Ohana Festival rolls into 2023 with The Killers, HAIM, Eddie Vedder, The Chicks, Foo Fighters & Pretenders lined up for seventh year

Ohana Festival - 2023 lineup

Ohana Festival //
Doheny State Beach – Dana Point, CA
September 29th-October 1st, 2023 //

It’s that time again, Ohana fam.

The three-day festival founded by Eddie Vedder returns to Doheny State Beach for its seventh edition after making a splash last year with Stevie Nicks, Eddie Vedder, Jack White and P!nk headlining, and unlike previous installments, 2023 will boast a pair of headliners each day for the very first time as the calendar shifts from September to October.

Riding into Day 1 will be The Killers and HAIM, who were booked for the fest’s 2022 “Encore” session until it was canceled, plus a stellar undercard featuring Father John Misty, Japanese Breakfast, Franc Moody, Glen Hansard, Hermanos Gutiérrez and Amos Lee on Friday.

Saturday once again sees Vedder leadding the way, but this time he will have some solid help from The Chicks as the country stars make their debut appearance at Ohana Festival. And for those who want to rock out beforehand, you definitely won’t want to miss noteworthy sets by Grammy winners The War on Drugs and jam-band favorites Goose.

Putting a bow on the weekend, meanwhile, will be Foo Fighters and Pretenders at the top of Sunday’s bill following performances by Rainbow Kitten Surprise, The Backseat Lovers, Suki Waterhouse, Thee Sacred Souls and more earlier in the day. See the poster above for the rest of the artists scheduled to take the stage in Dana Point.

Tickets can be purchased starting this Thursday, April 13th at 10 a.m. PT during the festival’s presale, but you must sign up here to receive a presale code if you want to reserve your spot! Both three-day and single-day GA passes will go for $479 and $169, respectively, with three-day and single-day VIP admission available for $1,499 and $549. Of course, there’s also the three-day Ultimate VIP option if you and a friend (it’s a two-person package) have a cool $9,950 in your festival budget to shell out.

Ohana Festival - updated 2023 lineup

UPDATE (May 23rd): Ohana has announced that Rainbow Kitten Surprise will no longer be performing in 2023 and have been replaced on Sunday by Deaf Charlie featuring Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and former Fitz and the Tantrums drummer John Wicks. Peep the updated poster above for the latest lineup.

BeachLife Festival taps Jane’s Addiction, Cage the Elephant, Counting Crows & more for 2021 roster

BeachLife Festival - 2021 lineup

BeachLife Festival //
Seaside Lagoon – Redondo Beach, CA
September 10th-12th, 2021 //

What’s summer without a day at the beach?

Whether you’re a fan of the sand or not, we know that it sure wouldn’t be a party down by the shore without a weekend of live music. That’s why after a successful inaugural event in 2019, BeachLife Festival is headed back to the South Bay of Los Angeles County for a second stint after its 2020 edition last May was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — much like every other major U.S. music festival that was supposed to take place last year.

However, a number of the same acts are still scheduled to perform this September at Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach, including Counting Crows, Ziggy & Stephen Marley, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Fitz and The Tantrums, Sugar Ray, G. Love and Special Sauce, Phosphorescent, Save Ferris and more.

Joining Counting Crows and the Marley brothers as the fest’s other headliners will be LA alt-rockers Jane’s Addiction for their first hometown gig since 2017. Fronted by Perry Farrell, the band has not released a new studio album in almost 10 years — since 2011’s The Great Escape Artist — but that doesn’t mean it has forgotten how to put on a show with Cage the Elephant also serving as a Day 1 co-headliner for what should be an epic Friday night.

And even if you’re not a big fan of Jane’s or Cage, there are plenty of other exciting additions on BeachLife’s 2021 lineup with The Revivalists, Men at Work, Portugal. The Man, Silversun Pickups, Gary Clark Jr. and Thievery Corporation standing out among the pack.

Three-day GA and VIP passes are on sale here for $349 and $799, respectively, as well as single-day tickets for $125 (GA) and $299 (VIP). Of course, there’s also the three-day Captain’s pass if you’re willing to shell out a small fortune of $2,999 or $1,250 for one day so climb aboard while you still can!

BottleRock drops new 2021 lineup headlined by Guns N’ Roses, Stevie Nicks & Foo Fighters

BottleRock - 2021 lineup

BottleRock Napa Valley //
Napa Valley Expo – Napa, CA
September 3rd-5th, 2021 //

So much for 2020, right?

