Bands Through Town

Friday’s heat did not dissuade the crowds from filing into Hinterland, although festival goers huddled as much as possible in the limited amounts of shady spots throughout the grounds. By 4:30, Griffin Washburn, a.k.a., Goth Babe, was ready to make his Iowa concert debut. Backed by his touring band, his indie-rock style laced with an electronic effervescence had the crowd swaying with “Moments/Tides,” “Sometimes,” “Canary Islands,” a cover of Drake’s “Forever” and “Encinitas.” During the show Washburn bantered with the fans and checked in to see if they were surviving the heat—as many other performers did throughout the weekend. At one point he invited audience members to crowd-surf on a watermelon raft (pictured). His sound often has a laid-back, synth-pop/rock style that feels right for a West Coast artist of the genre; other times the influences of 1980s new-wave artists like Depeche Mode and New Order shine through more intensely.

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Music festival attendees often peg certain artists as “must-sees,” but the smart ones remain open to experiencing music that is new to them, and that’s part of the thrill of it—discovering new bands while artists gain new fans. This was the case for us with Briston Maroney. The Tennessee-based rocker brought his guitar skills to the late-afternoon heat, which continued its unrelenting beatdown. For better or worse, the crowd heated up as well, raising the temperature in the GA area in front of the stage as Maroney performed, seemingly unfazed by the summer sun. He opened with songs from his 2021 release Sunflower: the catchy “Bottle Rocket” followed by “It’s Still Cool If You Don’t,” stopping the song at one point to make sure an overheated fan was okay. He interspersed the set with older songs, including “Fool’s Gold,” “Small Talk” and “Caroline” and “I’ve Been Waiting,” then touched back on Sunflower for “Rollercoaster.” He ended the set with the post-punk inspired, infectiously good “Steve’s First Bruise” and the anthemic “Freakin’ Out on the Interstate.”

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As we made our way into early evening, it was The Aces’ turn, and the vibes that Katie Henderson (guitar), McKenna Petty (bass) and sisters Cristal Ramirez (lead vocals, guitar) and Alisa Ramirez (drums) brought to the stage were a nice change of pace. As was the case with many other artists, Cristal Ramirez declared that this was the Utah-based band’s first time playing Iowa (she thought) as they started with the bouncy “Stay,” from 2018’s When My Heart Felt Volcanic and followed with the poppy “Bad Love,” from the same album. Despite technical difficulties that were interspersed throughout the set, The Aces persisted, filling the time with stories and an acoustic version of OutKast’s “Hey Ya” while their latest single, “Girls Make Me Wanna Die” was well-received by the audience once they seemed to get the sound difficulties under control. They closed with 2020’s “Daydream” and “My Phone Is Trying to Kill Me.”  

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“IYKYK” is one way to describe Turnstile, the Baltimore band that played as the sun was setting on the sweaty crowd of people crammed in front of the stage. Another, more accurate, way to describe the fourpiece is “hardcore, raucous, guitar-heavy and metal-influenced.” A definite favorite of Bands Through Town’s fearless leader, Turnstile turned it up for 90 minutes with a set that included fan-favorite “Mystery,” “Real Thing,” “Blackout” “Underwater Boi,” “Don’t Play,” “Fazed Out,” “Fly Again” and “Moon.” Turnstile is helmed by vocalist Brendan Yates, but mid-set the band did a 180 musically, and bassist Franz Lyons took the lead with “No Surprise,” a toned-down, synth-y break from all of the headbanging. The heavy guitars then resumed, and the band rounded out their time at Hinterland with three songs that had the crowd going wild: “Alien Love Call,” “Holiday” and “T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection).”

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Glass Animals, the Friday headliner, transported the audience back in time, performing against a neon backdrop of words and images that elicited thoughts of a 1980s summer: Pac-Man, Rubik’s cube, pool, camp. It seems like there are two major factions of the band’s fanbase: pre-“Heat Waves” and post-“Heat Waves.” The hit single originally appeared on 2020’s Dreamland but did not take hold in the U.S. until 2021, when it got more widespread attention and helped sky-rocket Glass Animals to even bigger fame. It has nearly 2 billion streams on Spotify alone. No matter when you got turned on to them, Glass Animals appeals to the masses and has a little something for everyone. They started the show with “Life Itself,” one of the classics from 2016’s How To Be A Human Being. The percussion, the instrumentation, the lyrics—it’s “fantastic” to use a word from the song. “Youth” was accompanied by images of kids doing what else but enjoying their youth. Songs from Dreamland were crowd-pleasers, including “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance),” “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” and “Your Love (Déjà Vu).” Lead vocalist Dave Bayley’s unassuming look may have some second-guessing him when they first see him, but he is a true MC who will guide you through the Glass Animals performance, engaging with the crowd, running and dancing around the stage, and ensuring the audience is having a good time. “Gooey” was the lone song from ZABA, the band’s debut album from 2014. After a few more songs the band ended their set but then came back to the stage for a two-song encore: “Tokyo Drifting” and, you guessed it, “Heat Waves.”