Summerfest Day Two Recap

Mosley in the Splash Pad

Day two of Summerfest was all about friends and family. Billed as Throwback Thursday, I'd say it was a huge success for Bob Babisch and company (Bob's the VP of Entertainment for Summerfest). And the bands were not the only thing that made Throwback Thursday a success -- throwing back the prices of beers made throwing back a few a lot easier on the wallet. The sudsy libations were half-priced until 6:00 PM, but the lines to buy one became interminable as 6:00 approached.

I was pleased to be able to spend the afternoon with my two sisters and my youngest sister's kids -- nephew Mosley and niece Evie. Of course with kids, it's less about the music and more about the playground and splash pad where we amused ourselves until The Church took over the Uline stage. Our goal was to try to catch at least one song from each of three acts: The Church, Berlin, and Soul Asylum. Apparently a lot of us kids of the 80's had the same idea because the venues were packed with others in our demographic.

Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner through
the crowd

I'm a big fan of these matinee shows and I imagine the performers are too. The Church sounded exactly as they did 25 years ago. We didn't hear their big hit 'Under a Milky Way,' but we did here 'Reptile' and it took me back. That echo-y, jangly guitar sound immediately brings me back to my college years. Over at the US Cellular stage where Berlin was performing was a huge throng. Too large for us to be comfortable with the kids, so after only catching a glimpse of Terri Nunn -- she looked fantastic! -- we moved on to the Miller stage to see Soul Asylum. Here, too, the crowd was immense, but the sprawling seating area of the Miller stage allowed us find a comfortable zone to stand and keep an eye on everyone. As usual, those darn benches remain the curse of Summerfest. Everyone stands on them and completely obliterates the view of the band unless you watch them on the monitor. Gosh I wish they could change this. It's got to be a liability, too, because I've seen many a person take a digger of these aluminum benches of death. Nonetheless, Dave Pirner and band sounded great. We heard them perform their smash 'Runaway Train' -- which is just okay to me -- but I was gleeful to hear 'Somebody to Shove.' I loved rocking to that track back in the day.

The Regrettes

After Soul Asylum, sis and kids departed leaving me with my other sister who was ecstatic to be out partying without her kids (thanks to her good husband who took over the responsibilities for the late afternoon/early evening). And thanks to the recommendation of my friend, Joe, we saw my favorite band of the day: The Regrettes, whose members likely weren't even born when 'Runaway Train' was a hit, but they've got rock 'n' roll chops. Lydia Night, the lead singer of the three women and one man band (the dude's the drummer), is a confident and enigmatic performer. This is a band to watch -- they're too good not to be a greater success. Check 'em out.

Margaret Butler of
GGOOLLDD

Cool, too, that the guy who recommended them was also able to join us. We stuck around that stage, the Johnson Controls World Sound Stage, through Milwaukee's GGOOLLDD too, but we screwed up by leaving our bench spot after The Regrettes. We were left to stand on our tiptoes off to the side of the stage where we occasionally caught a glimpse of GGOOLLDD's captivating frontwoman, Margaret Butler. From what I could tell, they looked super, but at the very least I could tell this: they sounded great. Things are looking up for GGOOLLDD. You'd better catch them while you can!

After GGOOLLDD we headed towards the Harley stage where the gunslinging rockabilly guitar God, Brian Setzer, was about to play. I parted from my friends only to run into another fellow who I've known for at least three decades. Instead of going home -- which was my plan after saying goodbye to Joe -- I stuck around with pal, Dave, and we caught a good chunk of Setzer's show and the Big Bang fireworks display. Finally took an Uber home and was in time to get a good night'ssleep and do it all over again today!

Setzer's Still Got It

I haven't even looked at the schedule, but as always, as long as I get there, I'll find something that entertains me. Who will I discover today? Got any recommendations? Let me know!!

