Getting My Hopes Up: Summerfest

Welcome to getting my hopes, a new series of posts dealing with things that are getting my hopes up, even though, realistically, I shouldn't. I might do a follow series of posts to see if my hopes were justified or not, but we'll see if that happens. Today's topic: Summerfest.

Summerfest is an interesting beast. often hailed, as the world's largest outdoor music festival, the festival never seems to get quite the same coverage as Coachella, Bonaroo, or Lollapalooza, despite hosting a wide variety of acts. however in recent years, Summerfest has come under attack for the acts its signed on. Some people say there's too much country, other argue that the organizers never bring in a band people really want to see, or they bring in an act who had a one hit wonder last summer, hoping people will still come out to see them. This has always been Summerfest's problem. It has a tradition to uphold, and being a integral part of Milwaukee's festival season, it needs to appeal to a wide base. It needs to appeal to goth kids by the lake, as much as it appeals to the 40 year olds who stop by after work.

This year however the lineup is looking incredibly promising, and outrageous ticket prices aside (tickets are expenses we need to get over this as a culture), I'm starting to get my hopes up that this may be one of the best Summerfests in quite some time.

 
Now to be honest I'm really only basing this off the announcement of two concerts at the Marcus Amphitheater. First the big one: Kayne West and Kid Cudi on June 30. Kayne West is a big name to get, especially in Milwaukee, whether he's hot on the radio or not. The man has a depth of great material to perform for an audience. Plus he as a hell of a lot of charisma to keep people entertained.

The second concert is the triple bill of Cage the Elephant, Black Keys, and Florence + The Machine. This is what Summerfest needs to do more of. The alternative music is the hardest sell ,because their certainly is an audience for it here in Milwaukee, but to get those people to shell out big bucks to go ee one band is often difficult. We see here the solution, take three marginally successful bands and have them play one awesome show together. Cage the Elephant is coming off a wildly successful first album, and a mildly successful follow-up. The Black Keys are coming off a great album, and Florence + The Machine had their music featured on Glee last year. These three bands should put together a killer performance.

Now Katy Perry, Def Leppard, and some country singers have also been announced. There's nothing wrong with this Katy Perry is a pop sensation, but from what I've seen and heard, isn't a great live performer. Def Leppard and country people are fine too, for people who like that sort of thing.

I may be jumping the gun here, but hopefully we can look forward to a much improved Summerfest line-up for 2011.