Nearly 10,000 people flocked to St. Charles on Friday for the second day of this year’s Hinterland Music Festival, filled with musicians including indie rock band Glass Animals, Goth Babe and Turnstile, filling in after Rainbow Kitten Surprise was canceled earlier in August.
The four-day music festival kicked off with some hiccups on Thursday as temperatures hit 93 degrees. Had lines for refilling water bottles 30 minutes waiting time sometime that later reduced to about 30 seconds. earlier this year, Organizers announced plans to add more food stands, parking lots and toilets for 12,000 to 15,000 festival-goers.
Here’s a look at the musical performers for Hinterland’s second day.
More:Everything you need to know about the 2022 Hinterland Music Festival from Phoebe Bridgers to Nathaniel Rateliff
Glass animals
Before a single band member took the stage, someone placed a potted plant directly on the stage. Minutes later, British indie band Glass Animals took the stage to wrap up the evening’s show.
The rock band emerged backlit by the retro-techno aesthetic for which the group has become known. As Glass Animals finished their third song Tangerine and the audience was bathed in reddish-orange light, lead singer Dave Bayley seemed content.
“It’s going to be good tonight, I can feel it,” he said, before beginning to play “Bye Bye Baby Blue,” followed by “Space Ghost Coast to Coast.”
Earlier this year, the band received their first Grammy nomination thanks to the song “Heat Waves.” The band’s St. Charles performance comes weeks before the group’s Dreamland Tour kicks off later this month.
The group’s show upstate marked the group’s first time playing in Iowa, a realization Bayley had after wading into the audience to perform “Gooey” with some of his fans inches away from him.
After a few more songs and an encore ending with “Heat Waves,” Bayley finally said goodbye.
“Hinterland, my god, thanks, boys. Thank you for giving us the best first show ever in Iowa,” he said. “We’ll come back here as soon as possible!”
Yoke Lore
Adrian Galvin – formerly of pop band Walk the Moon – opened day two of Hinterland by performing under his indie music alias Yoke Lore. Galvin – known for songs like “Beige” and “Goodpain” – greeted the crowd.
Peter
When rock/hip-hop artist Petey took the stage at around 3:30 p.m., he had actor Kevin Costner in mind when the rocker was referring to the movie “Field of Dreams.”
“If you build it, they will come,” the artist mused on stage. “If it were me, I would have built some kind of terrarium for dinosaurs. I think that’s just the plot of ‘Jurassic Park’.”
With that, he started playing We Go On Walk. Also known for his comedy, Petey’s notable releases include Lean Into Life and Don’t Tell the Boys. He released his single “Big Bad!” earlier this year.
“Stay healthy and cool,” Pete told fans as he exited the stage.
goth babe
This marked a debut show in Iowa for electric indie-pop performer Griffin Washburn, better known as Goth Babe, and the performer was thrilled to be a part of this year’s festival.
“Anyone else excited about this lineup?” he asked the crowd.
He quickly asked another question: “Anyone out there want to crowd surf?”
Very quickly, an inflatable watermelon raft and a volunteer (“Kaity”) were brought onto the stage as Washburn began his second song, “Sometimes.”
Later, as Washburn was beginning to finish his set, he performed a cover of Drake’s “Forever.” After getting the crowd jumping and cheering — and after getting a second spectator to crowd surf — he began to leave the stage as he realized, “We’ve got five minutes left.”
With that, he kicked off a final song, “Weekend Friend,” which led the two halves of the audience into a dance-off while bouncing between the speakers in front of the stage.
Bristol Maroney
Fourth in Friday’s lineup was singer-songwriter Briston Maroney, who took the stage as temperatures began to cool.
The former American Idol contestant released the deluxe edition of his album Sunflower earlier this year and has released additional songs like “Freakin’ Out on the Interstate” and “Small Talk.”
Maroney stopped the show briefly when he checked on someone in the pit crowd.
The aces
According to the Aces’ lead singer Cristal Ramirez, the four-piece girl band is ready to go on a second date with backcountry folks.
“This has been one of my favorite shows for a long time,” Ramirez told a roaring crowd.
One of the band’s last songs that night was also one of their newest, as the artists encouraged the audience to sing along to “Girls Make Me Wanna Die.” They then ended their set with “My Phone is Trying to Kill Me”.
turnstile
By the time the penultimate band of the night took the stage at 8pm, the temperature had dropped to 30 degrees and most of the festival site was without sunlight. Queues for water shrank to very short waits.
The five-piece hardcore band Turnstile released the album “Glow On” in 2021.
During their performance, the band performed songs like “Fly Away With Me” and “Moon” and used the dark hour to bathe the stage in yellow and purple lights.
“How’s everyone,” Turnstile lead singer Brendan Yates called out about halfway through the band’s set, before asking various segments of the assembled crowd, “Are you alright?”, receiving positive cheers in response.
“That’s beautiful, thank you.”
The group came relatively late into this year’s lineup, replacing alternative/indie group Rainbow Kitten Surprise.
When Glass Animals played to Turnstile, that band’s lead singer screamed out the hard rock group.
“What’s your lineup this weekend, huh?” Said Bayly. “You hear Turnstile? Sometimes I listen to these guys on record to exaggerate before a show. It was like today. Incredible band.”
Isaac Hamlet covers arts, entertainment and culture in the Des Moines Register. Reach him at [email protected] or 319-600-2124, follow him on Twitter @IsaacHamlet.