Sunshine and spilled beer: The A.V. Club dives into summer concert season
Grupo Fantasma plays the Waterfront Festival on June 12.
All this sunshine and warm weather has The A.V. Club itching to hit the streets to hear some live music and drink out of plastic cups. Although Madison has yet to unveil all of its offerings in this department, we just can’t wait any longer, so we decided to start our summer concert coverage. Keep checking back for updates on the season's many shows.
East Side festivals
Tripling down every summer can't be an easy order for the Marquette Neighborhood Association on Madison's East Side, but every year it pulls off three festivals with lots of global appeal. As usual, the Waterfront Festival (June 12-13) leads off with a good mix of rock, folk, and jazz. Headlining this year's fest are afrobeat legend and one-time Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen (June 13) and super-tight Latin orchestra and occasional Prince back-up band Grupo Fantasma (June 12). Great Lake Swimmers (June 13) help round out the bill with their crisp, clean acoustic folk rock.
Although it's usually pretty heavy on Cajun influence, this year’s La Fête De Marquette (July 8-11) balances zydeco like Joe Hall & The Louisiana Cane Cutters (July 11) and Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys (July 8) with the slide-guitar wizardry of Sonny Landreth (July 11) and self-described “Supafunkrock!” from Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (July 11). Finally, this year’s Orton Park Festival (Aug. 27-29) will nicely round out the end of the festival season a performance from authentic string band Carolina Chocolate Drops (Aug. 28), whose sound jumps with lots of banjo, fiddle, and clattery percussion. Headlining the final day of the fest will be Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women (Aug. 29), a full-fledged country rock orchestra throwing down a rollicking set of really good drinking music.
Reliable regulars
While Folk On State seems to have unfortunately bit the dust this year, Madisonians will still have plenty of trusted summertime options. On Tuesday afternoons, folks can launch over to King Street corner of the Capitol Square and gorge themselves, while listening to locals like Cash Box Kings (June 22) or Roots Collective (July 13) for Lunch Time Live (June 15 to August 3). But Wednesday nights still belong to the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s Concerts On The Square (June 30 to August 4). The schedule for the 17th installment of Jazz At Five (on the Capitol Square) has yet to be released.
Get rocked
Every year in late August, the JJO Band Camp (Aug. 14) descends upon Willow Island at the Alliant Energy Center and disrupts the quiet wildlife tranquility with serious dudes playing some serious sort-of-metal. Sticking with the formula, this year’s Camp unleashes the loud, lumbering rock of Godsmack and the heavy-handed industrial-light of Sevendust—among several others—upon the heavily pierced ears of the black-shirted masses, not to mention the poor little fish.
Road trips
Milwaukee’s Summerfest may prove the greatest cure for Isthmus isolation this year, as its still-sparse schedule looks quite promising. Hip-hop heads can rise up with Public Enemy (June 25) or watch The Roots (July 1) escape from the clutches of Jimmy Fallon. Also, there will be plenty of arena-rock confessionals from Tom Petty (June 25 and June 26 at the Marcus Amphitheater), The Hold Steady (July 1), and—to a lesser extent—Modest Mouse (July 3).
Those who typically find Cadott’s Rock Fest (July 15-18) to be gag-inducing may be pleasantly surprised to find goodies (relatively speaking) like Apocalyptica, John Mellencamp, and the reformed Alice In Chains among its ranks this year. But for some, even a performance from a reanimated Layne Staley couldn’t redeem the long-standing festival from the likes of Limp Bizkit, Daughtry, and 3 Doors Down. The agenda for East Troy’s Alpine Valley is stuffed with black-light poster rock, including Dave Matthews Band (July 3 and 4), Jack Johnson (July 24), and Phish (August 14 and 15). Can’t say we envy the folks that will likely be stuck clearing the field of used glowsticks and vomit-soaked hempwear afterward. Finally, Sturgeon Bay’s Steel Bridge Songfest may prove a fine excursion for local folkies (June 10-13).
But The A.V. Club would be remiss if we omitted two major festivals taking place just slightly to the south in Chicago: the Pitchfork Music Festival (July 16-18) and Lollapalooza (Aug. 6-8). Both organizing massive three-day line-ups, Pitchfork's schedule is dotted with the astounding likes of LCD Soundsystem, Big Boi, Broken Social Scene, and Pavement. Lollapalooza doesn't slouch either, managing to lure a recently reunited Soundgarden, Arcade Fire, Phoenix, Devo, and Lady Gaga.
