I've written about what it's like to play the noon slot at Summerfest and whether or not it's something a band has to do to move up to more prestigious Big Gigs. Today, I did a tour of the noon bands.
Starting at the north end and heading south, my first stop, right at noon, is the Potawatomi Bingo Casino Rock Stage, where Plumb Loco is slated to play the minute the gates open. But the crew is still tinkering with lights, mics and the rest and there's no other sign of life either on stage or in the seating area, so I move on.
The whole north end is really dead at this point. Although there are some folks looking for food and buying beer, very few are watching live music.
Hoi Polloi is scheduled to begin at 12:30 on the U.S. Cellular stage, so I amble into the Potawatomi stage -- you know, the one under the big tent -- and am greeting with a wall of metal from the Eau Claire Regional winners of the Launchpad Battle of the Bands. The entire crowd can be seen in the photo above. The band is tight, despite its youth, and it's easy to see how these four kids won got this far, even if the thrumming metal isn't really to my tastes.
Mid-grounds at the Miller Lite Oasis, there's Rabid Aardvarks, a local cover band with a female singer that helps render the poppy rock almost Pat Benatar-ish. There are a few dozen people watching these Aardvarks cover the Bodeans' "Closer to Free" and Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend." Again, these guys practice hard, but without a clutch of great originals, it's unlikely a band like this can rise to the top of the Summerfest line-up, which is rarely home to cover bands.
A little further along at the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard, bassist and vocalist KT Rusch and her fellow KT's Universal Love bandmates are having a great time on stage despite the fact that there are only about 30 people in the main seating area. The band plays an upbeat mix of Caribbean and African music and perhaps its the breeziness of the music that keeps these musicians smiling. And maybe they just love to play. It happens, you know.
Rusch does a fine job in that rarest of roles: a bassist who also is lead singer of a Caribbean band. The bass lines are usually too complex to allow it.
My last stop -- since there's no music on the Cascio Groove Garage until 2:30 -- is the M&I Classic Rock Stage where Brother Louie is holding court.
You won't find a local band with a better Milwaukee rock and roll pedigree than this band fronted by Louie Lucchesi. Before he moved to New York in '83 -- and since he returned -- Lucchesi has been a fixture on the local scene with his trademark vocal style that recalls both Lou Reed and fellow Milwaukeean/New Yorker Gordon Gano.
Alongside Lucchesi in this cover band are guitarist Howard Ellis, bassist Johnny Washday and drummer Chris Lehmann, who is also a local sound engineer and with whom I chatted for a while at the recent AA Bondy show at Club Garibaldi. These guys have been in bands like The Crusties, Women's Liberace, Johnny on Washday, The Vainglorious and Sacred Order.
But even with all that clout and some interesting choices like Spirit's "I Got a Line On You" and the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," there aren't many souls paying attention.
There's a lot of talent on the Summerfest schedule at every time slot. It's just a shame that there aren't always crowds on tap to witness it.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
