Music fans of all ages in makeup, teased hair and an insurmountable amount of Devo caps made their way to Huntington Beach for the inaugural one-day New Wave and Goth fest, Darker Waves Festival. The all day event’s lineup was jam packed with so many notable 80s bands you needed more than two hands to count along with a slew of current bands continuing a genre finding new life since The Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things arrived on Netflix.
What was originally forecasted as a wet day on the beach turned out to be clear with just the right amount of sun and ocean breeze. Eating our Wheaties was a must in order to power through a truly nonstop event that include nay-say required stages with revolving floors allowing for quick turnovers with each band charged up and ready to start! The event was split up in between three stages Darker, Waves and Tiki each tiered with bands , unlike most standard multi-day music festivals this one didn’t allow too much time to linger and enjoy a full set. That said with this particular fest most standards are thrown out the window as many of the listed acts at this point are once in a lifetime opportunity to capture.
As the day moved and slowly approached the evening’s headliners Tears For Fears and New Order both delivering beautifully with everything I could’ve dreamt for them to play and whose sets were respectively spaced apart so fans could make their way from their corners on the beach and bask a little longer in their sets and singing along with favorite hits. For the most part, the bands stuck with their hits, some of them inserting tracks from their current albums. Personal highlights included Human League sounding like they hadn’t skipped a beat over all these years seeing and experiencing Devo in full affect. Feeling like a teenager again knowing all the words to the Violent Femmes self titled debut they performed in its entirety celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Additionally, finally getting to see The Cardigans serenade all of us and I’d be remiss not mentioning the sheer awesomeness of Soft Cell’s set. The toughest choice of night was the Psychedelic Furs over Echo and the Bunnymen whose sets played simultaneously, the latter getting Some vocal support from The Doors’ Robby Krieger (which included their cover of The Doors’ “People Are Strange”), since Ian McCulloch was still recovering from a bout with laryngitis. On our side of the beach, the Furs came out swinging with the hits and setting the tone with “Heaven” Seemingly a win-win decision for music fans.
My personal experience with all of the day’s music as a kid was countless hours perched in front of my dad’s stereo holding fingers on the tape record button as soon as those favorite songs played on the radio. To have gotten a full booster shot of all of those favorites in one day and to finish It off with New Order and Tears for Fears left me truly in a place of musical zen.
Words and photos by Josh Darr for Pursuit Of Dopeness
