![]() ![]() Located in the heart of Orange County, California, Garden Grove has a half-joking nickname amongst the locals: Garbage Gulch. Even if it seems like something else that's only tangentially related to Garden Grove, it really does concern Garden Grove with every verse. This song is about Garden Grove, California. It is impossible to look at the photo of Bradley sitting on the bed, strumming his guitar and singing to his happy infant son, and not get a lump in your throat. The Sublime CD comes with a booklet inside the cover, with photos of the band. Which means Jakob got to know his father just eleven months before he was gone. Photo: Klodien, DreamstimeIf that isn't bad enough timing: He had only been married to his wife, Troy Dendekker, less than two weeks, she having borne his son, Jakob James Nowell, in June of 1995. Taking up the banner since 2009 is Rome Ramirez, an impressive guitarist, vocalist, hype man and, most important, a Sublime fan through and through.Statue of Moses at Crystal Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, California Erring on the reggae-rock end of the spectrum, SOJA spiked its syncopated rhythms with fiery guitar solos, treating the crowd to a sneak preview of tracks off its upcoming LP, “Poetry in Motion,” as the sun finally sank below the horizon.Īrriving at the intersection of skate culture, the beach and punk’s dying gasp, the music of Sublime continues to reflect the experience of SoCal natives, creating a fan base that has only grown following the death of original frontman Brad Nowell. Most people seemed to peruse this area on their way to grabbing some grub, the options for which ranged from kabobs and burgers to taco trucks and bacon-wrapped hot dogs.Īs the day got cooler and the acts got bigger, a larger and larger crowd began to gather on the grass, taking in the sweet harmonies of MAGIC! which performed the Bob Marley classic “Is This Love” as well as its smash hit “Rude.” Local heroes Stick Figure got a warm welcome, playing tunes like “Coming Home” and “Smiles on Faces” and placing a respectable cover of “Hey Jude” at the end of their set. The “vendor village” drew a little less traffic, offering up smoke culture goods, tie-dye shirts and premium cigarellos out of tents with names like “Chronic Candy” –the wares of which you can probably imagine. Everyone was trying to get into the tasting tents before they closed at 4, which didn’t help earlier acts like Tyrone’s Jacket and Tunnel Vision, but offer people unlimited free beer and you know exactly where they’ll be. ![]() ![]() You needed to do nothing more than flash your 21+ ID to be handed an adorable mini-schooner glass and sent through to beer nirvana.Įverything from pilsners to IPAs, from ciders to saisons, were available from local favorites Ballast Point, Barley Forge, Beachwood Brewing, Chapman Crafted, Modern Times and more. While the “carnival rides” listed on the flier turned out to be a lonely swing carousel named YoYo, the craft beer tasting area was just as advertised. That being said, even the most devoted ska fan can’t take eight straight hours of booming, syncopated bass, making entertainment away from the stage a necessity. Whoever was coming up would soundcheck as their predecessors finished up next door, creating an unbelievably efficient turnover that led to every single set starting right on time down to the minute (not what you would expect from a festival being run by a bunch of stoners) and zero stress about missing your favorite acts. Killing time between sets from acts like Iya Tera and Katastro was a nonissue, thanks to the genius who thought of putting the two stages right next to each other. Even though those genres didn’t originate in SoCal, pockets like Long Beach, Venice and most of Orange County became epicenters in the late ’80s and ’90s for the music and the culture that surrounded it, with bands like Sublime creating one of the more recent chapters in the area’s rich musical history. With those two headliners and a name like High & Mighty, one can easily imagine the scene that unfolded - Rastafarian red, yellow, and green at every turn, white guys with dreadlocks, one particularly pungent and unavoidable smell - all soundtracked by a formidable lineup of ska, hip-hop, and reggae bands.īut there’s more to High & Mighty than meets the suspiciously bloodshot eye. A crowd full of these locals descended upon Village Green Park in Garden Grove on Saturday for the first annual High & Mighty Festival, a two-day event from the minds of the contemporary incarnation of Sublime (Sublime with Rome), the Dirty Heads and local radio station KLOS. If you can’t recognize that song in the first five notes, you’re not from around here. For Southern Californians of a certain age, Sublime’s 1996 hit “Santeria” stands as an unofficial anthem.
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