Summerfest: a place to enjoy a variety of music, half pound chickens, and beer that is too expensive for a college student. This pretty much sums up my trips to Milwaukee over the past few weeks. After previewing the event with our Music Director Karolina Barej, I found myself checkout out a lot of the bands we took a look at. In fact, many of the bands I saw were throwback bands, bands where I could say “Yeah, I saw them at Summerfest.” Here were some of my favorite acts during the two weeks:
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – Why yes, I do love Rock and Roll. I had to deal with the cruel overlap between Joan Jett and Fitz and the Tantrums, but after seeing Joan Jett for the first time, I left Milwaukee quite satisfied. She opened with her hit “Bad Reputation” (Freaks and Geeks fans rejoice!), continuing her set with different covers from The Runaways, Bruce Springsteen, and more.
I never grew up as a Joan Jett fan, and for a good while the only song I knew was “I Love Rock ‘n Roll.” Over the years that has changed, and after that last show it has made me become a pretty big fan. I drove the next day blasting I Love Rock ‘n Roll out the window. A lot of people asked me after “Wow, Joan Jett is still playing” – well, yeah she is. And it is a show you do not want to miss.
Hippo Campus – This was the third time I have seen Hippo Campus, and it might have been the best performance yet. It was the first time I have seen them after they released their new EP called “South” after putting out a self-titled EP in 2015. Consisting of four young men my age, they have performed at South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, and on Conan. The amount of energy that Hippo Campus puts into every show is mind boggling, including forcefully throwing the mic onto the ground during their encore. Hailing from Minnesota, they are a band that you cannot forget (pun intended, psychology students).
The average age of the crowd at this show was probably around 18, and that is solely because there were about two rows of older people that were outliers. The rest consisted of teenage girls dragging their boyfriends to the front of the stage. I'm not kidding – I literally saw some guys getting pulled. To their defense, they dragged them to a very good show.
Cheap Trick – I saw Cheap Trick in Chicago a few years before this performance, but it was a much smaller event that included only Rick Nielson and Tom Petersson. The show felt like a crowd that they would have in Tokyo, as they are often referred to in Japan as the “American Beatles.” Originally from Rockford, Illinois, Cheap Trick was thrilled to play back in a place that they have played so often.
After opening with their hit “Hello There” (yes, I am ready to rock), their show kind of died down, as they saved their hits for last. It was not until the second part of their set where I jumped up in joy because out of nowhere they started playing “I'm Waiting for the Man” by the Velvet Underground, sung by Peterson. They even added a snippet of “Heroin” too. They did not stop covering songs after that, as they had already covered Fats Domino and Dobie Gray. They took a cover they typically do – “Magical Mystery Tour” – but they brought on Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson from Paul McCartney's backup band. It was quite a treat that nobody expected to happen, and it was quite a performance.
From then, they rolled with hit after hit, ending with “I Want You to Want Me” and “Dream Police” before coming out with “Surrender” for their encore. It was exactly what I needed for a Summerfest show. Now I can say that I saw them, and was five feet away from the band.
Billy Idol – Billy Idol takes the crown of my favorite performance of Summerfest. Spread the word nationwide: Billy Idol can still rock. This was a typical hard rock show, but the amount of energy they put in made it thrilling. There were guitar solos, drum solos, and plenty of times where Idol took off his shirt (I was not a big of a fan of that).
Opening with “Shock to the System” and “Dancing with Myself”, Billy Idol came out strong and did not stop from there. As much as I loved Cheap Trick's covers, hearing a cover of “L.A. Woman” almost made the night, even though they skipped the part of Jim Morrison yelling “Mr. Mojo Risin”. But unlike Cheap Trick, they kept the crowd going throughout the set, even with their songs that nobody knows. Of course, hearing “Rebel Yell” for the first time live was my personal favorite. MO MO MO!
I look back on all four of these performances and have no regrets. They all had unique parts of their set that I will remember for the rest of my life. Thank you Summerfest, and we will see you next summer.
