Warm-up act: All-star cast of Royal Machines gets people rocking one day before event's biggest race
Saturday night's Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach concert got off to a slow start, but once the Royal Machines and the crowd found their footing, their energy eventually matched what the racegoers built during the event's first two days.
As is tradition, a concert rounded out the
penultimate day of the Grand Prix on Saturday. The Los Angeles-based band is composed of prominent rock stars.
During the first few songs in the set, however, the rock didn't quite roll as the band had a hard time competing with the sound of revving race cars nearby.
“Can we shut those Grand Prix cars up?” yelled Mark McGrath, the singer for both the Royal Machines and Sugar Ray, for which he's most known for.
But by their fourth song — as the audience grew in numbers and as the band members found their footing — the performers were finally able to drown out the roars of Super Drift cars with a lively performance of “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol.
Billy Morrison, who also is a guitarist for Idol, led the performance, which finally got the crowd to sing along, yelling: “More, more, more!”
From that point, the energy was in full swing. The crowd sang along to more tunes, including Sugar Ray's “Fly” and Blink-182's “All the Small Things,” pumping their fists and bopping their heads to the beats. Throughout the show, the band brought out other all-star musicians, including Dexter Holland from Offspring and Gavin Rossdale from Bush.
Holland strolled on the stage to thundering applause, riling up the crowd even more with his performance of “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” by AC/ DC and Rossdale continued that energy with his rendition of the Clash's “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”
It was a love letter to rock and roll, a love that continued beyond the music.
“I love you Long Beach,” McGrath said between songs, “I really love you.”
The Royal Machines, which performs covers of well-known rock songs, is composed of McGrath, Morrison, Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney of Jane's Addiction and Donovan Leitch and Josh Freese of The Vandals.
Freese is one of Long Beach's own. He lives in the city's Bluff Park neighborhood, he said at the concert.
The concert continued the day's party into the evening — one that heated up as the temperatures cooled down — after a long day of race-watching and drinking. As the band played more well-known songs, more empty beer cups littered the floor and the party raged on.
“It's nice to see the crowd back,” said Gil Verdin, 39, a San Pedro resident who has been going to the Grand Prix since he was 10. “The energy is back.”
Verdin noted this Grand Prix was Long Beach's first major event without COVID-19 restrictions. The last Grand Prix in September was held with a bevy of guidelines, including mandatory masks and proof of vaccination or negative tests.
Saturday's concert, along with the Grand Prix, has no such requirements. The Long Beach Health and Human Services Department currently doesn't have coronavirus requirements for mega-events and with thousands at the Grand Prix, the only indications of the pandemic were noted by the smattering of folks who wore masks or the several signs throughout the grounds saying, “masks strongly required.”
Despite the BA.2 subvariant becoming a rising concern in Los Angeles County, concertgoers were relieved to party and rock on without any health restrictions.
“It's been nice to get out,” said Chris Persechini, 39, from Banning.
Today marks the final day of the Acura Grand Prix of LongBeac, when the IndyCars will compete.
But if the IndyCars are the Grand Prix's main act, Royal Machines served as a revelatory warm up.