It's Summerfest baby!

Tonight I may be sitting at home, eating leftover Chinese, watching Office reruns and listening to music ...

But tomorrow night, baby ... Tomorrow night, I return to Summerfest ...

The Big Gig. The World's Largest Musical Festival. The carnival of people watching. The widest food buffet you've ever tasted. The mecca of music ...

The party I've come to live for every summer ... and this year there will be cake. It's the 40th anniversary bash ...

All that waiting through the cold, snowy winters. The anticipation of watching the stage lineups and performers unveiled one at a time each spring ... It all comes to this ...

I've got my tickets in hand and my mind is overflowing with thoughts, plans, strategies ...

Around this time tomorrow night, I should be settling in for O.A.R., and hopefully I'll have finished catching Shiny Toy Guns ... An interesting find, I've had their We Are Pilots disc sitting, still wrapped in its packaging, on my stereo shelf for months. Earlier this week, I finally opened it and slipped it into my CD player, not knowing what to expect ...

I loved it. Some songs seem to channel The Killers ("You Are the One") and classic '80s punk/pop; others seem to channel Fergie ("Le Disko") or even ABBA ("We Are Pilots"). The combination of male and female vocals is bliss. The music is catchy and soothing ... and it's right up my alley ...

So yeah. I'm going to be trying my darndest to catch the Shiny Toy Guns show at 8 tomorrow night ... Still, O.A.R. plays at 10 on a different stage, and this is where the strategy comes in -- Surely O.A.R.'s crowd is going to be building long before 8, and I won't be a happy camper if I'm stuck toward the back of the crowd. It could be one and out at Shiny Toy Guns, or I could get lucky and catch most, even all of that show before I hunt for a seat in front of O.A.R. I'm cautiously optimistic ...

For Saturday night, I'm all about Lindsey Buckingham ... The Goo Goo Dolls are playing at another stage at the same time, and they might have drawn me in had I not seen them last year. Plus, there's my fascination with Fleetwood Mac. "Oh, well then you should totally go see Lindsey Buckingham," my colleague Laura told me the other day after I explained my situation to her ... everything I've heard about Buckingham points to Saturday night being a great show. I'm just hoping I'm not setting my expectations to high ...

On Sunday, I've dropped the idea of seeing Sister Hazel at Summerfest ... Instead, I'm staying in town to catch a show featuring Barry Williams and Peter Noone. Think I'm crazy? Deal with it ... I've seen Sister Hazel twice before, and I'm figuring the chance to see a star from an American television phenomenon and the frontman of one of my favorite bands of all-time up close is too powerful to pass up ... During a meeting earlier this week, one my editors non-chalantly asked if anyone around our table planned to attend the event. No one said a word. The editor proceeded to make some belittling remarks about the people who might go to the show. Always secure in my music tastes, I spoke up and said, "I'm excited to go ... to see both of them!" To his credit, he pointed out Noone is a great performer (I know that), but he went on, implying the types of people who will be at Sunday's festival lead sad lives. I shook my head in disgust.

Monday night I'll be playing baseball ... But Tuesday night Kates and I will be back at Summerfest for Ben Folds and John Mayer. Enough said.

I think I'll end up at Augustana on Friday, July 6, after all. But with a family gathering on Sunday the 8th, Blue October is still up in the air …

Still, the big one -- besides Ben Folds & John Mayer, of course -- remains on Saturday, July 7. Guster.

Good reads ...
a Summerfest: Still smilin' after 40 years
a Summerfest king's reign nears 100 days