Summerfest 2024 Recap: Nostalgia All The Way Down

I don't really take pictures at Summerfest. This is the best I can share with you. 

The first paragraph is often the hardest to write. For the last few reviews I’ve thought that I had a new angle – that my anticipation level for the show was low – only to go back and read them all and find that I’ve been saying that for literally years. Summerfest 2024 was no different in that I’m merely a casual fan of all of them. Most of them have two or three hit songs at best, and even the one that has two or three albums that I like (The Hold Steady) is a band I haven’t paid all that much attention to since 2010 or so. 

Paradoxically, Summerfest is one of the few things – I can count them on one hand! – that bring me actual, honest joy. From the announcing of the lineups to planning out my days, the food, the people-watching, the actual music, and even the late-night shuttle rides home – Summerfest is like my happy place. Even if, when you see me down there, I will most likely be scowling in the back with my arms crossed. 

Opening Day - Thursday June 20th

I am not sure that I’ve ever been to a Summerfest opening day. So it is perhaps appropriate that the old man maladies came in hot for my first trip down to the lakefront this summer. I was tired – I do wake up at 4:45 am for work after all. My back hurt, and I grunted and grimaced every time I sat down or stood up. I complained about the beer and t-shirt prices. (Summerfest gear was surprisingly reasonable, however) I had to pee approximately one million times. 

Music festivals have been a young man’s game for quite some time, but I wasn’t going to let that bring me down. 

Better Than Ezra was up first, and I think theirs was the most fun set I saw. They seemed like they didn’t take themselves too seriously, as evidenced by the snippets of covers they played ranging from The Weeknd to Sublime to, uh, Naughty By Nature. Lead singer Kevin Griffin joked around and told facetious stories – including one that kind of had me going for a bit, about how bassist Tom Drummond actually wrote the once-inescapable Proclaimers hit “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” via a John Lennon songwriting contest. It actually turned out to be a pretty excellent cover.

Over the opening guitar lines of their biggest hit, “Good,” Griffin channeled Jim Gaffigan’s “inner voice, exclaiming “Hey! I actually know this one!” This tune definitely got the biggest reaction of the night. They did play the other two songs you probably know if not by name, then by sound. “Desperately Wanting” and “In The Blood,” along with “Good,” sounded pretty much just like you remember them. 

It was a pretty decent 75-minute set, and its good vibes and “let’s remember some songs”-nostalgia was actually a pretty accurate harbinger of what was to come for the rest of Summerfest. 

Gin Blossoms strolled to the stage nearly 20 minutes late due to audio difficulties that had the stage crew scrambling frantically. No matter though, as they kicked right into “Follow You Down” and then proceeded to perform their expertly-constructed pop rock jams for about an hour and change.

Of course, if you wanted to hear any of their other big hits you had to wait until the end of the set. Which is both fine and somewhat expected, but Gin Blossoms’ brand of MOR pop rock gets a little samey-sounding after a while. (It probably also doesn’t help that I’ve heard their biggest albums maybe two or three times each. I haven’t lived in those songs the way a superfan might have.)

But they did end up playing “Hey Jealousy” – an all-time classic of the genre – and “Found Out About You” to plenty of dancing and singing along. Much like Better Than Ezra, these old warhorses sounded as good as they did cranking out of your boombox or car stereo back in the day. It’s hard to get too worked up one way or another about Gin Blossoms, but their easygoing, workmanlike set was a nice way to close out the cool, breezy first night of Summerfest. 

Sandwiched in between the two veteran bands was local singer/songwriter Trapper Schoepp. His brand of upbeat folk rock was actually a pretty good fit for a festival. His storytelling really caught my ear, and one tune in particular nearly moved me to tears of joy. “Ferris Wheel” is about two brothers who go on a ferris wheel and wish for the ride to never end… so it doesn’t.

It would have been so easy (one imagines, I’m no songwriter) to have the song take a turn into a rumination on mortality, or perhaps a Weird Al Yankovician twist where the ferris wheel becomes unmoored and rolls and rampages away and kills everyone in its path. But it doesn’t. It’s just joyous and sweet until the very end in a way that life mostly isn’t. 

