OK, so for the record, maybe I did fail to mention a couple of the downfalls of the Flyer. I guess after taking it for so many years, you tend to block out the bad parts … Yes, the Park N’ Ride lots do fill up quickly, and if you don’t get there before say 5 p.m. on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, you’re going to have to make your own parking spot (which is what I did last night) or drive a few miles further north to the College stop. And yes, you may have to deal with a wall-to-wall crowd on your way back to the buses at closing time.
To get through the latter, I -- 1) book it toward the gates as soon as the band I’m seeing is finished playing and 2) stay to the outside of everyone else. If you’re new to this process, the crowds heading to the buses at the end of each night are moved like a herd of sheep through a winding maze of barricades. The crowds always, always stay to the inside of the barricades, and therefore form a bottleneck, never realizing all the open space they could be moving through along the outskirts of the barricades. Soooo I always cut to the outside, go around everyone else and I’ll bet I’m getting on my bus five times faster than most of the crowd …
Now that I got that out of the way, Laura’s really going to love hearing this next part …
So I parked my car (illegally) in the Park N’ Ride lot and made my stroll toward a waiting bus. And who’s there to greet me!? Why, it’s none other than Jane & Kid from Milwaukee‘s WMYX. Throughout Summerfest they’ve been riding buses randomly and offering free bus fare. Turns out they were handing out free fare at the Ryan Road bus that I just happened to pick up! Then, they were handing out complimentary sodas on the bus and THEN!, they handed every passenger on the bus a free ticket into Summerfest ... And I thought I got lucky during last Friday night’s Flyer ride.
My smile was on and we hadn’t even arrived at the Summerfest grounds yet.
* * *
Entering the grounds tonight, I felt as though I had more freedom than any night of Summerfest before. Kates had gone to the farm for the weekend, and my buddy Eddie had ditched me again (girl problems, I think...).
The 90-degree heat had started to taper off, and there was a refreshing breeze coming off the lake. It was a festive Friday night on the Summerfest grounds ...
The Davis Family blues rock band was grooving as I strolled past the Harley stage. A cover of "Lady Marmalade" blared from the M&I Rock Stage across the lakefront, and I could hear a cover of “Uptown Girl,” coming from a stage in the opposite direction. But there were no bands I was super interested in seeing, so I was free to roam and enjoy all the other aspects of the festival I’d yet to take in …Translation: Enter lots of prize drawings and find the freebies ...
I entered to win free airfare from Midwest Airlines and got a free mouse pad with Miller Park on it. I stopped for a few minutes at the FSN tent outside the Marcus to watch the second inning of the Brewers-Nationals game on a pair of big screen TVs there; the Brewers were up 5-0. And further down the walkway, I signed up to win a golf cart and in-home golf simulator ...
At the ESPN radio booth, I guessed the number of Miller Chill bottles in the hot tub for a chance at winning the tub. (I guessed 999; I‘ll let you know if I get a call informing me I won the hot tub). I checked out some sweet guitar string jewelry, and registered to win a Ford Mustang convertible ...
At the U.S. Cellular stage, I sat for a few minutes, drawn in by the latest emerging artist to take the stage -- AutoVaughn. Between their screaming guitars and polished vocals, the band came off as a solid rock band that could easily have a place on top 40 radio next to Dashboard Confessional and the All-American Rejects … I watched and listened as they jumped around the stage on “One More Time,” begged the crowd to sing along on “Stay Another Night” and jammed on “Rock your Body,” before deciding it was time to move on.
As my quest to enjoy more of the non-musical aspects of the ‘Fest continued, I jumped in line to fill out a survey at the Chevy booth, where, at first glance, I swore the pretty, smiling twin girls who manned (or would that be womanned?) the booth were Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen. I filled out the survey, answering questions about the type of Chevy vehicles I’d be interested in purchasing, and got a glossy Chevy Road Trip lanyard when I finished ... but I’m still trying to figure out whether I was entered in the prize drawing for the big shiny black truck parked behind the booth …
Before I knew it, I was making my second pass around the grounds and spending less time looking for prizes and freebies, and more time people watching. Obviously, the things people wear is always a draw -- like the 40-something man I saw wearing a beer tap on his head …
But when I caught a guy wearing a black T-shirt with white lettering that read, “This is my drinking T-shirt,” I decided it might be fun to keep an eye out for amusing T-shirts. Among the entrants:
- A gray T-shirt with red lettering that looked like the plethora of UW-Madison shirts around Summerfest, only this one didn’t say Wisconsin; it read “Wiscompton.”
