Summerfest is here, but will I go?

Well, the biggest festival in the world is upon us here in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Summerfest that features a long list of local to major bands is going on. Some of my favourite bands are in town as well. Rancid and Rise Against played last week, Offspring, last Friday, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys & Elvis Costello are all coming up this week. So am I going this year? Nah. Probably not. I wrote off any shows after the epic Smoking Popes and Maritime at Turner Hall because my wife and I are trying to save some cash. But that may not be the only other reason. Summerfest is typically only fun during the actual performance of a band. Seriously, there is very little to enjoy during the day. Expensive beer, pricey food and typically humid nights can be irritating. Plus, if you want a decent seat or standing position, you have to get to the stage super early. Like, 2 or 3 hours early!! Who wants to do that?! I guess it's better then drunk out of shape cowboys singing about tractors and farms at Country Fest or whatever is up in northern Wisconsin. This year, no Summerfest. Not enough bands to drag me to the Lakefront. Sorry friends.

Maritime+The Smoking Popes @ Turner Hall

First of all, forgive my late-writing on this epic show. I have moved recently and have not had the opportunity to write a review of the show. With that out of the way, Here's how the night went down. Upon arriving at the show, my wife and I ran into Maritime singer Davey Von Bohlen before the show. Every time we see Maritime, we always run into Davey, so it's always nice to catch up with him. He was graduating from college the day after show. So after a brief chat, I grabbed my tall can of Pabst and chilled during the opening band's set. THEN I ran into one of my favourite drummers of all time. Niel Hennessey, the drummer for The Smoking Popes/The Falcon/ The Lawrence Arms. We had a good chat about what's next for some of the bands he drums in. He told me TLA will release some new material at the end of the year...I was pretty stoked to hear about that. Anyway, The opening band were from Chicago and had some fun playing. Maritime was next. They had a nice-sized crowd for their set which is great because the last time we saw them in Waukesha, probably 15 people were standing there. Including us. Anyway, the set was heavily influenced by some new material they were testing on the crowd. All very upbeat songs. They opened with Guns of Navarone which is exactly what I thought they would play. Ha! Other songs they played were Tearing Up the Oxygen, Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts, Protein and Poison, German Engineering, Calm, For Science Fiction, With Holes for Thumb Sized Birds and probably a few more. During For Science Fiction, Davey started out singing on the wrong key and the song went slightly down-hill from there, but they recovered and finished out the song. Overall, they played a relaxed set with some fun bantering and it was a great time. Next: The Smoking Popes.

I haven't always been into these Chicago musicians, but upon hearing Destination Failure, they quickly have become an influential band. They played a very strong set hitting some of the new material off Stay Down and older material. Some of the songs included Off My Mind, Rubella, Need You Around, Writing A Letter, It's never to late (For Love), I Know You Love Me, Midnight Moon, Welcome To Janesville, Grab Your Heart And Run, Meghan and others. Josh, the lead singer came back on stage to do some solo songs including, First Time which the crowd sang the back up vocals on. He also did fan-favourite "Pretty Pathetic". The ended the night with Brand New Hairstyle, which was the perfect ending to an amazing night. My wife and I left very happy that night. We knew we were moving early in the morning, but the show was well worth the late night packing.
So if by some luck the Smoking Popes roll through your city, try to catch them live.