If there were any worries about the inaugural VERGE Music Festival not living up the hype, they were quickly dashed not long into the first day.
The rain clouds conveniently cleared, paving the way for a comfortably warm evening for a taste of modern rock and roll. It was interesting to navigate between stages of the Summerfest grounds without passing through heavy pedestrian traffic.
I arrived to the festival in time for the Nico Vega show. The power rock trio, which hails from L.A., immediately got comfortable with their surroundings and let loose. Led by a charismatic female singer named Aja Volkman, who stormed about the stage with wild furious abandon, the band proceeded to catch on fire with most of the set featuring hard-rocking songs from their debut album.
The chemistry was definitely evident and Aja was more than happy to help out, doing additional drumming and pretending to strum a guitar. The set was ended with a wild rocker, punctuated when Aja dropped the microphone with an emphasized thud.
After that blast, I headed over to watch The Championship, which had a pretty decent crowd. I last saw them at the Cream City Music Festival and was looking for a chance to see the band again. While they weren't all over the stage, they brought their A-game once again, producing powerful renditions of their Americana-country folk rock songs.
Lead singer Joe Crocket has a commanding voice in the vein of Johnny Cash and certainly (with the help of the rest of the band) won over many new fans among the first-timers in the crowd. The band's sublimely organic chemistry showed through in songs, especially ones from the excellent EP released last year.
After The Championship, it was back to the Verge stage, where rockers Crash Kings had just started. The band provided a good set of rockers, many from the self-titled debut, including a great rendition of their song "Mountain Man." The band's lead singer, Tony Beliveau, sat in the comfort of the piano as the guitarist and drummer moved about more freely among the stage. The band pulled out a nice surprise when they ended the set with a pretty good cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs."
Right after that were two of the my most anticipated bands of the festival - Eagles of Death Metal and She & Him. It might seem like an odd choice, as they seem to reside at opposite ends of the spectrum, but I guess my taste in music has grown to like more indie rock.
The one thing I didn't like was that both overlapped, so I ended up having to leave fairly early in the Eagles of Death Metal show. The portion I did see constituted a great, fun rock and roll show. Lead singer Jesse Hughes definitely seemed in seventh heaven to play the festival, telling the crowd, "F--- Hollywood, Milwaukee's the true rock and roll city." The band provided their sleazy guitar riffs and garage band music from their two albums, including fun songs like "Cherry Cola." The crowd clearly got pumped up by the relentlessly charismatic frontman.
To finish off my day at Verge, I went over to see She & Him, aka Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's side project. Their set featured pop tunes perfect for a warm summer night, with Zoey's vocals reminiscent of ‘60s girl groups, but with a fresh take. M. Ward's tastefully and classic-rock drenched guitar playing (backed by a superb group of musicians/harmony singers) added texture. The band's set featured their two albums, "Volume One" and the recently-released "Volume Two."
For most of the night Zoey handled the vocals, but for a few songs she and M. Ward shared singing in songs like their "Ridin' in Your Car" cover. Those wanting to hear M. Ward take command on vocals were rewarded when he and the band roared into a great version of "Roll Over Beethoven."
Both had turns on piano as well and at the end of the set shared piano duties. The band walked off to loud cheers and while it looked like the band might return for an encore (a loud "One more song!" by the crowd) the lights went up. Nonetheless, it wrapped up the first day of the festival and got me even more excited about the prospects for Saturday.
