The 2015 Hangout Festival was a blast, as always. It closed last week with fireworks and Skynards “Sweet Home Alabama.” It’s funny, this was the first year I’ve realized this is a tradition.
For us, the seven-hour drive was punctuated by multiple problems, including delays and car trouble, but we made it there in time to catch Foo Fighters on Friday night.
I’ve always laughed, telling people the story of how Dave Grohl told the crowd (tongue in cheek) in 2011 about how hard it was to roll up in the tour bus, get out, swim in the ocean and eat lobster.
I think he's stuck on that story because he recounted it again this year. Beck had something similar to say during his set on Sunday night. I think artists who have never played the Hangout don’t really understand until they’re actually on the stage that it’s on a beach, on an ocean.
Any artist who has ever played Bonnaroo knows what it’s like to broil on stage, but at Hangout it was balmy weather and cool ocean breezes all weekend.
It was supposed to rain the whole weekend, but it never materialized, instead, the partially cloudy skies gave us pristine weather the whole weekend.
We stayed this year at two different places, at Spectrum Resorts “The Beach Club” and “Turquoise Place.” Both were fantastic and we spent as much or more time on the beach than we did at the festival. This year The Hangout Festival put on two free morning concerts at Coast, the restaurant at The Beach Club, featuring Kopecky and Colony House.
Because of an unfortunate ladder incident, I wasn’t moving as freely as I normally do, and wound up spending a lot of time in the VIP pool at the Hangout (I know, I know, woe is me), but I did get to shoot Beck, Foo Fighters, J. Roddy Walston and the Business, and got to catch some of Cold War Kids and The Suffers, both excellent.
I’ve complained about this festival in the past, mainly because of the lack of direct beach access. Not that I don’t understand why it is the way it is. As of last year, every other complaint I had about logistics, entry and exit points, water stations, law enforcement, have all been handled quite well.
For a festival which started out in 2010 with 15,000 people, it’s turned into a world class event, rivaling any other festival I’ve been to.
After a lot of pondering this year, I came to the conclusion that what makes the Hangout so special is that there’s so much to do in Gulf Shores other than just the festival. There’s great food everywhere, every condo there (more or less) is right on the beach. There’s a water slide, carnivals, shopping, fishing and tons of other stuff to do. When you’re at a camping festival, you’re locked in, and whatever there is to do there is what you get to do. At the Hangout, you don’t suffer from this limitation, and being able to go down to the beach and start the day with some sun, or hang by the pool with a Bloody Mary in your hand is a definite plus.
Because of my injury, I spent a lot of time just hanging near the main stage, but that was fine, as there’s plenty to do there, and most of the big bands play on that (The Hangout) stage.
My favorite show of the weekend was probably Beck. He won a Grammy this year for his album Morning Phase and I’ve always loved his music. The last time I saw him was at Bonnaroo in 2006 when they played before Radiohead. He was great then, and he was great this time. By the way, if you’re part of Beck's organization, and you’re reading this, do me a favor and see if you can talk someone into releasing the Beck/Radiohead puppet video from 2006. It was my favorite part of that evening, and it’s a shame that the Bonnaroo version of this isn’t available anywhere.
I also had the very odd experience of hearing the Zac Brown band do a rousing rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. I had never seen Zac Brown before, but they’re an interesting band. Not really in my wheel house, but they did an admirable job of pulling off this very difficult tune, by changing the key and splitting it into what looked like five-part harmonies.
My final favorite of the evening was J. Roddy Walston and the Business. I saw them last year at Bonnaroo in That tent (I think) and they tore the place down, or blew it up, or whatever phrase is appropriate for someone having rock and rolled really well.
All in all, The Hangout Fest made an admirable show of it. Fun was had by all, and the beach and the ocean were still there making everything wonderful.
This year, my trip was sponsored by Spectrum Resorts, Mikee’s Seafood (including over 20 locations of the The Steamer and the Shrimp Basket, and this year I’ve added RipTide Charters, running out of Zeke’s Marina, in Orange Beach Alabama.
Until next year kids, when we do it all again.
~Fil Manley
filmanley@gmail.com
The Hangout Festival 2015 lineup included Foo Fighters, Jack Ü, Zac Brown Band, Beck, Skrillex, My Morning Jacket, Foster The People, Paramore Spoon, Umphrey's McGee, Major Lazer, TV On The Radio, Phantogram, Tove Lo, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Jenny Lewis, Dirty Heads, Krewella, Adventure Club Lupe Fiasco, Cold War Kids, Talib Kweli, Future Islands Vance Joy, Galactic with Macy Gray, ODESZA, Sylvan Esso, Father John Misty, Beats Antique, Trampled by Turtles, GRiZ Drive-By Truckers, St. Lucia, Robert DeLong, Toro y Moi DJ Windows 98 (Win Butler of Arcade Fire) Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Gramatik, The Lone Bellow Lake Street Dive, Rubblebucket, Iration, MisterWives, Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Mary Lambert Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Houndmouth, Zella Day Xavier Rudd & The United Nations, Deap Vally, Halsey, Kopecky, J. Roddy Walston & The Business, Young Fathers, JEFF the Brotherhood, The Mowgli's, Strand of Oaks, Grizfolk Joywave, San Fermin, The Districts, Colony House, SNBRN Skylar Spence, Elle King, Knox Hamilton, Natural Child, Goldroom Five Knives, Roadkill Ghost Choir, Floating Action, Steelism The Suffers, Firekid, Elliot Root, jackLNDN, Autograf, Mija Jillionaire, Sean Glass, Gibbz, Marley Carroll, Jamell Richardson