After its inauguration in the Spring of 2014, Shabang festival has returned this year for its highly anticipated 10 year anniversary. A celebration of the art and culture of San Luis Obispo and the California coast, Shabang featured a star-studded lineup accompanied by a wide array of local artists and vendors. While renowned for its eclectic selection of musicians, this year Shabang has pioneered new camping packages, workshops, and experiences; promising to be a memorable, one-of-a-kind weekend, Shabang’s diverse, exceptional lineup is just the cherry-on-top.
After parking our car near Cuesta Ridge, we were immediately met with excited festival goers, decked out head to toe in bohemian outfits, glitter, and funky accessories. Walking towards the venue in Dairy Creek Golf Course, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the setting was: rolling green hills complemented by glimmering sunshine encompassed us in nature, sheltered away from the hustle and bustle of downtown San Luis Obispo.
A quick security checkpoint later, we entered the venue through the first art installation. A colorful arch with the signature Shabang logo served for the perfect background to a photo op, with groups of friends taking turns capturing their experience at the festival.
As we walked towards the Cuesta Ridge stage, we were greeted by smooth indie-rock melodies from SLO based band Margot Sinclair. Their upbeat tracks had the joyful crowd dancing with one another, while other fans surrounded the outskirts of the stage lounging on picnic blankets.
As the sound of screeching guitars and pounding drums echoed across the venue, I was immediately drawn towards the Laguna Lake stage. Rock band Wilt had just begun their set, with lead singer Chelsea Rifkin’s vocals taking center stage. Channeling the likes of Nirvana, and The Cranberries, their powerful rock ballads complemented the eclectic set of sounds present on the Shabang lineup. Their cover of “Covet” by Basement was met with cheers from the crowd, as the audience joined Rifkin in shouting the lyrics while Aaron Liebman’s screaming guitar replicated the heavy, grunge riffs. For the entirety of their hour-long set, Rifkin commanded every inch of the stage, physically expressing the sentiments in her music through impassioned interactions with the audience.
One of my favorite parts of this festival was the diverse array of vendors stationed across different points in the venue. In between music breaks, you could buy a fur coat, get a brand-new ear piercing, thrift vintage clothes, and have an artist paint your portrait. It’s this array of local vendors and creatives that characterizes Shabang, and sets it apart from many other music festivals. This festival perfectly encapsulates the spirit of SLO, with volunteers from the community helping to bring the festival together, while local artisans displayed their tents throughout the grounds. Shabang is not only a celebration of music, but also a space to appreciate art, meet local creatives, and immerse yourself in a world of interactive exhibits.
As the sun lowered to the horizon, festival goers flocked towards Laguna Lake to witness Sun Room’s set. For over an hour, the socal based band ignited the stage with their upbeat surf rock tracks. With Luke Asgian on vocals, Ashton Minnich on guitar, Max Pinamonti on bass, and Thomas Rhodes on drums, the quartet had the crowd jumping up and down to tracks such as “Fun” and “Sunset Garage.” Their soulful, beachy sound embodied the carefree spirit of the Shabang festival, with jangle guitar riffs and groovy bass lines evoking the essence of lounging on a sunny California shore.
Despite the staggering 10,000 attendees and 5 different stages, Shabang felt remarkably accessible. With the ability to migrate from one stage to another within minutes and grab a bite to eat along the way, we wasted no time navigating between sets.
Sitting on a hill under a canopy of stars, we watched George Clanton’s performance. As the last act on the Cuesta Ridge stage for the night, Clanton performed hits such as “Warmpop” and “Make It Forever,” his synth-heavy tracks forming a nostalgic and dreamy sonic atmosphere that could be heard from every corner of the venue.
Just after 9 PM, you could feel the excitement buzzing in the air in anticipation of Peach Pit’s appearance on the mainstage. Bathed in shifting colorful spotlights, the Vancouver based band’s brilliance was showcased through their musicianship, with Christopher Vanderkooy’s guitar setting the perfect backdrop for Neil Smith’s dreamy vocals. Seasoned festival performers, Peach Pit’s experience was evident as they powered through their set, seamlessly incorporating new sonic elements such as a violin on “Private Presley.” After closing out the night, the crowd erupted into cheers, begging the band for an encore. To the fans’ elation, Peach Pit returned to the main stage, delivering the fan favorite “Shampoo Bottles.” Satisfied with the perfect end to a day filled with eclectic musical acts and lively art installations, the festival goers returned to their cars and camping grounds, dreaming of what was to come on the second day.
Saturday’s festivities were preceded by a desperate, unintentional tour of SLO’s downtown in pursuit of what basically became Shabang’s mandatory Saturday getup: rain ponchos. With gray skies promising all-day drizzles, an unlikely savior, SLO’s military surplus, Camp N’ Pack, with endless plastic packages of ponchos promised a dry-ish day two.
Gone were the colorful bloomers, leather sandals, and tiny tops. In their place, sturdier boots and battered tennis shoes fought for traction against mud and rain alike, a perpetual dampness unavoidable upon entering the open-air festival grounds, rapidly becoming subject to a veritable downpour. And without sugarcoating or hyperbolizing, the rain somehow made the Shabang experience more…fun? From beneath my $4.99 glorified tablecloth with armholes, it was deliriously easy to ignore the preoccupations typically intent on upsetting my show experiences: do I look stupid, is my top about to fall off, is my outfit acceptable?
