With The Loop at Pine and Ocean in DTLB has been open for just over a year and it was only appropriate that we return as our free live music series, Live After 5, takes over The Loop to show off its architecture and space on April 13 from 5PM to 9PM.
Presented by Downtown Long Beach Alliance, Live After 5 celebrates the arts and music culture of Downtown Long Beach. The monthly event activates traditional spaces like bars and restaurants as well as non-traditional locations like parks, empty storefronts and street corners with live performers on the second Thursday of each month.
This special reggae edition of Live After 5 will welcome Ease Up as headliners followed by Steel Drummers from Upstream. With a sharper edge, and a reputation for being the life of the party both on and off the stage, Ease Up’s distinctive stage presence puts the party back into its fans and onlookers, taking you back to the days of house parties, all-night ragers, backyard barbeques and crazy summer nights.
Upstream’s multi-talented line up of some of the most experienced and enlightened musicians in their camp continues to spread joy to an unsuspecting public. Adopting music from American jazz and funk, Jamaican reggae, West African drumming, Trinidad calypso and Brazilian bossa nova and samba, steel drummers are a mainstay of reggae music.
The Loop has brought much-needed activation to the 7,700 sq. ft. space that had been dormant for decades after the Jergins Trust Building, which previously occupied the property, was demolished in 1985. Having opened over Grand Prix weekend, thousands have already explored the space but have yet to experience at full throttle as an event space.