Who to See at Summerfest (Hour 1)

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Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay, this is Night Light with Pete Schwabach.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who prefers to travel by catapult, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome, welcome, welcome folks.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on a Wednesday night here in the beautiful state of Wisconsin.

We are talking about all things entertainment tonight, movies, TV, fun Wisconsin stuff, and lots of other funny stuff too.

Some observations I made today that I'll share with you.

But it is fun to be on the radio We are gonna have many opportunities for you guys to join the show tonight as you always do either by way of what I like to call the telephone or Text message always fun when you guys participate got a great question got two great guests And the kid Conrad Krieger riding shotgun.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, how's it going tonight?

Good.

How are you?

I'm doing fantastic.

I've noticed we're not like those, you know a lot of times like

hosts don't interact with their guests or the producer or a sidekick or something like that.

But I've found that, you know, I don't know how you could do it.

Like that would be like me coming in and not talking to it all until we went on the air and we saved everything for on the air.

Yeah, that'd be weird.

Well, yeah, you come in, you don't even say hi.

You just walk past me and just,

right.

I feel like you're blowing me off.

I don't want to hurt your feelings, man.

That's why I'm not why I'm here.

It's not what I'm about.

So, uh, all right, good.

Have you been golfing yet this year?

We've got three nice days in a row now.

Actually, the

funny thing is I did go golfing this morning.

Really?

I did.

How'd that go?

Yeah.

Just there?

It

went all right.

Okay.

It was, it was nice to just go out there and be like, I am outside enjoying the weather for once.

Yeah.

In the long time, it feels like.

What, like, do you actually like the sport or is it more about camaraderie and hanging out?

Uh, well, I golf by myself.

So.

But you like your own company, so that could still apply.

Well, sometimes those thoughts, you know.

I'm just

kidding.

One of those guys doesn't like to be alone with his thoughts.

I

get it.

Yeah, that's why I live alone.

No, I love the sport.

It's, you know, I've been, I took, started taking it seriously, like, you know, three years ago.

Okay.

When I moved up here to Appleton and it gave something for my brother and I had a bond over, I feel like.

Were

you having bond issues before that?

Did you guys always get along or is this kind of like what put you over the top?

I feel like it put us over the top, you know, that's nice

So, um,

yeah, it's a lot of fun to learn something new, you know, you're not gonna be good at it,

right?

I mean even three years and I still suck

What like what does suck what what's a bad score?

What's a good score for you?

And what's a bad score for you?

So I'll say a bad score is probably you know

if golfing on 18, so that would, I'd probably say, you know, a 115 to 120 is not good for me.

You golf 18 holes?

Usually.

In a row?

Usually.

Wow.

I don't realize you were that much of an athlete.

In a row?

I'm half kidding.

Well, that's cool.

120, I mean, you're just starting out,

right?

Well, that's a bad score for

me.

Okay.

That's a good score.

I did break 100 last year, which was amazing for me.

And just, you know, doing it in about two years.

Yeah, which I think it's pretty good, but I haven't Got back to that yet in a while.

You know, I was about to break a hundred last summer and Then I hit that windmill hole and it's just all bets are off and I want to throw my clubs Clubs plural even though it's

every time I'm mini-golfing.

I just think of that scene at happy Gilmore What's he's putting at the clown you're gonna die clown

I might have to break down and give that a rewatch.

It's been so long since I've seen that or like happy Madison or whatever it is, but

you know what?

Why don't you when happy go more come two comes out in July?

You

know first one

watch the first one before it and go right

in lost.

I wouldn't be

I don't

think you get that much

That's not a bad idea, though.

All right, we are in full swing here.

Nightlight is underway, folks.

Happy Wednesday.

Great to have you.

My guest tonight, I'm excited, Piet Livi.

is a guy who I've respected for a long time.

He is just an excellent writer.

He writes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and he reports on music and writes about the music scene in Milwaukee and in the state of Wisconsin.

And he's just a really solid dude and a phenomenal writer.

So he is here tonight at 6.35.

It's been way too long since Piat has been on the show.

And then Rob Thomas, our pal.

We talked to Rob a little earlier.

We will play that interview at 7.20, and Rob helps us close down the show.

So if you have texts, try to get them in.

in the first hour or early in the second hour, and we can get to them.

