As you've read in my review of Stevie Wonder's Summerfest show, I liked it. He was upbeat, focused and engaged. It was a chance to see an icon, in Milwaukee, at our music festival. By all accounts, it was a great way to open the Big Gig.
A few additional observations, though:
Campaigning for Sen. Obama
Many people are taking issue and "offense" with Wonder's pre and post concert campaigning for Sen. Barack Obama. He opened the show, with his daughter, talking about being back in Milwaukee, his thoughts on life and his general excitement for an Obama presidency. His speech garnered applause but many "just get to the music already" looks too. Frankly, it didn't bother me as I almost expect political yapping from performers these days. He has the right to say what he feels and we have the right to listen or not listen. As I've said before, I truly believe that more public discussion on politics and religion would be good thing for any city. Of course, this wasn't exactly dialogue and it wasn't a political rally. But, again, Wonder has the right to say what he wants to say. Respect it.
"He was an hour late."
Did anyone truly expect the show to begin at 7 p.m.? Nearly everyone I talked to who had seen Wonder before said he never takes the stage "on time." Not many performers do. But, is an hour after the announced time annoying, right or just a non-issue? Hey, this is Milwaukee. It gave us an extra hour to pre-party. But, you know, we're all busy and schedules are never easy to coordinate. We busted out of work, went home to change and got to the Big Gig on time. Shouldn't performers be held to the same time standards? But, what ramifications do we have? Not a huge deal here and, again, almost expected.
Sound quality
I also heard a few people complain about the vocal sound quality. It was, even from our seats in about the 20th row, a bit difficult to understand Wonder when he was talking. Even the vocals within some songs seemed a bit off. The crowd, though, compensated singing along for most of the second half of the show.
Our business leaders like to party
I won't name names, but the show was filled with middle-aged business leader types. All were singing along and having a great time. Many, too, were constantly buying beers and handing them down their rows. Gotta love it.
Would love to see him at The Pabst
As much as I enjoyed the show, I kept wondering how cool it would be to see Wonder at a smaller venue like The Pabst Theater. Maybe his next tour will include smaller houses.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
