Just Like Heaven has a knack, and they manage to execute that knack year after year. Putting together a stellar billing that strikes at indie-centric nostalgia, without feeling like it is a one-trick pony grasping to maintain relevancy. Instead, it seemingly has a firm grasp of exactly what the Pasadena festival needs to thrive, and thrive it does drawing out fans in the thousands to Brookside at the Rose Bowl on a Saturday in May.
Doors opened right at noon, with a healthy crowd already accruing at the gates waiting to get into the festival grounds, being greeted by sounds from Chris Cruse and Them Jeans DJ-ing on the Stardust and Orion stages, respectively, before both stages kicked off with their first bands of the day just before 1 PM. Be Your Own Pet got the privilege of opening up the day on the Orion stage. Playing to the eager crowd that had already rolled in, the Nashville quartet opened with their 2006 song “Thresher’s Flail” and 2008’s “Heart Throb” before singer Jemina Pearl made note that the band was performing songs they wrote in high school, and then jumping into a track, “Hand Grenade,” off of their 2023 release, Mommy, the band’s first record in 15 years. The rest of the set would mostly consist of songs off of their self-titled record and Get Awkward. The band brought great energy to the stage and really got the ball rolling on the day.
Just a few minutes later, the turntable Orion stage spun and Brazilian act CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) announced their presence with an intro of “We Like to Party” by Venga Boys. Closing out their It’s Been a Number of Years Tour, their first tour in 11 years, at the festival, the band opened with the track “CSS Suxxx,” as singer Lovefoxxx worked her way back and forth across the behemoth of a stage, filling the air with CSS’s infectiously catchy dance-punk songs.
At the other end of the fest, backed up by the historic Rose Bowl, laid the Stardust stage, where Warpaint, the Los Angeles-based band would captivate the crowd with a six-song set that seamlessly flowed from “Radiate Like This” openers “Champion” and “Hips,” into 2011’s “Elephants.” The band’s chilled-out, vibey sound was a welcome respite, with Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mosgawa effortlessly propelling the band forward on bass and drums. At the same time, Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman’s guitar parts entranced anyone within earshot.
Back on the Orion Stage, Sleigh Bells stormed the stage and began their sonic assault with all the fervor and frenzy you would expect from the damn near impossible-to-classify duo. The frenetic riffs from Derek Miller paired with singer Alexis Krauss’s soaring melodies were captivating (and exactly what one would expect if one had attended any Sleigh Bells show in the past fifteen years). There is something remarkably unique about Sleigh Bell’s sound. The noise and distortion. The poppy hooks. The clear (to this writer) metalcore influence. It’s something that tickles my brain in a way that few other bands have or could. In a sort of circular energy exchange, Krauss flew back and forth from stage left to right, with the crowd returning every ounce of energy back to the band. They pulled every bit of energy they could from the crowd and gave it right back to them over a forty-minute set that was easily a highlight of the day.
I would have been remiss had I skipped out on seeing the legendary Broken Social Scene. Unlike some other artists playing JLH, this was my first time seeing Broken Social Scene, though I had been listening to them since college when I was shown the record You Forgot It in People. Pulling into the festival parking lot earlier in the morning, I was greeted by “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” playing over the PA as a queue started to amass at GA gates, and while the lyrics “Park that car, drop that phone,” may have felt a bit on the nose, it was a perfect welcome to the Rose Bowl. When the band took the stage a bit over three hours later, the crowd (and myself) would be treated to a setlist comprised primarily of tracks off of the aforementioned record, as well as a track or two from their 2005 self-titled record, and 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record. The band would ultimately treat the audience to a performance of “Anthems” with Emily Haines, also of Metric, joining them on stage for the song.
Before they played a single note, Tegan and Sara were already joking with the audience that had been steadily filtering into the festival as the day marched on. Poking fun at their wardrobe selection for the show saying they tried to find something bright to wear (while wearing a dark hoodie and a black IDLES t-shirt). The humor persisted between songs, be it a joke about edibles before playing “Smoking Weed Alone,” or commenting on their sincere gratitude to be playing the festival, and music in general, while commenting that they are both otherwise unemployable after spending the past 25 years making music. They would play songs going back to 2002, pulling “Living Room,” into the setlist, as well as tracks like “The Con” and “Closer.”
I’ve caught a handful of club shows that Phantogram has headlined over the past couple of years, be it at House of Blues, or opening up a new venue in LA, and they have always brought an incredible show and tight performance, but I had never seen them at a festival before this edition of Just Like Heaven. It should come as no surprise that the duo of Sara Barthel and Josh Carter were as tight as ever. The pair opened the set with “You’re Mine,” its alternating vocal parts going back and forth, pulling the crowd in, before launching into the massive “Black Out Days,” the familiar refrains of “Stay away” echoed back by pretty much every human hearing the set. The band also introduced and played for the first time live a new song, “All a Mystery,” off of their upcoming album due out in the coming weeks.
After a quick walk/jog back to the Stardust Stage, I caught Alvvays. Unlike many of the bands at the fest, often playing setlists comprised heavily of songs from records that came out between 2003 and 2011, Alvvays opted for a set that pulled nine tracks from their 2022 release Blue Rev, while still making sure to touch on their eponymous record as well as Antisocialites, with each record adding two songs to the set. Singer Molly Rankin made sure to apologize to any very online guys before jumping into “Very Online Guy,” earning a genuine laugh from much of the crowd watching on, stretching back into some of the golf course’s sand traps where they could watch the stage over the heads of those assembled closer to the stage.
Just Like Heaven alum Passion Pit brought their electropop to the forefront on the Orion Stage and with it an abundance of energy. Singer Michael Angelakos used every millimeter of the stage, working his way from side to side as he sang “The Reeling” and “Take a Walk,” before continuing through a setlist comprised exclusively of songs from Manners and Gossamer, a decision that certainly appeased attendees as they danced along for the entirety of the forty-five-minute set.
I don’t know if there is a better way to kick off Golden Hour than Metric opening their set with “Gold Guns Girls.” The five-time Juno Award winners enthralled their audience, playing a set that played favorites off of Fantasies, as well as some more recent songs off of Formentera and Formentera II, before ultimately closing with “Black Sheep.”
Sometimes, you walk up to a stage and see a massive production piece that makes you pause for a moment. Miike Snow’s giant computer-synth setup provided one of those moments on Saturday evening. The band, all in white button-up shirts and ties, played a set dominated by songs from their 2009 self-titled album, plus a new song to be released on May 24th. Through the course of the Swedish band’s set, American singer Andrew Wyatt would often retreat back to the synths to sing through alternative mics.
“Seven albums, fifty minutes,” Phoenix’s Thomas Mars said as the band hurried between songs. They would actually play songs from five records, but I don’t think any of the thousands of onlookers would have called them out on it. Certainly not after opening by ripping the band-aid off and going straight for “Lisztomania” to kick the set off.
Somewhere during Death Cab for Cutie’s play through of Transatlanticism, singer Ben Gibbard remarked about how he likes the one-day festival. Get in, get out. No tomorrow. Go nuts. And frankly, I don’t think much could encapsulate Just Like Heaven any better — maybe if I could make a space pun to go along with it, but alas — taking so many bands that may have had a few heads scratching, but all fit so perfectly together, without ever feeling monotonic or repetitive. Every band and artist that stepped onto the stages brought their own sound and approach and gave everyone the opportunity to discover new-to-them bands that they may not have otherwise found in an age of curated playlists and TikTok virality, myself included.