My six-year-old son would absolutely wish for an amusement park ride to never end, and “Ferris Wheel” made me happy just thinking about that. It’s little moments like this that provide counterweight to being a parent to a small child who is quickly growing – something that is oftentimes inherently and profoundly sad.

All of this concluded with me buying a t-shirt from Mr. Schoepp, the “THIS ISN’T FUN ANYMORE” model showcased in the video clip I linked above. Why that one? Because… Gestures broadly to everything around me

The shuttle bus report: Fred the bus driver was in mid-Fest form already on opening night. The Amp headliner was a country singer, so that was the soundtrack. The gussied-up ladies in their Nashville-best cowboy hats and boots absolutely ate this up. But back to Fred - he was aggressive on the road as per usual. He did an impromptu u-turn right after we got off the freeway for the hell of it, and spun the bus around a few times in the parking lot. He suffers no fools and gives no fucks, and I love every second of it, lame country music be damned.

Day 2 - Saturday, June 29

Having bands that you actually know play at 4:30PM is a relatively new phenomenon at Summerfest (or maybe I didn’t pay much attention to the early performers when I started going in my teens, I don’t know) so when The Dandy Warhols were slotted there I was curious to see what kind of show it would be.

The sun was scorching us at the Miller Lite Oasis stage as the Dandys took the stage and went right into their first hit, “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth.” Lead singer and guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor had a second mic with a vocal effect on it for this song. It made him sound more disaffected than usual, almost as if it was a piss take on his own song. I understand playing the same song the same way for 30 years can get boring, but this take on it wasn’t all that good.

This much more in-depth review thought the energy level was fine, and I would agree if he was talking about the energy used to get off the couch after a couple of massive bong rips. This is kind of what the Dandys do, of course; they’ve always been glam rock for stoners. They managed to sound both gnarly and subdued.

As much as this might sound like a negative review, I found their noisy alt-rock a good reprieve from everything else I saw at the ‘Fest this summer. They played the three songs I came to hear (“Bohemian Like You” and “We Used to Be Friends” being the other two) and all of them got the hips a-shakin’ for the modest crowd that came to see them, despite the fact they were all slower than the album cuts. 

“We’re The Hold Steady, you’re Milwaukee, and we fuckin’ love you!” exclaimed lead singer Craig Finn near the end of their hour-long set. It was probably the most energetic set I saw through all of the four days I went, and that energy was reciprocated between band and fans throughout.

If I may be a bummer for a second, The Hold Steady are a party band that reminds you about the hangover that’s coming afterwards. Their music has major “dudes rock!” vibes, but their lyrics are all about lost souls and damaged people. The last song they played, “Killer Parties,” features the lines “Killer parties / Almost killed me.” 

But despite that it was easy to rock out. The band might look like a bunch of accountants, but their guitar solos were righteous. Their three song run of essentially their best songs - “Chips Ahoy!, “Stuck Between Stations,” and “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” - was unmatched by any other band I saw. 

Better Than Ezra may have been the most fun, but I think The Hold Steady was the show I enjoyed the most. I haven’t paid much attention to them since their mid-aughts heyday, but that didn’t really matter here. Craig Finn remarked “There is so much joy in what we do!” before the aforementioned “KIller Parties.” In that moment, a truer statement could not have been made.

The shuttle bus report: A new experience for me as I believe I’ve only ever taken the bus back to the bar after a headliner. There were four people on the bus total. No music. Fred needed to stop for gas. Lame all around. 

Day 3: Friday, July 5th 

There was only one band on the docket for tonight, and The Wallflowers were lowkey one of the bands I was most excited to see. I have been listening to their 1996 classic BRINGING DOWN THE HORSE quite a bit lately, and was curious how those songs translated live all these years later. 

I don’t know if it was sound issues or age or (more than likely) a little of both, but Jakob Dylan’s voice seemed thin and raspy at times. He mumbled the lyrics at times, and sounded a little too much like his old man than I’m betting he would have liked to when he did. 