After releasing a lineup early last year that never got to play out over Memorial Day weekend due to the COVID-19 pandemic, BottleRock will return to Napa Valley this September with a refreshed roster that includes some newly announced acts as well as some that were revealed a year ago like Steve Nicks.

Joining the Fleetwood Mac singer at the top of the 2021 poster are iconic rock bands Guns N’ Roses and Foo Fighters, creating quite a trilogy of star power for the music festival’s eighth installment over Labor Day weekend.

While BottleRock has always catered to fans of rock ‘n’ roll (just look at many of the fest’s past headliners), it has also tried to offer an eclectic mix of genres and this year’s undercard that’s highlighted by Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, G-Eazy, Run the Jewels, Brandi Carlile, Cage the Elephant, Portugal. The Man, Young the Giant, Maren Morris, Black Pumas, Future Islands, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (DJ set), Jimmy Eat World, FINNEAS, Polo G, Jack Harlow, Milky Chance, Jessie Reyez, Dominic Fike, Chromeo, Mavis Staples and Jon Batiste proves that to be the case once again. And don’t forget about Village People! After all, how often do you get to see the legendary disco group perform live these days? Anyway, peep the poster above for the rest of the lineup.

But amidst all of the music, the three-day event will have its annual live cooking demonstrations between a variety of celebrity chefs, musicians and athletes at its beloved Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage that has seen appearances over the last several years by Alice Cooper, The Avett Brothers, Big Boi, Brett Dennen, Dan the Automator, E-40, Fitz and the Tantrums, Grouplove, Halsey, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Michael Franti, Questlove, Shakey Graves, Silversun Pickups, Snoop Dogg, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Tank and the Bangas, Warren G and more, too.

Tickets go on sale this Thursday, May 20th at 10 a.m. PT here and start at $369 for a three-day GA pass while it’s $849 if you’re going for VIP. And if you’ve been saving up during quarantine, there’s always the three-day skydeck pass that will cost you a cool $1,599 or the platinum for a whopping $4,350.

BottleRock - 2021 daily lineups

UPDATE (May 24th): BottleRock has released its daily lineups for 2021, with Stevie Nicks performing Friday, Guns N’ Roses rocking Saturday and Foo Fighters closing things down on Sunday. Take a look at the daily schedules above before single-day tickets go on sale here for $187 (GA) or $211 (FLEX) plus fees each day starting this Thursday, May 27th at 10 a.m. PT.

Arroyo Seco Weekend 2018: Ringing in summer at Goldenvoice’s chilled-out Coachella for grown-ups

Arroyo Seco Weekend 2018Photos courtesy of Arroyo Seco Weekend // Written by Josh Herwitt //

Arroyo Seco Weekend //
Brookside at the Rose Bowl – Pasadena, CA
June 23rd-24th, 2018 //

No matter how old you are, going to a music festival can be a taxing and tiring affair. There’s a lot of walking, a lot of standing, a good amount of dancing and/or rocking out (depending, of course, on your energy level), and more walking and standing. If “festival shape” isn’t a catch phrase yet, it certainly should be. Because for some of us aging live music fans, being on your feet 8-10 hours and in the sun for two, three or four straight days isn’t as easy as it used to be.

Music festivals, in that regard, are designed primarily for the young and youthful, or at least for those who remain young at heart. So, when famed Southern California concert promoter Goldenvoice, best known for founding and organizing the world-renowned Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival every April, announced last year that it would be launching a brand-new, two-day event in Pasadena focused on various forms of rock, funk, folk and country, it served as an opportunity for a different generation of live music fans to experience the same platform that has dominated the industry for the past decade (and for some who are parents, possibly understand why their kids like going to Coachella so much).

Arroyo Seco Weekend 2018 - Neil Young + Promise of the Real


Neil Young + Promise of the Real

With its second installment now in the books, Arroyo Seco Weekend has already carved out a solid niche in Los Angeles’ massive live music scene with a winning combination: great music and high-quality, top-notch local food and drink. It’s the same formula that has made Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco a huge success for longer than 10 years, but it’s still one that had also been largely absent from Southern California music festivals until four years ago when Goldenvoice started making a concerted effort to partner with top-notch LA eateries and restaurants for both weekends of Coachella. That’s where the comparisons end, though.

Arroyo Seco is really its own thing. There’s no denying, even after only a couple of years on the calendar, that it fosters a much different vibe than Coachella or Goldenvoice’s other LA area music festival, FYF Fest, which was surprisingly canceled five weeks after dropping its 2018 lineup due to reportedly poor ticket sales. But with a clear identity from the start, ASW stands more than a fighting chance at a time when music festivals are sadly a dime a dozen (except for the ticket price).

