Summerfest Day Nine Recap

Walking to the Fest after a City Lights Ale

For day nine of Summerfest we chose an alternative mode of transportation to get to the fest: walking. I mean, everybody in some form or another walks to the fest, but we walked from our home in Wauwatosa. The route distance was about 8 miles. One benefit of the route was that it passed by City Lights Brewing where we thought we'd take a little break and enjoy an Orange Wheat Ale before continuing our journey.

At the fest we saw Brothers Collective, a 3-brothers group out of Los Angeles. They performed at the Johnosn Controls World Sound Stage. They were an energetic and entertaining bunch with catchy songs. Even though we'd never heard them before, it was easy to find your toe tapping along to the beats.

Friss, Always Entertaining

From there we hit the Miller Stage for State Fair stalwart, Bobby Friss. Bobby is one of the most entertaining rockers on the festival scene today. I am an unabashed, unapologetic, and unrepentant fan of Friss and his "good" band. They're not a cover band, they are the consummate party band and total pros. It's nearly impossible to not have a good time at a Bobby Friss show. A lot of original music artists could learn a few things about stage craft by watching Friss. He's engaging with the audience and the members of his band enjoy themselves. I mentioned Friss' "good" band. What I mean by that is Bobby's band often has different members. When he has guitarist Jerry Riggs with him, you'll hear pitch perfect renditions of lead guitar strains from rock classics. Jerry's a total pro. The other members of Friss' good band professional perfectionists too. They're playing again at the Miller stage today. With perfect weather on tap, I bet his crowd will be huge. Go see him if you're going today. You'll have a good time.

We waited up front after Friss to see Milwaukee's own Tigernite fronted by Molly Roberts. Tigernite plays straight-ahead rock songs with fun and glam-y stage presence. Molly always puts on a show with her glittery athleticism and roaring voice. Unfortunately Tigernite's performance was dampened by rain, and sometimes quite heavy rain. We toughed it out though. Remaining up front wet and cold and tell they kicked us out at 7:30. "Kicked us out" got you confused? We were standing in an area in front of the stage that requires "credentials" after 7:30. I thought with the rain and the dearth of people waiting to enter the reserved area, they might let us stay there until the end of Tigernite's set, but nope. They made us leave right at 7:30. I think Tigernite was only able to play two more songs after 7:30, but it was a good time while it lasted. I'd go see them again today if they were playing.

Getting wet with Tigernite

It wasn't all misfortune that came from us being asked to leave at 7:30. When we left the reserved area we ran into friend and neighbor, Dean, who was just about to leave the fest and head for home. "Dean, mind if we catch a ride back with you?" and Dean said, "No problem!" Perfect. Since we walked to the fest, we needed a ride back and were likely to Uber unless we found a pal like Dean. And the extra bonus was... instead of going back to our home, we went to Dean's where he made us whiskey sours and we watched the Brewers beat the Yankees in New York. Amazing that they could win after committing five errors, but Jesus Aguilar's seven RBI's including a grand slam sure helped. 49-40 with a 4.5 game lead over the Cubs. Can the Brewers hang on?