HANK RANKS, No. 17
7 Summerfest Memories
SUMMERFEST is underway on Milwaukee's lakefront again this summer. My friends and I used to go as often as possible after we got our own wheels in high school, but I quit going after moving out here to Madison a decade ago...That won't stop me from roughly enforcing some of my own nostalgia, however...
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07: Summerfest 1990, meeting a weed-smoking girl named Bunny while sitting on the rocks on the lakeshore...A short, intense conversation led to a trip to Saz's stand for some ribs, led to a Hip Hop rope-jumping exhibition, led to alot of beer, more weed on the rocky lakeshore, led to a random Maynard Ferguson set, led to her place on the east side via 10 minute cab ride, led to her hookah pipe, led to her bed...Never saw Bunny again...
06: Seeing Willie Nelson & his family live on the Summerfest Mainstage with my family, circa 1975...I was nine at the time, and my parents met up with a couple of my dad's younger co-workers, and I saw and smelled marijuana for the first time that night - it was no longer just something joked about on my dad's George Carlin, Redd Foxx, and Cheech y Chong records...Perhaps more startling, I saw my dad sneak a few tokes off his friend's joint when he thought no one was looking...
05: Got into a very brief fist fight with a very drunken tool at the Blues Stage one year, probably 1994...While walking towards the nearest beerstand, I accidentally stepped on a young woman's foot as she passed me going in the opposite direction...She let out a rather loud squeal and a "FUCK!", and then her boyfriend/husband came up from behind her and full-on shoved me backwards yelling "Watch where yr going, you fucking ape!" I shouted back, "What the fuck, asshole?" and he lunged/punched at me...I sidestepped it pretty easily, and landed a quick, hard left to his cheek, which sent him sprawling...And I just kept on walking, easily disappearing into the thick crowd there to see Johnny Winter...
04: After a day and a night of torrential rains, my high school friends and I went down for the last day of SUMMERFEST, circa 1984, and by mid-afternoon, it started pouring again...At some point all of the bathrooms on the northern end of the grounds had flooded, and indeed, we walked through the filthiest, stinkiest water you ever saw on the general SUMMERFEST grounds themselves, sewage about a foot or so deep...The joke of it all was that I believe we went that day to see Milwaukee's own Glam Power band, Bad Boy, for about the 50th time...
03: One night, Summerfest 1985, the Rock Stage headliner was Yngwie Malmsteen, with Talas preceding them, so you know my friends and I got down there early and camped out in front of the stage all day long, drinking mightily and holding down our fort, you know? By the time Talas hit the stage at dusk, the crowd was rather in a lather, and Billy Sheehan never disappointed in those days, right? So then it was Yngwie's turn, and I never liked the dude - all technique and arrogance, no fucking soul whatsoever, but hey, he's the most popular guitarist in all the guitar magazines my friends and I subscribed to, so whatcha gonna do? Well, I'll tell ya what Yngwie did that night - he got pissed off at the sound guy, and he got pissed off at his drummer, and then he got pissed off at his amplifier in the middle of a solo he eventually aborted, and then he got pissed at the other two guys in his band, and some of us in the crowd were laughing at him, and he got pissed off at us, and by the end of the fourth or fifth song, not twenty minutes into his set, he throws his guitar at one of his speakers, and storms off the stage...Meanwhile, lightning can be seen in the west, behind the rock stage, way off in the distance, like in Brookfield or thereabouts...Yngwie never comes back, but the guy on the PA says the show's postponed because of the impending thunderstorms, not Malmsteem's bitchiness...Either way, a mild riot doesn't so much erupt as spills, drunkenly, out of the Rockstage area and into the general Summerfest grounds, trashing things and chanting "Bullshit! Bullshit!" Still, it was enough of an uprising to warrant the swift deployment of additional security and law enforcement personnel...Who proceeded to funnel many of us straight out into the parking lots...My friends and I were lucky enough not to get caught up in that herd...By the time the fuzz showed up, we had slipped behind the beer tent and followed the rocky shoreline north to a different part of the grounds...Blather...