Arroyo Seco Weekend 2018 - Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters


Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters

Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett and his team, for one, came out of the gate swinging for ASW’s inaugural edition with a roster led by the late Tom Petty, which unfortunately ended up to be one of his final performances before his unexpected death, and British folk rockers Mumford and Sons, plus Alabama Shakes, Weezer, The Meters, The Shins, Dawes, Fitz & the Tantrums, Live, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Charles Bradley & The Extraordinaires, Galactic and many more all making appearances. That didn’t mean, of course, it was void of suffering a letdown in Year 2, but such a thought was quickly put to rest when the fest’s 2018 bill came out and proved to be equally good, if not better than what 2017 offered. With rock legends like Neil Young and Robert Plant sharing the top of the poster with modern-day rock stars such as Jack White and Kings of Leon, ASW made sure to cater to more than four generations of live music fans, much like the longtime New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — which White, Lukas Nelson + Promise of the Real (who also often serve as Young’s backing band), Irma Thomas and Aaron Neville, fittingly enough, all played this year — does each spring in The Big Easy. Throw in some nicer weather and some California-cool flavoring, and you’ve essentially got ASW. So, call it “#Dadchella” if you want, but that won’t stop those of us who are currently in our 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s from going again.

If rock is supposedly “dead” like so many say it is these days, you wouldn’t know it from the size of the crowd that descended upon the Brookside Golf Course adjacent to the Rose Bowl Stadium on a couple of hot summer days. ASW, rather, proved just the opposite, with even a few throwbacks, the Pretenders and Alanis Morrisette most notably, drawing large numbers over at the main stage. Then there were singer-songwriters Seu Jorge, Shakey Graves, Margo Price and Dwight Twilley, as well as blues savior Gary Clark Jr., pouring out their hearts and souls in what felt like a family-friendly environment (maybe the baby strollers helped). And how about Inglewood-bred jazz virtuoso Kamasi Washington mesmerizing with a powerful, mid-afternoon set? There were plenty of memories to be made at ASW in 2018, and we were just grateful to be there to bear witness to them.

BottleRock unveils 2017 bill, topped by Foo Fighters, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Maroon 5

BottleRock Napa Valley - 2017 lineup

BottleRock Napa Valley //
Napa Valley Expo – Napa, CA
May 26th-28th, 2017 //

The New Year is here, and festival organizers aren’t waiting long to unveil their 2017 lineups.

After CRSSD kicked things off two weeks ago by revealing their own bill, BottleRock Napa Valley has made it official with Foo Fighters, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Maroon 5 booked as headliners for its fifth edition this Memorial Day weekend.

The three-day festival in downtown Napa will feature more than 80 artists and bands across four stages. Notable artists include Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Modest Mouse, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, The Roots, Silversun Pickups, Band of Horses, Fitz and The Tantrums, Dirty Heads, Live, The Naked & Famous, The Devil Makes Three, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Gavin DeGraw, St. Lucia, House of Pain, Bob Moses, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Saint Motel, The Strumbellas, AlunaGeorge, Frightened Rabbit, Andra Day, Galactic, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Mavis Staples and many more.

Like it did last year with classic stoner-comedy duo Cheech & Chong as well as former “Hell’s Kitchen” star Gordon Ramsay, BottleRock’s Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage will be back on the grounds to pair celebrity chefs with some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, January 4th at 10 a.m. here and start at $309 before going up to $349 for a three-day GA pass. VIP passes will be sold for as low as $659 (and as high as $709), and a three-day platinum pass is as much as $3,500.

In the meantime, make sure to take a peek at our 2016 coverage of BottleRock, which saw Stevie Wonder, Florence & the Machine and the Red Hot Chili Peppers serve as headliners.

BottleRock Napa Valley 2016 - White Panda

Fitz and the Tantrums creep closer to headline status at Fox

Fitz-and-the-Tantrums_postPhotos by Steve Roby // Written by Mark E. Ortega //

Fitz And The Tantrums with Bad Suns, Nightmare and the Cat //
Fox Theater Oakland — Oakland CA
Thursday April 3rd, 2014 //

Los Angeles-band Fitz & The Tantrums proved Thursday night at the Fox Theater that they’ve moved into headliner territory — and probably for good. The venue was packed a full hour before they’d go on stage, and their charisma and energy left a major impression on all who attended.

