By: Ellery Lawry and Taylor Ward
Despite the hiccup Hinterland faced with the last minute venue change, the first year started off incredibly well, with great day one acts and an phenomenal headliner that left attendees ready for day two.
The first day of the festival began with local favorite indie rock group, The Envy Corps. They waltzed on-stage ready to start their set, no introduction necessary. Luke Pettipoole, the band’s frontman, commented “I’m so thankful that the show’s still happening,” a nod to the festival’s flood-induced location change.The band, visibly enjoying themselves, played a few songs to a small but enthusiastic audience before leaving the stage.
“This is our last show of the year,” Pettipoole informed the crowd. “You saw it and nobody else did.”
Following the hometown first act, Brooklyn-based TV on the Radio took to the Hinterland stage. The set started off with the band easing into their set. They slowly built up the music, playing a jazzy intro paired with vocalized harmonies from singers Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. This entrance was met with excited cheers and applause from the crowd. The slow intro built into a solid jam session from the band with little vocals. After wrapping up their introductory tune, Adebimpe addressed the crowd, also commenting on the location change.
“I know that was a mindf**k,” he said. “I’m glad everyone is here.”
Adebimpe made his joy abundantly obvious, interacting with the audience, not through words but through his movements and stage presence. The entire group made it clear that they were seasoned veterans of the stage, with incredible presence and impressive musical talent. The band’s instrument usage was varied and unconventional, hanging windchimes from their guitars and using maracas in lieu of picks to strum.
The set moved through both faster and slower tempo songs, but there was never a dull moment with the crowd remaining engaged and vocal about their enjoyment. The band performed an incredible show and made sure to share their appreciation for everyone there.
“Thank you to everyone we’ve worked with,” member Kyp Malone said. “The crew, the crew, the crew and to all of you.”
Future Islands followed, with lead singer Samuel T. Herring coming on-stage and sharing how the band felt about the previous act.
“It’s hard to follow TV on the Radio,” Herring lamented. “We’re such big fans of them.”
Despite Herring’s worries, the band delivered a unique and energizing set. Unlike the two previous sets, Future Island’s was heavy on the physical interaction. Herring showed off some daring dance moves, including a high-kick to rival martial arts masters. He also graced the audience with some very literal interpretations of the band’s lyrics, aggressively thumping his chest and miming his beating heart being pulled from his body. In a final display of strangeness, Herring used the last song of his set to feign ripping his face from his body and then replacing it.
In an odd juxtaposition, the band’s instrumentalists remained calm and unphased during Herring’s entire ballet. The music, with it’s upbeat, electro-pop vibe, seemed to almost clash with Herring’s erratic movements.
Once Future Islands wrapped their set, there was a brief downtime before the headliners finally graced the stage. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros made their way on, led by frontman Alex Ebert. There were a total of ten Zeros on-stage, Ebert included. Not a single female was included in the motley crew, with the band’s frontwoman Jade Castrinos leaving last year.
The group opened their set with instrumentals while Ebert stood center stage, back to the crowd, hopping and dancing in time and muttering melodical nonsense. He eventually turned to face the crowd and was met with roaring cheers and applause, the most Hinterland had seen all day.
“I don’t know where we were supposed to have this shindig,” Ebert mused, “but I like this bowl situation.”
After commenting on the quality of the natural amphitheatre that the festival was relocated to, Ebert led the Zeros through an eventful and entertaining performance. There was truly never a dull moment while they were on-stage, largely due to Ebert’s antics and insistence on interacting with the crowd.
The band moved started many songs, but found themselves finishing few, as Ebert would tend to change lyrics or get distracted by the festival goers. Even though they rarely played through a whole song, the band was incredible and Ebert’s vocals sounded great. The erratic nature of the music only matched the frontman, an erratic character himself.
Ebert kept all eyes on him, from the crowd to his band members. He conducted his mates throughout the evening, leading them through songs and encouraging changes from the recorded track and even full ad-libs. At one point, he was leaning over the back of the group’s piano, instructing it’s player, Mitchell Yoshida, to play a Zero’s tune that didn’t traditionally involve a piano.
“There’s no song you’ve thought ‘yeah, I could do this better,’” Ebert prodded.
Yoshida came around and kicked off a song with a piano solo before the band joined in, followed by a visibly enthused Ebert.
Perhaps the most notable moments of the evening were Ebert’s interactions with the crowd. From early on, he involved himself in a friendly, personable way with the festival attendees. He started off by choosing a crowd member to sing a verse. Ebert, the band, and the fans were all shocked to find the chosen attendee not only knew all the words but was arguably a talented enough singer to earn a spot on-stage.
Throughout the night, Ebert continued his interaction. He gave a bottle of wine to a group in the crowd as a “prize” for watching the show, rather than taking pictures and videos. He spoke with a young boy in the crowd to ask how his night was. Ebert jumped into the crowd, serenading audience members and dancing with them, moving through them to the barricade which he then climbed onto and treated like a balance beam.
Ebert took a totem from a crowd member and inquired about the image pasted on the stick: a picture of a man’s face. He returned the totem and was then tossed a slap bracelet coozie from the crowd that he much enjoyed and brought up multiple times throughout the set.
“This is never coming off my arm,” Ebert said, minutes before he removed it for having caused him discomfort.
His final foray into the crowd was during one of the last songs of the night. Ebert ventured out to find someone to tell a story during the band’s well-known single “Home.” This story is in place of the story on the track that he tells with Jade.
Ebert found his storyteller, a man who was in love with everyone at the festival, and picked up an American flag hat and a bubble gun along the way. He eventually returned to the stage to finish off the set with two final songs, before blowing the crowd kisses, expressing thanks, putting down his microphone and leaving the stage with his band in tow.
After they had cleared the stage, many loitered in the crowd still, hoping for an encore to the phenomenal performance. Many more could be heard expressing their satisfaction with Edward Sharpe and all of the evening’s performers.
Day two has its own incredible line-up and is sure to be as big of a hit as the first night of the first ever Hinterland.
More information about Hinterland can be found at http://hinterlandiowa.com
Saturday tickets are available at the door for $50.
