Hinterland has been a blast so far. KURE descended on the hill around 1:30 pm yesterday, marking our first trip to the event in St. Charles, IA. Plenty of people had a “wekapo”: an banana-looking chair that you inflate by running with it in the wind. We’ll make sure to get them for next year (with a KURE logo? You’ll have to wait and see). A HUGE amount of people took up the entire hillside by the time the night had ended.
Below are some set reviews from the performances we were able to catch. Checkout our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for pictures from the festival!
Jade Bird
Written by Jessica Spottek
The first performance KURE was able to see was Jade Bird. I’m not trying to be biased, but Bird is such an underrated artist! Even our own members loved her at the end of her set! Her self-titled album was released just this past April, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Song Charts. Her EP, “Something American”, was released in 2017. Ever since then, Bird has been putting on one hell of a show.
I was able to enter the photo pit for the first part of Jade Bird’s album, which was super cool! Bird came out with red, leather jeans and shiny white boots. Definitely the look for Hinterland this weekend, and the weather was lovely (just a tad warm). Bird played most, if not all, of her newest album. I actually love this album top to bottom; definitely a true female musician at heart. She was genuinely happy and excited to be performing, and I felt so in love with the festival feeling.
My favorite songs that Bird played live was “Lottery” and “Ruins”. Closing with “I Get No Joy”, the audience was loving her lyricism and melody. Overall, Jade Bird put on an amazing show, and her personality on stage lured festival-goers to her music. Give a listen to her newest album, “Jade Bird”, out now!
Hippo Campus
Written by Carter Thornton and Brenna O’Donoghue
With a copy of the Disney movie Bambi signifying their popular 2018 album also titled “Bambi”(except this one does not include a deer on the cover), the band played a set of some of their most popular indie hits ranging from “Baseball” to “Suicide Saturday”. Their catchy, feel good vibe, radiated throughout the crowd as the ‘hinterlanders’ sang along. At one time, there were mini plastic babies being handed out. The reason for this is still TBD, so call the station if you figure it out. It was great to see the band members play off each other between DeCarlo Jackson’s crisp trumpet interludes and Nathan Stocker’s explosive guitar rifts made for an exciting show.
It is ironic that their band name is also a structure in the brain used for memory, because their performance was definitely memorable and contributed to a fun first day at Hinterland.
Kacey Musgraves
Written by Kyle Guerttman
Kacey Musgraves was fantastic. I knew this was a pretty special show from the start when she opened with my favorite songs of hers, “Slow Burn”. Away from a few technical issues, her performance was perfect. All of her vocals were even better live than on her albums, which is quite impressive considering her latest album, Golden Hour, won the Grammy for Album of The Year in 2019. There was a cool type of intensity in her performance, and with every song, her and the crowd’s intensity gradually increased. This all came to a crazy climax when she shot off confetti cannons to the song High Horse. The massive, nearly sold out, crowd collectively lost their minds after seeing this stunning show.
Hozier
Written by Jonathan Free
The stage was set as the pitch black stage lit up. Out walked Hozier and 7 other people, and they all put on an unforgettable show. Hozier himself switched between 7 guitars (we counted so you didn’t have to) and played songs including “Jackie and Wilson”, “Almost (Sweet Music)” and “Talk”. The group seemed a little commercialized to me; members of the background band were hard to hear, and seemed to fill in the stage rather than having a function as a band. Don’t get me wrong, it did sound great. I would have appreciated a 4-5 piece band moreso to make the performance more intimate.
His set closed with “Take Me to Church”, but the encore was the real winner of the show; Hozier came out solo and played one of his rawest songs, “Cherry Wine”. Many people in the audience had left by this time, and we had almost left too. Walking back and listening was well worth it. If you think Hozier’s voice sounds good on recordings, go see him and you’ll be shocked.
Shower Review
Written by the one and only Kyle Guerttman
I had the privilege of taking the coveted $7 shower here at Hinterland. The verdict: not worth $7. I waited in line for nearly half an hour waiting for an open shower. Seeing that I had to wait in line for a while, I didn’t want others to have to wait too long for me. Now I’m stressed out. When I finally got my chance to shower, I was in hurry mode. Luckily, the water was ice cold and I made sure I didn’t spend much time in that shower. While it was quite refreshing to cool off after a hot day here, but it was definitely not worth $7.
We’ll be camping out (but probably not showering, sorry not sorry) for the entirety of the festival. We’re getting ready for day 2 as I write this. LETS GOOOOOO.
