Summerfest

I went to Summerfest in Milwaukee for the first time in about 7 years. When I was in high school they used to bring in a lot of good bands and have certain types of music concentrated on a single day. So one day was the indie day, the hip-hop day, the blues day, and every day was a classic rock day. Now they spread everything out, which I'm sure is better for business, but means that there are a lot of piss poor bands during most of the day.

I saw Spoon, which was the best show of the day. Here is there setlist. They played some a new song:



but the highlight of the night was The Ghost of You Lingers. There are these huge waves of noise on the track and when that was re-created with the giant banks of speakers at Summerfest the experience became physical.

Also saw a little bit of Lupe Fiasco, but he seemed to mostly be dicking around, which is my impression of what most rap concerts are, just dicking around. They played a medly of some Michale Jackson songs. The only band that didn't play any Michael Jackson songs that night was Spoon. Thanks guys, I needed the break. They were playing Purple Rain before Spoon came out on stage and I realized that I would be much more affected by Prince dying than I am Michael Jackson. The news of his death caused no emotional response in my. The most difficult part of the processing the information was getting my head around the fact that Jackson had been a living human being who could die.

Also saw a little bit of Robert Randolph & the Family Band. They were all right, but mostly played Michael Jackson songs. The friend I was with has the claim to fame of packing Robert Randolph's first bong hit ever at his college in Vermont. Sure the guy had smoked plenty of weed, but when it came to bongs Robert was clueless. My friend took the opportunity to teach a man to fish.

Right before Robert Randolph was a blue grass band called the Lovell Sisters who were great. They said that one of their songs had won some John Lennon song contest and another one was a finalist in an international song writing competition. The music was good, but the girls seriously need to work on their stage banter, or I suppose they could just shut up and play.

Taking me back to my Middle School days, The Gufs were playing. They were on the radio for a minute with this song:



Maybe only in the Milwaukee area, since that is where they are from. I think they might just exist to play Summerfest every year. Every time I walked by them they sounded terrible.