Redondo Beach Lobster Festival 2011 Review & Photos

Food, Music and Atmosphere Shine Again in Annual Event

Despite having been outside on a Friday night, beer going down as if were water after a 10K, fantastic live music on a stage right in front of me and a belly completely satisfied from a delicious steak and lobster dinner, I got mad.

Mad not at the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival, which is great.

Mad not at the atmosphere or location, both of which are outstanding, a festive environment event in a lagoon by King Harbor.

Mad not at the price of a beer which, at $6, is quite reasonable for this type of event.

 

I was mad at one Shari “El” Puorto for not telling me she was in the Woodstock Tribute band that played Friday at the 2011 Lobster Festival. Shari, a friend of the Bar Blogger and PubClub.com, is an outstanding raspy-voiced singer who can belt out tunes the way I can put away beer. At the Lobster Festival, she was dressed as Janis Joplin, which fit her voice as perfectly as the cold Budweisers went with the lobster dinner.

Yet the singer, who prefers to showcase her original tunes in gigs up and down the West Coast, hid this performance from her friends because, well, sometimes she gets shy.

Well good thing I was there, because she and the band were outstanding. They were the highlight of Friday’s festival, a three-day affair that once again proved to be “South Bay worthy.” And it’s proof that anyone who loves a good time and good music in the South Bay should always go to the Lobster Festival because there may be great surprises and it’s far better to experience it in person rather than hearing about it later.

Puorto, looking as if she just emerged from the stage at the actual Woodstock, electrified the crowd with her spot-on rendition of Me and Bobby McGee as her highlight song. Well, that and Piece of My Heart. Wow!

 

She was hardly the only artist on stage. The 2011 Redondo Beach Lobster Festival featured a “who’s who” of tribute bands, including Cashed Out (Johnny Cash, everyone in the South Bay knows of him), James Cruk as Elvis dressed in the black leather of the King’s 1968 Comeback Special, a gal who may not have looked like Tina Turner but certainly sounded a lot like her, and even a guy in flip-flops and Aloha shirt singing Margaritaville (yes, Jimmy Buffett).

For the Bar Blogger, it’s the music (and the beer, which in 2011 had Budweiser, Bud Light, Shock Top and Michelob AmberBock) that is the star of this show, annually held the third weekend in September. For many others, it’s the lobster and the location. In fact, the lobster was so popular that by Sunday evening they had run out of full lobsters and were giving people two tails instead, which seemed a nice compromise.

For more in the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival, click here.