So this past weekend my wife and I traveled to the wonderful metropolis of Milwaukee to visit a friend doing her medical rotation and to see John Mellencamp in concert. My intent was to pack a fly rod, but it was left at home and we spent a solid 9am to 12:30am people watching at an event in Milwaukee called “SummerFest”.
About all I can really say about Milwaukee, is WOW. I guess with all those aging Harley riders in attendance, I was in for a treat. But the real treat came when a Bon Jovi tribute band took one of the stages. Holy cow did these guys suck; but hey, he looked the part. SummerFest is a pretty long music festival held in a pretty good sized park on the Lake Michigan shoreline. The park is set up with close to 10 different stages, all of them playing music from noon to midnight. We were able to see a local guy with his guitar that I really dug — Dave Rodriguez, as well as a reggae / funk bankd called Roster McCabe, but for the most part the music styles present were not anything that I was in to. Mellencamp played on Saturday evening and was an absolute blast. The guy can’t dance, but he can still sing and sounds as good live as he does on his CD’s, and was someone that I wanted to cross of my list for some time now. If you ever get the chance to see him, definitely do…….but if you ever decide to visit Milwaukee…..think twice. They don’t even serve Budwieser. — Matt Tucker