Summerfest 2006
Concert Festival Reviews
Summerfest
June 29 - July 9, 2006
Milwaukee, WI
or 'The world's largest music festival meets the world's most ordinary music critic'
Well, the madness that is Summerfest has ended. I kind of miss it already. For 2 weeks, it felt like I was living back in Chicago with the streams of people roving past my apartment.. the shouting and laughter and sirens and chaos. Am I crazy for completely loving that feeling? Is anyone else addicted to the hustle and bustle of big cities? I feel very at home in a throng of people. Add to that a few dozen concerts in a 2 week span and I'm in heaven.
This year's Summerfest didn't offer as many bands that I'm into as it usually does, but I still made it out for about 7 shows over a few of the days. It was 4 blocks away and I had free tickets from work so why not?
The trouble is that Summerfest has so many bands over so many days that they have to cater to every known genre. I consider my tastes semi-wide-spread, but if you only like indie rock, or you only like r&b, or you only like country... then you're going to be disappointed by Summerfest's lineup because you're only going to find a few shows out of the dozens that you'll like. So maybe I'm become less and less varied in my taste, or harder to please, but I just didn't get into that many of the shows this year.
After the excellent Flogging Molly night, I went to see Wilco.
I only saw the last 2 encores, which is fitting since I only have their last 2 cds.. so I am not that familiar with their stuff. And I know nothing of their alt-country days or the Uncle Tupelo stuff, but I really liked what I heard of the end of the show. As we got there, they played my second favorite song of the last album, whose name I don't even know... but it's very spacey and intense. As we were filing away from the stage after the show, guys were going nuts about how undescribably mind-blowing the performance was. That's always good to hear, even if it didn't affect me so powerfully, that the fans really dug the show.
Next was Mike Doughty, the guy formerly from Soul Coughing.
I really liked Soul Coughing back in the day. And Doughty's signature raspy voice is still immediately recognizable in his new band's configuration. (Cool fact I just saw on wikipedia... Doughty was in the same poetry classes in college as Ani DiFranco!) But anyway, he just didn't seem to translate the Soul Coughing vibe into his new band / solo career. It's just not as groove-laden or catchy. He's lyrically interesting (see Bustin up a Starbucks) and I like his voice, but the music's just not there for me anymore. His show at Summerfest reflected that and we only stayed for a few songs.
In a similar groove-less vein was the English r&b / neo-soul duo Floetry. However, not only was there no groove, but these girls' show was just a big pile of 'suck'.
Their studio albums are works of art. Their songs are beautiful and have a contagious beat as well as a soul-touching harmony (see 2002's Floetic). But live, these girls couldn't find the "flow" if I'd put down my beer and shoveled it out from under their big pile of 'suck' myself. For some reason, they turned their harmonic and "flowing" style into a hard ghetto-rap shout-out complete with AKA47 cop-killing mentality. This was just not what I was in to or expecting. At first there was a mass white exodus. The few of us whitey's in the audience casually strolled out of the tent trying not to look suspicious. But then as we walked by the tent later in the evening, when Floetry still should have been "flowing", the tent was empty and the stage occupied by some kind of homeless person that found the mike and was trying to beatbox without any previous beatboxing skillz, yo. So I don't know if they were booed off the stage or just cut out early as they saw everyone slowly running from the tent with their ears covered.
Next up was The Fray.
I'd seen them recently at The Rave and they were a really fun show. They're a very mellow "Garden State Soundtrack" kind of band, but their live performance was very energetic and heartfelt back then. Now only a few months later, the crowd had tripled in size and the onstage-action had lacklustered dramatically. I still like the music, but you don't come out to see a show to hear everything exactly like you could hear it on the album. I want a little communication. Some live-band energy. Maybe some excited hopping. After about 7 songs, we got bored and moved on again.
Yesterday, for the closing day of Summerfest, downtown experienced a torrential downpour including frequent bouts of hail and whiteout driving conditions. It was quite an adventure to drive through when I went out for dinner because most cars had stopped under bridges and under bank drive-through overhangs to protect their fancy cars and because you just couldn't see your hand in front of you. So I thought I was not going to make it down to Summerfest since they can't play much in the rain, but by almost 10pm, the skies had cleared and the sound was back on. I still had a few free tickets left and Aqualung wasn't scheduled to start until 10pm anyway, so I headed down one last time.
... and I'm really glad I did. For some reason, he only had a guitarist with him and I was expecting a fuller band, but that would have ended up being unnecessary. Matt Hales really understands the buildup - slowly going from something soft and tender to something louder and intense. I mean, we're not talking U2 arena-rock intensity here, but still something that really makes you feel alive and heartfelt. And that's what Hales brings to the stage: A humble sincerity from the bottom of his heart. He didn't need a full band to show that. In the small crowd bobbing heads politely, we could read it in his closed eyes. We felt it in each little embarassed cringe after a screech of his voice (he was under the weather). He thanked us profusely for sticking it out through the rain and standing around at the end of a festival when his music was meant for a coffee shop. And unlike the lame tour-city name-check (Hello Milwaukee! .. crowd roars), he sang us a little song about Milwuakee. In his own endearing way, he told the story of how Milwaukee reminds him of the Muppet Show because of the Pabst Theatre here. And that like one would for Ms. Piggy, you have this strange attraction, but you hesitate to tell your friends. That fits us perfectly.
There were a couple other shows at Summerfest that I was dying to see, but it didn't work out for various reasons.
Most notably was Margot & the Nuclear So & So's which I wanted to see more than any of the other bands but my group ended up going to Nacho Libre which we could have chipped in a dollar and rented at some point and got just as much enjoyment out of it. Always pick the concert over a movie, kids. But I couldn't convince anyone of that. So we didn't make it.
Also missing from this review is My Morning Jacket.
As weirdly funny as Nacho Libre was, I'm sure MMJ was better. But I may never know.
I also had a passing interest in Keane and Guster but life gets in the way. All in all, Summerfest was a good time, if for nothing else than the feeling of being involved in something really big. It's that surrounded-by-my-people feeling. I hear a lot of complaints about the drunks that flock to Summerfest, but I've never been bothered by any. You wouldn't bring little kids at night to watch them, but for me, it's added entertainment. And after a few beers, strangers usually get more talkative and friendly. And that's a slight advantage we have over Chicago, where you're also surrounded by people, but you are ultimately alone. Does anyone else understand this joy for crowds, or am I being crazy on this one?
Posted by heydomsar
2006-07-10
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
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