After missing two years due to COVID-19, Hangoutfest hit on all cylinders on opening day.
2022 Hangout Music Fest Day 1The heat coming off the stage at Post Malone’s Hangout Music Fest was surprising. That’s not a figure of speech. The people in the front row probably could have toasted marshmallows in the radiant energy from his pyrotechnics.
“Holy f---, that’s hot,” said Malone, taking a closer look at one of the flamethrowers after finishing the song “Motley Crew.” “Can you guys tell me on the camera if I have any eyebrows left?” It was a typically amiable moment from Malone, the headliner for the opening day of the festival. He joked about his panda-like post-pandemic body, doing a little flossing and dabbing. He made a show out of drinking a beer. He thanked his audience for sitting through his freshly released single, “Cooped Up.” “Thank you so much … That’s the first time I ever f---ing played that song in my life,” said Malone, whose music ranges from tough rap to pop ballads such as the mega-hit “Circles.” “And I appreciate everybody who may have never heard it, I appreciate you hanging in there and listening, man.” If response was a little hesitant, it wasn’t Posty’s fault: The festival suffered a rare audio glitch during the tune. The speaker arrays in front of the stage started cutting out, while the towers carrying the sound to fans in the back half of the crowd didn’t have the problem. So the sound was fine for those in back, hit-or-miss for those in front. It wasn’t until afterward that Malone saw fans signaling that something was up. “Oh, they can’t hear me?” he asked, making light of the matter. “What’s happened? Can you hear me now? Oh, okay. What happened?” he turned to the side stage for clarification. “Oh, like a fuse, or the capacitor. Yeah, the capacitor went out. Yeah, I understand. S--- happens.” As much as any artist at the festival, Malone had a lot riding on his show. He was one of the biggest stars in pop before the onset of the pandemic, but he’s gone a long time without releasing new music. That’s changing: The release of his new album, “Twelve Carat Toothache,” is imminent. If Friday’s show was indication, he’s ready to pick up right where he left off -- and so are his fans. Most of the 40,000 people attending the sold-out festival seemed to be on hand for his performance, and an audio issue that just happened to mar his performance of the new single didn’t seem to dampen his enthusiasm or theirs. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’ve got a new album coming out June 3. And I know it’s been a long, long, f---ng time, and I just want to say thank you very much for your patience and your support. It means the world to me ladies and gentlemen. The two years we had really gave me time to take a second to myself, and I think this is my favorite album I’ve ever made. But that’s just my opinion, I can’t wait for you guys to hear it.” The headline performance capped off an opening day marred only slightly by weather. Fans who arrived early had to evacuate the site at noon, just as the music was about to start: A storm cell passing to the east was generating some lightning, and one coming along behind it was on track to pass right across the festival site. It dropped heavy rain as it did so. The evacuation itself seemed to present minimal difficulty, as crowds had been light. That was not the case when gates reopened after a delay of a little over two hours: With the weather outlook now clear, thousands of fans lined up to get in. By late afternoon the festival seemed to have hit its stride, with attendance on par with pre-pandemic years and throngs gathering for a diverse array of music. At the Surf Stage on the east end of the beach, Oliver Tree delivered a performance that was one part Kid Rock, one part Flaming Lips , one part Twenty One Pilots and two parts parts Rodney Dangerfield. He started about 15 minutes behind schedule, performed one song and then said, “I’m sorry we started late. Do you want to hear one more song? I think we’ve got time for one more song.” That “time for one more” riff became a running joke through the next half hour, as did Tree’s claim that he’d hired his band off Craigslist, that the show was a shambles and the audience wasn’t giving him any love, and that the band’s computers were so messed up he didn’t know what song was coming next. He blamed Post Malone for the supposed computer problem and led the crowd in a chant of “F--- Post Malone!” And yet, despite the clowning, Tree performed to a crowd that sang along word for word with many songs -- particularly “Alien Boy,” with its appropriately alienated refrain: “I fell down to Earth/ From a hundred miles away/ and somehow I still make it work/ But it’s overrated and somehow played out.” A little while later, in front of the Hangout stage on the western end of the festival’s expanse of beach, a crowd at least as large gathered for a much more straightforward country set from Maren Morris, who is part of a big contingent of noteworthy female artists at the 2022 fest. Morris thanked fans for being receptive to some of her new material and rewarded them with some more familiar selections: She started with her first No. 1 hit, “I Could Use a Love Song,” then cranked up the rock energy for “Nervous,” a single released earlier this year and “Girl,” another past No. 1. After missing two years due to COVID-19, the festival seemed to be hitting on all cylinders -- from the Boom Stage, where T-Pain’s listeners spilled out of the lot and across the street, rivaling a main-stage crowd, to the much more intimate BMI Mermaid Stage, where Jamaican singer Koffee and a fierce live band created a particularly joyous experience. The festival continues through the weekend, with top acts including Halsey on Saturday and Tame Impala on Sunday. The forecast remains unsettled, with a significant chance of scattered thunderstorms on Saturday and a higher chance of rain on Sunday.Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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