Date: Sept 1st 2012
Line up: The Wailers, L.B.D.A., Tribal Seeds, Stick Figure, Passafire, Ballyhoo!, Brewfish, Beyond I Sight, Sono Vero, Phat Reggae Dub
Location:Queen Mary Park. Long Beach, CA
With the sun shining on a cloudless day in Long Beach, California, the locals were bound to come out and play. But it wasn’t just the locals that heard about the all-day reggae fest in the LBC, fans from all over the southwest traveled this holiday weekend to catch their favorite acts, including the return of L.B.D.A…
The 2nd Annual Shoreline Jam Festival welcomed all music lovers out Saturday, with a whole lot of 
reggae music and mellow energy. Located at the Queen Mary Events Park, the ocean view of the Long Beach shoreline and the ongoing ocean breeze kept the fans in their festival experience.
Leading the production of the festival with Gramercy Management Group, Andy Hersch was stoked on the turn out as well as the line up. He happily commented on the line up and how awesome it was to share the wide range of reggae style in a day’s worth of great music.
The single stage event held a load of talent with a festival that went from 11:00am until The Wailers closed out the night around 11:30pm. A day of reggae in beautiful Long Beach? Yes, please!
The city, the weather, and the venue greatly complimented the amazing line up that boasted 10 total groups. With styles from traditional classic reggae to the new reggae-rock bands forming all over Southern California, the lineup kept everyone on their toes with a different experience each set.
OPENING UP…
Starting off with Phat Reggae Dub at 11:00am, Sono Vero at 11:50am, Beyond I Sight at 12:40pm, and Brewfish at 1:30pm, the local bands rocked the beginning of the day.
Before their set at 2:20pm, I got a chance to chat with lead singer and guitarist Howi Spangler of Ballyhoo!. He shared with me the success of the new single “Walk Away,” and writing up new material. As for a new album, that’s still something the band is conjuring up!
The Lions followed up next in the line up at 3:20pm. The Los Angeles based band The Lions is a great musical combination themselves. An all-star line up of top musicians from other bands and artists, The Lions combined great reggae groovin’ style with dub and funk to get their great sound.
To mark out the fabulous time of the day, the blazing sun kept shining down on the Queen Mary Events Park as Passafire jammed at 4:20pm. At one of the hottest parts of the day, Passafire welcomed the crowd with old favorites for the start of the set including “Feel It.” The band kept the upbeat, but irie tempo throughout the set and when I got a chance to chat with bassist Will Kubley about the heat during their sick set, he said he did not even notice!
Prior to their set, I got a chance to sit down with Will and talk about Passafire’s whereabouts for the
next few months. He said how stoked the band is to be touring with Easy Star All-Stars and then to follow it up by hitting the road with Rebelution and Through the Roots. Will shared that Passafire will be doing some headlining shows in the Midwest and on the East Coast for the concluding rest of 2012. When I asked him about new material, he told me that they are just trying to stay focused and keep writing and writing! Nothing set in stone yet but Passafire is making some new strides with new tunes for 2013!
As the sun was thinking about turning it down for the night, Stick Figure hopped on stage at 5:20pm. As one of the rare performances this year and in the last few months, Stick Figure played a fresh set of new songs including “Shelter” from the newly released Burial Ground.
RETURN OF L.B.D.A….
One of the most anticipated sets of the night began at 6:25pm with L.B.D.A. ready to roll with their 1 hour long set! The group is being billed as L.B.D.A. which actually stands for Long Beach Dub Alumni as former members & Sublime alumni, Eric Wilson & Bud Gaugh own the rights to “Dub Allstars.”
Today the L.B.D.A. consists of Marshall Goodman on Drums, Opie Ortiz on Vocals, Jack Maness on Vocals/Guitar & Keys, Miguel Happoldt on Lead Guitar & Vocals, Tim Wu on Sax/Flute & Edwin Kampwirth of Suburban Rhythm on Bass.
