05.20.2011 Hangout Festival Day 1 @ Gulf Shores, AL
June 13, 2011
Hangout Festival
Gulf Shores, AL
If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing your favorite band live while sitting in the sand and watching the ocean, Hangout is the place where dreams like that come true. Certainly, Gulf Shores is very similar to the surrounding beachside towns with the great seafood restaurants and surf shops, but what will set Gulf Shores apart from now on will be the Hangout Festival. This was only the second year of the festival, with last year’s attendance being a little slim due to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; however, this year’s festival topped out at 35,000 in attendance, ready to see the incredible lineup of artists.
Something overheard from many people is that the folks in Gulf Shores and in general the overall group of people in attendance at this festival are way nicer than at some other music festivals. I feel comfortable agreeing with the statement; I can’t tell you how many times we struck up conversations with random strangers about the quality of bands, or how many times as we sat in the sand, we reached our hands up to offer assistance to people navigating their way through the crowd. Even the most inebriated, sunburned person seemed more friendly than hostile. And that is pretty amazing, considering that the crowd sat through a rather sunny, humid weekend in the South.
Another interesting thing to note is that we were treated very well by officials and organizers of the festival. We were very warmly welcomed as we picked up our wristbands and sat in the media tent, the security guys and gals were also very kind, and overall, we felt like we were getting to be a part of something very valuable to music fans and the Gulf Shores community. We can’t wait to cover it again next year!
Well, we couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the weekend than with our favorite artist on the Surf Style Stage. Brandi and the band took the stage in the early afternoon on Friday to a very receptive crowd. The band played songs from all three of Brandi’s albums and she (Brandi) made mention of her most recent projects, including the recent release of the “Live at Benaroya Hall” album, and a soon to be released studio album. The crowd was very polite and listened to the songs, even the ballads, which made Brandi very happy. We were introduced to a few new things within the set, including an opening kick ass drum solo by Allison Miller. One of my favorite parts of Brandi’s set is “Closer To You,” where Brandi prefaces the song with tales about that first touring experience, including a gig opening up for Hanson and playing random dive bars and restaurants in the middle of nowhere. At the end of the song, the band goes right into the Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen A Face,” which always gets the crowd up and rowdy again. Also, the band played a new song called “Rattled,” from the upcoming studio release. Brandi even got the massive crowd to take part in the sing along portion of “Turpentine,” which was incredibly impressive. She closed the show telling the audience that she was about to turn 30, which has caused her to reflect on her youth. Like many of us, she loved “The Goonies,” “The Neverending Story,” (which is proven by the tattooed auryn symbols on each of her arms). She closed out her set with a lovely version of “Forever Young,” originally of Alphaville fame. The crowd responded so warmly to Brandi as she set the stage for an amazing evening of music.
Next up, was our first time getting to see Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. She opened with “Hot Summer Night,” from the self-titled album. Potter and her band are more like a modern-day 60’s rock band. No doubt, Potter has received comparisons to Janis Joplin, however, I would argue that she is more of a Joplin-Tina Turner hybrid. She has that edge of rock in her voice, but all the diva and stage commandment of Tina Turner. She continued with songs such as “Only Love,” “Goodbye Kiss,” and “Paris.” Potter showed off the skills of her band many times throughout the set. She also covered such classics as The Rolling Stones’ “Happy,” and a phenomenal version of Heart’s “Crazy On You.” The crowd was rocking along with every song, happy to be on the beach listening to excellent music. At one point, Potter herself told the crowd as she pointed to the ocean, “You shouldn’t be looking at us, you should be looking at that!” Potter’s energy kept the music fans at high energy and ready to go for the rest of the night.
Rounding off our first evening at the Hangout was our first encounter with My Morning Jacket. We were only beginning to grasp how much people loved this band from what we had read before their performance at Hangout, but as we were standing in the front row, talking to the fans, we fully realized how loyal MMJ’s fans are and how much of an impact Jim James and his band have made on the music world . We talked to some hardcore fans that traveled from all over the country to see them. At the time of this performance, MMJ was about to release their latest album “Circuital.” They opened up the set with “Victory Dance” and the title track from their latest release. I was amazed at James’ ability to play the standard instruments and incorporate multiple electronic instruments.
James and his boys looked like evil geniuses at times, knowing exactly how to bring the massive crowd into a riotous frenzy with classics such as “Off the Record,” and “I’m Amazed.” The set seemed to be perfectly tailored for both loyal fans and those new to MMJ’s music. James often used his cape to sort of create a theatric vampire-esque character that controlled the crowd. The show ended with an encore set that included “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream, Pt. 2” and finished up with “One Big Holiday.” Throughout the rest of the weekend we kept hearing over and over how My Morning Jacket’s performance was billed the performance of the entire festival. After an evening such as the one we experienced, we certainly felt like we were a part of one big holiday and got to see something very unique and special.
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