What better way to celebrate Independence Day than to spend it at Summerfest listening to great music? Day 11 was bittersweet. Bitter because it was the last day of Summerfest 2010. Sweet because I had accomplished what I set out to do, "run the gauntlet"...attend all 11 days of Summerfest.
As you might imagine, the last day, for me anyways, was more relaxed than previous. Arrived about 6:00pm. Headed over to Major Goolsby's for a great cheeseburger, stopping at the Summerfest Store along the way. No purchases this year. I already got my Summerfest tshirt and bought a sweatshirt on one of the cooler nights.
Made my way over to the U.S. Cellular Connection Stage and claimed a seat on the bleachers. 6:45/7:00pm The Henry Clay People took the stage. They are part of the Emerging Artists Series. Played a couple of original songs then took requests from the audience. They refused to play Freebird though...HAHAHA! They played Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World instead. I think it's a sign of a pretty good band that can play pretty much any song on demand like that. They were good.
After toiling whether or not I would go to THECOOLTV Rock Stage to see Sick Puppies, who I saw at the Big Snow Show back in December 2009, I decided to stay where I was and check out Against Me! for the first time. I think I made a good decision. I wasn't very familiar with Against Me!, only knew a few of their songs. Thought they were really good. Kind of a punk band the likes of Rancid or Dropkick Murphys. Well, that's the best comparison I can make at this time. Really good show. Good decision on my part. Another band checked off the list.
The 10:00pm band was Silversun Pickups. Saw them at Summerfest back in 2007 as an 8:00pm opener. I really like both of their albums, with the edge going to their newest one Swoon. Awesome show. I highly recommend seeing them live if you like their music. Solid show. The female bass player looked like she had been plucked off the streets as she was wearing some kind of flowery sun dress. Looked odd. The drummer is fun to watch. Seems to make the same head banging motions the entire time. The singer could definitely jam on the guitar. After playing Lazy Eye, I left to check out the end of Halestorm at THECOOLTV Rock Stage. My friend dumped it trying to cross the bleachers. Saw them play I Get Off then we headed for the exits.
A great ending!
Rock on Mike. Think I tried to comment earlier in the week, but it didn't go through...
ReplyDeleteCool blog... pic posts in the blog might be fun too!