The band played most of their 2013 album More Than Just a Dream while also reaching back for the choice nugs from their 2010 debut Pickin’ Up the Pieces. What made Fitz stand out initially was their original sound, as their debut album featured not a single song with guitar. Their recent release featured guitar, so the concern heading into the show was that their sound wouldn’t be as unique as it sounded when I first heard them at Outside Lands in 2012. Thankfully, the set applied guitar to just one or two tracks and relied on the vocals of Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs, as well as the unbelievable saxophone and flute work from James King and, as one fan yelled out, the “funky bass lines” of Joseph Karnes.

The chemistry between Fitzpatrick and Scaggs is part of what makes their show so enjoyable. They feed off each other and the crowd feeds off of them. During one of the ballads from the new album, the two share an “Endless Love” type moment as they serenaded each other to the crowd’s delight. The flute solo from King during “Tell Me What Ya Here For” had the crowd euphoric, as did “Moneygrabber” in the encore.

Bad Suns

Bad Suns

Bad Suns brought an 80s sound to modern rock, helping fire people up for the headliner with a solid set. Playing to “the biggest show on the biggest stage hands down” in their career according to singer Christo Bowman. Bowman has a memorable vocal style that compares well to early-U2 Bono. Bowman could probably do a killer cover of “New Years Day” if he wanted to. At times his vocals were hard to make out but their songs are catchy and had people moving. They’re definitely a band on the rise and a recommended show.

Nightmare and the Cat (also of Los Angeles) opened things up and had a surprising number of followers out in support who were very up on their music. Singer Django Stewart displayed a memorable stage presence, as he seemed to be a graduate of the George Michael school of hip gyration, which meshed perfectly with their sound, which felt like if INXS had been brought into the 21st century with Michael Hutchence still at the forefront. “Blackbird Smile” was the high point, showcasing how well Django and brother/guitarist Samuel Stewart are at writing hooks. Interestingly, Django’s British accent is only apparent when he talks between songs and not very much so when he sings. For a band that’s been together just four years, they have things well together in a live setting, a promising sign.

Nightmare and the Cat

Nightmare and the Cat

The only downside of the evening was some of the crowd themselves. One guy was severely intoxicated at the outset of the first opener and had to be that guy who seeks attention by yelling at the most inopportune times. Then there was the older couple that shot scowls to everyone in their vicinity, with the man putting his hands on a nearby lady for dancing too close to him and his wife. This was in the early part of Fitz’s set but luckily the wife decided to say it was time to leave, to the high-fives of everyone around who had suffered their intolerable behavior.

The Fox Theater is an excellent venue and served as a perfect stage for a fast-rising band in Fitz & The Tantrums, helping to announce the fact they can sell out well-sized venues away from their home base in SoCal.

Bad Suns shed light on debut LP

Bad-Suns3By Steve Roby //

Bad Suns, an indie four-piece from Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, opened for Fitz and the Tantrums on April 3rd at the Fox Theater Oakland, describing the performance as “the biggest theater we’ve ever played.”

Showbams spoke with Christo Bowman (vocals), Gavin Bennett (bass), Ray Libby (guitar) and Miles Morris (drums) before the show about how the band formed, its musical influences, songwriting and touring on the strength of its debut, four-song EP Transpose.


Showbams: How did you guys meet, and how did the band form?

Bowman: It’s a terribly long and boring story, but essentially we met the way bands meet in Southern California, in the San Fernando Valley. We went to school together and eventually got together after a couple of years of doing our own thing. We’ve been doing Bad Suns since January of 2012, and it’s been great.

Showbams: Christo, can you tell me about your father’s record collection and the influence it had on you?

Bowman: I grew up with my parents playing world music, it wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll at all, but at a certain age, when I developed an interest in the guitar, my dad started to pull out records that he was listening to when he was a little bit younger. Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Police — that’s when I started to get excited about music and began playing it.

Showbams: Any particular Elvis Costello album?

Bowman: I’d have to say This Year’s Model.

Bad-Suns1

Showbams: Describe the band’s songwriting process.

Bowman: It’s fun because it varies. Some of the songs that will be on the album we’re working on right now can be a bunch of pieces of songs that came together and ended up as one song. An example of that would be “Cardiac Arrest”. We constantly change it up and are excited about it. I feel like the quality never changes. We always work on a song until it feels like it’s a Bad Suns song that we’re proud of.

Showbams: Why did you chose to release an EP, comprised of only four songs, and what is like touring behind such a limited amount of material?

