"summerfest review #3" or "best guster concert EVER"
Last night's concert completely restored my faith in Summerfest, and of course it would be Guster who did it. My friends Katie, Mike, and I arrived at Summerfest around 7:00 and got some dinner. I split an EXCELLENT Greek combo of Gyros, Greek Chicken, and Rice with Katie. We met up with several friends of mine from high school around 7:30 and headed to the Miller Lite Oasis - the stage where Guster would play at 10. The audience section of the stage is a bunch bleachers on which people stand - I'd say at least 50 rows - and then several picnic tables on which people stand. Almost all of the bleachers and most of the picnic tables were already occupied. We did, however, find a little section of bleachers right behind a soundboard tent. There was a metal frame and canvas tent on top of it. You could see the band fairly well between the canvas and the sound board. My highschool friends and I saved the area while Mike and Katie went to see another band from 8:30 to 9:30. The band that played before Guster was called "Willy Porter Band" and they were pretty good, although I can't say I paid very much attention to them.
Around 9:30, after the prior band had stopped playing, the crew got the sound board ready and took down the tent, giving us an almost completely clear view to the stage. When Guster started playing at 10:00, I realized that I was an idiot for ever thinking about skipping this concert. They are such a lively band and provide a very fun show. Guster has an insanely dedicated audience, who cheered immensely at the start of every song and sang along as loud as we could. Katie and I rocked out to every song. Guster's new CD was released about 2 weeks ago, but they had an EXCELLENT mix of new and old stuff - proabably only about 25% or less of their songs were from the new album, which made singing along very easy. They also love to interact with the audience. One particular example of this was thier "10 Days of Summerfest" song that went something like this (to the best of my recollection):
On the 10th day of Summerfest
My true love gave to me
10 Cover bands covering
9 Pukers puking
8 [something something]
7 [something something]
6 Porta-potties
5 Onion rings
4 Floating turds
3 [other things]
2 Shirtess Thugs
And Guster and Miller Lite Beer!
We also forced them in to a REAL encore! They had a 15 year old boy they called Scooter that assisted in some percussion (tamberine, shakers, etc). Before the "last song", the lead singer announced that the audience should shout for Scooter and that they wouldn't come back on until Scooter came out and did 10 jumping jacks. Well after the "last song" we started screaming for Scooter, who came out and did his 10 jumping jacks before Guster even left the stage. So they simply continued with 3 encore songs, as they usually do. They then said goodnight, waved, and left the stage. Stage lights went dark, the cameras were turned off, and all other signs indicated that the show was over. Even the sound board guy in front of us began to shut things down.
But we were not finished. That show was too good to let them go away that easily. We didn't move. After about 10-15 minutes, Guster finally comes back on stage to a VERY rowdy cheering audience. They scrambled to get the right guitars and whatnot. The lead singer says, "We really didn't plan on doing any more songs..." They then played one last song - the one they usually finish with in unplugged mode, but Summerfest is too huge to do that - and the audinece was enthralled that a) the band cared enough about the fans to come back and give them an encore and b) at our own dedication to this band by just staying put and silently demanding more. It was incredible.
This was my 5th or 6th Guster concert in less than 3 years. This marked the 9th Guster concert for my friend Katie. As we walked home from Summerfest, Katie declared that this was definitely the greatest Guster concert that she had ever attended. I couldn't agree more. I can't wait until the next one.
Around 9:30, after the prior band had stopped playing, the crew got the sound board ready and took down the tent, giving us an almost completely clear view to the stage. When Guster started playing at 10:00, I realized that I was an idiot for ever thinking about skipping this concert. They are such a lively band and provide a very fun show. Guster has an insanely dedicated audience, who cheered immensely at the start of every song and sang along as loud as we could. Katie and I rocked out to every song. Guster's new CD was released about 2 weeks ago, but they had an EXCELLENT mix of new and old stuff - proabably only about 25% or less of their songs were from the new album, which made singing along very easy. They also love to interact with the audience. One particular example of this was thier "10 Days of Summerfest" song that went something like this (to the best of my recollection):
On the 10th day of Summerfest
My true love gave to me
10 Cover bands covering
9 Pukers puking
8 [something something]
7 [something something]
6 Porta-potties
5 Onion rings
4 Floating turds
3 [other things]
2 Shirtess Thugs
And Guster and Miller Lite Beer!
We also forced them in to a REAL encore! They had a 15 year old boy they called Scooter that assisted in some percussion (tamberine, shakers, etc). Before the "last song", the lead singer announced that the audience should shout for Scooter and that they wouldn't come back on until Scooter came out and did 10 jumping jacks. Well after the "last song" we started screaming for Scooter, who came out and did his 10 jumping jacks before Guster even left the stage. So they simply continued with 3 encore songs, as they usually do. They then said goodnight, waved, and left the stage. Stage lights went dark, the cameras were turned off, and all other signs indicated that the show was over. Even the sound board guy in front of us began to shut things down.
But we were not finished. That show was too good to let them go away that easily. We didn't move. After about 10-15 minutes, Guster finally comes back on stage to a VERY rowdy cheering audience. They scrambled to get the right guitars and whatnot. The lead singer says, "We really didn't plan on doing any more songs..." They then played one last song - the one they usually finish with in unplugged mode, but Summerfest is too huge to do that - and the audinece was enthralled that a) the band cared enough about the fans to come back and give them an encore and b) at our own dedication to this band by just staying put and silently demanding more. It was incredible.
This was my 5th or 6th Guster concert in less than 3 years. This marked the 9th Guster concert for my friend Katie. As we walked home from Summerfest, Katie declared that this was definitely the greatest Guster concert that she had ever attended. I couldn't agree more. I can't wait until the next one.