Review: Stefani, Morissette spark a ‘Hella Good’ start to Minnesota Yacht Club festival

Experience matters. Even in rock ‘n’ roll — and especially at rock ‘n’ roll festivals.

After eight months of cutesy marketing and ample media coverage, St. Paul’s Minnesota Yacht Club festival finally set sail Friday on Harriet Island Regional Park and got off to a remarkably swift and smooth start for an inaugural music fest. Credit for its success should largely go to its seasoned crew.

The music lineup in the fest is heavily loaded with old pros, and that proved not to be a bad thing Friday. Opening day’s feminist rock trifecta of Alanis Morissette, Gwen Stefani and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts all skillfully strutted their stuff and showed the kids how to get it done. Never mind that there were very few kids among the crowd of 34,000 fans.

As much as those venerable performers deserve props, though, so do the operators of Minnesota’s first new major music fest in more than a decade.

The event was launched by C3 Presents, the Texas-founded company behind Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and a couple dozen more festivals. These folks truly know the music fest business. About time Twin Cities fans benefitted from it.

Yacht Club’s electronic wristbands and well-trained security staff made for smooth entrances. The stage production and sound were primo. The layout and flow between the two stages was well-organized. The music ran nearly nonstop and on time. And all the assorted VIP and “platinum” areas offered added comfort for those willing to pay at least a few hundred bucks more more than the relatively good-value $215-$255 general-admission two-day passes.

One noticeable snag: Food and drink lines got long as the crowd swelled in the late afternoon. Good thing many Minnesotans are too cheap to down $15 beers, or things could’ve been worse.

Seriously, though, the crowd on opening day was discernibly devoid of youth and almost exclusively middle-aged. MYC’s lack of musical and generational diversity could be considered a shortcoming for what was billed as a hip, modern festival.

All those teens and college kids buying up throwback Chili Peppers and No Doubt T-shirts at Urban Outfitters and Kohl’s are apparently more into cheap fashion ware than they are those bands’ music, because none of them showed up to Yacht Club on opening day. If they had to move the festival to September for any reason, falling on a school day probably wouldn’t hurt attendance much.

There’s plenty to learn and apply to future years. In the meantime, here are some general takeaways from Friday’s festival:

Women obviously ruled the day. It was a nostalgic lineup, sure, but this one trait about Friday’s lineup could be seen as a hip, modern element. Aside from specifically targeted events like Lilith Fair, you never would have seen a festival with that many female singers atop the poster card in the 1990s, when Morissette and Stefani’s old band No Doubt were in their heyday; certainly not in the ‘80s, when Jett dominated.

Losing the Black Crowes on the lineup due to illness was a real disappointment, but that just emphasized the women headliners all the more. What’s more, the day also saw electrifying sets by a couple other women-led acts, too: Country rocker Morgan Wade and the punky hometown band who kicked off the day in hard-throttling style, Gully Boys.

Stefani seemed to be having the most fun. Her husband, Blake Shelton, may have wisely picked up on the strong feminine vibe when he showed up to sing one song with her — and only one! — their new single “Purple Irises,” compared with the three she sang with him in town at his TC Summer Jam gig in 2022. That bit seemed to delight her a lot, but so did the crowd’s excited reaction throughout her 75-minute performance, from “Sunday Morning” at the start to the mid-set groover “Hella Good” to her firebrand penultimate song, “Just a Girl.”

“Think about how many years I’ve been loving you guys!” she cheered before the latter hit, adding, “This song means even more nowadays.” Especially on this day.

The elder stateswoman rocked the hardest. This was the best and most bombastic of Jett’s many gigs here in recent years. Of course, the 65-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s main hits went over in a big way at a big, summery music fest, including “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Bad Reputation” and the Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb.” She also dropped in a cool batch of edgier, deeper cuts with inclusive messaging, including “Different” and a cover of the Minnesota classic “Androgynous,” which she introduced by saying, “I’m a big fan of this band and its songwriter, Paul Westerberg and the Replacements.”

Morissette hasn’t changed much (and that’s a good thing). With an orange-ish moon adding dramatic ambience overhead, the Canadian record-maker/breaker put on a rather gutsy, in-your-face, 90-minute performance predictably filled with her big hits, including “One Hand in My Pocket” as the opener and “You Oughta Know” near the end. But she made the set way better than just a nostalgic singalong by delivering some similarly emphatic-sounding, inner-tumultuous newer songs, including the epic piano ballad “Rest” and the rockier “Smiling,” the latter written for her hit Broadway musical, “Jagged Little Pill.” Her voice was as strong as ever, her band was versatile, and she clearly deserved being the headliner.

There was one new element to the show we didn’t see in the ‘90s, though: Morissette brought out her daughter Onyx, age 8, and another young friend to sing “Ironic.” How ironic to hear it sung with such sweetness.

Even the younger acts sang the Gen-X hits. Wade earned loud cheers for her semi-ironic cover of Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl.” Nerdy but impactful Kalamazoo indie-rocker Michigander sang part of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” The U2 song fit his own lost-wanderer, soul-searching vibe, evidenced by his unreleased tune that followed, “Giving Up.” And after their own hit “Who’s Laughing Now,” local rockers Durry ended their set with a rousing take on Jimmyeatworld’s “The Middle” (technically a millennials hit, but close enough).

The day’s breakout performer was… . Sporting a Jett T-shirt and playing under a blazing midafternoon sun — things would soon cool down nicely with cloud cover — Wade coolly delivered an ultra-impressive set of musically refined, ruggedly poetic twang-rock that greatly contrasted her choice of covers. The Virginia singer came off like a tattooed Stevie Nicks in down-and-out rockers like “The Night” and “2 AM in London,” each fueled by her smoky but sweet voice. A genuine wow.

What about Day Two? The bro factor should be much higher on Saturday, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlining, preceded by the Offspring, Gary Clark Jr., the Hold Steady, Soul Asylum and Hippo Campus. Tickets are sold-out except for some higher-end platinum and VIP options.