Get your classic rock on at the Wisconsin State Fair
If it's too loud (or cheesy), you're too old (or cool)
Blue Oyster Cult
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While music-loving Milwaukeeans argue the pros and cons of Summerfest every year, you’d be hard-pressed to find a local music fan willing to defend the lineups that at the Wisconsin State Fair. This year, I’m that fan. Nothing about this year’s lineup is cutting-edge, and that’s sort of the point: It has such a strong populist appeal that I can’t help but get excited over a few of the acts. Some of it is nostalgia-based, but most of my enthusiasm stems from the power of a good classic rock song. There is plenty to enjoy at this year’s fair—just leave your detached irony and disdain for all things popular at the door, cool guy.
Take Blue Öyster Cult. BOC will be forever linked to Will Ferrell, whose turn as the band’s cowbell player in a 2000 Saturday Night Live skit managed to both revive interest in the band and not-so-subtly poke fun at them. Yet there was nothing funny about BOC in the mid-’70s, when the band kicked serious ass. Albums like Secret Treaties (1974), Agents of Fortune (1976), and Spectres (1977) produced such great rock songs as “Godzilla,” “(This Ain’t) The Summer Of Love,” and, yes, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” Thankfully, these masters of the parenthetical rock anthem can still bring it live: One of the best rock ’n’ roll shows I’ve seen in the past 10 years was BOC in Washington, D.C. (Just saying that sounds awesome.) How hard did they rock? They played “Godzilla” twice, for Christ’s sake.
If BOC is a little too dark for you, check out ’80s mainstay Night Ranger. Yes, there is a lot to hate about Night Ranger: Ballads such as “Sister Christian” and “When You Close Your Eyes” are absolutely terrible, and further once again the notion that drummers should never be allowed anywhere near a microphone. (Both songs were written and sung by Night Ranger drummer Kelly Keagy.) Yet I implore you to take a second—or probably first—listen to the band’s up-tempo rockers, such as “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” “A Touch Of Madness,” “Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight,” and that middle finger to the U.S.S.R., “(You Can Still) Rock in America.” All of these cuts feature the underrated guitar work of Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson and are wonderful pieces of disposable pop-metal. I mean that in the best way possible: Night Ranger excelled at writing songs that have absolutely no gravitas but stay in your head for days at a time.
Along similar lines is Rick Springfield, whose body of work has aged much more gracefully than most of his ’80s contemporaries. Songs such as “Jessie’s Girl,” “I’ve Done Everything For You,” and “Daddy’s Pearl” have been played so many times that it’s easy to forget how fresh and vital this material once sounded. To me, the best of Springfield’s songs have always sounded like a more polished version of The Jam, as he successfully melded the gloss of American pop music with the working-class sensibility of late-’70s British punk.