02: Making out (and more) with a girl named Ruby, summer of 1989, in the ski-lift/air-tram moving slowly and silently about 50 feet above the Summerfest grounds, while the big 4th of July fireworks went off over Lake Michigan...
01: Standing at the edge of the Rock Stage, 1983, while Stevie Ray Vaughan, right on the verge of superstardom, stood hunched over us with his guitar, sweating on me and my friends...During his set, we handed him beers and talked to him, and shook his hand, and of course the whole thing becomes much more poignant in hindsight...Achieving legendary status before the tragic death...And speaking of that - I could have gone to his last show at Alpine Valley, but I turned down the ticket at the last minute...I had decided that having the flat to myself (I was living with 4 others above a diner at the time) for recording purposes was a night better spent than seeing SRV (for what would have been the fourth time)...I was doing the dishes when the news hit on the television...It must have been at least 1am, and my friends/roommates weren't back from the show yet...In the end, I have to say that I was never much of an SRV fan...I certainly respected his outstanding abilities, and I'd never deny his soul, but I never believed that he ever truly rose above his influences, or rather, took those influences to new, unexplored musical terrain...It may sound trite, but he never fully got out of Hendrix's shadow...Still, that first SRV show, at the edge of the Rock Stage...Unbelievable and unforgettable...
Hotcha! Hank
SUMMERFEST is underway on Milwaukee's lakefront again this summer. My friends and I used to go as often as possible after we got our own wheels in high school, but I quit going after moving out here to Madison a decade ago...That won't stop me from roughly enforcing some of my own nostalgia, however...
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
07: Summerfest 1990, meeting a weed-smoking girl named Bunny while sitting on the rocks on the lakeshore...A short, intense conversation led to a trip to Saz's stand for some ribs, led to a Hip Hop rope-jumping exhibition, led to alot of beer, more weed on the rocky lakeshore, led to a random Maynard Ferguson set, led to her place on the east side via 10 minute cab ride, led to her hookah pipe, led to her bed...Never saw Bunny again...
06: Seeing Willie Nelson & his family live on the Summerfest Mainstage with my family, circa 1975...I was nine at the time, and my parents met up with a couple of my dad's younger co-workers, and I saw and smelled marijuana for the first time that night - it was no longer just something joked about on my dad's George Carlin, Redd Foxx, and Cheech y Chong records...Perhaps more startling, I saw my dad sneak a few tokes off his friend's joint when he thought no one was looking...
05: Got into a very brief fist fight with a very drunken tool at the Blues Stage one year, probably 1994...While walking towards the nearest beerstand, I accidentally stepped on a young woman's foot as she passed me going in the opposite direction...She let out a rather loud squeal and a "FUCK!", and then her boyfriend/husband came up from behind her and full-on shoved me backwards yelling "Watch where yr going, you fucking ape!" I shouted back, "What the fuck, asshole?" and he lunged/punched at me...I sidestepped it pretty easily, and landed a quick, hard left to his cheek, which sent him sprawling...And I just kept on walking, easily disappearing into the thick crowd there to see Johnny Winter...
04: After a day and a night of torrential rains, my high school friends and I went down for the last day of SUMMERFEST, circa 1984, and by mid-afternoon, it started pouring again...At some point all of the bathrooms on the northern end of the grounds had flooded, and indeed, we walked through the filthiest, stinkiest water you ever saw on the general SUMMERFEST grounds themselves, sewage about a foot or so deep...The joke of it all was that I believe we went that day to see Milwaukee's own Glam Power band, Bad Boy, for about the 50th time...
