Day 2 of Ohana Festival was a hot one. Arriving just after gates opened at noon, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the humidity by the beach was high.
There were some minor concerns earlier in the morning that a super El Niño high tide might put the festival grounds at risk, but the tide subsided.
Day 2 started with a traditional performance by members of the Acjachemen Nation on the main stage.
One thing about Ohana Festival is that you never know where Eddie Vedder will pop up. Saturday, Vedder made the first of two appearances of the day introducing pop musician Jake Wesley Rogers. Rogers performed a mostly solo acoustic set and had some troubles with tuning his guitar as it baked in the noon hour sun. Eddie Vedder’s daughter Olivia joined Rogers on stage to perform a duet of Rogers’ song ‘Pluto’.
Another offspring of a famous musician was next on the main stage in Ellery Harper. The son of Ben Harper, 25-year-old Ellery brought some folk/Americana to day 2.
Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament is a busy guy a Ohana. Not only was he one of the “friend” in Friday’s Eddie Vedder and Friends set that ended up being a Pearl Jam secret show before their scheduled Sunday headlining set, he’s also a guest speaker at the festival’s Storytellers stage and his punk side project performed Saturday on the Tiki stage.
The tempo came back down with sets by Marlon Funaki and Alice Phoebe Lou.
The Front Bottoms brought some folk/punk to the main stage.
One of the most memorable moments came during Stephen Wilson Jr.’s set on the main stage. The country artist paid homage to the grunge era performing a cover of Temple of The Dog’s ‘Hunger Strike’. Eddie Vedder made his second appearance of the day performing his verse of the song. Unfortunately for me, at that time I was feeling a bit of heat exhaustion and was sitting in a shaded area of a VIP lounge. I could hear the song being performed, but sadly didn’t see it.
Quebec’s Men I Trust were the only Canadian content in the Ohana lineup this year. The Quebec City indie band performed a hypnotic set of dream pop on the main stage.
Jon Batiste brought Louisiana to the beach with a high energy performance on the Tiki stage. Batiste played multiple instruments and bounded around the stage attempting to get the audience to match the joy he was beaming out to them. Maybe it was the heat, or maybe it was the southern California crowd, but while the audience was loving the show, not a lot of people were dancing up a storm. My experience with the set was also challenged by a couple standing next to me that refused to stop talking through the set.
It’s been 11 years since I last saw Alabama Shakes at Coachella in 2015. Brittany Howard’s voice is as powerful as ever.
The biggest feel-good story came next when Ireland’s Florence Road took stepped on to the Tiki stage. The all-female alt/pop-rock band were supposed to perform at Ohana Friday afternoon, but were forced to cancel after all of their gear was stolen from their tour van the previous night in Los Angeles. The festival made an effort to source gear for the Friday set, but were unable to gather everything in time. Florence Road were then given the closing timeslot on the Tiki stage Saturday and Eddie Vedder insisted that lead singer Lily Aron play his guitar. As terrible as the original circumstances were, part of me is glad they ended up performing Saturday as I would have missed their Friday afternoon set and their performance was one of my favourites of the festival.
Closing out Saturday at Ohana was Kentucky country singer-songwriter Tyler Childers. Country has never been my genre so I didn’t stay for the full show, but walking around the festival grounds there were a whole lot more country fans around than not.
