Mission Creek Festival is taking place again this weekend at several venues and locations across Iowa City. The largest yearly arts festival in the city is celebrating its 20th year of existence. Over that time, the festival has become a rite of spring where exiting winter, everything feels like it comes alive again. All of Thursday’s events take place at Hancher Auditorium, while performances on Friday are happening at multiple venues. Here are some of the events happening Thursday and Friday of the festival.
Thursday:
Rachel Kushner (6:00 PM) & Kim Gordon (8:45 PM)
Kim Gordon will be coming to Mission Creek Festival on Thursday April 3rd, with two events. Her first performance will be at 6:00 PM at Hancher Auditorium. She will be coming to conduct an interview with Rachel Kushner, who is an author of many different novels and essay collections.
Kushner is on a reading tour for her newest book Creation Lake. It’s a fiction work focused on a secret agent who is sent on a mission in London. The book was also long listed for the 2024 Booker prize. She is considered to be one of the biggest rising writers at this time. Rachel Kushner’s books are written with thrilling narratives and heart racing action that keeps readers enthralled. The use of heavy characterization is also employed throughout many of her stories. She has been praised for her use of the characters telling their own stories and how it differs from the traditional style of having them live through current moments.
Kim Gordon’s second event of the night is performing with her band live at the Hancher at 8:45 PM. This was a last-minute change-up after previous headliners Julien Baker & Torres had to drop from the festival. Gordon is a music icon from her work with Sonic Youth that put her on the map, to her solo work that has continued to amaze, and her work as a music critic. Her solo work often has a very experimental sound to it that intrigues and amazes listeners. She released her second studio album The Collector in March of last year to wide critical acclaim. The album blends hip-hop, trap, dub, and many other genres. An all-time generational talent comes this year for Mission Creek.
-Will Clair, News Staff
Friday:
Nat Baldwin (7:30 PM Riverside Theater)
Nat Baldwin is a New Hampshire born musician, improviser, and founder of the experimental music label Tripticks Tapes. He has led a storied and successful music career for over 21 years. A disciple of avant-garde jazz legend Anthony Braxton, Baldwin has trained amidst the best in his field to distinguish himself as a modern virtuoso of the electric and double bass. He has put out numerous solo records heavily featuring his performance on said instruments, along with a rousing demonstration of his compositional skills.
Besides his rich solo career, Baldwin was additionally a longstanding band member of the indie darlings Dirty Projectors, wherein besides playing bass, he also served as a songwriter. Despite being a veteran in the industry, Baldwin hasn’t strayed from his avant-garde roots. In recent years he has released several free improvisational projects, the most recent of which being 01.30.22, a collaboration with fellow artist Stella Silbert, released in (as the title suggests) 2022. Baldwin’s performance is undoubtedly one you don’t want to miss.
-Evan Raefield, Training Director
Mabe Fratti (8:00 PM Englert Theater)
Combining improvisational jazz and avant-garde experimental music with tinges of rock, Mexico City based artist Mabe Fratti is not to be missed on your Mission Creek Festival schedule for Friday night. About a year ago, KRUI received a promo for Sentir que no sabes, Fratti’s most recent project, and I was instantaneously captivated with its bold presentation. Superficially, that captivation was attracted to the vast sound landscapes that put synthesizers forward alongside the beautifully played cello, which in turn is elevated by Fratti’s vocal performance.
Now delving deeper, I see the bold presentation of these farfetched elements captivating due to their perceived dissonance and how well it matches the album’s lyrical themes of uncertainty. Now if you don’t understand Spanish, sonically alone, Mabe Fratti is sure to leave you in awe by the end of her performance.
-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director
Diles Que No Me Maten (8:30 PM Riverside Theater)
Diles Que No Me Maten is a quintet formed in 2017 from the Mexico City scene and will be gracing the stage at Riverside Theater for Mission Creek. Despite currently producing dreamlike jazz influenced psychedelia on albums like Obrigaggi, the band has roots in metal prior to 2020. Raúl and Gerardo Ponce, Jéronímo Garcia, Andrés Lupone, and Jonás Derbéz work together, on the spot, to generate atmospheric yet conscience music, bringing in elements of the Aztec language into their music to acknowledge their native connection to their Central American roots. The band are masters of their craft, bringing in diverse instruments and manipulating tension beautifully, drifting from reflective slowcore ballads to energetic anthems.
The members of Diles Que No Me Maten describe their local scene as spiritual, involved, and hyper-inclusive of varying genres. Their sounds pull from 1970s krautrock, along with post rock’s textures and poetic lyricism. They fuse it with their own droning, repetitive beats that have been compared to Oaxacan funeral marching music. Because of their improvising nature, a live show could be unpredictable, likely depending on the crowd’s energy. When it is time to get the audience moving, Jonás Derbéz shakes the crowd with spoken word on top of danceable alt-rock grooves. Their eclectic instrumentation and intimate performances resemble some of the projects that came out of the Louisville punk scene in the ‘90s and the current Windmill Scene in London.
-Julia Wilson, News Staff
Angry Blackmen (9:00 PM Gabe’s)
Formed in early 2017, Chicago based experimental hip hop duo Angry Blackmen consists of rappers Quentin Branch and Brian Warren. Their 2020 HEADSHOTS! EP opened with an audiobook style narration on the track “DREAM!” that introduced the prominent themes of their music: “Once upon a time, in a post-apocalyptic, racially divided white America, there lived two angry black men. The two embark on a savage journey to the heart of the American dream.” As Branch raps on the following track “PROPAGANDA!” this is, “Not that cotton candy rap. This that Dark Night, Batman vigilante rap.” Across the EP, the beats spit and sputter while the fiercely insightful words relentlessly flow.
A similarly tense atmosphere is curated on The Legend of ABM, the duo’s full length 2024 release. It’s an intense, raw, and powerful listen, grabbing the listener’s attention with the explosive opener “Stanley Kubrick” and not letting go across the album’s brisk 30-minute runtime. Producer Formants absolutely nails the instrumentals, crafting a series of tight, thorny beats that refuse to let the audience settle. Clocking in at just over four minutes, the closer “Magnum Opus” is the album’s longest, and most introspective, song. Featuring the ethereal vocals of Abbie from Mars, it’s the perfect way to end the demanding project. With heavy beats and sharp lyrics, Angry Blackmen make Gabe’s the place to be on Friday night.
-Glenn Houlihan, Editorial Staff
Mannequin Pussy (9:30 PM Englert Theater)
Hailing from the ever-innovative music scenes in Philadelphia, Mannequin Pussy is an indie pop-punk band that is just as melodic as they are hardcore. Their Mission Creek performance on Friday comes over a year since their last project, I Got Heaven released. Having cut their teeth on the underground scene for nearly a decade, last year’s record pushed them to a new stratosphere with popular online music blogs. It’s the band’s best album yet and is a deep well of emotional depth that manages to compellingly describe the human condition with a tinge of euphoric luster.
Similarly, their performances complement their incredible discography and match the intense cathartic energy of their music. This show is a must see for those who enjoy performance art and creativity of any form in music. Mannequin Pussy represents the best of what alternative music has to offer in both sound and style.
-Maurice Crawford, Editorial Staff
