Yes, it was hot midday at the Hinterland Festival, a bucolic venue carved into a cornfield south of Des Moines. But not as hot as it could be in August and the music yesterday was worth the sweat and sunburn. We finally, finally, got to see and hear Brandi Carlisle live and she was great! Full of energy and what a voice. She belted out one song after another with a crackerjack band and chatted warmly and confessionally with the crowd, making us feel special. (And maybe we were…) After singing her poignant song about motherhood, her young daughter Evangeline (the song’s namesake) ran onto the stage to give her a hug. That was a moment, especially for a rocker like Brandi. I always managed to be away during her previous visits to Des Moines so I was very happy to see her at last and hope to do so again soon.
Young and gorgeous Maggie Rogers also put on a high-spirited show, dancing exuberantly across the stage during almost every well-sung song. The folk rock group Dawes (a favorite of our son’s) and The War and The Treaty — a wife/husband soul group and one of the few Hinterland non-white groups — also threw everything they had into their show. Well done!
Dirck and Russ went to the Vasa ship museum while Francine and I did the campy ABBA museum. We aren’t huge ABBA fans but it is a clever museum with fun interactive elements including an opportunity for visitors to perform on a darkened stage with holograms of the four band members. I couldn’t convince Francine to do it. We each auditioned to be a fifth member of ABBA by singing in a karaoke booth and having our performance graded. Not sure Francine or I made the cut.
One of my bigger regrets is not going to see the real Prince when he performed years ago in Ames, Iowa (not far from where we live in Des Moines). So last Friday, we took the best we could get, especially now that Real Prince is, sadly, no longer with us. We went to a tribute band that rumor has it was the only fake that the Real Deal approved of.
TakeBetsywithyou 