You've got everything you need that's the best Killy band Max and
Pacific Media. We are local music. That's from the new album called
this open row that was released late last year. And the best
Killy band will be performing at Wednesday Night Live on Wednesday, July
31st, rocker. That's right. Jimmy Wednesday Night Live is a
six week concert series taking place in Grindel Park in Mount
Horabon Wednesdays in July and August. And tonight producer MC
fundraiser and communicator for Wednesday Night Live. Mandy
Potter is here in the studio to tell us about this annual music
series. And she brought along her son, Ben, Mandy, Ben, welcome
back to Maxing Radio. Hi guys, thanks for having me. I really
appreciate you having us. It's great to see you again. Do do
your best MC of Beth Kiley introducing Beth Kiley. Oh my God,
I mean, she's such a character. It's hard. I just put you on
the spot there. You did. It's okay. I'm not sorry. I know I
can tell. No, I would just say my dear friends of Mount Horab.
Please welcome Beth Kiley. Yeah, it's perfect. Now, Mandy, she just
came here from you're at the terrace. Oh my God. Yeah. And it's
rainy. You may hear just before we just got here. We're down
with the terrorists listening to Son Dell at Lanico. It was a,
it's a Cuban Latin dance band. And it was really great. And the
guys scared getting gray. And we'd brought our bikes down to
bike from the Union. And we left a little early. And I'm glad we
did because we got in just in time. We got a bike inside too.
So yeah, it worked out. Now Jimmy's been talking all night
about food trucks. Yeah. And do you have any food trucks? Oh,
yes. So we do. Yeah. So we each show we have two food trucks
for like main dinner. And then we also have an ice cream truck
and usually a popcorn stand. It just depends on the night. Oh,
that's a Wednesday night live you're talking about. Yeah. Oh,
sorry. Yeah. At Wednesday live, we have food trucks. Yeah. That's
where I was thinking. I didn't even think about ice cream. I mean,
ice cream would be the perfect traveling. I mean, ice cream ice
cream. That was the original food truck. Yeah. Right. Yes.
There's no, there's no like music or little bells, right? We
can't compete with that. So there's an ice cream truck. Well,
Mandy, tell us about the history of Wednesday night live in
Mount Horubb and how did it start and how did you get involved?
Yeah. So in 1998, Sage Lewis was an art teacher at the
Intermediate Center in Mount Horubb. And she was doing a project
with her students. And she had gone to. Can't remember exactly
where she went. It's in South America. And they she went to the
carnival. And she loved it so much. She wanted to bring it
back to Mount Horubb. So she decided with her art students to
do a project to make a carnival in Mount Horubb. So they came
up with a festival idea and they in the art department, they
came up with all these costumes to have a party. And she with
her band played and they raised money. They sold tickets and
raised like $3,000 for something that she donated to the
Optimus Club to start an actual event. Wow. Within Mount Horubb
and to keep it going. She had since moved out of town. And the
Optimus Club took the money that she had raised and decided to
establish Wednesday night live. And they first started with, I
think it was two shows. And then they built over time to four
shows. And then they built up to six shows. And that's where it
is today. So it is still up and going. It's very much alive and
well. Sage is now in Arizona. And she came back to our 25th
anniversary show a few years ago. And she's planning to come
back on July 24th to have a homecoming in Mount Horubb and come
to the show. Isn't it a Rio de Janeiro where carnival happens
every year? I think there are several countries that have it
and I'm I'm unfortunately I'm forgetting exactly which country
she went to. Okay. I don't think it was I can't remember, but it was
down in Central America. And that's right around the time of of
Marty Graal in that late summer spring. Yeah, something like
that. Yeah, yeah, usually I think it's like in February, March.
Yeah, okay. So yeah, she brought that back and she was bringing
the carnival back to Mount Horubb and to bring the spirit of
the carnival back. And you know, it's alive and well. I think
it's to exercise the demons and the heathenism is in ourselves
before lunch or something like that. Right. Well, Wednesday night
live, it kicked off last week. And what can we expect to see
there? I mean, do we need to bring our own lawn chairs? Is it
buio food and beer? Tell us about Wednesday night live, the
facility? Yeah. So it is in our community park, Rundle Park is
a very large park. And we have a beautiful Jeff Coast stage
that stays up year round. And it is all lawn seating. You bring
your own lawn chairs, blankets. You can bring a picnic if you
want. But we do have food trucks. Like I was mentioning, yes, we
usually have two food trucks per night. Then the ice cream in
the popcorn. And I rotate them. So I usually don't have the
same trucks each night. Not you sample the food before you bring
in the food trucks? No, because they're usually I picked the
good ones that I've been to before. The food trucks are, you
know, so you did sample them basically. Yeah, I guess I've had
them before. Yes, I've had them before. So I know that they're
usually pretty good. In the bands, that's what a lot of people
want to know about who is playing Wednesday night live and when
yeah, you bet. So the season kicked off already this week on
the 10th this past Wednesday, we had Generation Jones band.