Because as I said, it's so much fun to read your thoughts on the radio, folks.

You can chime in, as you know, with anything we're talking about, but we do have what we call our question of the night.

Let's talk about

the

question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Here, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

It's National Travel Day.

Where do you want to go?

Very simple.

Simple question tonight.

And here's what we're going to do.

I'm sorry, it's not travel.

It's National Tourism Day.

We should have had Logan Rogan today.

Oh, yes.

He's our travel guy.

But that's tonight's question, folks.

Where do you want to go?

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to break this down three ways.

I'm going to go in the state of Wisconsin, in America, and then in the world.

I would love starting globally first.

I would love to go to New Zealand.

I really want to go to New Zealand.

I want to go there and not ever wear clothes again and romp on the beach.

You're just going straight to

the nude beaches.

Well, that's what I want to do in Wisconsin too, but it's frowned upon.

No, I would love to go to New Zealand.

I've heard it's beautiful.

I have friends that have moved there.

I also have a friend who moved to the Canary Islands.

And that's supposed to be gorgeous.

So maybe I'll go visit him there first, but yeah, New Zealand globally.

In America, oh man.

I think I will say, I'll just say for fun sake, New York City, I haven't been there in a long time.

So I'll go New Zealand, New York, and then in Wisconsin, it's my go-to.

I just absolutely love Door County.

So those are my three places I want to visit on National Tourism Day.

You don't have to answer all three.

You can just say wherever you want to go, whether it's in the world, America, Wisconsin, or you can answer all three.

There are no right or wrong answers.

There are only your answers, folks.

So let us know, and we will read your responses on the radio.

Conrad, where are you going?

Well, so I'm going to a bachelor party in Wisconsin Dells.

OK.

So there's a Wisconsin one.

There you go.

Looking forward to that.

Dells are

beautiful.

Golfing, swimming.

Sure some beverages on the side.

I see some cannonballs in your future Yeah USA, you know, I I have never been to New York City

So I

think that would be cool, but I'll change it just because you had that one too.

All right I would love to go to Charleston, South Carolina.

Oh, that's gorgeous,

too

I've always wanted to go there.

That's actually where I see myself moving maybe in the future.

Really?

Yeah

But I'm learning something about you.

Now, why is that?

Just because it's on the ocean, the warmer climate or you like the south or what?

I feel like you still can get four seasons there, but not, you know, not as bad as here, but you can still feel a little winter there.

OK.

But the summers are I heard are great there.

So and then outside of USA, you know,

I've already been to Italy.

So you got that.

Yeah, you got that off your list.

Seriously.

I mean, I went to Australia when I was younger, but I think I'd want to go back, but this time on the other side of the islands to Sydney.

Oh, you're on the Melbourne side?

I was by Perth.

Oh, wow.

What got you over there?

Just a family?

Well,

you're like taking the Griswold thing to the extreme.

You know, it kind of felt like a Griswold family vacation when we were there.

Won't get into the details of that

please do

No, my you know, just yeah, it was a family family trip with my aunt my cousin my mom.

Well, that's fun.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Oh This is funny one of the textures we'll get to these texts, but he brought up the real ID which I have to admit I Have not done that and I'm supposed to maybe go to LA soon, and I don't even think I could get on a plane I gotta get a new ID, right

is

that's the

You have to have the little star on it, right?

I thought I

had that because I just flew a couple of years ago or not even.

I think that's just the stars, what you need.

And I'm pretty sure I have

that.

I have the star.

I think that's what you need.

I don't know.

They might have just updated it since Trump took the oval.

But I'll have to look into that.

But we'll read your text in just a moment, folks.

Where are you going?

You got the whole world to choose from.

I say New Zealand, New York City, just because I haven't been there in a while.

I went there to do a TV show, which is cool.

I was on Caroline's Comedy Hour back in the 90s when all those stand-up shows were on.

And that was my first time in New York.

And then I went there to do a pilot and a couple other times for work stuff.

But such a great city, great energy, great vibe.

I know it's not everybody's cup of tea.

I don't know if I'd want to live there.

I think I could if I had a ton of money.

But I would definitely want to go back.

So I say New Zealand, New York City, and Dork County right here in NEWI, baby.

