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It’s been a while since we’ve seen a homegrown Downtown music festival like We the Beat’s Paradice Festival. The Life Is Beautiful music and arts festival has all but dissolved and nothing has emerged to take its place. But stepping into the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center—into Paradice itself—revitalized that feeling of being in a weekend bubble, celebrating the magic of great music with your friends. Although the footprint of Paradice Festival nowhere near compares to an 18-block takeover, the culture still surrounded us. There were lowriders, a station for airbrush tattoos, merch booths from Zia Records and, of course, the music.
We the Beat’s been booking artists on the brink of discovery since the days of the Bunkhouse. So, it’s no surprise that Paradice Festival’s lineup absolutely ripped. The grooving soundscapes of Colombia’s Balthvs lulled the audience into a trance-like state. And for a trio, the sound filled the events center beautifully. Under the sunny open sky, fill-in bassist Vanessa Cejudo was an absolute vision. Her radiant smile matched the way that she played, warm and teasing. And Balthazar Aguirre (guitars/vocals) seemed to embrace that energy with a tireless, synergistic level of jam.
LA LOM magnified that feeling with a Peruvian cumbia dance party. They brandished bongos and an upright bass, along with a pedal steel guitar and maracas. And the flavor of that music changed with the wind, from saucy island surf to guitar-licking Latin stompers.
The noisy, spaced-out reverb of JMSN served as a sharp but pleasant contrast to all this. The musician stepped onstage with his band all sporting identical longjohns and shaved heads, providing no distraction to the spectacle of guitar playing that would ensue. Over the next hour, JMSN whisked us away into a distorted wash of white noise. They played loose, fast and loud. On “Dirty Dog,” JMSN even broke out a cowbell and a tambourine, wagging his hips like a feverish hound.
But as lightning rolled in overhead, the band was forced to take a break. Festival security advised fans to retreat from the stage area for their safety as the storm began to pass. Within 15 minutes we were back to enjoying the show and it remained on schedule, which is something you don’t often see after a delay.
Like a well-curated mixtape, these sets just flowed into each other. The non-overlapping schedule gave artists a solid hour of performance, with 30-minute breaks in between. And Paradice’s curation really paid off in the later hours when Ravyn Lenae and Thee Sacred Souls took the stage. Both artists held court in their own domains of R&B and retro-soul. Lenae, accompanied by just a drummer and one guitarist, had the unenviable task of performing without a full-blown band. But that didn’t stop her from brandishing her finest instrument: her voice. Slaying her way through “1 of 1,” “From Scratch” and “Love Me Not,” the singer-songwriter proved herself to be worthy of all the hype. Thee Sacred Souls then closed out the night, the trio’s warm, Motown sound leading us literally into paradise.
We the Beat founded Paradice Festival to bring retro soul and funk fans together. This event knocked that initiative out of the park. Fingers crossed we’ll be welcomed back into Paradice for years to come.
English (US) ·