Eight days into my quest to 'run the gauntlet' and the end is just around the corner. Last night brought me and my friends to a different stage, the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse. I hadn't been at this stage yet this year. This is probably the newest stage and second largest (as far as crowd capacity). The Miller Lite Oasis is by far the largest in terms of number of people. The sound quality at this stage is far superior to the U.S. Cellular Connection Stage, which is probably the oldest stage and in the most need of an upgrade.
Got to the stage at about 6:00pm. The Barbeez were playing. They are a cover band and played songs from Journey, Styx, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Metallica. Cover bands always make for good background music and the occasional sing-a-long to an oldie. The group of guys to my left were obvious fans of the wacky weed and had a joint that rivaled Cheech & Chong. Hilarious! Funny to watch the 'scouts' too. Scouts are the lone people who walk up and down the rows to try to find open spots to sit. Keep moving. Another group of five guys were seen playing some weird game that was quite disturbing. All five were grabbing each other in the junk...some odd nut-grabbing game. Why?! See what I mean? You see ALL kinds of things at Summerfest!
On the paper schedule, the 8:00pm band was TBA. Not really sure I like TBA, but they didn't show up anyways. In their place was a brand new band called Terrible Things. Foreshadowing of what was to come? Perhaps. The drummer was from the band Coheed and Cambria. The singer was from the band Taking Back Sunday...I had been wondering why I hadn't heard anything from them in a while. Now I know. Turns out it was a foreshadowing. They were terrible. How many bands do you know that write a song about their own band name? Their first song was called Terrible Things. Good luck guys!
Terrible Things didn't play long at all and finished about 8:30. A sad half-hour set. That left us an hour and a half wait for the main event...The Offspring! The Offspring made their second consecutive Summerfest appearance, having played the Miller Lite Oasis last year. Crowd was insane then and it was once again insane last night. One of the guys was taking bets on what song they would open with. I didn't join in, but my suggestion was spot on. They opened with You're Gonna Go Far, Kid. Minus the on-stage theatrics they had last year, another solid show!! A lot of their favorites were played and even a couple I wasn't familiar with. The Offspring is awesome!!
Guess I didn't mention that the last couple of days we got our very own Rock Band back together. The name changed to Burnt Jelly, but we definitely rocked the house. Last night was no exception. Returned from SF and rocked to some classics of our own. Played guitar on Wednesday. On vocals for a bit last night. Rock on!!
A quick message to my friend Barry in Phoenix - The streak is in jeopardy! Only 3 days left.
Today is Day 9 and tonight I see a band that I last saw on September 13, 1988 (nearly 22 years ago. Crazy that I remember that?). Tonight it is time to enjoy some Big City Nights as we Rock You Like a Hurricane...SCORPIONS! This is their farewell tour.
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