And the final day of Beachlife 2025 arrived, and my excitement had not dampened for the music and day to come.
Despite the media entrance being switched to the other side of the festival for some unknown reason, I still had time to check out some of Devon Thompson‘s set at the Riptide stage. While I’ve covered Devon before, I felt the outdoor setting finally allowed her to cut loose and let her powerful rock songs take up the space they deserve. As she was switching over to her acoustic guitar for the other side of her music, I was drawn to the pitch-perfect folk harmonizing on the Hightide Stage, and left to listen to Lily Meola.
I had never heard of the Hawaiian-born singer before, but I am a sucker for great harmonies (Ala Lucius and First Aid Kit), so I was easily drawn to her beautiful songs. While lyrically the tracks floated in the country arena, sonically the tracks avoided the kind of twang and honky tonk that turns me off from most country pop. She played some new songs from her upcoming album, as well as a gorgeous cover of “Take Me Home, Country Road”.
While I had been aware of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, I honestly only started listening to the Colorado rockers in the last few years, as newer songs like the Van Morrison-esque “Wipeout Turn” and “Her Way Out” caught my ear and made me a fan. I had only listened to a few of his older songs, so wasn’t quite sure what to expect. First off – they sounded great. Though I had never heard opener “Resignation Superman” before, I was instantly hooked in. Many of the songs they played, both new (“My New Number One”, “Thunderbird”) and old (“New World Arisin'”, “Dirty Juice”) were heavily indebted to old school blues rock and boogie woogie, more so than the alternative-leaning rock that gave the band some hits in the 90’s. While those more melodic songs like “It’s Alright”, “Bittersweet” and “Wipeout Turn” were in the set to mix things up, the band’s frontman seemed to be having the most fun with the bluesier numbers. The group closed out their set with a fun b cover – “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”.
Next was Marcus King. Another artist who I’ve become a bigger fan of the last couple of years, the man has an incredible soulful voice, and is a bad-ass guitar player. His songs touch on southern rock, country, blues and soul music, and they all blend seamlessly together on songs like opener “The Well” and “Country Girl”. “Hero” gave King plenty of opportunities to let his guitar sing, while “Beautiful Stranger” had women in the audience screaming. While I was very much enjoying the set, I had to cut my time with King short to attempt to see Donavon Frankenreiter at the Speakeasy (who I interviewed a couple years ago).
Last time I made an attempt to see Frankenreiter at the small stage, the crowd was so huge I couldn’t even get close enough to hear the man. I was able to make my way in towards the back of the stage this time to catch a few of his songs, though his breezy drawl was difficult to hear over the noisy, talkative crowd around me. I made out his single “Free” and “It Don’t Matter”, but just barely.
Years ago, I saw The Beach Boys at the Hollywood Bowl when Brian Wilson was joining the band. That was an incredible experience, and I knew that nothing could top that. Still, even though this version of the band was really only one original Beach Boy (Mike Love), and was joined by Uncle Jesse himself John Stamos, I still couldn’t resist singing along to so many of these songs I’ve listened to my whole life. And for the first time that day, the sun came out (almost as if it was in the band’s rider). The band played through all of the classics at some point in the set, from “Surfin’ Safari” to “Kokomo”.
So many classic songs that are perfect summer sing-alongs. Surprises were a cover of The Ramones‘ “Rockaway Beach”, and “Forever” being intro’d and sung by a choked-up John Stamos (who clearly was thinking of his buddy Bob Saget when discussing the song). At the end of the day, though it’s more of a cover band than the real Beach Boys, their music is always “Fun, Fun, Fun” (which they closed with).
While I’m a fan of Mt. Joy, as I have seen them before I made the executive decision to stay at the Lowtide Stage and get to the front for Jackson Browne. While Mt. Joy‘s set was broadcast on the screens at Lowtide like other band’s were, I could still hear their great songs like “Highway Queen” and “Silver Lining” (and apparently they were joined by Marcus King on a track).
Jackson Browne was the artist I was most looking forward to at the festival, and he completely exceeded my expectations. Opener “The Barricades of Heaven” elegiac, as the golden hour sun shone down on Browne. While “The Long Way Around” and “Looking East” weren’t songs of his I was that familiar with, I still enjoyed every note. Browne’s voice is pure comfort, and hits every emotional note with so much resonance, you just FEEL the music.
Despite the woman behind me getting worried that Browne was about to get political as he made a comment about our strange times, she and everyone else still got behind his cover of Little Steven‘s “I am a Patriot”. Browne then played his first big pop hit, “Somebody’s Baby”, which the whole audience sang along with. He followed this with a song he at first said he had possibly never played live before (though I’m not sure if he corrected himself about this a moment later), “Giving That Heaven Away”. While this was another one I didn’t really know, it was still lyrically endearing.
I had been worried that my favorite Browne song, “These Days”, would be too sad for a festival setlist, but thankfully Browne did not agree with this. Finally hearing this amazing song live was a highlight of the entire festival for me. Of course, we still got “Doctor My Eyes”, the anthemic “Running on Empty”, and the Browne co-penned “Take it Easy”. So many great songs, packed into under an hour and a half. Truly an amazing set.
The evening headliner was Alanis Morissette, who still reigns as the Queen of alternative rock. From the first notes of “Hand in My Pocket”, she had the crowd hooked. The camera panned across the faces of die-hard fans in the front row, singing along to every word. Morissette included one of her newer songs, “Reasons I Drink” into her set, along with a number of deeper cuts like “Right Through You”, “Lens” and “Sorry to Myself”, but as you would expect, it was the massive hits that got the crowd ecstatic. “Hands Clean”, one of her none Jagged Little Pill classics, reminded me how good that song was. “Head Over Feet” remains one of the most unabashedly romantic songs of the 90’s, and Morissette’s vocals on “You Learn” showed that her pipes haven’t damped at all.
Morissette remains an ardent supporter of women’s rights, with her backing vocals showing stats about the mistreatment of women in society, and protest signs for other various causes. These ideals also came through in her lyrics, most notably on “Mary Jane”. During “Smile”, Morissette began spinning around and around, before finishing the song from her knees. If I had tried that, I would have either fallen flat on my face from dizziness or puked, so it’s impressive she could still carry a tune.
“Ironic” was the biggest sing-along of the night, with Morissette at times letting the crowd sing the verses for her. And of course the main set ended with the hard-hitting “You Oughta Know”. It was at this time that I decided Beachlife was over for me and my aching back. I made the walk back up the hill to my car, thinking of who might be playing in 2026.
Since only Lenny Kravitz from my 2024 predictions/suggestions came true, most of the other names on that list still apply. Still, I’d also like to suggest for next year:
John Mellencamp
Stevie Nicks
And for possible reunions: The Donnas and Sugarcult.
Until then, thanks for reading, and visit @TheIndyReview on socials for more videos and photos from the event.
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