My favorite yearly festival in beautiful Redondo Beach returned with an eclectic line-up this year and more good vibes in the sun.
On Friday, I began my day catching a spirited set by Taft Buckley at the Speakeasy stage. As the crowd was already huge for the artist, who only has one song out so far, I watched mainly from a distance. His songs were a mix of styles, from classic 70’s style songwriting to reggae-influenced rock. I may not have known his work, but I enjoyed what I heard.
The first full set I caught was from Børns. I was only lightly familiar with their work, having heard their platinum-hit “Electric Love”. Opener “Faded Heart” was a slab of fun glam rock that T-Rex could have proudly written. Other tracks waded into folk pop, and the smooth “American Money” fit the chill vibes of the festival. While their banter wasn’t the most captivating, they livened it up with card tricks and balloon animals. Closer “Electric Love” had audience members 1-2 generations older than the artist saying “That was a great song” to each other.
I’ve been seeing Fitz and the Tantrums since their earliest days, wearing slick suits and playing a residence at Silverlake’s defunct venue Spaceland. The group have become a polished live act, honing their stage performances playing hundreds of festivals over their 18 years as a band, so it was no surprise they knew exactly how to play to the Beachlife audience. Supporting their latest album Man on the Moon, the band mixed up new songs like “OK OK OK” and “Oh Maria” into the setlist with slick older singles “123456.” While my favorite album of the band will always be their blue-eyed soul debut, from which they played their original hit single “Moneygrabber,” their set focused more on later hits like their new wave smash “Out of My League” and “Fool.”
The group’s knack for clean pop songwriting has almost started to work against them, as songs like recent hit “I Just Wanna Shine,” with its sunny, feel-good chorus and easy to sing chorus feel almost AI-written to appeal to the soccer mom and beach dad demographic of the festival (as well as tailor-made for commercial soundtracks). While the world certainly needs feel-good music, the audio equivalent of most of Bill Lawrence’s shows, I’d love to hear more of the raw soul of their early work come back into their music. Still, there’s no denying the catchiness of the whistling of “The Walker” or James King’s saxophone hook on closer “Handclap.”
I stayed at the High Tide stage for Grouplove, who I hadn’t seen in over a decade. The band was the most rock-oriented MainStage group of the day, hitting the stage with the high-energy “Deleter” from 2020’s Healer. It was the kind of punk rock adrenaline injection we needed to get the audience pumped up. Front woman Hannah Hooper worked the stage, coming down the catwalk to interact with the audience, and her interplay with co-frontman Christian Zucconi helped the performance feel dynamic.
Familiar tracks like “Shark Attack” kept the raucous energy going, and the band even managed to keep the engagement up when playing new song “She Said” that has yet to be released (from a new album coming later this year). The band surprisingly played their biggest hit, “Tongue Tied,” in the middle of the set. The whole audience was jumping and dancing for that one, and the hip-shaking continued as the band transitioned from that into a cover of The Beatles‘ “Twist and Shout.” My favorite track of the band’s, “Ways to Go,” came next, and again showed off the group’s dynamic dual vocal approach. “Itchin’ on a Photograph” and “Raspberry” with scratchy alt rock delights, and closer “Colours” left the crowd in a good mood for what was to come.
And then began the long wait at the High Tide stage for Duran Duran. Making the wait feel long was seeing The Chainsmokers “perform” on the screen. DJ/electronic music is not my taste, and something I’ve always liked about Beachlife Festival is its focus on real bands and songwriters, so seeing the fest book a DJ act definitely has me worried that the bookers are trying to appeal to a younger, frattier crowd. I don’t like to hate, as I know plenty of people love the duo and that style of music, but for me, it’s not a fit for the festival. I don’t want to see it become a character-less pop festival like Coachella has, so I’m hoping this is just a one-off and DJs don’t become a fixture in the future.
After the long hour and thirty minute wait, the 80’s superstars arrived under an array of red and purple lighting. While I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan of the famed group’s work, there’s no denying they are music legends and I was excited to be up front for their performance. Though now in their 60’s, the band still clearly revel in their time on the stage. Frontman Simon Le Bon gleefully performed openers “Velvet Newton” and “The Wild Boys,” and his camaraderie with bassist John Taylor was effusive. Taylor is the type of bassist who makes the instrument look cool, laying down solos and stalking the stage as much as any guitarist.
“The James Bond Theme” and “A View To Kill” had that sultry, 80’s pop sheens with post-punk atmospheres that give the group their moody mystique. And then came the first mega-hit; “Hungry Like the Wolf.” This is a song that has grown on me over the decades, to where now I can see why it was such an evergreen pop smash. Hearing it live simply felt special – and it was impossible not to sing along.
While I wasn’t too familiar with the next few songs from the band, including their cover of “Evil Woman,” it was fun to be present as the band gave their new single “Free to Love” its live debut. While the song is too disco for my taste, I’m happy the band is still out there making new music. While it may not have been planned, the viral success of their 2021 single “Invisible,” which they included in the setlist, shows that great songs will find an audience, no matter what era the artist is from. Le Bon brought back-up vocalist Anna Ross up to duet with him on the haunting “Come Undone,” and as smoke filled the stage and a breeze blew it east, “Ordinary World” was even more gorgeous and epic.
For “Planet Earth,” the band had a wacky sci-fi inspired video playing behind them. It was clearly AI-created, as there were moments where the female astronaut’s head was clearly not cleanly attached to her body, but we were their to hear the song and not watch a video, so I let it pass. The band closed their main set with the angular “Girls on Film,” which had Le Bon strutting like a model down the catwalk, and their cover of The Talking Heads “Psycho Killer.” After a brief encore, the band returned with their other pop delight, “Rio.” The audience sang and danced along as if crossing the Rio Grande, until the band said their goodbyes.
And so ended Day 1. 2 more to go! Follow us on socials @TheIndyReview to see more photos and videos from the fest.
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