Credit: Chris Phelps
Over the weekend, the Eddie Vedder-founded event, known as the Ohana Festival, commenced at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. The initial day of music, Friday, Sept. 29, included a headlining frame from The Killers, who welcomed Vedder and fellow billed player Sammy Hagar for sit-ins. Earlier in the day, Father John Misty, Japanese Breakfast, Brooks Nielsen, Danielle Ponder, and more tore into their festival frames.
Friday’s headliners started their set with the international fan favorite, “Mr. Brightside,” after an added original, the band welcomed Vedder to the stage for a collective take on the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers scorcher, “The Waiting.” They continued their set by landing on choice material, including “Somebody Told Me,” “Human,” plus their new single “Your Side of Town.” During the encore, The Killers debuted a cover of Van Halen’s “Why Can’t This Be Love” with assistance from Hagar. Watch below.
Just before The Killers’ headlining set, Haim hit the stage for their final show of the year and celebrated 10 years of their debut album, Days Are Gone. Day one of Ohana also featured a memorable frame from Misty, who pulled heavily from his albums I Love You, Honeybear, Chloe and the Next 20th Century, God’s Favorite Customer and more. Meanwhile, during Japanese Breakfast’s set, they mainly focused on Jubilee, with half the material worked performed during the frame initially appearing on the 2021 LP.
The event continued yesterday, Saturday, Sept. 30, and picked up the collaborative theme that had been applied during Friday’s start. In the afternoon, Lucius fed the audience unabashed energy, a high point included “Two of Us On the Run” sung in the crowd. To follow, Goose arrived for their late afternoon frame, which included a locationally fitting rendition of “California Magic,” as well as fan favorites “Hungersite” and “Arcadia.” During the War on Drugs’ highly anticipated appearance, they tapped into the collaborative energy leftover from night one, inviting Lucius to sit in on “I Don’t Live Here Anymore.”
Day two headliners Vedder and the Earthlings closed out the night, but not before cutting into a plethora of favored covers from Petty and the Heartbreakers (“Room at the Rop”), U2 (“One”), The Cure (“Just Like Heaven”), Pretenders (“Precious”) and Neil Young (“Rockin’ in the Free World.” Also represented as some of the night’s covers were a mash-up of George Harrison’s “Isn’t It a Pity” and The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” with featured help from Lucius, who turned up and lent some skill on the paired tunes.
After completing the initial pair of dates, the Ohana Festival will reconvene for one final gathering today, Oct. 1, with expected frames from headliners, the Foo Fighters, as well as the Pretenders, The Backseat Lovers and more. For more information, visit the official website.
Scroll down to watch fan-captured videos from the weekend thus far.
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Eddie Vedder joined the Killers on stage at Ohana Festival to cover Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers pic.twitter.com/5ij70UxneD
— Daniel Kohn (@danielkohn) September 30, 2023