50 for 50: 1991

YEAR: 1991

AGE: Turned 21 on Nov. 6

LOCATION: Milwaukee/Marquette, Renee Row

BULLS' RECORD: 61-21

SONGS I LIKED: "American Music" by the Violent Femmes; "Disappear" by INXS; "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction; "Don't Believe Her" by the Scorpions

MOVIES I SAW: "The Silence of the Lambs"; "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"

TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Murphy Brown"; "Cheers"

CONCERTS I SAW: Damn Yankees/Bad Company; Jimmy Buffett; Violent Femmes/Fishbone

MUSIC VIDEOS I ENJOYED: "Something to Talk About" by Bonnie Raitt; "Shiny Happy People" by R.E.M.

VIDEO GAMES I PLAYED: Tecmo Super Bowl; Blaster Master

From the time I got to Milwaukee, people kept telling me about how great Summerfest was. For the uninitiated, Summerfest is an 11-day music, food, and, well, drinking festival on Milwaukee's lakefront. It features a main stage with major musical acts, but also offers a dozen more stages with several acts each day. You might not be able to get tickets or your hand stamped for the big concert, but there's always something to see and hear -- and plenty to eat and drink.

In 1989 and '90, I was back in Chicago for summer but my came up for a couple days and went to Summerfest with friends. It definitely was as good as advertised -- reminding me of ChicagoFest, which had a short-lived run in the late '70s and early '80s and probably based on Summerfest's template. 

In 1991, I basically became a full-time Milwaukeean. After my junior year ended, I moved into a new apartment with new roommates (though in the same complex), and continued to work at the Milwaukee Sentinel and now as getting chances to write articles. I played softball with my co-workers, threw parties with my roommates, played Strat-o-Matic Baseball, went to the beach, watched the Bulls win the NBA title, and enjoyed a ridiculously fun summer.

In the middle of it all was Summerfest.

I'm not sure how many days I actually attended the festival that year -- it may be fewer than I remember. Tickets to get in were cheap, and if you had a $1 Summerfest pin, you could get in for free between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and then get your hand stamped to return. You could also get your hand stamped for the main stage show and sit in the lawn/bleacher seats of the amphitheater for free.

So what do you do when you're young, aren't working a full-time job, live in Milwaukee by the lake, and are looking for something to do in the middle of summer? You go to Summerfest as much as possible, even if it's just for a few hours, even if you don't spend much. It was the party of the summer. 

In 1991, I saw the Violent Femmes on the main stage. We bought tickets for that show ahead of time and were rather close up. The Femmes played two encores, and three decades later, might still be in my top five favorite concerts.

I also went to Summerfest the last day of the festival with my friends Kristin and Christine. We got our hand stamped to see Jimmy Buffett and stayed all day in what might have been the most action-packed Summerfest day I've had (and that includes the time Lori stared down someone into submission for not letting us pass). I was hung over that morning and didn't eat breakfast, but then enjoyed the Saz's cheese curds/mozzarella stick/clam strips combo as my first food of the day. We eventually made it to the carnival section of the grounds, where we rode a spinning ride that the operator let spin for, I swear, seven or eight minutes. I thought I was going to be sick afterward, and my stamina on spinny rides hasn't been the same since ...

We headed to the comedy tent to watch ComedySportz, Milwaukee's competitive improv group that did two shows every day. They take volunteers from the audience, and for some reason, I raised my hand and was picked. The game involved answering an audience question, with the four team members and me each saying one word at a time. I didn't quite understand it at first, so the team called a timeout and simply told me, "Just say the first thing that comes into your head."

I think the question was, "What does the future of Wisconsin hold?" Our response went something like, "The. Future. Of. Wisconsin. Will. Get. Better. When. The. Milwaukee." -- and then it came to me. I still can't explain why I said "Symphony!" but it got the biggest laugh of the show. Dr. Berkowitz, who was a Marquette psychology professor and a co-founder of ComedySportz, was next in line, and he just looked at me as if to say, "Where the f--- did that come from?" I looked down at Chris and Kris to see them still laughing really hard.

I got a t-shirt, got a picture taken that was put on the wall of the ComedySportz theater (the couple times I saw shows there I never could find it), and returned to my seat. Then, the most violent thunderstorm rumbled through downtown Milwaukee. The show was cut short because leaving the power on onstage was too dangerous for the performers. I thought the tent was going to collapse -- it was that intense.

The storm subsided, and parts of the festival grounds were flooded. A couple hours passed before things started opening up again, and I made a mistake of walking through a greasy gigantic, one-foot-deep puddle in my boat shoes. But we weren't leaving -- we had our hands stamped for Jimmy Buffett!

We got to the amphitheater early enough to get bleacher seats, so we didn't have to sit on the wet grass (we stood the whole concert anyway dancing). The clouds remained but we only got a little bit of drizzle. I wasn't that familiar with Jimmy Buffett beyond "Margaritaville," but the show was so much fun. He thanked his long-time fans, following up with "And your kids are up on the grass having the time of their lives!"

And we were -- not necessarily because we were seeing Jimmy Buffett, but because we were at Summerfest and taking advantage of being young and experiencing a Milwaukee summer (and aside from a little bit of fall, summer is the only worthwhile season in Milwaukee ...). Over the next four summers, before Lori and I moved to Madison, Summefest dominated even more. Among the concerts I saw:

  • Pearl Jam
  • Steve Miller Band
  • Sting
  • Stone Temple Pilots
  • The BoDeans
  • Spin Doctors/Soul Asylum
  • Don Henley
  • The Four Tops
  • Jimmy Buffett again (the first concert Lori and I saw together)
  • Hootie and the Blowfish
  • Bruce Hornsby
  • Weird Al Yankovic
  • REO Speedwagon 
  • Emo Phillips

However, Summerfest was sort of bittersweet. When the festival ended (usually the weekend of or after July 4), the summer felt like it passed its peak. Sure, Milwaukee has other great festivals, including Festa Italiana (which you eat your way through, and Irish Fest (which you drink your way through), but after Summerfest, I always felt like summer's days were numbered.

But there's always next summer, and it's less than a year away.

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