The Details

Summerfest is an annual 11-day-long, music lover’s dream come

true set in Milwaukee, along the shores of Lake Michigan. It is the

largest music festival in the United States featuring virtually every

type of sound from alternative to zydeco.

This year there were thirteen stages that blasted continuous live

music from 11:30 a.m. until midnight every day.

There was a huge half-pipe set up for the skaters and BMX-ers,

extreme water- and jetskiers on the lake each afternoon, all sorts

of novelty shops and outdoor markets; even a Midway with typical

fair-fodder rides for the kiddies.

Admission prices, at $9 on weekdays and $10 on weekends,

weren’t terribly steep either, especially considering the amount of

music one could take in. An example: on Monday, July 7, $9 would

get you into the Tonic, Three Dog Night, Wilco, Slash’s Snake Pit

and Seven Mary Three shows, in addition to a slew of

smaller-band concerts.

Where else can cash-strapped college students see big-name

national bands so cheaply? Considering the recent cancellation of

two of Des Moines’ most largely anticipated concerts, certainly not

anywhere near Ames.

Also, the festival grounds were only a short stumble from all of the

downtown Milwaukee hotels and restaurants. Every ten minutes,

$2 round-trip buses ran from the festival entrance gates to the

downtown area for those too full of gyros and beer to manage the

trip on foot.

Summerfest began on June 28 and lasted until Sunday. The Daily

covered three days of the event, July 2 through July 4.

The Summerfest-goers

Perhaps almost as interesting, and certainly just as diverse as the

music itself, were the festival-goers themselves. Pulling in 75,000

to upwards of 95,000 each day, the scene was reminiscent of a

high school cafeteria, where each clique stakes claim to a table

and sticks with it.

For example, the mullets were thick around the the

Harley-Davidson Roadhouse stage and the Mountain Dew Rock

stage. It was here that such half-heartedly offensive t-shirt

messages, such as “Recreational Gynecologist,” “I’m Here About

The Blowjob,” and the simple, yet effective, “White Trash.” were

spotted. These old-school metalheads came in many shapes,

sizes and ages, yet all were united under raised beer cups and

raised pinky-and-forefinger Satan horns.

Of course there were the name-brand laden individuals and

scantily-clad, high-heeled girls, many of who were afflicted with a

cell phone attached to one ear.

Then there was the raver crowd that tended to hover near the Klub

Kiss 103.7 DJ stage, which featured such spinsters as Danny the

Wildchild, DJ Rock Dee with Verbal High, Madkid, and Dayhota.

The luminescence from their collective Glo-Sticks rivaled that of

the Midway.

The list could go on and on. The masses of dreadlocked and

hemp jewelry sporting flower children at the entrance of Marcus

Amphitheatre on Widespread Panic/ Ben Harper night; the

colossal number of bared midriffs at the entrance on Destiny’s

Child night . . .

But the nice thing about Summerfest was that, unlike high school,

all of the groups coexisted in peace. The relatively-few law

enforcement officers strolled around the grounds looking bored.

It’s rare that anything today, – even music (remember Woodstock

`99?) – has the power to bring such a varied crowd together with

so few problems. And Summerfest did just that.

– Bethany Kohoutek

Wilco: 7.2.2001

Wilco, a quintessential alt-country staple of the post-No

Depression ethos, melded old songs, like 1996’s

“Misunderstood,” which opened the show, with tempting bait, like

the melancholic “Ashes,” from their upcoming album, to draw the

largest crowd of all the July 2 headlining bands. Scores of

college-somethings mumbled along and double as many scuffed

Vans shuffled with the beat in the dirt of the Leinie Lodge

stage.

The mixture of nightfall and some of Wilco’s more amorous

numbers seemed to bring out more affection than the other stages

as well (consider: Slash’s Snakepit, Seven Mary Three and Three

Dog Night), with many a significant other’s hand in a back jeans

pocket.

The show wasn’t filled only with dispirited odes to broken love,

though. Head vocalist Jeff Tweedy led the way as his band turned

up the twang towards the end of the concert.

– Bethany Kohoutek

Slash’s Snake Pit: 7.2.2001

At the other end of the Summerfest grounds, Slash and his nest of

vipers took a different approach to luring Summerfest-goers,

apparently trying to prove that indulgent guitar solos and long black

afros on white guys are still, um, rockin’. The former Guns N’

Roses guitarist was fully decked out in all of his yesteryear glory.

Anyone who thought that maybe Slash ditched the big black top hat

at the onset of the `90s was sorely mistaken.

Although the Snake Pit boasts such players as Alice In Chains

bassist Mike Inez, Jellyfish lead singer Eric Dover and two past G

n’ R cohorts, Matt Sorum and Gilby Clark, it’s just not the same to

see Slash sans Axl and Izzy.

Somehow Slash’s new lyrics don’t quite hit home like those

oh-so-sincere power ballads “November Rain” and “Patience,”

either. An example from the Pit’s debut album:

“We got a band playin’, the singer’s really fat/ The cat is in the

dryer/ Who’s the asshole who did that/Someone’s in the

backroom/ I think they’re getting high/ If they don’t unlock the

bathroom/ I’ll just have to go outside.”

