They say a music festival is a marathon, not a sprint. But with a Saturday schedule like Hulaween’s, we’d argue it was a marathon with plenty of sprinting between sets.
With bluegrass, bass, rock, electronic music, and a Saturday night packed with overlapping performances, there was simply no way to see everything. But that wasn’t going to stop us from trying.
We kicked off Saturday with HEYZ’s Bass Bingo at the Music Hall, an event we’d highlighted in our final festival preview. Things got off to a delayed start as a few last-minute details still needed sorting out, including finding the CDJs. Fortunately, HEYZ had no trouble keeping the crowd entertained while everything came together.
He joked with fans, signed flags and jerseys, and posed for photos, turning the delay into an opportunity to hang out with the crowd. And the crowd was more than happy to help. When HEYZ mentioned that Bass Bingo had left him without enough time to shower, fans offered up an assortment of body wipes, with the “Stank Star” wipe emerging as his favorite.
Eventually, the CDJs appeared, the music started, and bingo happened.
From there, we headed to Spirit Lake for a very different kind of entertainment.
There are bluegrass musicians like Del McCoury who approach their craft with a seriousness that borders on sacred. And then there are bands like Tire Fire, who seem determined to find out just how much fun you can have with bluegrass before somebody calls the authorities.
No disrespect to Del, but Tire Fire was exactly what we needed at Hulaween.
The band delivered an outrageously entertaining set that included bluegrass interpretations of OutKast’s “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)” and Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” Those aren’t exactly the first songs that come to mind when you think of bluegrass, but that’s part of the appeal.
Tire Fire wasn’t content to simply play music well. They wanted everyone to have a good time, themselves included. And with a performance that seemed determined to stretch the limits of what a bluegrass show could be, they succeeded.
With our afternoon dose of bluegrass chaos complete, it was time to trade banjos for bass.
We’d already spent part of the day with HEYZ at Bass Bingo, but now it was time to get down to business at the Hallows.
And by business, we mean bass. Lots of bass.
Much like Christopher Walken’s famously demanding character in the Saturday Night Live “More Cowbell” sketch, HEYZ seems to subscribe to the philosophy that there’s always room for more. Only in his case the only cure for his fever is more bass.
We somehow managed to stay upright and out of the mosh pits this time, unlike our previous encounter with a HEYZ set, alowing us to move around and appreciate just how he could get the entire field moving.
And while the Hallows was delivering a serious dose of low-end frequencies, Spirit Lake had a few surprises of its own.
One of Saturday’s unexpected discoveries came courtesy of Asydequest, who delivered a blistering, politically charged rock set that stopped us in our tracks. It was loud, energetic, and exactly the kind of performance that makes wandering between stages at a festival worthwhile.
Appropriately enough, the band’s name refers to those unexpected adventures that sometimes turn out to be the most memorable part of the journey. This was certainly one of ours.
Then it was back to the Hallows, where Daily Bread had drawn a massive crowd.
His distinctive blend of electronic music draws heavily from jazz, blues, and even a little swing, giving his bass-heavy productions a character that sets him apart from much of the festival’s electronic lineup.
There’s something irresistible about the way those influences come together, and judging by the sea of people filling the field, we weren’t alone in thinking so.
Of course, we couldn’t let Saturday pass without checking out Hulaween’s traditional Shebang. This year’s installment featured The Warren Haynes Incident, bringing Warren Haynes together with The String Cheese Incident for a celebration of musical collaboration.
The performance drew from an expansive collection of classic songs, including music associated with the Allman Brothers Band, Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads, and the Grateful Dead. It was a fitting showcase for the musicianship and improvisation that have long been at the heart of Hulaween and another reminder of the festival’s roots in the jam-band world.
With the Shebang behind us, we faced what might have been the most frustrating scheduling conflict of the weekend.
Levity. Ben Böhmer. Dope Lemon.
Three artists we wanted to see, playing overlapping sets on three different stages. Choosing one would have been the sensible option, but apparently we’d abandoned sensible decisions somewhere around Bass Bingo.
So we did what any determined festivalgoer would do. We tried to catch a little of everything.
A stop at the Hallows for Levity, a dash toward the Amphitheatre for Ben Böhmer, and another trip to Spirit Lake for Dope Lemon turned the evening into a race against the clock. We may not have gotten full sets from any of them, but sometimes that’s the price of a lineup with too many good choices.
Eventually, it was time to settle in for Pretty Lights, who wasted absolutely no time making an impression.
In fact, the opening notes hit so hard that the stage apparently couldn’t handle them. An unexpected blip in power caused a brief delay, but the crowd never lost its energy.
Fortunately, Pretty Lights returned to deliver their signature blend of moody electronic music, familiar favorites, and plenty of recognizable musical references woven into the mix. The result was an extended journey through the group’s distinctive sound, with the crowd settling in for one of the longest performances of the weekend.
But even that wasn’t quite the end of our night.
Spirit Lake still had plenty going on, including Green Velvet‘s surprise appearances at DEF Off Limits. After spending much of the day moving between enormous stages and packed fields, the smaller late-night environment offered a different kind of energy, and we weren’t ready to call it a night just yet.
Eventually, our Saturday night/early Sunday adventures led us to Mass at the House of Lost.
Despite the name, this wasn’t exactly a traditional religious service. What we found was a late-night variety show, part cabaret, part spectacle, and entirely at home among the strange and unexpected attractions of Spirit Lake.
It was one more reminder that Hulaween’s appeal extends far beyond its concert stages. Sometimes the most memorable entertainment is the experience you weren’t quite sure you were walking into.
After a full day of bluegrass, bass, rock, electronic music, and more stage-hopping than our legs probably appreciated, we’d somehow ended up at church.
And it was in moments like these that we found ourselves reflecting on just how much we’d experienced over the past three days, while realizing there were still entire worlds of Hulaween left for us to explore.
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