The Drunken Smiley Face in the Sky

Two more wonderful trips to Summerfest.


Opening Day
The World’s Greatest Husband (WGH) and I attended the opening day of Summerfest on Wednesday, July 29. We took off work early and had a great time, despite the Milwaukee County Transit System soaking us for both a parking fee AND a bus fare. Not good. We dipped into the last of our savings to have enough cash for the day, and shelling out $17 in travel expenses was a terrible way to start.


Fortunately, we had a wonderful time. After picking up a late lunch in the international food vendors section, we strolled down the lakeshore path until we reached the Tiki Hut, where less-established artists perform. We enjoyed Dan Rodriguez’s concert and bought his latest CD. For the uninitiated, Rodriguez’s song “When You Come Home” is featured in the Budweiser “Friends Are Waiting” Commercial (scroll down until you find the video link). He also has a beautiful rendition of “Stand By Me” (same page, a little higher). Rodriguez, as usual, sang his song “Duluth” with his wife (they wrote “Duluth” on their honeymoon; guess where they went?), and this year they included their four-month old son Oak.


Of course the food and drink are expensive; Summerfest is a closed venue and carry-ins are prohibited. I just buy a ($4.50) bottle of water, then refill it at the bubblers. As I was doing this, I noticed the young lady at the next bubbler struggling to get a drink while holding her long hair out of the way and talking on her cell phone all at the same time. Unfortunately, she failed her DEX roll.


As experienced Summerfest attendees, we know that the best way to insure a good seat for a 10:00 pm show is to be there by 4:00 pm and stay there, taking turns as needed for food/beverage/bathroom breaks. Plus, we don’t like to stand through the show as others do, and positioned ourselves at the top of a set of bleachers with an excellent and unobstructed view.


Because it is an outdoor venue, Summerfest allows smoking in most areas, including the amphitheater where we were seated. An extremely inebriated gent in front of me was behaving like an active chimney; something I couldn’t tolerate as an ex-smoker, so I whispered to him, “Could you please refrain from smoking, or go somewhere else to smoke? I’m breathing for two (with appropriate belly pat).” Worked like the proverbial charm. When the gent went to buy more beer, he didn’t return for quite some time; and when he did return, he admitted that he got lost. Yep, very drunk. His companions assured me he was not the designated driver. No, I’m not pregnant, but the drunk didn’t need to know that.


Two of the acts prior to the one we wanted to see were terrible. I know the singer is bad when even my tone-deaf ears start hurting, However a third group was so good that Brian already purchased one of their CDs. In between acts, while the roadies reset the stage, I took out my tablet to read my Kindle app. At 9:30 pm, Summerfest treated its guests to an incredible and lengthy (half-hour) fireworks show that included a few smiley faces meant to represent the Summerfest logo. One of them exploded upside-down, so we dubbed it “The Drunken Smiley Face in the Sky.”


Our chosen headliner for the evening was none other than “Weird Al” Yankovic. To celebrate our third wedding anniversary, Brian and I attended Yankovic’s concert at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison when he was on tour promoting his Alapalooza album. Twenty-two years later, Yankovic is on tour promoting Mandatory Fun. He opened the show by singing “Tacky” based on “Happy” by Pharrell, and for over an hour, Yankovic entertained us with many songs from his repertoire. At one point, Yankovic grabbed his accordion and said, “I’m sure I don’t have to ask this, but Milwaukee, are you ready to polka?!” The crowd went nuts; the polka is Wisconsin’s official state dance. Seriously. Yankovic not only played “Now That’s What I Call Polka!”, his chosen polka medley from Mandatory Fun, but the mega screen upstage played videos of the songs he covered. When I saw Miley Cyrus swinging from a “Wrecking Ball” onscreen, I laughed so loud, I was afraid of disturbing the drunken party seated in front of me. I couldn’t stop laughing as Yankovic also covered “Gangnam Style” by Psy, “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen, and “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams, among others.


The mega screen came in handy because Al and his band made several costume changes in between songs throughout the set. As they left the stage, clips were shown from The Weird Al Show, Al TV, and shows in which he appeared (such as The Simpsons) or was mentioned (How I Met Your Mother). Sometimes a video would segue into a song performance, as Al literally segwayed onto the stage to sing “White and Nerdy.”


