Overcast skies, smoke, and ska nostalgia. Sublime honors a legacy as BeachLife day two rolls through generations of coastal cool and musical rebellion.
On day two of BeachLife Festival, the South Bay Pacific shoreline again served as both amphitheater and muse, with generations of California sounds rising like ocean spray from the festival stages. The day belonged to local sons Sublime, now fronted by Jakob Nowell—son of the late Bradley Nowell—who delivered a set that felt reverent, rowdy, and raw all at once.
Before Sublime’s spiritual homecoming, the day unfolded like a radio dial stuck between classic alt-rock and island haze. ALO opened with buoyant jams that gave early arrivers a reason to dance barefoot on the grass.
Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath, eternally youthful in mirrored shades and bleached hair, surfed his way through “Fly” and “Every Morning” with tongue-in-cheek charm.Long Beach Dub Allstars doubled down on the ska-punk roots that paved Sublime’s rise, their reggae-driven grooves inviting the crowd to sway and dance in the sand.
Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles was a stunning outlier in the lineup—her infectious smile, a light in the gray cloudy skies. She shimmered through “Manic Monday” and “Eternal Flame” with disarming intimacy, even under the overcast 4 PM late afternoon skies.
Skip Marley brought needed gravitas and warmth, blending roots reggae with modern beats in a set that honored his lineage while carving his own path.
Cake, ever the arch alt-rock oddballs, delivered sardonic banter and laser-precise renditions of “The Distance” and “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” their deadpan delivery contrasting sharply with the sea of grinning faces.
Then came Pretenders, led by Chrissie Hynde, as fierce and formidable as ever. With a voice that cut through the evening like salt air, she powered through “My City was Gone” and “Back on the Chain Gang” with punk elegance, closing their set with a soaring “Precious.”
As dusk turned to night, the scent of grilled foods of all kinds and skunky weed swirled through Seaside Lagoon, Sublime took the stage to a hero’s welcome. Jakob, shoeless and vivacious, mirrored his father’s kinetic energy, pacing and snarling through “Date Rape,” “Santeria,” and “What I Got” like someone who inherited not just a name, but a purpose. While his vocals leaned cleaner and more contemporary, the soul of the songs remained bruised and sunburned, a sonic postcard from 1996 Long Beach.
Behind him, drummer Bud Gaugh and bassist Eric Wilson locked in like old friends finishing each other’s sentences. The crowd—barefoot, buzzed, and teary-eyed—sang back every lyric, as if trying to raise Bradley’s ghost from the waves just beyond the stage.
As Sublime’s final notes rang out over the Pacific, the crowd exhaled in one sunburned, stoned, and satisfied breath. Day two of BeachLife was not just a lineup—it was a lineage, a living mixtape of California’s musical DNA.
Read all about day one and day three.
