7 things not to miss at Life is Beautiful 2022

Life is Beautiful, and it’s about to get more so.

Downtown Vegas’ nationally renowned, three-day music, arts and food fest is back for year nine, spanning 18 city blocks, seven stages and a whole lot of worn-down tread on the soles of your Nikes.

There will be plenty for the ears, with 150 performers, spanning EDM heavyweight Calvin Harris, insistently funky Brits Jungle, Irish singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy, indie popster/comedian Oliver Tree and scads more.

As well as an abundance for the eyes with a ton of art, from murals galore to installation pieces by Justkids, Seattle artist Neon Saltwater and designers Space Objekt and Reza Hasni creating an immersive light display for the first time in America.

Of course, there will be a silent disco with free Slurpees inside an El Cortez parking structure (the 7-Eleven Brainfreeze Garage).

Here are a few more things not to miss at Life is Beautiful 2022:

The returnees

“They’re turning us into monsters,” Damon Albarn bellowed as if he swallowed a bullhorn. “Turning us into fire.”

But by that point, the transformation felt complete, as the Gorillaz frontman scratched at his guitar, eliciting squalls of feedback, bringing the noise and then some. The song was “Kids With Guns,” an incendiary highlight of the virtual band’s festival-closing set at Life is Beautiful 2017.

Five years later, the Gorillaz are back to go ape once more.

They’re among a number of festival returnees who wowed the crowd in years past.

British rockers and Friday headliners Arctic Monkeys electrified LIB in 2014 with an equally muscular and seductive set; popster Lorde plays the LIB for the third time this weekend; electropop chanteuse Charli XCX was an up-and-comer when she performed during the fest’s inaugural year in 2013; now she’s a star.

And then there are rockers Cage the Elephant, who put on a daring, in-your-face, Stooges-meets-Stones performance in 2014. “I’m not your punching bag,” frontman Matt Shultz howled during one of the band’s signature tunes.

No, that was the crowd’s role.

The fresh blood

Five LIB newcomers not to miss:

Beach House: Dream pop favorites should entrance like a hypnotist’s swinging pocket watch.

Slowthai: There’s “Nothing Great About Britain,” this political-minded English rapper contends in the title of his acclaimed 2019 debut — we’d argue that he’s a clear exception.

Pussy Riot: The Russian protest/art/punk troupe spoke at Life is Beautiful 2014. This year, they hit the stage. Stage, you’ve been warned.

Wet Leg: This British indie rock duo’s self-titled debut is one of the best albums of 2022 thanks to these two making existential angst sound playful somehow.

100 Gecs: Get your “Hand Crushed by a Mallet” when this hyperpop duo sucks the air out of your lungs in what is destined to be one of the fest’s most manic performances ever.

The laughs

Reading these words shows you clearly appreciate intensely well-crafted attempts at humor.

Now, it wouldn’t be fair to expect the folks at Life is Beautiful to bring the kind of laughs found around these parts, but give them credit for trying with The Kicker Comedy & More indoor stage.

In addition to a well-curated lineup of stand-ups, including “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder, “Fire Island” writer-producer Joel Kim Booster and Ohioan Megan Stalter (dude, nothing develops a sense of humor faster than hailing from the home of NFL court jesters the Cleveland Browns), there will be live tapings of podcasts like “Giggly Squad,” “Going Deep With Chad and JT,” “Celebrity Book Club With Steven & Lily” and more.

The Kicker will also host dance parties each evening, like the popular “Emo Nite Tour,” where you can relive the early aughts pop punk boom with song after song about how your stepdad is a total jerk.

The yee-haws!

Apparently, y’all aren’t too big on songs about pickup trucks, slamming tallboys in the bed of pickup trucks, getting mud on the tires of your pickup truck, pondering the merits of an extended warranty for your pickup truck, barreling down unpaved stretches of road best traversed in a pickup truck and such.

How else do you explain the fact that country music is one the few genres of popular music that has never been featured much at LIB?

That changed last year with the debut of the Western Country Club at the Western Hotel, where there were hay bales stacked near the dance floor, portraits of country greats like Dolly Parton dressed as punk rockers and live performances from Vegas’ own honky-tonk kings The Rhyolite Sound.

It was a damn good time.

The Club returns this year with sets from Tenille Arts, Tanner Adell, Dez Hoston & The Longwood Band and others.

What’s more: There will be country line dance lessons throughout the weekend, because you need to learn how to “Watermelon Crawl” before “Country Walkin’.”

The food

Think we can all agree, when it comes to humankind’s greatest inventions, the list goes something like this: 1). The wheel. 2). Penicillin. 3). Cheese in a can. 4). Death metal. 5). Fire!

Yes, learning how to create, harness and cook with the latter was a game-changer for our Homo erectus ancestors, paving the way for us to eat meat, which enabled our brains to grow so big that thousands years later we could think of something as awesome as brunch.

You’ll be able to celebrate this giant evolutionary step at “The Cookout,” a live fire experience curated by chef Justin Kingsley Hall of Whiskey in the Wilderness.

Each day from 4 to 10 p.m., a rotating cast of chefs will prepare a new, limited menu of meals cooked over wood fires.

Wash down those delicious eats with drinks from Cocktail School, curated by Bryant Jane of Starboard Tack and featuring mixologists from The Golden Tiki, The Sand Dollar Lounge, Superfrico and other Vegas hot spots.

Together, they’ll show you how to make various drinks, each session focusing on a different cocktail trend or spirit, with attendees getting to sample said drinks.

We are so ready for that Jager bomb tutorial.

The rhymes

“It’s a constant commotion everywhere I been,” she declared in a voice that crackles and roars like a prison riot taking place upon a bed of broken glass.

That’s Rico Nasty for you: She’s pure mayhem on the mic, the hip-hop equivalent of a detonated land mine. Nasty’s among the leading lights on yet another deep, diverse hip-hop lineup for Life is Beautiful, which spans the Dirty South boosterism of Outkast’s Big Boi, the raw-throated, exclamation-points-incarnate in Migos, ace storyteller Isaiah Rashad, of-the-moment star Jack Harlow, the left-field Jpegmafia, and the perpetually in-your-face Cochise, among others.

And don’t forget singer-rapper and self-professed “Woman of the Year” Coi Leray, though Nasty might have something to say about that designation.

The Vegas-bred funk

OK, we know it’s a big ask to get there early on the third day of a music fest to see the first band up that afternoon.

But Vegas’ own Soul Juice Band will serve as the smelling salts to your weary adrenal glands and power you through Life is Beautiful’s final day with energy to burn.

The rare local act to play Life is Beautiful, the 10-piece soul/R&B troupe brings the horns and funk in equally robust dimensions, with frontman David Tatlock coming with the best exclamatory “ughs!” this side of James Brown. (Plus, at LIB, Soul Juice Band will perform with a couple of former UNLV dancers and a Hammond B3 organ).

“When you watch me move, you can see me groove,” Tatlock sings on the band’s truth-in-advertising single “Funky Like That.” “I’m never gonna stop, till I hit the top.”

He’s on his way …

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jbracelin76 on Instagram