Although I kept my vow to sing publicly only at sporting events (because even professional singers have trouble with “The Star Spangled Banner”) or in a house of worship (the Gods gave me this horrible singing voice, They should have put up with it), I did break the vow for Al’s encore: “The Saga Begins,” which combines three of my fandoms: “Weird Al,” Star Wars, and “American Pie.” Plus “Yoda.”


Good Karma, Perfect Day
On our way to Summerfest on Saturday, July 9th, we stopped at our favorite McDonald’s for some lunch. We were behind a car with two adorable dogs in the back and an Afghanistan War Veteran license plate. My habit is to thank veterans whenever I can, so I said to Brian that I wished we were ahead of the car so that we could pay for his lunch. Well, the veteran’s window was open, so Brian shouted to him that we would pay for his lunch. When the veteran approached the pay window, the cashier looked at us to confirm, which we of course did, and passed the veteran on. When the cashier asked why we were doing this, we pointed to the license plate, and he understood. So we started the day with perfect weather and very good karma.


We saved ourselves some money (and a lot of aggravation) by parking in a different lot and still riding the bus to Summerfest with a pre-paid fare. When we arrived, most of the stages hosted a battle of the bands from various School of Rock franchises across the nation. These kids were wicked-talented, singing songs from Guns N Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Stevie Wonder, among others.

Mercifully all of the groups we wanted to see that day performed at the BMO Harris Pavilion, which is no smoking due to its roof, so we camped there from about 3:30 pm on. I never heard of Sigmund Snopek, nor that he used to open for the Violent Femmes (go figure; both are from Milwaukee), but I loved his music, the way he encouraged the audience to sing (calling us the Wisconsin Tavernacle Choir), and the fact that he had a painter on stage creating art as he created art. Nice touch.


Howard Jones gave a brief but beautiful performance (with a keytar and other techno instruments that I couldn’t name). Then OMD played, including my favorite “If You Leave” from the Pretty In Pink soundtrack. I love me my 80s soundtracks, and I admit it: I sang along. Mercifully the guy sitting next to me (not my Brian, other side) was wearing earplugs. Throughout the evening, Mr. Earplugs watched a movie on his smartphone, and I looked it up at work this week from what little I saw: Resident Evil: Apocalypse starring the talented and beautiful Milla Jovovich.


Despite our fabulous bleacher seats behind and above the more formal theater seats, I noticed a very bad design flaw of the pavilion and its handicap accessible seats. We sat in a place where we always would be able to see the stage, even if the patrons in front of us stood. The accessible seats were the back row of the theater seats, and people using that row either had to stand or have no view. I noticed one young couple left, which is rather sad because the gentlemen, whose right leg ended at the knee, had the bearing of a veteran. I must remember to write Summerfest about this.


When the headliner Bare Naked Ladies took the stage, I noticed that the lead singer Ed Robertson seemed to change guitars (electric, acoustic, mandolin, and banjo) after every song. I don’t know why he needed so many stringed instruments, but I guess that’s just a musician thing. Again I broke my vow when they played many of their songs that I know so well: “If I Had $1,000,000,” “The Old Apartment”, and especially “History of Everything,” the theme song from my favorite sitcom The Big Bang Theory. For the encore, Robertson switched places with the drummer Tyler Stewart, who also is a talented front man, as well as looking extremely huggable (that means attractive in my parlance).


As we left Summerfest, casually walking along its lakeshore path because we were not in a hurry, Brian turned to me and said that the day was perfect (touch wood), and “happy anniversary.” No, we couldn’t afford a big party, but we did have a wonderful time together. I hugged him and honestly told him how much I love him.


The only bad thing that could have occurred at that point was if our car was towed from where we extra-legally parked it. However, we weren’t the only Summerfest attendees to do that, so they couldn’t tow us all. Finally at home, we crawled into bed and didn’t get up until an hour or so before hosting our regular RPG.


Next year (for Summerfest’s 50th anniversary), we want to take our friend Brian Stewart.


Pog ma thoin!
-Lori


Droz: “What’s this? You’re wearing the shirt of the band you’re going to see? Don’t be that guy!” – PCU written by Adam Leff and Zak Penn Brian and I saw a lot of people being ‘that guy.’