It seems I was not alone in being touched by the rain. In fact, as my friends and I ventured over to Kate Bollinger’s set upon entry, we made it just in time to catch her fond recollection of a mushrooms trip that left her marveling over why people don’t go on rain-walks all the time. While psychedelics might have been responsible for shifting gloom weather from something barely tolerable to ecstasy-inducing, something about the dichotomy between hearing Bollinger’s gentle, whisper-of-a-singing-voice as wind whipped rain into my face made Bollinger’s set that much more ethereal. Spared from the elements beneath a tarp-covered stage, Bollinger’s charisma was radiant, projecting as she managed to create an intimate vibe with personal anecdotes and honey-sweet vocals.
Couch Dog, a punchy, local SLO favorite, commanded the Cuesta Ridge stage with Julian Casablancas-esque distorted vocals, somehow convincing a very wet and very muddy crowd to mosh in time with their upbeat tracks. Perhaps the energy and eagerness of Couch Dog’s fans subconsciously broke some dam inside my normally self-conscious brain, but in the blink of an eye my companions and I had formed our very own dance circle, unleashing our collective awkwardness as rain continued to pour. With Couch Dog’s crowd-pleasing grooves the perfect backdrop, my friends-turned-dancers and I made our way through the wave, stankly leg, and a plethora of movements too cringe-inducing to name in writing; it was perfect.
Having exhausted ourselves at Cuesta Ridge, the sheltered Silent Disco, soon to host the internet sensation, DJ Mandy, seemed an ideal sensory experience to reverse the social experiment we seem to have just run with our dance moves. Though of course, having seen DJ Mandy’s short-form videos pop onto my feed for months now, I was quite curious as to how her unserious mixing would translate into a public set, assuming she would not play an entire set of laugh-inducing airhorn transitions overlaid with Lana Del Rey monologues. However, to the despair of my friends and I, it seemed Silent Disco was far over-capacity, with a line snaking nearly three quarters of the way across the festival. If anything, it was a testimony to the success and virality of DJ Mandy, a definitive act to watch in the coming months.
Our failure at the Silent Disco was accompanied by some blessings though, namely that we were able to experience the entirety of The Walters’ set, and subsequent rainbow! Taking over Laguna Lake, The Walters’ crowd spilled out of wood-pillar and canopy designated entrances, festival goers watching intently as frontman Luke Olson shuddered and swayed in a vaguely ‘70s rock-and-roll inspired jig (or maybe it was just the tight jeans). Seemingly aware of the favorable attention garnered thanks to a Tik Tok resurgence of 2014’s “I Love You So,” Olson good-naturedly poked fun at new fans even while delivering a well-paced setlist full of oldies, goodies, and everything in between. With crooning vocals and easy-going riffs, it was easy to luxuriate in The Walters’ midwest-tinged indie rock, a perfect fit for the granola motifs peppered throughout Shabang’s (still very damp) grounds. When The Walters did get to crowd-favorites “Fancy Shoes” and “I Love You So,” the crowd’s elated response seemed to validate the rejoining of the, until recently, broken up group (which Olson fondly recalled as a time where he “hated” guitarist Walter Kosner as well as other members). What truly stole the show though, was the sun’s mystical breakthrough from behind a wall of clouds, little-by-little emerging in golden rays that bathed the festival in light for the first time that day. Having played “Over the Rainbow” earlier in their set, it seemed The Walters had perhaps manifested the universe’s parting gift to their Shabang set: a beautifully developing rainbow arcing directly behind Laguna Lake stage. There are few words I can think of to describe the perfection of that moment, watching faces resurface from beneath finally-useless poncho hoods, warmth returning to chase away the chill that had set in.
Absolutely devouring a steaming hot burrito from the press lounge seemed a good way to celebrate the return of the sun, and with it, a stunning magenta sunset above Dairy Creek Golf Course’s rolling green hills. We couldn’t get too comfortable though. As the clock struck 7:55 PM, my friends and I speed-walked to Thundercat’s Laguna Lake set, aware time was not on our side as we finally worked up the motivation to depart from the peace offered by the press lounge.
Thundercat abated that departure from comfort, providing his own sort of comfort with a bubbly, at times charmingly nerdy set. Giggling about Star Wars and Dragonball, Stephen Lee Bruner, better known as Thundercat, charmed the crowd with an eccentric charisma, You couldn’t help but cheer Bruner on as he celebrated himself, as well as other black artists (Steve Lacy, Kendrick Lamar) for “making it out of Compton.” While coming in somewhat unfamiliar with the majority of Thundercat’s discography, I was absolutely blown away by the jazz-fusion, R&B amalgamation that saw the talented musician moving too fast to visually track on the bass. In extremely unprofessional terminology, experiencing Thundercat’s music felt like being inside a game of Mario Kart, with the urgency and vibrancy of the fusion tracks accompanying Mario as he races the streets reflected in the giddiness I experienced listening to his instrumentally-focused tracks. You couldn’t help but bounce! And that doesn’t even but a candle to when Thundercat’s buttery smooth vocals came into play. Adding an entirely new dimension to his sound, that voice transformed “Funny Thing” and “Walk On By,” Thundercat essentials that rely on the musicians crooning to elevate relatively simple instrumentation.
I left Shabang beyond satiated, the only traces of mishap being the mud caked onto my Doc Martens. Overall, the festival embodied escapism in nature, offering attendees the opportunity to isolate themselves away from society and just let go. Dairy Creek Golf Course was the perfect venue for the occasion, expansive enough to provide separation between stages yet compact enough that it took less than five minutes to walk from one side to the other. Local antique and food and beverage vendors furthered the communal, community vibe, while friendly staff were the cherry on top to what I would easily refer to as one of my favorite festival experiences yet.