03: One night, Summerfest 1985, the Rock Stage headliner was Yngwie Malmsteen, with Talas preceding them, so you know my friends and I got down there early and camped out in front of the stage all day long, drinking mightily and holding down our fort, you know? By the time Talas hit the stage at dusk, the crowd was rather in a lather, and Billy Sheehan never disappointed in those days, right? So then it was Yngwie's turn, and I never liked the dude - all technique and arrogance, no fucking soul whatsoever, but hey, he's the most popular guitarist in all the guitar magazines my friends and I subscribed to, so whatcha gonna do? Well, I'll tell ya what Yngwie did that night - he got pissed off at the sound guy, and he got pissed off at his drummer, and then he got pissed off at his amplifier in the middle of a solo he eventually aborted, and then he got pissed at the other two guys in his band, and some of us in the crowd were laughing at him, and he got pissed off at us, and by the end of the fourth or fifth song, not twenty minutes into his set, he throws his guitar at one of his speakers, and storms off the stage...Meanwhile, lightning can be seen in the west, behind the rock stage, way off in the distance, like in Brookfield or thereabouts...Yngwie never comes back, but the guy on the PA says the show's postponed because of the impending thunderstorms, not Malmsteem's bitchiness...Either way, a mild riot doesn't so much erupt as spills, drunkenly, out of the Rockstage area and into the general Summerfest grounds, trashing things and chanting "Bullshit! Bullshit!" Still, it was enough of an uprising to warrant the swift deployment of additional security and law enforcement personnel...Who proceeded to funnel many of us straight out into the parking lots...My friends and I were lucky enough not to get caught up in that herd...By the time the fuzz showed up, we had slipped behind the beer tent and followed the rocky shoreline north to a different part of the grounds...Blather...
02: Making out (and more) with a girl named Ruby, summer of 1989, in the ski-lift/air-tram moving slowly and silently about 50 feet above the Summerfest grounds, while the big 4th of July fireworks went off over Lake Michigan...
01: Standing at the edge of the Rock Stage, 1983, while Stevie Ray Vaughan, right on the verge of superstardom, stood hunched over us with his guitar, sweating on me and my friends...During his set, we handed him beers and talked to him, and shook his hand, and of course the whole thing becomes much more poignant in hindsight...Achieving legendary status before the tragic death...And speaking of that - I could have gone to his last show at Alpine Valley, but I turned down the ticket at the last minute...I had decided that having the flat to myself (I was living with 4 others above a diner at the time) for recording purposes was a night better spent than seeing SRV (for what would have been the fourth time)...I was doing the dishes when the news hit on the television...It must have been at least 1am, and my friends/roommates weren't back from the show yet...In the end, I have to say that I was never much of an SRV fan...I certainly respected his outstanding abilities, and I'd never deny his soul, but I never believed that he ever truly rose above his influences, or rather, took those influences to new, unexplored musical terrain...It may sound trite, but he never fully got out of Hendrix's shadow...Still, that first SRV show, at the edge of the Rock Stage...Unbelievable and unforgettable...
Hotcha! Hank
Labels: Food, Hank Ranks, Milwaukee, music, Summerfest, Wisconsin
posted by Hank Mohaski at 11:22 PM
2 Comments:
Hmm...I was at this very same Talas/Rising Force show in 1985, as a non-drinking 15-year-old, and I have to say I don't remember ANY of what you are talking about. It's possible I've forgotten, but I was such a fan at the time I think I would remember Yngwie cancelling his set after the fourth or fifth song. Are you sure this happened in 1985? I saw Yngwie with Alcatraz on the same stage a year earlier in 1984, and my only recollection of both shows now, years later, is of a flashy, amazingly talented guitarist who had a great singer the first time and not so great a singer the second time.
Yeah, that's what I remember of that show. Talas kicking ass...An impending storm rolling in from the west, Yngwie getting pissed for various reasons, storming off the stage, and the show being postponed. Subsequent mini-riot that I didn't get involved with...
It's possible that I've confused this with a different show (the riot part, at least), but as I recall, it was this show because I remember laughing at Yngwie's ego-fueled meltdown.
It was 30 years ago, and there have been alot of alcohol and weed since then, so anything is possible. I can only trust my memories at this point.
(I think I was at that other show with Alcatraz, or at least I know I saw Alcatraz once or twice back then...)
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