Governors Ball day 2: for bands about to break

by Samuel Hernandez | photos by Megan Mack

Music Festivals can be the perfect incubators for buzz bands to break through. With the intensity of the heat, and with passions running high, that band that fills in space on your lineup can easily transform into a band you love. Not only does that band receive your love, but they’re forever bonded to you, an entanglement that forces you to spew nagging phrases to your friends like “you have to check out this band. They’re the most amazing thing you’ve ever heard and don’t even try to tell me that they might not be perfect.” Picture Natalie Portman sneaking out and to Governors Ball one year, with her helmet tightly cinched, and just as the Shins launch into what will become her favorite song, her heart stops. In that moment she’s become their number one booster and places headphones filled with their music over everyone’s head.

Hunter Hunted have straddled that line. Born of the Los Angeles electropop scene, the band is further incestuously linked to other buzz bands such as Air Life and Body Parts. This is Lou Reed, David Byrne, and Patti Smith making music together to create something more unique than the Beatles playing undercover to escape their personas.

Their set at Governors Ball was the breakaway performance that will catapult them into more obsessive fans’ hearts. Their music is the perfect summer setting. “Keep Together” is optimistic pop with the tone of “Hey Ya.” It’s not vapid electronica if it makes you swoon just a tiny bit as you sway from side to side wondering if they’re maybe singing about your personal life. “End of the World” sucks your breath in as a listener, prompting a vowel sing along. Hunter Hunted’s vocals are invitational, they encourage singing along, and they encourage having a good time.

Before giving all the love to Los Angeles at a New York City music festival, the headliners were in force to defend their city. The Strokes provided a solid set in the way that you expect the Strokes to, and Childish Gambino took his act onto the main stage. The NYU grad has talent with schizophrenic execution. The early mixtapes were attempts to revolutionize and the latest Because the Internet is an attempt to bottle what mega hip hop stars like Kanye and Drake are able to accomplish with an all enfolding multimedia experience. Gambino needs to settle down, shake off what’s come before him, and do his own style.

Music festivals offer intimate connections to bands that you see for the first time. It’s magical when something falls into your ear when you’re listening to Spotify on random, but it’s even more magical when it happens in person, and in this case Hunter Hunted is love at first sight.

See more photos from Governors Ball here.