Bowman: It’s the business these days. EPs are good way to get yourselves heard first. It’s better then releasing a 15-track album for a group that no one has heard of. It’s a good way for people to start talking about the band and get ready for the full-length album.

Libby: I think an EP is a good way to get some type of interest in the group, and that’s how it works now.

Showbams: How did your EP Transpose come together?

Bennett: We originally recorded five songs in the summer of 2012 and then went back again and did five more the next summer, then picked the four we liked the best to represent the band. It’s a long process. We’ve been working with the same producer since this band started and came up with the Transpose EP.

Bowman: We did this all without a manager, record company or any of that sort of stuff. So between the four of us and our producer, we developed those four songs and then did the second half. I think you’d have a hard time figuring out what was written first. I like that aspect of it.

Showbams: What’s next for the band as far as a release?

Bowman: We’re working on the album right now. We were in the studio yesterday and then drove up here to The Fox. We’re driving back tomorrow, and it’s another day in the studio. Hopefully it will be out in the summer.

Showbams: Can you tell us the title?

Bowman: I feel like if I did, I might get in trouble (laughs).

Showbams: How is the tour going?

Morris: We just got back from South by Southwest a few weeks ago, and this is our first one-off show since then. We have another show at the Hollywood Palladium on Saturday with Fitz and the Tantrums. On April 16th, we leave to go out on the road with The 1975 for two months.

Bowman: This is our warm-up show. It’s the biggest theater we’ve ever played.

Hear the full interview with Bad Suns here and catch them perform live April 8th on “Conan”.

Bad-Suns2

Fitz And The Tantrums give intense energy & crowd engagement to SF

Fitz-and-TantrumsPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Nikki de Martini {Sweet Sound Bites}

People were still filing into the Fitz and The Tantrums show at The Warfield Sunday night as leading man Michael Fitzpatrick and leading lady Noelle Scaggs followed the rest of the band on stage. Under the glow of the same neon heart that graces the group’s new album, More Than Just a Dream, the show started with the brand new track “Keepin’ Our Eyes Out”. They carried an essence of unplanned-glam with a touch of platinum in their outfits. But Scaggs’ look triumphed, and how could it not with the cover-art heart embroidered on the back of her leather jacket!

The female firecracker vocalist burst out “San Francisco! How you feelin’ tonight?! You came to party right?!” in the middle of “Don’t Gotta Work It Out”, jolting a roaring response from fans. After that, all bets were off as Fitz himself tried spreading the band’s amped energy by vigorously starting an audience clap-along at the tail end of the song. And all this happened within the the second song! Their drive to fully engage the crowd and emerge everyone into their electrically emotional set was highly admirable.

Fitz-and-Tantrums

Fitz and the Tantrums built momentum with exuberant banter, fervid fist pumping with fans in the front row, some mean tambourine, and a sexually charged chemistry only exes can conjure up, and it all flowed naturally — though it did seem as if they were trying to prove themselves.

Covering the Eurythmics dark hit “Sweet Dreams” later on in the set made sense, seeing as Fitzpatrick’s voice definitely has a “Sweet Dreams” quality, if you will. Situated seamlessly into the overall sound and vibe of the night, Fitzpatrick and Scaggs shared the spotlight during the neo-indie version, yet they played it safe by not straying too far from the crowd-pleasing original.

James King broke out the saxophone for “Winds of Change” as Fitzpatrick’s deep Depeche Mode-esque voice blended effortlessly with Scaggs’ velvety falsetto, creating an underlying jazzy vibe.

Fitz-and-Tantrums

A good hour or so into the show, Fitzpatrick said, “You may have heard this next one, and that’s because San Francisco has been a huge supporter from the very beginning!” Sure enough, as the crowd roared in appreciation of his expressed appreciation, the cheers grew louder with the first notes of their summer smash single, “Out of My League”.

For me and every other 20-30 something present, the coolest part of the song’s introduction was how Fitzpatrick whispered Popscene into the microphone right before he began singing.

Fitz and The Tantrums played at Popscene (SF’s premiere Indie-Night Club) in 2010 when they were still finding their place in the music world, and the respect paid to the City and it’s fans who helped them get to the status the band has attained was super cool in my book.

Fitz and The Tantrums curated a setlist that balanced old and new all night — they sandwiched the funky eclectic new song, “The Walker” into two older tracks “Moneygrabber” and “News 4 You” to end the night. They raised their own bar pretty high with intense energy and a signature retro performance full of gusto from the get-go at The Warfield.