Arroyo Seco Day One: Supremely User-Friendly Fest Melts Middle-Aged Faces (Review)

Arroyo Seco Weekend

Brookside at the Rose Bowl

Capacity 25,000
Pasadena, Calif.

June 24, 2018

Promoter: Goldenvoice/AEG

(Photo: Courtesy Goldenvoice) –
Lotta Love: Neil Young and The Promise of the Real headlined and closed-out a phenomenal day one at the Arroyo Seco Festival in Pasadena Calif. on June 23, 2018

If one were to take the average age of day one’s top-notch performers at this year’s wondrous Arroyo Seco Weekend in Pasadena, Calif., —which included Neil Young (72), the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde (66), Pharoah Sanders (77), The Specials’ Terry Hall (59) and Lynval Golding (66), Dwight Twilley (67), Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch (49), Seu George (48), Jack White (42), Gomez’s Ben Ottewell (42), Kamasi Washington (37) and Margo Price (35)—you’d end with a number far above the 18-34 demo marketers so covet. Thankfully, for many veteran festivalgoers, this longer-in-the-tooth crew brings a far more desirable vibe to festivals.

Gone were over-inebriated amateurs, long booze lines and, thankfully, too, the modern scourge of contemporary live performance: rampant selfie taking. In their place were shade trees, quality food offerings reflecting the Los Angeles culinary mecca (mmmmmm, Chilola’s Fine Filipino Tacos, Koreatown’s Beer Belly, Burritos La Palma and way more), an older more relaxed middle-aged demo and, most importantly, an incredible music line-up devoid of flash-in-the-pans.

(Photo Courtesy of Goldenvoice) –
Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders rocking the merde of out Arroyo Seco

Credit Goldenvoice’s Paul Tollett for a quality bill that in its second year touched upon a slew of multi-genre luminaries. Walking from Kamasi Washington’s virtuosic, exultant Love-Supreme-like remonstrations to Hurray for the Riff Raff’s (Alynda Lee Segarra) mellifluous croon into the Pretenders’ power rawk stomp and back over to Margo Price’s dulcet Nashville twang is a journey every music lover should take.

The same holds true for Jack White’s blistering noise rock into the Specials’ two-tone skronking into Neil Young’s sublime classic rock canon. None of which is to say there shouldn’t have been more R&B, House, Electronic, African and Latin music to round out the edges and encourage more diversity in sound and attendees—but the day’s wealth of sonic riches were in themselves undeniable.

(Courtesy Goldenvoice) –
Giant Steps: Kamasi Washington rocking The Oaks stage at 2018 Arroyo Seco.

Goldenvoice should also be lauded for the ease of use at the spacious Arroyo Seco golf course on the backside of Pasadena’s Rose Bowl (which is part of L.A. County). With only three stages and a multitude of pathways, no artist is more than a 10-15 minute walk away with food and beverage options lining the routes devoid of human logjams. This year’s cooler early-summer temperatures, roughly 10 degrees lower than the previous year, made for an even more idyllic experience.

Part of the day’s intrepidness may have been due to the festival being capped at a manageable 25,000 and a redesign this year opening up the space. Tickets for today’s performances as of press time were still available ($158 for GA) with a bill that includes Robert Plant, Irma Thomas, Kings of Leon, Alanis Morissette, the Bangles, Violent Femmes, Margaret Glaspy and Gary Clark, Jr among others.

(Courtesy Goldenvoice) – The Specials’
Lynval Golding at the 2018 second annual Arroyo Seco Weekend.

While no performance seems inured from the day’s supercharged political vitriol, Arroyo’s performers by and large made elegant statements emphasizing the universal without proselytizing. Kamasi Washington noted we are all different but “united in purpose;” The Specials’ Golding spoke of seeing his friend, No Doubt’s Tony Kanal, with his children and tearing up while thinking about “them locked up kids” before launching into the two-tone anthem “A Message To Rudy” (first line, “Stop your messing around…”); and rock lord Neil Young and His Promise of the Real lived up to their billing and beyond when Young simply said he was playing the next song for “kids we really do care about.” He then played his scintillating “I Am a Child” before rolling into a heart-melting version of “Lotta Love,” which resonated with Young’s sage-like universal message: “It’s gonna take a lot of love/to change the way things are/It’s gonna take a lot of love/or we won’t get too far.”