How are you awesome? Oh my gosh, you know, I they're a newer
band. They've only been around about a year. They're like a
superstar band. They aren't all star lineup. And I, yeah, I've
just blown away. And when I found out about them, I actually booked
them last year before the season was even over because I wanted
them so badly for this year. Wow. So yeah, they were a pretty
incredible. It was a wonderful show. Everybody fell in love with
them. They did all the classic songs. It was, it was really fun.
It was a good time. So that was this past Wednesday. And then
July 17th next week, we have rare element, which is a
funk and blues band. They have quite a massive energy that
they're going to bring. There's seven piece band with a three
piece horn section. So I think that's going to, if we had a
roof, it blow out blow the roof off the stage. The more horns
the better, I agree. And joy be banks as a side note, right?
Yes, yes. And Todd Fips. Yes. So he's a Mount Horob
local. And it's, it's, I always say it's kind of a personal
golf mind with Wednesday and live that I'm trying to see how
many consecutive years I can book a band that Todd Fips is in.
And I'm on for right now. Wow. You know, and I don't even know
how many bands he's in. I don't think he knows how many bands
he's in. Well, you know, we just mentioned the ham and organ
that we had to move from stage to stage. That was Todd Fips.
Yeah. Thanks, Kevin Orton. Yep. Yeah. My back has never been
the same since that day. Yeah. So it's going to be a great
show. I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm just hoping we
have good weather. Who else do you have? What are the other
highlights? Yep. So July 24th, we have Choranga Agosa, which is a
Cuban dance band. Latin American dance band. So we had a
Latin band last year and that was a huge hit. People loved it.
People are dancing from like the second song. It gets people moving.
It does. Usually like Mount Horib. You know, people start dancing
like second set. Sun's going down. No, they were like second
song. Everybody was out on the dance floor. And it was so much fun.
And of course, Beth Kiley coming in too, right? On July 31st.
She'll be there. She is a local favorite of everyone.
She is Americana Rock. And we're really excited about that.
And of course, all the information is on Facebook too.
You can just search for Wednesday night live and you can get all the
events and the details. Do you play music yourself, Mandy?
No, I don't. I'm a music appreciate. I appreciate music.
You appreciate. Yes. I mean, I played in the band in high school.
I played saxophone. So I somewhat I've taken some piano lessons,
but I cannot consider myself a musician. And Jimmy, I just want to say one
thing before we go too far, there's one more show on Wednesday
night live. I don't want to forget it August 7th. We have Annie and the Okies.
They're the bluegrass and country band that we have coming.
Yeah, so they're going to wrap up our season for us.
That's awesome. Annie, okay. That's some good bluegrass right there.
Mm-hmm. So you don't play music, but Ben your son,
who's in studio with us. What's up, Ben? How are you doing today?
Good. How are you? It's great to see you, man.
We met it last year at Atwood Fast. Yeah.
You've grown just a little bit. I've I've gotten older a lot of bit.
But you play you play in a band.
Oh yeah, we're a powerhouse. We came from Madison Music Foundry.
We've been going for about three years. So the name of the band is Powerhouse.
Yeah. Who's in the band with you?
Zeke Mood, Simon Mood, Shelley Torres, and Oscar Floater.
And what do you play? What's your what's your thing?
I play rhythm guitar. Okay. And what was the genre of the music?
Metal, grunge, rockish, rock.
What a like if you had to like compare it to like who's your favorite band that you've
been listening to. Um, probably green day.
Okay. It's a little poppy punk.
Yeah. I think he's appreciating green day right now.
That's like where his heart is, but I think the band that he's in is a little more rock.
Now if you have a guitar teacher, we may know who's your guitar teacher?
Paul Schluter. Oh, Paul Schluter is his guitar teacher.
Wow. Look at that. His new studio. Have you been to his new studio?
Yes, I have. I did not record there, but yeah, we went, um, a lot of, a lot of cool stuff there.
Someday, I think you'll probably be sitting down paying Paul Schluter a lot of money to record your
music. And you know, recently, uh, your band just played at Summerfest. Yeah.
Along with Paul Schluter's band, they were playing at Summerfest at the same day.
You played at Summerfest? Yeah. No kidding. Or a pavilion.
Oh, for rock on. Yeah. Ah, garage bands. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, he was a finalist.
And how old are you this year? I am 12. Nice. So he's been in the band for three years, Jimmy.
And he's 12. So we're going to see you in the future. I know it.
He's already played the biggest outdoor music gig in the Midwest Summerfest. I mean, what was
that like for you? Uh, I assume there was a sea of people in front of you.
