Summerfest Day 2

Outside music acts, Dancing Drunks, and more Music!

Day 2 of Summerfest picked right back up where day 1 left off.  I boarded my bus at the State Fair Park & Ride on my way to Summerfest.  The weather was perfect for most of the night.  Got to the grounds to the sound of some fast paced drumming.  There were about 5 guys with drumsticks beating on empty 5gallon BBQ sauce pails.  It was great traveling music to say the least.  These guys easily must've made $100 doing this the whole day (TAX FREE LOL). 

Day 2s music line up was to see ZZtop & Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at the Marcus Amphitheatre.  If there was time to partake in one of my other favorite Summerfest activities.  Stage hopping!  For people new to Summerfest stage hopping is pretty much what it means.  To go from one stage on the grounds to the other.  All the free stages are fair game to see a show, since you paid your admission.  There can be some nights where I have hopped to 3 different stages in one night depending on who is playing. 

Food:  Wongs Wok Empress plate consisting of Shrimp fried rice & chicken.  Not bad, but I wanted something to eat quick before the show.

We got to the Marcus Amphitheater and that's where the fun began.  Oh wait its Summerfest if your not having fun you don't have a pulse! ZZtop put on an amazing show!  The amphitheatre was about 3/4 full at the time.  It wasn't the concert though that alot of people were watching towards the end though. 

There was a lady in lawn seating who was living the Summerfest Life (My new phrase for this year).  Again for my friends not from Wisconsin, the definition of this is 50% alcohol, 45% music, & 5% crowd backing equals someone who is constantly dancing (Well or not well) to the beat of the music.  Their energy rubs off on everyone around them and everyone starts dancing near you, or will travel over to your section to dance with you.   Your not really drunk your just intoxicated with all the above ingredients & it just puts you in a trance.  I'm sure alot of us Summerfest regulars have been in this trance at least once at Summerfest (Me Nickelback 2006).  It can be a very entertaining, memorable, yet expensive time!  To see more I encourage you to go to my Facebook page under the video section & watch the ZZtop video of Sharped Dress man to see.  After filming this, the whole night she was taking hats and dancing around, high-fiving people as they walked by, if they didn't have five you got flipped off.  I walked by when going to get a beer and all of her friends and her were high fiving me & she kept slapping me on my ass!  All I could do was laugh, as I knew she meant no harm.  Her boyfriend I think was just enjoying the attention she kept getting and stuff. 

Tom Petty was about an hour and a half set of all of his classics (Running down a dream, Last Dance with Mary Jane, You Don't Know How it Feels, Free Fallin, I Wont Back down, etc).  He did play a couple of songs from his new album Mojo which were pretty impressive.  A little bluesy but pretty good.  During the show we had a wonderful mix of eerie fog roll in & a light mist at times but it was refreshing.  I took a picture of the Hoan Bridge from the Ampatheatre which I can usually get a good shot of it.  Not tonight though.

During Petty's encore we noticed a sea of lighters.  We joked that lighters are becoming classics just like the bands we have been seeing so far at Summerfest.  No one was holding up cell phones.  It was a great sight. 

When the house lights came on I was disappointed I didn't hear "The Waiting" from Tom Petty.  No matter I wrote my own lyrics to the song while trying to get out of the amphitheatre.  ~The waiting is the hardest part.  The show is over & I just want to get out.  I drank too much beer & now I gotta pee, O the waiting is the hardest part!~  When leaving you feel like a heard of cattle heading into the slaughter house as everyone is moving 4 different directions when the exit is 100 feet (But they don't want that exit even though it leads to the same main exit LOL).  We found some relief then it was off to Skillet over at the North End of the grounds.

My favorite secret of Summerfest if you want to see multiple acts on different stages walk along the Lake Front!  Since everyone is jammed at the stages & food lines its harder to walk through the main drags and can take forever.  The Lake front is your freeway to good music!  Sure I would've paid $3 to take the Skyglider but I'm fat and need exercise! 

We caught the tail end of Skillet & I noticed a large plume of smoke when we were heading to the stage.  I thought wow someone really over did it with the fog machines / dry ice.  WRONG!  They were using pyrotechnics at the stage.  I have never seen this before at Summerfest as the stages are so small and the people are so close the two are a bad mix.  I was quite impressed and was in awe (Though if you know me I love seeing shit get blown up LOL).  I got to hear Monster, Rebirth, and Hero.  I have to remember next time they come back to Summerfest/Milwaukee to see these guys.  That show looked really impressive of the 15minutes we saw of them.

After Skillet we headed back to the Mass Transit lot to the sound of the drums.  Going through the mazes where you feel like a mouse heading for a piece of cheese at the end (That is your bus lol).  The bus ride was rather dull as it was all young people who don't drink.  Oh well.

Bring on Summerfest Day 3! 

Note:  Day 3 was supposed to be BB King / Nonpoint , but due to friends & constraints beyond my control Day 3 of Summerfest will be after the Eric Clapton show on Monday 6/28/10.

Summerfest Video Link: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566394898&v=app_2392950137
Summerfest Picture Link: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566394898&v=app_2392950137#!/album.php?aid=241212&id=566394898&ref=mf