But despite that I think the band itself sounded great. The Wallflowers’ music just fits well for a summer night by the lakefront. The multi-instrumentalist who played lap steel, among other things, was phenomenal. 

And yet, it was clear most people were waiting for “One Headlight.” 

“6th Avenue Heartache” was played early in the set, but the wait for another song people actually knew was quite long. Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” was covered, but no one seemed to notice, or care. 

Plenty of people bailed throughout the set, but those who stuck out the 70 minutes or so were rewarded with the biggest hit, and then some choice covers by Cat Stevens and Tom Petty for the encore. “The Difference” closed the 90-minute set out, and sent people out into the night on a relatively good note.

The shuttle bus report: Fred’s wife Tanya was driving our bus tonight. Though I’ve witnessed her racing Fred up the Molitor Lot hill at AmFam Field, this ride was nothing to write home about. 

Day 4: Saturday, July 6th

The last day of Summerfest was a musical mish-mash for me as both bands I wanted to see - Cracker and Living Colour - played at the same time (6:00 PM).

My brother-in-law and I went back and forth between the two bands. Cracker was first up, and I think their vibe was a little bit too laid back for me. Their fiddle player was awesome, though. I wanted to wait until they played something I recognized, and they obliged with “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)” It was fine. 

Living Colour was right next door, and we made it just in time for their cover of MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams,” which was excellent. They also did a snippet of Prince’s (but more like Sinead O’Connor’s) “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which I think would have been better if a) it was the whole song and b) if they made it a little bit more their own. But that’s just me. They started jamming on something, so we went back to Cracker. 

Cracker was just finishing up their biggest hit, “Low,” which was cool. They followed that up with the song I was looking most forward to, “Euro-Trash Girl,” which was awesome and seemed to get the biggest reaction of the night of the songs I saw. They played their hits, and I was happy about that.

We hightailed it back to Living Colour to catch “Cult of Personality,” and it was every bit as rocking as you could hope for. 

Overall the two-band approach went better than I thought it would. 

We weren’t planning on it, but what the hell, we decided to check out Sad Boy Saturday to finish the night.

My brother-in-law thought maybe it would feature all kinds of sad music, like The Cure. I did not have the heart to tell him we would mostly be hearing third-wave emo.  But we ventured on into the Aurora Pavilion anyways.

We stuck around for maybe an hour, hour-and-a-half. They played some bangers for sure - My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory - but the songs we heard leaned more toward the slick, pop side of the genre. Think Fall Out Boy and Paramore. Where were local heroes The Promise Ring? The Get Up Kids or Alkaline Trio? They are far more in my wheelhouse, and maybe if we stayed for the whole thing we would’ve heard them. 

(Yes, I know, Dashboard and NFG are more or less pop too)

Overall the positive vibes of the experience provided some cognitive dissonance for me. This type of music is not something I experienced communally. I don’t want to yuck anyone's yum here – singing and dancing your hearts out to something that means a lot to you is awesome! But it was all so foreign to me – I’ve never sung any of these songs with my bros. I listened to them in my room in college, alone, with headphones on because no one wanted me to fuck them. Clearly, the crowd and I differed on this point. 

We had much more fun trying to AirDrop vulgar memes to people. There were no takers, but it was fun to think about.

The shuttle bus report: Fred drove us home one last time. It was not the end-of-night crowd, so it wasn’t crazy at all. Relaxed is how I’d put it. He still did a spin around the parking lot, because that is just what Fred does.

That is a wrap on Summerfest 2024. All of the bands – ALL OF THEM! – played the songs I wanted to hear. The performances were fine. Nothing mind-blowing, but nothing disappointing. It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but when all of the bands you saw are ones you only kind of sort of like at best, you can’t really hope for much more than that, can you?

Concert review: The Rolling Stones at Soldier Field, Chicago, 6/30/24

Mick Jagger is in this picture somewhere.

 One thing I’ve noticed over the years with regards to going to shows is that my anticipation level for them now is next to nothing. I think the last time I was truly giddy for a concert was Paul McCartney in 2013. (Smashing Pumpkins in 2018 in Madison, Wis. would be a small-ish club would be a close second) So it was weird heading to a sold-out Soldier Field in Chicago to see The Rolling Stones – a bucket-list band for me – with no vibes to speak of, or if you insist, no expectations. 

