So over the past few weeks, we were pretty busy in WBC. We played 2 nights of Steel Bridge Song Fest, then played the following Friday at Club Garibaldi. Currently we have no shows booked in Milwaukee any time soon, and the next show we are doing will be in Madison for our good friend Ellie Maybe's brithday.
I've blogged about Steel Bridge before, and there are a long list of concerns that still hold true; that being the local people of Sturgeon Bay, WI and their attitude towards the festival. Those sentiments still hold, and for more details, I recommend reading "Steelbridge Song Fest 2012" (http://wisconsinbeefcommission.blogspot.com/2012/06/sttelbridge-song-fest-2012.html).
This years festival was by far the best organized, smoothest, and easiest Steel Bridge I've experienced (this was my 5th year performing with 3 different bands). pat mAcdonald, and Melanie Jane did a fabulous job with this years event, as well as the extensive list of volunteers that helped. The only issue I saw with Steel Bridge's crew was a lack of people watching for passes. For those not familiar with how Steel Bridge Song Fest works, it's a 4 day festival that goes from a Thursday to Sunday afternoon, offering music from musicians that travel in to Sturgeon Bay, WI to perform at outdoor stages during day hours, and indoor venues on the nights of Thursday-Saturday. Outdoor shows are generally free, but close access was limited to pass holders on Sunday, due to Jackson Brown being the headliner. Passes are required for the night venues (except Thursday, which is appreciation night for the locals), and go for about $20. The $20 goes to the bridge fund (more details of this can be found on the Steel Bridge Song Fest website). The money does NOT go to musicians involved. The $20 gets you access to the night venues on Friday and Saturday. That equals about a dozen venues and over 100 musicians for $20, plus it's going to a good cause.
I've said before, some of the locals go out of their way to scam their way into the night venues, and many act as though they're entitled because they live in town. This year, I noticed many venues had nobody watching for passes, and they were also letting people in through back doors. Granted, this doesn't hurt the bands, quite the opposite, but it's really unfair to the people who DO pay for passes to see the music. During our Saturday night performance at Beach Harbor/Waterfront Mary's we had one heckler; an old fart who looked like a reject from the late 70's was shooting pool who yelled "YOU SUCK!!" and "GO HOME!!". Surprise, surprise, this asshat had no pass, and made a lot of enemies that night. I called him out, made sure everyone knew who he was, and he was refered to as "that asshole" by many people at Beach Harbor the rest of the night he was there. Delaney Davidson had one heckler after his rendition of Lead Belly's "In The Pines". Didn't hear what his heckler said, but Delaney's response in his New Zealand accent was "Sir, that song is an American classic. You should know the words by now."
Aside from that, everything was great. Being a musician at Steel Bridge is something like a summer camp, or a gathering with your really cool cousins that you only get to see a few times a year. We got to see our good friends Melanie Jane, pat, Ellie Maybe, Vee Sonnets, Geri X, Carley Baer, Johnny Lowe, and many others, as well as meeting a lot of great performers that are new to the fest. Gotta say, I'm already looking forward to next year's fest.
The Friday after, we had our homecoming show at Club G. This was with The Living Statues and Greetings From The Impostor. These were some phenomenal bands, and if given the chance, I highly recommend checking them out.
The CD is still available, and has been received quite well. So far, we haven't received any major criticism of the release, and the only snag we've heard is that one of the local clubs was playing the album between bands during a metal show, and apparently one of the metal bands that was going on said they felt "uncomfortable" playing after our album was being played. I take that as an accomplishment.
We'll keep everyone posted on the upcoming events through the blog here or via our Facebook page. Hope to see everyone real soon.
Wisconsin Beef Commission is a country/punk band from Milwaukee, WI.