-A gray T-shirt with dark block lettering that read: “Thank your girlfriend for me.”
-A large bearded man at one of the food stands was wearing a dark T-shirt with lettering on the back that read: “Honk if you’ve never seen a gun fired from a moving motorcycle.” ... I had to think about this one for a few seconds before I burst out lauging ...
-I caught a kid pass me wearing a white T-shirt that read, simply: “The sports team in my area is superior to the one in yours.”
-Cold Stone Creamery is giving out T-shirts at Summerfest that I’ve seen before (I have one), but they’re worth mentioning here. “Friends don’t let friends by grocery store ice cream.”
-And finally this one which a T-shirt vendor near the M&I Classic Rock stage has been selling throughout the ‘Fest, a blue T-shirt with gold lettering that reads: “Party like it’s 1982.” (The shirt doesn't have a Brewers logo or make any direct reference to the team, but if you’re a fan or you’ve been paying any attention to the Brewers this season, you know what that means.)
* * *
... By about 7:30 p.m., I had finished grabbing a bite to eat (a McGillycuddy’s cheeseburger) and caught a little bit of U2 Zoo (because I've watched them at Summerfest the last couple years and liked them ... And hey, it’s the closest I’ll ever get to seeing the real thing. Plus, man, they can rock “The Streets Have No Name”), and I was heading toward the Miller stage for a seat to see up-and-comer Jon McLaughlin‘s 8:30 show.
I didn’t make it. If there’s anything in my world that trumps music, it’s baseball.
During my walk, I stopped at the FSN tent once more to check the Brewers-Nationals score. But a camera crane was swinging overhead, bright floodlights were shining on the area and FSN anchors Ann Carroll and Davey Nelson were seated behind the FSN desk getting makeup. It quickly became apparent to me they were going to be doing their postgame show live from Summerfest. So I decided this looked like it could be fun, and decided to stay awhile.
While the television crew continued to busily set up their equipment, the Brewers were letting Washington back into the game in the bottom of the eighth. And the way the swelling crowd was cheering, booing and hanging on every play, we might as well have been crowded inside a downtown sports bar in October. For the next hour or so, music appeared to be the furthest thing from any of our minds. Chalk it up as another sweet memory from this magical Brewers season …
Finally the Brewers closed out the Nationals to head for the ninth and the station went to a commercial break. I thought of my parents, the faithful Brewers-watchers they are, and made a quick call. Dad answered the phone and, sure enough, they were watching. Apparently the cameras had been cutting to live shots of Summerfest throughout the game and they were already looking for me ...
As the ninth inning played out, FSN’s people were supplying poster board and encouraging people to make signs to wave at the cameras. The little ones in the crowd flocked to the table for this activity and, of course, probably got more TV time than any of us older fans.
FSN also kept the crowd entertained by throwing Brewers hats, FSN T-shirts, even autographed baseballs into the crowd (one of the baseball’s was headed right for me, and had I not been worried about holding onto my glass of Mountain Dew, I should have been able to jump over the bigger guys around me to snag it … But I didn’t. Darn.). Though the music wasn’t totally forgotten -- Phil Norby was on stage with an acoustic guitar and playing as the station moved in and out of commercial breaks.
Eventually, the Brewers did win the game, and when the cameras turned on our Summerfest crowd by the FSN tent, there was no other place I would’ve wanted to be. There, I was smack in the middle of an electric crowd. We cheered like lunatics, jumped and waved our hands high as the swinging crane captured endless aerial shots. The people who made signs raised them high for the cameras. I got beer spilled on me, I spilled my Dew on others … It was sooooooo cool!
* * *
Like I said, there were no bands I was super interested in seeing last night, but I had to pick something -- it is the World’s Largest Music Festival, after all.
