Our neighbors to the South host another monster weekend festival on the sands of Dana Point’s Doheny Beach. Music, sand, surf, and bikinis. Doesn’t get much better than this. You may be asking yourself why we are highlighting events outside of Los Angeles, and to that we say that we’re all neighbors here in Southern California. With Santa Barbara to the North, Coachella to the East and festivals like Hootenany and Doheny Days down South, Angelenos are the most privileged folks on Earth when it comes to finding the most diverse music and culture all within an hour or two of our City.
This year it was Los Angeles’s own Jane’s Addiction, who got their start on the Sunset Strip in the early 1980’s to lead popular music from the dark days of the Synth Pop 80’s to the hard rocking times of the Grunge Rock dominated 90’s. Time will tell if Jane’s Addiction will find their way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it’s hard to see how they would be overlooked. All due respect to the Doors and the Peppers but Jane’s has stayed the course and has to be considered the best, if not one of the best bands ever to come out of the City of Angels.
It was the vision of frontman Perry Farrell, who exposed the world, to so many of the 90’s hard rocking bands with his touring musical circus, Lollapalooza, that he single handedly changed the face of Rock and Roll and helped to birth bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. He was even instrumental in discovering Lady Gaga in this decade.
Though Jane’s has endured a revolving door of Bass Players, their core remains intact and master Bass Man Chris Cheney has filled in for the departed Duff McCagen to anchor Los Angeles’s most dynamic, colorful and influential Los Angeles band who seem to better with age. Chaney is joined by long terms members vocalist Farrell, Drummer Steve Perkins and Rock god guitarist Dave Navarro.
Doheny Days, a weekend long festival held on the sand’s of historic Doheny Beach is a two day event that saw bands like Jimmy Eats World, Mishka and the Flaming Lips, who headlined the Sunday show, join forces to delight the easy going, Orange County crowd. If you missed it this year, put Doheny Days on your must see list of Southern California festivals not to be missed when it comes around next year.
The photo gallery below features Jimmy Meets World, Mishka, the incredibly entertaining Santigold, and the epic closing Jane’s Addiction set. Though singer Perry Farrell lamented that this was the last show of their current summer tour, Jane’s will be rocking the Santa Barbara County Bowl next month and we will be following L.A’s most influential band to SB in October.
