(Live Review) MILWAUKEE SUMMERFEST DAY TWO - 6/21/24

By

The Beard & Little Johnny

Greetings friends, fans, and followers. It is your “on vacation” reviewing duo the Beard & Little Johnny and we are reporting from day two of Milwaukee’s Summerfest.

After a breakfast of a Wisconsin omelet (sausage, onions, peppers, and cheese curds), along with a side of bacon and some English muffins, Little Johnny and I have arrived for day two. We are beginning with a tour of six stages for the annual “School of Rock” day. For the first four hours, about half the stages are turned over to tomorrow’s musicians and rock stars as kids of all the “School of Rock” institutions across America get their opportunity to play live. (Ed: Yippee!)

School of Rock is a nationwide institution for kids 7-17 that teaches music lessons, (specific to rock'n'roll), and puts enrollees in classes and bands with their peers to learn how to become musicians and play in live settings. Summerfest stages are one of the School of Rocks bigger summertime live venue opportunities and from Noon-Four today almost one hundred “bands” will get the chance to take the stages and play a three-song set. Although these groups perform mostly in front of family and friends, they are also in front of some actual audiences such as their potential future reviewers the Beard and Little Johnny.

Johnny was happy to engage in this activity saying, “This is cool Beard. They didn’t have nothing like this back at the orphanage. I mean we sang hymns on Sunday’s and stuff but never ones we could mosh to.”

We picked a stage and waited for the first set of performers. The opening group (from Glen Ellen Illinois) were a group of six players, mostly girls all around mid-teens. Three sang with one also playing electronic violin and another the keys. The guitarist, bassist and drummer stuck to their own thing. The girls had varied vocal styles with some better and some worse. 65/100 for their three-song set.

Group two was a mix from Milwaukee. They started with a Bowie cover of "Rebel Rebel" and the back line kids laying the rhythm weren’t bad. On the second song, they switched singers, and this girl was a very decent vocalist if you like the White Stripes. Going a little higher with a 70/100.

Group three was from Andersonville. A five-piece mix (boys & girls). This group was a bit older, probably in their mid-late teens. On the second number they tried Dio ("Holy Diver"). Now THAT is a tough voice to emulate, and the singer was nowhere near it, but kudos for bringing metal into Summerfest. The guitar lead for that song, on the other hand, was pretty damn solid. The guitar work remained good on all three of their numbers. That kid has potential. Saying a nice 75/100.

At that point we decided to move to a different stage to see some more variety. At the next stage we got School of Rock New Mexico. This was cultural music which neither Johnny nor I understood, but the singer seemed to have a nice voice and the first song was a pleasant ballad. The next two were faster but we did not care for them and decided to move on to another stage. 60/100. (Ed: I would have moved onto another pub long ago!)

Fifth up were six older kids from Illinois. They had good harmonies, but we were not fond of the song selections. They did do one Journey deep cut that didn’t suck. At least it was not "Don’t Stop Believing" (or that putrid "Open Arms".) 65/100.

Group six was from California. A seven person mix that started with No Doubt's “I’m just a girl” okay vocals okay musicianship. Their second and third songs were lackluster. 63/100. (Ed: You're killing me, Beard!)

The seventh group also had seven people of mixed age and gender and were from Houston. This group was energetic and seemed to understand that it is also a visual show, not just an audio one. Although I did not know any of their stuff, Little Johnny really dug them since the oldest girls were close to his age group. “Hey!! Get back here. They did NOT offer you any backstage passes. Just sit still and watch the show.” 73/100. (Ed: He learned that from you Beard ... refer your recent backstage shenanigans with several age appropriate (for you!) female performers.)

Eighth up was an interesting collection, including a bassist who was clearly under ten. The bass was almost big enough to play him. They were also energetic and even though they played no songs I knew; I am going 75/100 because I liked their musicianship more than most. Johnny agreed that they were legitimate rock.

