Celebrating its fifth year, The Hangout Beach, Music and Arts Festival came back in 2014 to take over the beach of Gulf Shores, Alabama. Fairly quiet, as far as gulf coast tourist destinations go, the area really comes alive when Hangout comes to town. And this year would be no different when a great range of artists took to performing on five stages spanning a threed ay weekend.
Before the festival officially began on Friday, things got off to an early start with a Kickoff party on Thursday. The afternoon started out with appropriately chill vibes from Iron & Wine and a DJ set from Bonobo then ramping up with acts like the rock psychedelia of Australia’s Wolfmother. The evening was capped off perfectly by frenzied set from Greg Gillis aka Girl Talk. His insanely energetic mile-a-minute mashups brought those in attendance to a fever pitch, making sure everyone was well warmed-up for the weekend to come.
And the warmth arrived as beautiful weather was forecast for the duration of the festival and that’s exactly what mother nature delivered.
Childish Gambino kept the crowd bouncing in the appropriately-named Boom Boom Tent. Cuts like “3005” and “Sweatpants” amongst others from his most recent album Because The Internet as well as selections from his debut album “Camp” brought an amazing energy back to the day just as the sun was starting to fade away. Donald Glover, also a well-known actor, delivered his smart, self-aware lyrics with an expressiveness that would give away his dramatic and comedic experience to anyone that may not yet know him. But this was not a casual crowd, like hundreds up of hype men punctuating every lyric to every song, even chanting “Worldstar…” right on cue during the song by the same name. He barely let up through the entire set save for one moment where he stopped mid-song to help some worried parents find a lost child.
As the evening continued, Queens of the Stone Age were doing their thing on the Chevrolet Stage, one of two main stages bookending the pale sand beach, while Conor Oberst could be found on the Palladia Stage. At one point, Oberst lamented that he’d rather be watching QOTSA ,at that moment, but those in attendance did not share this feeling and had definitely come to see him play tunes from his brand-new major label debut “Upside Down Mountain” as well as classics from his extensive Bright Eyes back catalog. Oberst, with members of Dawes as his backing band, did not disappoint with songs like “Old Soul Singer”, “Bowl of Oranges”, and “We Are Nowhere and it’s Now”.
After Mr. Oberst and QOTSA wrapped up their sets, the Hangout Stage went dark and the crowd, covering every inch of sand, exploded in applause signaling the arrival of Friday night headliner The Black Keys. The Akron, Ohio-now Nashville rock-blues combo duo also had a new record, Turn Blue, from which they played some tracks live for the very first time. New tunes like “Fever”, “Bullet in the Brain” and “Gotta Get Away” mixed perfectly amongst older favorites like “Next Girl”, “Dead and Gone”, and “Strange Times”. The throngs of fans responded well to the new songs and as they finished their encore with “I Got Mine” from 2008’s “Attack and Release.
Saturday
On Saturday, the crowd swelled even more as the weekend truly began. Starting off the day’s musical performances were Dublin’s Little Green Cars, Tegan and Sara, and Shakey Graves from Austin. Shakey, fka Alejandro Rose-Garcia, put out his debut album Roll the Bones in 2011, filled with a unique style of fingerpicked-lofi-country-folk-blues. His live show is certainly that label. but only turned WAY UP. You could literally see the power of his performance in his straining face and neck, partially shielded by mirrored sunglasses and a cowboy hat. After playing a couple tunes, accompanied only by his guitar and a suitcase-turned-drum kit, Shakey was joined onstage by his drummer and an accompanying guitarist, filling out his sound even further and certainly converting the crowd that had been drawn to the small BMI Stage by this magnetic artist.
Back over on the Chevy Stage, Brooklyn’s dynamic duo Matt and Kim proceeded to fire up the crowd with their signature power-pop-hip-hop flavor. Between songs from their latest album “Lightning” along a number of older jams, the party never stopped with hip hop dance breaks that had Kim standing on her kick drum and shaking her booty all over the stage and crowd surfing on the hands of the audience, while standing. Oh, and there was the tongue-in-cheek cover of R. Kelly’s “Ignition”.
Later, The Flaming Lips would close out the night on the same stage in a way that only they could. With GIANT rubber duckies passed out into the crowd while Wayne Coyne and the band, surrounded by a large amount of people in fantastic costumes, played classic Lips’ songs like “She Don’t Use Jelly”, “Do You Realize?”, and “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”. After encouraging the fans to “do the shit that you love”, the band played through a heartfelt rendition of Bowie’s “Heroes”. Soon after the band finished their evening off with a faithful cover “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” that only they could pull off with proper psychedelic pomp and circumstance.
Sunday
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” came from a seasoned, dreaded gentleman while Reignwolf frontman Jordan Cook was busy multitasking through a full-kit drum solo while simultaneously riffing the guitar lines of “Electric Love”. He then proceeded to climb a stack of speaker cabinets and amplifiers while continuing this extended guitar meltdown. Along with his brother Stitch, on Guit-Bass, and Texas Joe, on drums, Cook delivers a sound from another dimension. The desire to connect with an already-salivating crowd prompted Jordan to grab his kick drum, point into the audience and say “I wanna come over, if that’s ok”. He did, and it was. The two brothers played through two songs from the wrong side of the barricade, asking fans to hold instruments while they were being played. Face-melting is most apt description for this performance, perhaps the best of the festival.
Capital Cities got busy making memories on The Hangout Stage. Apparently, their radio hit “Safe and Sound” is so nice they had to play it twice. There was lots of local flavor on hand, as well. Even if you missed out on the fresh Gulf seafood found throughout the grounds, you might have been able to catch Birmingham, Alabama’s own St. Paul and the Broken Bones on the BMI Stage. This group is pure soul, complete with a wonderfully charismatic performer in singer Paul Janeway. Tearing through tunes from their debut album “Half the City”, along with a couple classics including Otis Redding’s “Shake” and “Try a Little Tenderness” the band is sure to stand tall against another southern favorite – Alabama Shakes.
Over on the beach, The Avett Brothers delighted the crowd on The Hangout Stage while Jack Johnson did the same, closing out the night at the Chevy in perfect beach style. If the crowd for Friday and Saturday’s headlining performances filled the beach, there must have been more than a few standing in the Ocean waiting for Sunday’s finale. The lights went down and Big Boi and Andre 3000 of Outkast were on the stage. The ATL hip hop duo, reunited to celebrate 20 years since the release of their debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, and blazed through over 20 songs spanning those years. The performance was punctuated by a fireworks display as an exclamation point, ended the festival weekend on an incredible high note. If this year was any indication, organizers may have to find a bigger beach if they dare try to top what they pulled off in 2014.
