This past weekend, I headed to Des Moines, IA to go to the Hinterland Music Festival with Shelbie and my friend, Elizabeth. It was originally supposed to be at Water Works Park, near downtown Des Moines. A few days before the festival, they decided to move it to the Avenue of the Saints Ampitheater in St. Charles, IA (about 30 minutes south of DSM) due to flooding at Water Works.
I was pretty torn between going to Hinterland and the Grassroots Music Festival which was in Council Bluffs, IA (way closer to me). But, gotta say, after hearing about what a fail it was, I think I absolutely made the right decision! (Um my source of entertainment the past few days miiight be looking at all the posts on their Facebook wall..yikes!).
Shelbie and I had actually been to Avenue of the Saints once before, a few years ago, for the Better Than Ezra, Vertical Horizon, and Sister Hazel concert (I blogged about our outfits here!) While I was disappointed at first that they were moving it out of Des Moines, it actually ended up being the perfect location. And, they provided free party buses from Des Moines to St. Charles, so I definitely couldn't complain about that! The event was actually extremely well-organized, especially for it being moved to a completely different location just a few days before!
We only went on Saturday, although I would have loved to see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes on Friday night! On Saturday, we got there right in time to see Lucius perform. I had never heard of them before—but now—big fan! I was extremely impressed by them. My new favorite song is Two of Us On the Run by them.
I was most excited to see Brandi Carlile. When Hinterland announced the line-up, I had heard of her, but I didn't really know many of her songs. So I started listening to her a lot during work via Spotify and completely fell in love with her!
Brandi (and the twins) were even better than I had expected. Being able to see an artist live really makes you appreciate them so much more. You could just tell they were SO happy and so excited to be playing there, which really made the audience (and me!) love them even more! My favorite songs by her are The Eye, Wilder (We're Chained), Hard Way Home, and of course, The Story. She also brought out Lucius for a cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", which was awesome—so much girl power on stage, which I loved!
After seeing her at Hinterland, I'm even more depressed about missing her and Gregory Alan Isakov at Red Rocks on August 15. Dream concert! I wish I would have found out about it sooner and planned for it! I am beyond jealous of anyone going to that.
Old Crow Medicine Show was awesome! I knew almost all of the songs in their set list, which made it more fun. They definitely brought the energy and the crowd was loving it! Seeing Wagon Wheel played live also did not disappoint!
I'll definitely be back next year, Hinterland! Oh, and please bring Brandi back. :)
No comments :
Post a Comment