Ninth was a collection of kids who performed "Madhouse" (Anthrax) and "Slow Ride" (Foghat). Kudos as I can guarantee that no one on that stage was alive when either of those songs were popular. Their group however included both “potential” musicians and people who really did not belong up there. That said, it was at least metal songs. The singer had some power in her voice, and the guitarist could play the solos decently. This seemed a good group to end our School of Rock experience on with a 76/100.

BLACK VIOLINS

Next up was our stop for the daily Summerfest special. Today, it was two for one IPAs at the Hophouse stand between 4-5PM. Johnny and I each grabbed a can of suds and I suggested we head over to the U-line stage for Black Violins. The lad thought I said Black Violence and got excited thinking we were off to a deathcore band. (Ed: I would have been excited to be heading to a polka festival after what you two had to endure.)

Black Violins were two guys who had learned classical violin for the past quarter century, but in their spare time were into Dr. Dre and Jay Z stuff, so their music was a mix of classical, hip hop, rap, and other styles. For what it was, it was fine. Overall, I appreciated the classical aspects, and they did a remake of "Devil Went Down To Georgia" (which was an odd choice), but they did a respectable job of it given it had hip hop and scratching added to it. Not my thing, but I did appreciate the skill set. 70/100.

DROWNING POOL    

Finally, we got to our one metal act of the day as Drowning Pool took the stage. Drowning Pool were a band with unusual makeup as they have had four different singers in their twenty-five-year history while keeping the rest of the band intact since their inception. I had not seen Drowning Pool since an Ozzfest almost twenty years ago with Jason Jones singing. This was my first time with returning Ryan McCombs behind the microphone.

Loud and very alternative metal, at least for an hour, Johnny & I finally heard straight-up metal songs. Other than the material off Sinner and their cover of "Rebel Yell", I did not know anything else by them, but I was happy to hear loud, fast music played well here. As expected, they closed with “Bodies” and the School of Rock kids, who had performed earlier on this stage, got to come out and sort of jam with them on the chorus section. That had to be a thrill for any of them who loved metal music. Johnny wanted to try and crowd surf up there, but I kept hold of his belt. “They will throw us out if you jump on anyone’s head here little dude.” 80/100.

JESUS JONES    

Afterwards, as we headed across the length of Summerfest towards our exit gate, we stopped and checked out the last five songs from British alt rockers Jesus Jones. This was not a band I would have sought out, but I have to say they were entertaining. I didn’t know their numbers, but they were certainly practiced musicians, and the songs were some crisp alternative rock material.

MODERN ENGLISH

After their set, we did hang around to finish our last beers and decided to at least watch the opening numbers from 45-year veteran English synth/new wave/punk band Modern English. Existing since 1979, three members of Modern English are still playing their version of Simple Minds-meets-Duran Duran new wave synth style music. They sounded fairly good for a festival style set but neither of us were enjoying it enough to stay there an hour more just to hear Melt with You (Ed: Who?), so once the beers were gone, so were we ending our second day, as well as our Summerfest experience, for 2024.

So, extraordinarily little metal or even rock n roll this weekend. Summerfest ultimately dropped the ball, spilled the bucket, and screwed the pooch on booking any great rock or metal acts this year (which for a nine-day three weekend fest is crazy and in my opinion kind of stupid.) Some will say “But Motley Crue played the first weekend.” The Beard says: “Watching Motley Crue, on a free stage, is still spending too much money let alone watching them on the large “pay extra for it” amphitheater stage."

No, good readers, Summerfest REALLY fell flat this year in terms of good rock and metal acts. Fortunately, Little Johnny & I had a decent time just bumping about and enjoying the nice weather.

As always, be sure to tune in every Wednesday for the latest in our live reviews right here on The Mighty Decibel. Check out our TikTok page @ thebeard0728 (for all the concert videos) and friend or follow Mark McQueen on Facebook for the brand-new non-metal reviews column which covers everything from music, to Beerfest’s, to live theater to dinner pairings. You just never know what you are going to get there.

Until next time, this is The Beard, & Little Johnny saying ... Stay Heavy & Horns Up!!!