When a three-day music festival takes place 25 miles from my home, how can I not attend it? The crazy thing is that I bought tickets back in February or March when we were in Asia.
Oceans Calling music festival took place this past weekend in Ocean City, Maryland. As someone who has attended approximately 20 Jazz Fest over the last thirty years, Oceans Calling was a bit different. First off there are only three stages and secondly, instead of taking place at a horse race track, Oceans Calling takes place on the beach with waves from the Atlantic Ocean crashing just a couple of first downs from the crowd.
Friday
The first act we saw Friday was Winona Fighter. The lead finger, Coco had incredible punk rock energy.
The next act we saw was Phillip Phillips. The name sounded familiar to me and when I looked him up I saw that he was an American Idol winner. Since I’m not a fan of television music contest shows, that was a negative to me. We only stuck around for a couple of songs.
The best thing we saw on Friday was Larkin Poe. The band is fronted by sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell played southern rock which would make the Allman Brothers proud.
Larkin Poe is the reason to attend music festivals, to discover something new that you really like and want to see again.
The next act we saw were hometown legends O.A.R. They have been around for years but this was my first time seeing them live. They played an energetic set and did not disappoint.
Next we watched 311, a band that had some success in the 1990’s. They are sort of a generic 90’s band.
We finally made it to the Carousel stage, which is a tent (way smaller than the tents we are accustomed to at Jazz Fest). Speaking of Jazz Fest, we saw The Revivalists, from New Orleans. We’ve seen them perform a couple of times at Jazz Fest and they always put on a good show.
The rain really started coming down while we were in the tent. One of the acts I was really excited to see was coming up next, Sublime. They were playing the outdoor Rockville stage.
Sublime is now fronted by Jakob Nowell, son of original frontman Bradley Nowell. The first half of the set was a bit uninspiring, it may have been the rain, or the stoppage in playing due to a medical emergency near the front of the stage, or that we were way far back due to the crowd size. The second half of Sublime’s set was strong as they played the songs everyone wanted to hear.
Due to the rain, we did not stick around Friday’s headliner, Blink-182. The rest of the weekend we heard we made the right decision as Blink came on late, played a very short set, and the sound was awful.
Saturday
After all the rain Friday night, we were treated to a beautiful sunny Saturday. We arrived to see The Samples, a roots-rock band from Colorado that has been around for decades.
Led by Jon Foreman, Switchfoot put on a good rock and roll set.
The next act we saw were The Beaches, an all women band from Toronto. These ladies rocked and I really enjoyed their sound and would definitely see them again.
Saturday’s highlight for me was seeing The Hives. I am very familiar with them from the amount of airplay they receive on SiriusXM Underground Garage. This Swedish band truly rocked. The frontman, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist has amazing energy, even though he announced he ripped his ACL the week before.
The band wore matching tuxedos and the two roadies are dressed as ninjas. During one of the songs they stopped and froze for two minutes (including the ninja roadies), it was fucking cool. The punk-rock, guitar-rock band is a must see.
We hung out during Young The Giant, but really didn’t get into it. Could be a hangover from The Hives.
After having dinner on the boardwalk, we went to the way over-crowded Carousel Stage to see All-American Rejects. There was no reason for them to playing the smallest of the three stages. The band had good energy and acknowledged that they were playing mainly to an audience that first heard of them when they were in middle school (not in my case).
Following The All-American Rejects the gridlock between stages really got bad. We finally got in position to see the screen for The Offspring. We only stuck around for the first half of their set as we wanted to get in good position for The Killers. What we heard rocked!
The Killers headlined Saturday and were at the largest stage, Sea Bright. Surprisingly we got up pretty close for them. I just saw The Killers at Jazz Fest in April and both shows were entertaining, Brandon Flowers is a great frontman. I realize The Killers have put out new music since their debut album Hot Fuss, it is amazing they are headlining festivals due to the success of that twenty year old album.
Sunday
We started our Sunday with another Colorado band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters. They were a good band to start the day for us.
We made our way over to Sea Bright stage to see Guster. I was not familiar with Guster but they played a nice set of adult oriented rock (I guess I am their target audience).
Next up for us was Blues Traveler. I’ve seen Blues Traveler before at Jazz Fest and at Merriweather Post Pavilion. John Popper has lost weight and sounded good.
The highlight for me on Sunday was seeing Barenaked Ladies. We left the Blues Traveler set early to get close for BNL. The Toronto based band didn’t disappoint as they played a fun entertaining set.
O.A.R. & Friends were next up. Some of the friends included Junior Marvin (who was in the Wailers), Lisa Loeb, John Popper, Arrested Development, and Dee Snider. I didn’t have Dee Snider on my bingo card for the weekend, but it was great hearing a couple Twisted Sister anthems (even though the sound quality was weak at the Rockville stage).
We skipped Mt. Joy and Boyz II Men to get dinner, watch Red Zone while we enjoyed our pizza, and watch the Cleveland Browns lose again.
We finished our musical adventure weekend with Counting Crows. it’s been forever since I last saw them live.
We did not stick around for Sunday’s headliner, Dave Mathews Band as Kyle had to drive back to Arlington since he had work this morning.
Jane joined me on Friday but she gave up her wristband to Kyle for Saturday and Sunday. It was a good trade for all, she got to hang with Kyle’s dog Brisket, and Kyle got to see some pretty good music, and I got to hang with Kyle!
Some thoughts on Oceans Calling:
Overall it was an enjoyable experience. The crowds between Rockville, Carousel, and bathrooms in the evening was a total clusterfuck and there needs to be more space between these venues.
The sound quality from the secondary towers was awful. It just wasn’t loud enough.
It was cool to find places to eat on the Ocean City boardwalk instead of being monopolized by festival food.
Why are The Beach Boys being booked at festivals? They were at Jazz Fest, Bourbon & Beyond, and Oceans Calling (probably other festivals as well). Mike Love is such a tool, they are a novelty act.
Need a ten minute gap between sets so we don’t need to leave sets early to catch another one on the opposite side of the festival.
Keep rocking!!!
Traveling Walters 