Hippo Campus & Surly Brews: Great Vibes, Better Music On 5/31

Let’s just call it what it was: one of Minneapolis’ biggest group hug disguised as a concert just happened.

Saturday night we had the pleasure of seeing both Hippo Campus and Hotline TNT at Surly Brewing. The weather? amazing. The people? quality. The vibes? Unmeasurable. The show itself? Where do I begin…

Opening the night was Hotline TNT, a Minneapolis-born band that sounds like what would happen if your high school crush had a feedback pedal and unresolved feelings. Blending shoegaze haze with grunge-laced melodies, their set was a beautiful blur of distortion, vulnerability, and pedalboard sorcery. Live, they look like they just wandered onstage from a basement show in 2009 — and I mean that in the highest possible compliment. Guitarist Will Anderson barely looked up the entire time, but his reverb did all the talking. Between songs, they kept the banter minimal (classic indie move), but still had the crowd swaying like we all shared a secret. Yet another group to keep an eye on locally!

From there, the energy only escalated. The festival field was packed — as in “shoulder-to-shoulder with people who planned their outfits two weeks in advance” packed. And honestly? Everyone looked good. Not a weak fit in sight. Bucket hats. Jorts. Rhinestones. Several rogue cowboy boots. The vibe was part-coachella, part-state fair, and all serotonin. Or dopamine if you were also drinking, like me, an intellectual.

PS. Surly brought the eats too: food trucks lined the edges of the venue like a culinary hug, doling out burritos, vegan sliders, and something I swear was deep-fried air. If you left hungry or sober, that was on you. They did more than we could have asked for.

Then the boys of Hippo Campus took the stage, opening with a banger no doubt, and didn’t let up once through a dozens-long-song fever dream. Midway through the set, The Way It Goes hit us with a saxophone solo that had no business being that sexy. People were losing their minds — think full-body scream-singing and flailing arms. And if that wasn't enough? Frontman Jake Luppen paused at one point, gazing at the crowd like an overwhelmed prom king and said, “Look at all these people… oh my god. This means the world to us.”

You could tell he meant it. It wasn’t just another tour stop. This is their city. Their people. And we showed up hard.

They closed with Violet and Poems, and I swear for a second it felt like summer was ending and beginning at the same time. Nobody left early. Everyone swayed in collective bliss. Even the porta-potties glowed in the stage lights like they knew something special had happened.

In short? Hippo Campus came home, and we all got to live inside a perfect, indie-pop-drenched postcard for a night.