So I decided I would try to split my time between Augustana at the Miller Lite Oasis and Dashboard Confessional at the Briggs & Stratton stage. Going in, I knew little about either band, but Augustana’s “Boston” has been one of my favorite new songs so far this year and I’ve heard good things about Dashboard Confessional …
( ... This is about the time I heard the best overheard conversation of this year's Summerfest: A pair of girls sitting on the bench in front me kept looking over at a guy sitting to my right. Finally one of the girls looks and points at him. “Do I know you!?” she says. The guy studies the girl for a moment and slowly starts to nod his head. “Are you friends with Ryan (somebody)!?” the girl asks. The guy nods his head again. “You have that house on the lake!?” the girls says. The guy nods once more as a smile leaks onto his face; mouth agape, the girl bursts out laughing and clapping her hands with her girlfriend. I think a few cries of “Oh my God!” were mixed in there too. Clearly, there was a story behind this. “I don’t remember very much of that night,” the guy says with laughter. Ah, so there was a party. “Yeah, me neither,” the girl answers, still laughing. “Ok, I’m just going to look forward and watch the show!” she shouts. The conversation ceases, while the girls continue to laugh. A few moments later, the guy is on his cell phone, most likely relaying the story ... )
By the time Augustana took the stage at 10 after 10, there were still plenty of good seats to be had …They led off the show with “Mayfield,” changing one of the song’s lines to “My baby’s got me walking to Milwaukee again.” The insert drew a brief cheer from the audience, and lead singer Dan Layus did it again and again throughout the set, as if desperate to get any reaction from the dull crowd ...
Layus couldn’t even get a rise out of the crowd when he mentioned the Brewers winning season. “I’m proud of you guys, I’m happy for you,” he said. But when that got little response, he added, “You guys must be Packers fans.” Nope. Nothing. The two guys standing next to me actually clicked their beer cups together and shouted “Da Bears!”
Indeed, there were the typical die-hards who probably got to the Miller Lite Oasis at 3 in the afternoon to get their front seat to see Augustana, and there were several moments where the crowd could be heard singing over Layus, but I got the feeling that much of the crowd, like me, only came because they were more curious than serious fans. And I left feeling like I’ve heard their stuff before -- from bands like the Goo Goo Dolls or Counting Crows.
Augustana had moved through “Bullets,” “Wasteland,” “Stars And Boulevards,” “Sunday Best,” “Hotel Roosevelt” (which was easily my favorite of the set), and “Lonely People” -- all from 2005's “All the Stars And Boulevards” album ... But when Layus announced the band was going to play a couple new songs, the crowd booed, and that was my cue to leave ...
I looked at the clock on my cell phone. 10:41. Not bad. I was off to catch what I could of Dashboard Confessional at the Briggs & Stratton stage … I arrived just in time to hear front man Chris Carrabba start up a cover of “Teenage Dirtbag,” and it was clear this was the more attractive and energizing show.
(For the record, there were only two songs I wanted to hear going into last night ... Since I left Augustana early, I never did get to hear them play "Boston," and I had gone to Dashboard Confessional psyched that I might have a chance at hearing them perform "Welcome to the Black Parade." It is arguably my favorite song of this summer, and when they didn't play it, I was so disappointed I could've cried ... then I scrolled through my iPod and realized My Chemical Romance sings "Black Parade," not Dashboard Confessional. Doh!)
The Briggs stage was packed. No, bursting. It was no use trying to get to the bench area and there wasn’t a speck of board to be had on any of the picnic tables. The best I could do was find a corner under the awning of the Major Goolsby's stand off to the right of the stage. It appeared as though every 17-year-old in the state had come to this show (One guy said to his girlfriend as they squeezed in front me during one point in the show, “This is like preschool music,” though I thought it was quite a bitter better than that... ) …
Clearly the Summerfest planners got this one wrong -- Dashboard Confessional should have been the band playing at the Miller stage tonight, not Augustana ...
While Carraba and his band performed “So Long, So Long,” “Hands Down” and their current hit gracing the radio “Stolen,” -- good song -- the young crowd nearly drowned out Carraba’s vocals on every word of every song. Outside a couple of the Ben Folds shows I’ve seen, I’m racking my brain for shows that have attracted such an exuberant and vocal crowd, and I’m drawing blanks …
With the clock ticking past 11, the band left the stage briefly and Carraba returned a few minutes later alone, going solo and acoustic on “Ghost of a Good Thing,” “The Brilliant Dance” and “The Best Deception.”
By the end, like I’d seen Lindsey Buckingham do on the same stage a few nights earlier, Carraba left everything he had to give at the Briggs stage, and his fans would’ve gladly accepted more of it had a closing time not interfered.
Check out jsonline's reviews from the night here.
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