Pearl Jam closed Ohana’s tenth year with a new drummer, Billy Strings, and Neil Young covers, after sets from Fontaines D.C., Pixies, and Rilo Kiley.
Pearl Jam closed Ohana’s day three and a decade on the sand. Ohana’s final day at Doheny State Beach was a long, alternative-rock climb. It started early with a run of daytime sets and built through the afternoon toward Pearl Jam. The Ohana Stage started at 1 PM with Villanelle, and the big sets stacked up from there.
The day started with a set from Pluralone, the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer. He brought a warm, melodic set of jangly, psychedelic-tinged indie pop to the afternoon. Klinghoffer, best known as the former guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and current member of Pearl Jam, played in a much quieter register. His music was a good fit for the sunny beachside setting.
Villanelle opened the Ohana Stage at 1 PM with a grunge-leaning set that suited a festival founded by a Seattle icon. The London trio formed in 2023 around Gene Gallagher, the son of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, who sings and plays guitar, with guitarist Ben Taylor and bassist Jack Schiavo. They draw on Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, and The Who, balancing lo-fi grit with big, hook-driven choruses. They have already supported Liam Gallagher on his arena tour, and opening the main stage on Pearl Jam’s day put them in front of the crowd they were built for. It was a loud, swaggering start to the final day.
Speed of Light took the Tiki Stage at 1:30 PM. Being one of the first bands of the day for the few hundred people who showed up early is never easy. A slot like that is about setting a mood rather than filling a field. The marine layer lifting and the sand was still emptier than it would be by dusk. They continued in Villanelle’s pace, giving the final day the kick start it needed to get the two day attendees fans to the finish line. The early Sunday mimosa crowd was small and the mood relaxed. Despite the low-pressure environment, the family trio ratcheted up the rock ‘n’ roll energy and kept the final day momentum moving up another notch.
Linka Moja played a half-hour set on the Ohana Stage from 2 PM to 2:30 PM, slotted between Villanelle’s early blast and Ecca Vandal’s high-energy mid-afternoon set. It was one of the festival’s true discovery slots, the kind of early billing where a newer act can win over a crowd that is still arriving. With the lawn filling steadily and fans already jockeying for position ahead of the evening’s bigger names, Moja made the most of the audience she had. Her smooth vocals charmed the mid-afternoon crowd, and she turned a casual, wandering audience into one that was listening.
Horsegirl, the Chicago indie trio, followed on the Tiki Stage with a set of hazy, restless guitars that suited the afternoon light. Their mix of noisy, melodic indie rock and deadpan vocals made for a sharp contrast with the sunshine, and it drew in a growing crowd. They’re a good example of the festival’s habit of putting promising newcomers early in the day.
The Format brought a hit of 2000s power-pop nostalgia to the afternoon. The Arizona duo, built around Nate Ruess and Sam Means, wrote bright, theatrical songs full of big hooks and bigger choruses, a sound Ruess later carried into the pop mainstream. Following the punk-tinged energy of Ecca Vandal, their set deftly flipped the mood toward crowd-pleasing, sing-along pop. It was a good fit for the beach: sunny, a little sweet, and made for singing along.
Rilo Kiley drew one of the afternoon’s most sentimental crowds at 4:30 PM. The Los Angeles band, fronted by Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett, built a devoted following in the 2000s with literate, wry indie rock that mixed heartache with sharp humor. Their recent reactivation made the set feel like a reunion for the fans who grew up with them, and the sun-soaked beach turned it into a communal singalong.
Pixies, the Boston alt-rock pioneers, delivered the loud, abrasive set that only they can, a reminder of how much of the day’s music descends from them. Pixies is one of alternative rock’s foundational acts, and its jagged guitars, surreal lyrics, and dynamic shifts shaped countless bands on the bill, including Pearl Jam’s generation of Seattle rockers. Booking them just before Fontaines D.C. and Pearl Jam gave the day a clear through-line, from the architects of alt rock to the bands that followed in their footsteps. The fans fortunate enough to be on hand were treated to Eddie Vedder joining them onstage for their rendition of “Wave of Mutilation.”
Fontaines D.C. followed with the 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM slot, two nights after their headline show at Hollywood Forever. The Dublin post-punk band kept up the intensity, with Grian Chatten’s brooding delivery and the group’s relentless rhythms. Playing a festival main stage as the sun dropped toward the Pacific gave their music a very different feel from the cemetery show, and the crowd treated it as a warm-up for the headliner.
Pearl Jam took the stage around 8:15 PM for what was their second appearance of the weekend and the first full set with their drummer, Abe Laboriel Jr. The night opened as Audioslave’s “Like a Stone” played over the speakers, a tribute to Chris Cornell. “Long Road” followed a video tribute to Glen Hansard, and “Daughter” carried tags from U2’s “Bad” and Hansard’s “Down on Our Knees.” Then the band moved through “Given to Fly,” “Why Go,” “React, Respond,” “Dissident,” and “Even Flow” – a strong mix of classics and newer material.
The middle of the night belonged to Eddie Vedder and his guests. Billy Strings joined him on “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” then on Neil Young’s “Throw Your Hatred Down.” “Running,” “Jeremy,” and “Black” came next, and Vedder dedicated the chorus of “Better Man” to Laboriel with a warm introduction. Vedder said that none other than a Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, had loaned them their drummer. “Alive” closed the main set, and the lawn sang it back at full volume. The encore began with “Setting Sun,” introduced by a speech from Vedder, then Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” with Strings, and a shortened “Yellow Ledbetter” to end the weekend.
