The Hangout Music Festival Gulf Shores Al

We left Bloomington around 8pm and drove straight through to Alabama. We arrived around 8am and went directly to the beach. We swam, sat on some beach chairs that we soon learned cost $5 to rent for one hour. SO we laid out on the beach to try to catch a nap. I briefly fell asleep and the backs of my legs got burned. We cleaned up a bit and went to eat at LuLu’s. I guess it’s Jimmy Buffet’s sister who owns the restaurant and it’s pretty similar to Cheeseburger in Paradise. Except that you can drive a boat up to it because it’s on a canal. We couldn’t check into the condo until 3 so we went to a couple shops and then to wal mart for the weekend’s groceries. Once we go checked into the condo, the drinking began, and we went swimming some more. I was pretty beat so I took a nap. When I woke up I think hippieinaustin and kaliedoscopekristen were there. We chatted with them for a bit. I seem to remember going on a bike ride that night to the festival grounds to check them out. Our condo was about a mile from the venue, so I rode a bike nearly every day. Willsfc and HGH showed up much later and hung out and ate some pizza.

I woke up pretty early on Friday because I was pumped for the shows. I took a bike ride then we had a big breakfast. The first show of the day was Davey Knowles and Backdoor Slam. Of course Davey ripped it up but all in all the show wasn’t very good. I’ve seen him twice before and I thought both of the prior shows were much better.

We walked the grounds for a bit, then check out Jeff Austin and the Keels who were amazing. I think every artist over the weekend mentioned how amazing it was to be playing on a beach where you could see the ocean.

We then went back to check out North Mississippi Allstars Duo. Wow. I sat in the back for a bit but eventually walked up close. Damn those boys bring it. Think the White Stripes or the Black Keys but much better. It was a great show and the electric wahwah washboard solo was unreal.

Robert Randolph was up next and played his usual amazing show. He really gets the crowd pumped.

We decided to skip the Black Crowed because I wanted to see Papa Mali. Papa Mali was pretty bad ass and all the cool kids were there. He played the smallest stage, but the atmosphere was cool because it was right beside the Hangout restaurant so there were benches, chairs, and sand for the kids to play in. Great show.

We then decided to check out Alison Krauss since Jerry Douglas was playing with her but we passed GirlTalk. We checked out GirlTalk and said that we’d leave halfway through to see the rest of Alison’s set but GirlTalk was so much fun that we couldn’t leave. That dude knows how to throw a party. Some of the mash ups were lame like the Bon Jovi one. But others were simply amazing.

We left after that and partied at the condo and on the beach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, we woke up went swimming, went for a bike ride, then off to the festival. First up was Toubab Krewe. I wanted to get there earlier to catch AA Bondy and Ozomatli but the beach was too nice to leave. Plus a certain special someone snuck my DSLR and lenses in for me, so I had to meet her at a certain time. Toubab was amazing. We again got up on the rail for the show. There was always room to walk right up front without being an jerkstore. I guess there wasn’t anything special about it but it was just a good show.

We went to see the Funky Meters next. It was my first show on the big stage and those boys tore it up. We again got to the rail and danced our donkeys off. The bass reverberated through our bodies for the whole set. It was loud as Leno. Amazing band and very tight.

We stopped by Rod Y Gab. I got to the rail again but just really to take some pics. I then went to the back to listen to the rest of the show. The tore it up like they always do.

Gov’t Mule was next and played a smoking set. Again we walked right up to the rail to take pics. We left a little early from the Mule set to get a good spot for the Roots. But we could hear the end of the set while walking to the other stage. I didn’t realize the Jakob Dylan didn’t make his show until the next day. I think most people were at the Roots because it seemed like the biggest crowd of the weekend so far. They started off slow and ended really, really strong. At that point, it was the best set of the weekend.

We had no interest in seeing John Legend so we walked around for a bit because we had tickets for the late night Keller electronic show. It was inside the Hangout restaurant and didn’t start until midnight. So we just got some beer and sat outside people watching. A line started to form and people started getting desperate for tickets. I had a couple extra that I sold for $20 each. Others were paying up to $80 to get into this show. Keller came on and was so stoked to be there. He played some of his normal songs but not with the normal instrumentation. He tore it up for about two hours and brought out Matisyahu and they both beatboxed a bit which was the highlight of the show. We went back to the condo after visiting Lucy and made our way to the beach where we chased crabs with flashlights and saw people having a three way on the beach. It started raining early Sunday morning so we decided to call it a night around 6am. We got up a couple hours later it was still raining. The parking lot to the condo was flooded. One friend and I decided to gear up and ride bikes to the fest anyways. Once we started off, the rain really started coming down. This was about 1:15 and Keller was supposed to play at 1:30. We got there and they wouldn’t let us in because of the weather. They reopened the gates at 4pm and made the fest free to all. I don’t know how that was supposed to help anyone, maybe it helped the vendors sell a little more but it just made it more crowded.

So the first show of the day for us was Michael Franti and Spearhead. I have never been disappointed with their performance any other time I’ve seen them. They really brought it and this was my favorite show of the festival. Everyone was jumping and dancing.

We then went to Guster who were less than impressive. They’re just kind of boring.

We left that for Ben Harper and the Relentless 7. I’d yet to hear anything from them but they rocked out. I’d rather hear the Innocent Criminals but it wasn’t too bad. We went to Ray Lamontagne for a minute, munched on some shrooms, and then got a spot dead center about 7 rows back for Trey. They brought it as usual. They played some new tunes, some old tunes, some Phish tunes. When they started playing First Tube, it got so intense that I had to sit down for a bit. That fun guy was taking hold and probably a mix of exhaustion because I felt like I was going to pass out for a second. But I regained my composure, and then quickly lost it again. I was sitting down while watching the serious fireworks display.

Matisyahu was rescheduled to play a late night set in the Hangout but I didn’t want to leave Trey to try to get it. I think they only allowed about 500 people in. I managed to find Wolfaroo afterwards and went back to the condo and crashed. Our trip home took a little longer than the trip down but not too bad. We got home about 1am today. It sucked getting up at 6am for work. I should have taken another day off.

Over the course of the weekend, I got to meet hippieinaustin, kaleidoscopekristen, willsfc, hgh, meg, boz, bamabelle, and sweet Melissa. A few stayed at our condo on Thursday and a few partied with us a couple different times. We had a couple more of our Bloomington friends show up. Their car broke down on the way and they had to scrap it while they were there. Fun times. It was a well organized festival. There were basically no lines, they had a restaurant in the venue, flushable toilets, good food, it was on a beach, sand sculptures, laid back atmosphere, zero police presence, they searched bags on the way in, but no pat down or pocket search. I or my friends, managed find most party favors except for corn.

If they have this fest again, I’m there. I'll post pics once I get them together.

Oh and a friend, who Wolfaroo asked to go last minute won a carribean cruise while we were there.