farrell sang and smiled as the crowd joined in.
2. CAGE THE ELEPHANT BLAZES
Cage the Elephant, the alternative rock band from Kentucky by way of London, England, has developed over the years into one of the best live acts around, and on Friday, singer Matt Shultz and the rest of the band proved that once more.
Shultz, whose wild leaps, shimmy dance steps, and frantic persona are endlessly watchable, had the crowd whipped up from the handful of songs off the band’s most recent release, 2019’s “Social Cues,” that opened the show, to older hits that followed.
Highlights included the hyperactive “Mess Around,” which was followed by the softer “Trouble,” and later, “Come a Little Closer” and “Cigarette Daydreams,” two of their strongest songs.
3. LARKIN POE AND SAVE FERRIS SOAK UP THE SUNSHINE
There’s no musical connection between the Southern blues rock of Larkin Poe’s sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell and the Orange County ska of Save Ferris, but both were terrific performances in the midafternoon sunshine on Friday.
Save Ferris had fans skanking on the sand from the moment Monique Powell and the band opened their set with “Spam” to the closing cover of “Come on Eileen.”
Larkin Poe features Megan Lovell on lead vocals and electric guitar, and Rebecca Lovell on slide guitar and harmony vocals, with their music often compared to another Southern sibling act — the Allman Brothers Band.
Their set focused heavily on 2020’s “Self Made Man,” including set opener “Keep Diggin’ ” and “She’s a Self Made Man.” “Back Down South” incorporated a snippet of the Allman Brothers’ “Blue Sky” to terrific effect.
4. UNCOVERING THE ACOUSTIC SPEAKEASY
Pennywise singer Jim Lindberg curated a side stage for BeachLife this year that featured punks, surfers and a handful of others in an intimate acoustic setting. And despite one glaring problem — too many dang people treating it like a bar where they had the right to talk more than listen — it was great the few times we stopped by.
Trever Keith of Face to Face played an early set there, trying out a few solo songs that he’s not yet recorded, and joking that if the crowd didn’t like them he’d do something else.
“Let me know what you think of it,” he said by way of introducing a tune titled “Crumble and Fall.” “If you lose interest I’ll stop and go into Lynyrd Skynyrd or something.”
The crowd cheered that song and others, including the Face to Face number “Everyone Hates a KnowIt-All” and Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros’ “Coma Girl,” which Keith’s band has previously covered.
5. PARIS JACKSON STEPS OUT
Paris Jackson, the 23-year-old daughter of the late pop star Michael Jackson, somewhat quietly released her debut album “Wilted” not quite a year ago. She hasn’t performed a lot in public, though there was a late-night TV show appearance to give a few hints.
All of that made her afternoon set on the smallest stage at the festival something to check out. The first thing to know is that musically, she’s not at all her father’s daughter. Jackson’s songs are more in the hushed vocals/alternative rock mode.
She seemed a little nervous, perhaps, with a music stand next to her with lyrics just in case, but the band was sharp, providing a foundation for vocals that at times were too hushed to really hear.
Jackson drew a small crowd, including a few super fans — she was rightfully shocked to notice that a woman at the front had tattooed Paris’s album cover on her body — but people treated her with respect and applause throughout.