The more I go to festivals the more I realize my favorite ones are often smaller. As much as Bonnaroo rules and I enjoy the double headliner’s at Lollapalooza, there’s something about smaller fests where you can easily navigate from stage to stage and see all the bands without having to post-up for hours. How we missed Doheny Blues Fest in the past I’m not sure. It’s been going on for 14 years and last year Black Crowes and Crosby, Stills and Nash headlined. This year it was John Fogerty, Experience Hendrix, The Blasters, The Tedeschi Trucks Band and many more.
Gooch and Cory headed down Saturday to sling via push cart then I brought down the family on Sunday to do the same. We did our best to arrive early because David Hildalgo and Cesar Rosas from Los Lobos were playing an intimate set with friends. There’s no other band I can think of that makes more more proud to be from LA (Mike Watt and Fishbone are both on that list somewhere). Since the festival of 10,000 is held at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point there are lots of benefits (sunshine, surf, beach, state park, facilities) but the parking is a little bit tricky. I had to park the truck about a mile away but made it back for some of he Hildago/Rosas set then skipped backstage to relieve my brother so he could catch the last few songs.
We ended up giving away around 1500 Ben & Jerry’s treats all weekend and it was nice to have a large crew on Sunday so we could easily swap out to check out the bands we wanted. My brother Ryan was gone for much of Big Head Todd’s tribute set to Robert Johnson and in return I got to watch a good chunk of The Blasters. It’s rare to get brothers Phil and Dave Alvin together on stage and the ‘all original’ band scorched through a dizzying mix of blues, rockabilly, R&B and punky songs. I stood towards the back dumb-founded about how great they are. They formed in Downey at the end of the seventies and it made me think, ‘this could have been the future of rock n’ roll back then.” I’d buy into it. It also reminded me that they need to be on my list of ‘most important bands from LA”
John Fogerty took to the main stage after The Blasters and pounded out one CCR hit after another. They didn’t sound like rehashes though, which is always nice from a legacy act. With the bass turned up extra-loud he and his band were able to keep things fresh and everyone at Doheny was soaking up the tunes, the last bit of daylight and the last act to play before they had to wait another year for, what I’m sure is, their favorite festival to return. The good news is, that after a seven year hiatus, the Doheny Days festival is returning in September with Ben Harper, G. Love, Donavon Frankenreiter, and many more to be added. I got good feeling we’ll be rolling down the truck or a push cart for that. Thanks to Lex, Rich and the rest of the folks from Omega Events for inviting us. Thanks to the security and everyone else that was working for making it so relaxing and fun.
You can check out some more words and pics from the OC Register here.
