Summerfest

Here in Milwaukee, we have a little thing called Summerfest. They bill themselves as the World's Largest Music Festival and are in Guiness for it. How one determines such things, I don't know.

But the point is, here in our little Wisconsin hamlet we have an 11 day outdoor music festival. It's rather fabulous. Check out the website here.

For $15 dollars you gain admission to a permanent festival grounds (none of this wide open field with some stages thrown up and some police lines for fences crap) that houses 9 stages. Each stage tends to stray to one type of genre, though that isn't always the case.

I could go on and on about Summerfest, but the point is that it's wonderful and all music lovers should check it out at some point. You can't get better money for your dollar.

There's also a main act every night at our Amphitheater, for which a seperate admission is charged. This year's headliners include Paul Simon, String Cheese & Rat Dog & Keller Williams (together), Pearl Jam and Tom Petty (together), NIN & Bauhaus, Alan Jackson & Carrie Underwood, and Counting Crows & Goo Goo Dolls, and Mary J. Blige. They try to cover every genre and audience with at least one headliner over the 11 days.

AND the people watching is the best I've ever encountered!

Anyway, the lineup isn't as prime as I would have liked this year. They're very much trying to attract an older, more affluent crowd and the side stage lineups reflected it, with bands like The Bangles, Styx, Lynard Skynard, and the like.

So I went Friday night to see Cowboy Mouth with my friend Jackie.
I feel like I should be a little embarassed to be a fan of CM, but frankly, I've never seen a better live show, they're from New Orleans and the make me nostalgic for my city.

Besides, I think it's funny that Jackie and I discovered CM in high school, at Summerfest, when we went early to get good seats for some other show, and CM happened to be on before them. We don't even remember the other show anymore, as it was utter crap and CM blew them out of the water. Living in New Orleans offered me many many opportunities to see CM and now I check them out whenever I can.

The show Friday was good times. They have a fairly new album that they ammended post-Katrina and added some songs about home. They are haunting and beautiful and gave me goosebumps (I'm SUCH a cheeseball!) and made me a little homesick.

But if you can't see CM live, don't even bother with the CDs. They pale in comparison and you just don't get the same feel for the band. And if you've never been, prepare for a lot energy, but also a lot of talking from Fred, the lead singer. Sometimes, I'll admit, you just want him to shut up and play, but mostly you're totally into what he's saying and you can feel his passion.

Besides, how can you not like a band who's lead singer is the drummer. And said drummer wears no sleeves, no shoes, and is sweat through by the 2nd song.