Actually, there wasn't. I like that. They were all at the food trucks. They were listening.
Well, it was a rainy day. So yeah, it was a big stage and a lot of fun.
I that that that that that just have to be a lot of fun. It was.
What did you think about being on a big stage like that with the facility, the equipment,
the tax? I mean, it's much bigger than it was awesome. It was awesome.
I could finally hear my guitar. Yeah. A lot of stage short with.
So you could move around and jam and have a lot of fun. Where are you guys playing next?
Do you have any shows coming up? We're playing at McKee Park.
I forget the date August 19 August 19th. What what's at McKee Park? Is that one of the festivals?
Oh, yeah. Which festival? I think it's concerts on McKee. It's a Monday night.
I haven't been to that concert before and his his band is opening up for another band.
I'm not sure exactly what it is. They just reached out to us recently to see if we were available.
So I don't have all the details, but you have a website that we can follow your band.
We are on Instagram. Powerhouse. Powerhouse band. Yeah. Powerhouse band on Instagram.
Yeah, on Instagram. Not a huge social presence just yet.
Well, Ben, when you get into the studio after after a partially to record your debut album,
get ahold of us. We'll have you here in Maxi. We'll do. We'll play your music here.
Uh, man, it's great to see you again Wednesday night live in Mount Hora, but people want to get
more information, get the full lineup, all the details. How do we do that? Yeah. So I do regular
postings. We have it on our website. WWW, uh, W N L dot Jeff goat J E F K O dot com is our website.
We have our lineup up there. We have food trucks. We have all the information, but we also have
our Facebook page. If you just look up Wednesday night live Mount Hora, that's right. Do all the real
time postings of the lineup of all the food trucks of all the scheduling, but also I'll post if there's
any changes with the weather. And if we're going to be relocating, if there's any cancellations,
so that's your best bet to get the most current information, but those are the two sources.
Super awesome Wednesday night live out, Marhore Mount Hora, such a great community out there too.
I love the trolls. And you know, there's a real budding undercurrent of music happening in
their big music community that's happening there. We have a lot of great opportunities to see
local music. You know, Wednesday live has been around for 27 years, but in the last five years,
we started having more and more like we were talking about the megaton studios that just opened
in the last few months. Hearthouse guitars. We have a guitar shop there now. We have bricks, which
does open mic on Thursday nights. They also book bands on the weekends. The doghouse has bands as well.
We just found out about a country music fair that's coming next July in Mount Hora.
And I know two of the bands that they have booked already, but they're still making arrangements for
it, but they're going to have a country festival next year. I heard burning troll is coming to
Marhore. Burning troll. Well, I went to that last year and that was so fun. It was in September.
Wow. And it was cool. It was out at the bricks' owner lives out in a farm. And they have a lot of
acreage. And they had three stages with music. It was so cool. And it was, you know, people were
camping. You could camp there. You could get a shuttle in from bricks. So you didn't have to park
as parking was pretty limited. They had some food trucks. Speaking of food trucks, they had food trucks,
great idea. And they had some really interesting aerial dancers, which was just awesome. And then
the burning troll was like this ceremonial event where they had this drum line leading up to where
Matt, who is the owner of bricks, built this wooden troll. And I don't know how tall it was,
probably 20 feet. Oh, wow. It was huge. And it was incredible. I mean, the craftsmanship he put
into that thing. And the night before, we had a huge storm. And they thought it was like toast.
It was just going to be demolished. And it survived. And they had to cover it up the best they
could. So it wouldn't get wet. I guess they wanted to burn it. And it actually worked out really
well. They set it on fire. And they had this drum line playing. And they had the aerial dancers
with stilts. And I mean, it was really, it was a scene. Do they rebuild the troll every year for
that or? Well, last year was the first year that was like the inaugural event. And I, you know,
I remember asking them afterwards that they were going to do it again. And they said too soon.
We don't know. It was just so much. I can't imagine building something cool like that. And then
purposely burning it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was some there's some symbolism there, right? I think
there was a lot of it was more of a ceremonial. Yeah. So I appreciate it. And so they are going to
do it again. They had to get permits and whatnot. And they decided to do it again. They'll have more
music. I don't know any details about it yet. And he'll probably, if I know Matt, he probably will
build something similar, but different because it's a different year. And it'll be something
equally as awesome and magnitude to start on fire, which fires my element. So I, you know,
if there's fire, count me in fire. Yes, totally. You should go to a Lord's of a Trident Show.
You'll get lots of fire. Hey, Mandy, thanks for coming in today. Appreciate you. Wednesday night
live. Ben, great to talk to you again. And look forward to hearing your music. He's sticker
around Terry Bar has a conversation with the big Lonesome that's next on Maxing Gradio.