The Stones are a cultural institution as evidenced by all of the demographics present just in my section and those around me – grandparents smoking joints that didn’t look like hippies, grandparents that did look like hippies but weren’t smoking joints, parents with small children, college bros, leathery old bags, a latino man so drunk and/or high that he couldn’t stand without the help of his friends, and even sad-sacks like me. Quite the motley crew of folks came out to see these guys, is what I’m saying. 

But can they still play?

You can’t possibly go into a Rolling Stones show, at least as a first-timer, without thinking about whether or not a band fronted by two octogenarians can still perform competently. To put it simply, they absolutely can. Yes, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood definitely look their ages – and ol’ Keef seemed like he didn’t know which city he was in for the first half hour – but their playing was fine. Mick Jagger apparently has the Fountain of Youth on tap wherever he is because he sprinted and danced and pranced his way across the stage with the energy of someone 50 years his junior. Jagger’s voice was, like the rest of him, in good shape. It was pretty much a best-case scenario as far as that goes. 

I’m not sure if it was the sound mix, or the stadium itself, or my seats, but in general the set was very echo-y. Steve Jones’s drums in particular clattered off the back end of the stadium (where I was) to the point of distraction, and Mick Jagger’s vocals were occasionally unintelligible. I will now take this opportunity to say – lukewarm take incoming – that the stadium rock experience mostly sucks. Whether in a cathedral like Lambeau or a dump like Soldier, the seats are so far away that there’s no connection to the artist or show at all (unless you really want to pony up the cash), the sightlines aren’t good, the beer is overpriced, and it’s a pain in the ass to get home. 

The Stones overcame this inherent poor experience by delivering a mostly hit-heavy set. Perhaps the tempos were a couple of steps slower than you remember, but they mostly sounded like the studio versions you know and love. Exceptions included a jammed-out “Miss You”, complete with bass and horn solos and set-closer “Satisfaction” that seemed like it never wanted to end. The “surprises” were hit or miss; “Rocks Off” was excellent, fan-voted “Shattered” was “blah” at best. Jagger’s vocals on the latter were off-kilter and kind of a mess. In fact, his vocal phrasing on a lot of songs wasn’t quite what it was on the albums – making it kind of hard to sing along. The Rolling Stones have approximately one million live albums, but I haven’t listened to a single one closely, so that might just be how he has always sung live. 

Keith Richards took the reins for a few songs in the middle of the set. “Tell Me Straight” sent people straight to the bathrooms. “Little T&A” fared better, though it was more than a little discomforting to hear an old grandpa (roughly) sing the lines “She’s my little rock n’ roll / My tits and ass with soul.” 

Backup singer Chanel Haynes stole the show for a brief moment on her solo vocal run on “Gimme Shelter.” She strutted to the mic looking like she knew she was about to own the place and did just that. Her voice was so overpowering it threatened to swallow the song whole, and the only thing missing was the surprised “Woo!” from Mick Jagger in response to Merry Clayton’s take on the album cut.

The latter third of the set nearly matched the aforementioned McCartney in 2013 for its epic run of stone cold classics. “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Honky Tonk Women” showed why they are two of the Stones’ all-time best tunes. The intro to “Paint It Black” was as menacing as it was the first time I heard it; the dual-guitar buzzsaw attack of “Jumping Jack Flash” made it the hardest rocking song of the night. It was foundational rock n’ roll live and in the flesh, and it was excellent.

I was more exhausted than hyped up after the show, but that is more the fault of me being an old man in a slightly less older man’s clothing. The Rolling Stones were up to the task – as they mostly have been night in and night out across stadiums worldwide for 50 goddamn years – of entertaining a wide-reaching group of people for two hours. I may never see them again considering their advanced age and the fact that they play exclusively in stadiums now, so they probably won’t come back to Milwaukee or play in Green Bay. But if you have the chance to see them, I highly recommend not passing that opportunity up.