Summerfest Day One Recap

414 Golden Tee

Day One of my quest to attend Milwaukee's Summerfest for at least an hour per day for all eleven of its days is in the books. Unfortunately weather was not Summerfest's friend and rain continually threatened the festival. No sooner would we take off our plastic ponchos then the sky would start dropping water again. We left the fest around 6:30 PM and, good thing, because after that the really strong storms rolled in. I cannot imagine what it must have been like in the lawn seats at the amphitheater because the rain was coming down in buckets. We pulled into our driveway around 8:30 and the rain was coming down so hard that our house's gutters were overflowing. It was torrential.

For our first day we spent time discovering what's new. For the most part, not too much, but here are a few highlights.

The new Miller stage is quite nice. I particularly like their little pavilion to the right of the stage. I know it's all advertising, but I do like that Miller highlighted Milwaukee so much in the design of the pavilion (including Too Much Metal's 414!). I also prefer to buy my Miller products here. It's seven bucks for a big cup and you can use a credit card. I'm not sure how much beer is in the "big cup," but I'd guess 20-ounces. It seems like a much better deal than the normal cup that's six bucks, or the 16-ounce aluminum bottle that's $7.50.

TMM's 414 Represent!

Also at this Miller pavilion one can walk right to the front of the stage. It's standing room only and after 5 o'clock you'll need a pass to access this area, but it's good to know if you're at the festival before five.

Speaking of beer, there are not many choices outside of Miller-produced products. However, Lakefront Brewing has a significant tent roughly at the centter of the grounds. For $6.50, you can get a Riverwest Stein, IPA, East Side Dark, El Wisco lager, Lakefront Pils, or New Grist (gluten-free pilsner). For an additional $3 you can upgrade to a Clutch Cargo Double IPA or Daily Firken (on day one it was Hullmelon - a single hop ale with strawberries). Outside of Lakefront the only other "beer" that I saw was Leinenkugel's.

RHCP's Chad Smith
Introducing Denim Matriarch

One funny highlight of the first day was my wife seeing a guy she recognized while I was making a pit stop. Some guy arrived at the Johnson Controls World Sound Stage in a golf cart. An assistant pulled apart the gate and the guy entered. My wife thought it was unusual the way it was done and thought that she recognized the guy as a member of Milwaukee's 'Johnny On Washday' -- a ubiquitous summertime band that would rove the streets of Milwaukee's festivals in the 90's. But only a few minutes later did we discover that the guy she recognized was introducing Denim Matriarch. He was Chad Smith, the drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose band was headlining the amphitheater later that evening. Haha. Johnny on Washday, Red Hot Chili Peppers, same thing! We had a good laugh about this throughout the day.

Summerfest also has an upgraded merchandise tent where I scored a new Summerfest '50' baseball cap. One particular piece that I think will be popular is Too Much Metal's Summerfest golden anniversary tee. It's eye-catching and when we visited the merchandising tent, it was getting a lot of oohs and ahs.

New Summerfest '50' Cap

Heading back today for Throwback Thursday. There's lots of bands from 80's highlighting the venues but I've got my eye on Soul Asylum. They're taking the Miller Stage at 5:30 and they were a stalwart member of my 1980's soundtrack of life.

Celebrating Five-Oh at Summerfest's Five-Oh!

I am about to check a box on my Milwaukee life bucket list: I am about to attend Summerfest at least once every day during its 11-day run. In order to count, I must be there at least for one hour per day. This should be no problem. Only on one day do I see a conflict, but I've got a workaround -- I will just arrive later than most other days.

This is the year to do it, too. I’m 50 just like Summerfest is!

I don’t do Summerfest like may others. I tend to go early and leave early. There’s not many days that I stay there until after 8:00. Oh sure, I have. But those are usually nights I wind up regretting: I stayed too late, spent too much, drank waaay too much and usually, I say to myself the next day, “Never again.”