I made my way into the middle of the crowd to grab all the great sound and found myself amongst other reggae-rock artists like Howi of Ballyhoo! and drummer Todd Elrod of Mike Pinto Band. With a sunset performance, the crowd was taken out of their element and straight into an exclusive experience with L.B.D.A. The band played crowd favorites in a set that included “Righteous Dub”, “Listen To DJ’s”, “Scarlett Begonias”, “5446/Ball & Chain”, “Soliders” & “My Own Life”.
The Allstars of Long Beach even performed a couple new songs that they debuted at the festival with “Hold On” as well as “Edwin Dub”. “Hold On” was a song that Jack Maness sang vocals on as the group also performed 2 of Jack Maness solo songs with “Frontline” and “The Storm. Jack Maness told The Pier after the show about his songs: “These songs have been a part of this incarnation of musicians for so long so it feels as though its natural to lend them to the set.”
Aside from the Sublime covers, they also performed a re-imagining of The Pinchers “Bandelero”, which according to Todd Elrod, LBDA made the song their own. “I love the LBDA sound, always have. When they covered ‘Bandelero’ they did it in perfect Long Beach style”. As the set finally came to an end, the group closed out the night with “Kick Down” that went right into “Like A Dog” in a 2 song medley.
The group was very interactive with the crowd, proposing beer for the fans getting hammered in the mosh pit as well as turning fan requests for the song “Rosarito” into the band replying “El Torrito? Yea that does sound good after the show”.
It’s been since 2002 that L.B.D.A. has been active as a group. After their epic set, L.B.D.A. had a sweet photo shoot with The Pier’s David Norris as the bright moonlight hit the water in the backdrop. The band was able to share that they have some new material (as was played during their set) but as for some upcoming shows, they said they were just gonna be taking their time before their next move! So there is definitely something in the works, so stick with The Pier because we are just as excited as you to see the next move!
INTO THE NIGHT…
Tribal Seeds followed up with an amazing set! Rockin’ the 7:35pm slot on the lineup, Tribal Seeds jammed out with favorite hits like “Beautiful Mysterious” and “The Garden” rocked newbies like “Night & Day.” The set included a horns section, which brought out all the great roots reggae that Tribal Seeds just does so well time and time again.
Black Uhuru started the night off with some legitimate Jamaican reggae at 8:55pm. The great sound of traditional reggae set the band off with lifted spirits in the crowd. The group has 
been rockin’ their sound since the 70s and 80s and kept the crowd pumped for The Wailers as they got the crowd singing “Out in the streets, they call it murder!”
The Wailers lived up to greatest expectations of getting to hear songs that have only played in my room or as covers by other musicians. Starting the set with “Natural Mystic” sparks and smoke settled in the air around the stage & the classic reggae sway caught the crowd and kept them moving.
When the final song “Redemption Song” started, the crowd was initiated to bring out lighters and cell phones. My friends and I all reached for our lighters and had one of the most epic festival moments with The Wailers.
Shoreline Jam’s diverse lineup brought out crowd favorites, new groups, and ones that we never thought we would have the opportunity to see live! From upcoming bands to the return of greats, Shoreline Jam was an outlet for the music scene to see just what reggae music has up their sleeves when it comes to talent, new style, and traditional feel good tunes that we call reggae.
L.B.D.A. Set List (In No particular order):
Righteous Dub
Listen To DJs
Edwin Dub (New Song)
Scarlett Begonias
5446/Ball & Chain
My Own Life
Soldiers
The Storm (Jack Maness)
Frontline (Jack Maness)
Hold On (New Song)
Bandelero (The Pinchers song re-done)
Kick Down – Like A Dog
The Wailers Set List
Natural Mystic
Soul Rebel
Is This Love
I Shot The Sheriff
Get Up Stand Up
Jamming
Could You Be Loved
Three Little Birds
One Love
Redemption Song
Article By: Alyssa Torres
Photo By: David Norris
-Read our coverage from Shoreline Jam 2011 by clicking HERE.
Video: L.B.D.A. performing the last song of the set with “Like A Dog”. The video comes courtesy of Todd Elrod’s iPhone. This is L.B.D.A. Thank you Todd!
More Photos From Shoreline Jam…