– Bethany Kohoutek

Seven Mary Three: 7.2.2001

Garage rockers Seven Mary Three were the heaviest band among

the headliners on the evening of July 2, and as such, drew a crowd

that was harder than its music probably calls for.

Its post-grunge sound may have alienated those hoping for a

more metal-twinged set, but for the most part, the Richmond, Va.,

troupe managed to walk the fine line between sentimentality and

feverish angst. “Water’s Edge,” a modest radio hit, and also the

set’s finale, was a perfect example. Lead singer Jason Ross’s

gritty delivery combined with the song’s haunting plotline proved

that Seven Mary Three can rock without sacrificing its intelligence

or integrity.

– Bethany Kohoutek

Monster Magnet: 7.3.2001

On the other hand, the wannabe gods of irreverence, excess and

melodrama, Monster Magnet, didn’t quite make the integrity and

intelligence cut like Seven Mary Three. And the crowd reflected it.

They cheered just as loud to lead singer Dave Wyndorf’s

blood-and-thunder cries of “Hey, Milwaukee!” and “Give me

something back, motherfuckers!” as they did to any Magnet song.

The highlight of the otherwise dull ear-bleed was the stoner-rock

anthem “Space Lord,” which had the entire crowd singing along,

though it’s doubtful anyone really knew what the hell the lyrics are

supposed to mean: “I’ve been stuffed in your pocket for the last

hundred days/ When I don’t get my bath I take it out on the slaves/

So grease up your baby for the ball on the hill/ Polish them rockets

now and swallow those pills/ And sing Space Lord Mother Mother.”

All the while, Wyndorf struck exaggerated rock star poses on top of

the monitors on the stage, rallying his devoted followers by

religiously repeating the name of their city and yelling cuss words

at them.

But what do you really expect from a band whose breakthrough

(and fourth) album is titled “Powertrip?”

– Bethany Kohoutek

Manplanet: 7.3.2001

Maintenance Shop darlings Manplanet took the Leinie’s Lodge

stage at 3:30, right as the sun had come out from behind the

clouds and the temperature had inched up to somewhere in the

sticky high 80s. Summerfest-goers had finished their overpriced

festival lunches. Though the audience was a bit sluggish, the

band pumped out 60 minutes worth of spacey pop, including the

immensely catchy “I, Robot,” “Jetpack” and “Skylab” from their

debut EP. Despite the heat, the band stayed true to its

color-schemed guise, even though it had to have been at least 20

degrees warmer inside their color-coded space suits. But that

didn’t stop them from pogoing all over the stage, punctuated with

funky, robotic dance moves and keeping up the light-hearted

banter onstage.

– Bethany Kohoutek

You’re Pretty: 7.4.2001

An M-Shop favorite, Milwaukee’s own You’re Pretty held a coveted

opening spot for mainstream rockers Stabbing Westward.

Sporting a new red braided hairdo, vocalist Beth Mulsoff excited

the crowd with her intense high- ranging vocals. Mulsoff obviously

writes lots of YP’s songs with a message that a lot of females can

relate to.

She introduced many of the day’s numbers saying, “This is one for

the women . . .”

Bassist Chris Stenger described the Summerfest crowd as

“electrical.”

“[This is] the most energy that I’ve fed off of a crowd before,”

guitarist Steve Kein added.

But, he said, Ames still has the edge on Summerfest.

“Ames is our favorite place to play in the whole wide world,” he told

this reviewer.

Fans can expect more from You’re Pretty in the future according to

drummer Dave Keckeisen.

“This is definitely the beginning of something great,” he said.

– Chad Winterhof

Dogstar: 7.4.2001

“We thought Tom Petty was going to steal our crowd,” Dogstar

lead singer and guitarist Bret Domrose told the crowd. But his

crowd didn’t seem to be there for music.

If anything, it was more of a beauty contest between Tom Petty and

bassist and movie star Keanu Reeves, with the women in the

crowd obviously drooling over the “Matrix” hunk.

And things almost got ugly, with women in front pushing and

kicking to get closer.

The general concensus of the crowd seemed to be summed up in

the words of one onlooker: “kinda boring.”

– Chad Winterhof

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: 7.4.2001

A sold-out crowd of 23,000 fans sat in antsy anticipation of Tom

Petty’s appearance on the Marcus Amphitheatre stage.

When he finally appeared, all he said, in his inasally, stoned-out

voice, was, “Hey baby,” and each body in the amphitheatre vaulted

to its feet, screaming praises to their laid-back king as he

launched into “Runnin’ Down A Dream.”

The rest of the show was filled with greatest hits, (“I Won’t Back

Down,” “Even The Losers,” “Refugee”) and tunes the band hasn’t

played for years, like “Here Comes My Girl.”

An acoustic “Learning To Fly” was one of show’s gentler high

points.

Effortlessly, Petty had the audience wrapped around his finger the

entire time. During a prolonged jam in “Breakdown,” the crowd

rose to a deafening level as Petty raised his hands above is head

and slowly shook them like a shaman healing his congregated

masses.

But when he put one hand up to still them, thousands of people

instantly quieted. It was almost eerie.

Before Petty could close his fingers around the D chord that starts

“Free Fallin'” during the encore, the crowd started singing.

Being that it was Independence Day, Petty and his Heartbreakers

ended with “American Girl,” bringing two hours of rock n’ roll bliss

to a close.

– Bethany Kohoutek