Of course, that means that I’ll likely miss the headliners, but I'm okay with that. If there’s a band that I really would like to see, Summerfest is not the best place to see them. I’m better off waiting till they come to town and play at the Pabst or Riverside or some other venue (though I do really like the BMO Harris Pavilion). I find myself more enjoying the “vibe” of Milwaukee Summer at Summerfest. That said, I’m a HUGE music fan and I’ll work hard to discover something unique and interesting each day while I’m there. I may spend a lot of time at the Emerging Artist Series at the Johnson controls World Sound Stage with 88Nine RadioMilwaukee. I like that they’ve assembled a playlist of the emerging artists on Spotify. I’ll spend a few hours listening to this playlist and picking out some new must-see artists. The cool thing, too, is most of these artists play early in the day, so it will be easy to catch them without staying until 10:00 PM.

One interesting challenge will be transportation -- just how will I get myself to and from the fest everyday? I see four means as my best options: 1) motorcycle, 2) walking, 3) public transportation, and 4) ridesharing. Driving my own auto and parking nearby seems the worst possible choice for a multitude of reasons.

Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s of each…

Motorcycle. How can you beat free parking right outside the main gate of Summerfest’s main entrance? You can’t. I’ve taken my BMW motorcycle there for many years and it’s always been great. And now that I have a Harley, my parking spot might even be just a tad bit more preferred. The con? Getting home. If I know that I am going to imbibe a very limited amount of adult beverages, motorcycle is the best option. (Another con: stay too late and you have to navigate through the crazies around the Third Ward -- especially hazardous on  weekend nights. More than one motorcyclist has been severely or mortally injured leaving the festival grounds due to some crazed drunk car driver. Sad.)

Walking. If any of you follow my me and my wife’s walking exploits, you know that we often walk from our house in Wauwatosa to downtown Milwaukee. This is a hike of about seven miles. There’s a few  pro’s about this method: 1) we get good exercise, 2) it’s cheap, and 3) we are absolutely removing any possibility of driving ourselves home should we choose to overindulge. The con is related; we are forcing ourselves to find a ride home (walking is an option, too, but not a very appealing one by day's end). With the advent of ride-sharing services like Lyft (my preferred rideshare partner) or Uber this has become very easy, but a little costly. An rideshare from the Summerfest grounds to our home in Wauwatosa is about $15, but can be higher during peak times.

Public Transportation. This normally is a GREAT option, but in 2017 it’s less great. The bus route near our house (route 31) has had its eastbound length truncated forcing riders to disembark at 10th Street. Before the construction that shorted the route’s length, one could ride eastward to darn near the north entrance gate of the grounds. Still public transportation is a nice and inexpensive way to travel ($2.25 per person each way), but also requires knowledge of the schedule and route. I see this as a great way to get to the festival -- combines walking with public transit -- but is not so great for the return home. We’ll see. I’m sure we’ll take it down at least one or two times.

Ridesharing. For convenience, you cannot beat this option. Essentially picks us up at our homes and drops off right at the main gate. Easy-peasy, but just costly. A round-trip using Lyft or Uber to and from the festival is bound to cost in excess of $30, so we’ll opt for this means only when convenience and timing is of the utmost importance.

You know there is a fifth option too: shuttle service. This is an excellent option, but does have a few cons: the consistency of the schedule being first. I have taken a few shuttles to the fest and it has always worked well for arrival at the grounds, but if you stay too late and try to catch one back it can become a nightmare. A few years ago we just said “screw it” and just walked back to our car parked in Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward (Walker’s Point). Waiting for a shuttle had become futile and there were a what seemed to be a million others waiting too.

 And as I was writing about the fifth option, I remembered a sixth and seventh: riding my own bike or renting a Bublr bike. Dang -- there's a lot of ways to get the grounds! (Bublr's convenient, but darn near as costly as rideshare if you don't have an annual pass.)

 So anyway, wish me luck as I’m about to embark on this ultimate Milwaukee bucket list adventure. If you're going to be down there during the day, feel free to send me a message -- perhaps we can meet up for a right-to-the-line cup of Milwaukee good cheer!