And Conrad says the Dells, Australia, and Charleston.

Yeah.

His possible future home.

Yeah.

You got to go there and set up a civic media subsidiary.

There we go.

And I have an excuse to go there.

I didn't stand up in Myrtle Beach back when I was a comedian.

And that was kind of close to there, but a different vibe.

It's very touristy.

Not that Charleston isn't, but the water was warm.

I liked that Atlantic Ocean.

So, let us know.

855-752-4842-8555-75Civic.

Text us on the app or on the stream if you're watching on YouTube, Facebook or X or the WGBW website or WISS.

And let us know where you go, folks.

It is National Tourism Day.

We got a call?

Oh, that was like, you know, like, we would appreciate it if you gave us some likes on Facebook.

Oh, yeah, counter it, of course.

Yes, we are being encouraged to get more followers and likes, because that's important.

And we are building.

You guys are great about that.

But if you're on any of these sites and want to give us a like or a follow that is always much appreciated, or if you want to tell your friends, if you want to stand on the corner with a sandwich board, that's fine too.

Saying, watch Nightlight with Beach Wamba.

They want to know what you're talking about, but maybe we'll get a few extra viewers or listeners.

All right, we do have a call.

Who's on the phone?

Ollie from the Northwoods.

Oh, Ollie, how are you tonight?

Well, I'm good.

I'll give you a like and a follow except I only have the radio to go by so

Wow old school.

I love

it.

Definitely old school my phone went and I'm Hanging on waiting for a new one.

Okay My place is to go you might have already took some of them door County would be my Wisconsin one

love

it Virginia Beach or any place with an ocean would be in another

Great.

And then Ireland would be my.

You're

international.

United States, my world

one.

Are you Irish,

Ollie?

Well, my dad always told me we were, but my kids have since taken some of those blood tests and say, no, we are not.

In my heart, I am definitely Irish.

Okay.

Me too.

I'm more Irish than not.

I'm more than half Irish.

And I love it.

And I love the Irish people.

But yeah, I probably should want to go there too.

That's not at the top of my list, but I would definitely go there.

Ali, let's

do this.

Oh, it's awesome.

I was there before.

And when the plane landed, I started crying.

And I just had this feeling in my chest like I'm home.

So I think maybe if my dad wasn't Irish,

Yeah, at least in my other life, I must have been

Irish.

It sounds like you got some Irish blood in there somewhere, and even if you don't, that's, uh, you can go there anyway.

So that's great.

Thank

you.

Allie, thanks for the

call.

Have a great night.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Allie's listening on the radio.

I love that.

The old-fashioned way.

The old-fashioned way.

Like it's meant to be.

She's literally, like, sitting at home listening to the radio.

I think that's so cool.

So thank you, uh...

That's even a little more special because it's easy to listen to the radio when you're in your car or whatever, but sitting homeless into the radio.

I absolutely love that.

Thank you for the call, Ollie.

We'll read your texts when we come back.

Piat Levy's here tonight.

Rob Tom is so much fun talking about all the things we love to talk about here on Nightlight tonight.

We're coming right back.

It's Peach Waba.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

This is a Wednesday edition of Nightlight.

This week, folks, the Wednesday edition is the best edition so far.

So you're here on a great night.

We never know when it's going to be week to week, but it's great to have you here.

We always like to catch up on text, too, because sometimes we get them from the night before and don't get to them.

So Bud from Janesville, who is listening overnight, he drives around from four to six, I assume, around Janesville.

He says, hey, Pete and Conrad.

I have a question last night, by the way, it was, what is your favorite cool summer drink?

So Bud says, hey, Pete and Conrad, I have faves in three categories of alcoholic, citrus, citrusy IPA, non-alcoholic peach mango iced tea, that sounds good, and health metamucil on ice.

Sounds great.

I only know that's a joke.

I really don't even know what metamucil.

I think it's just like a fiber drink.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that will make you run to the bathroom.

I feel

like okay, so you don't want to order it in a bar

I don't think they're

doing a round of speed dating None of those but says yes, I am a man of certain age by the way.

I am a retired middle school science teacher I could tell you some stories about labs that went sideways Please feel free to share those bud bud says love your show bud from Jamesville.

Thanks bud.

Great text as always

We got some other entries I didn't see yesterday.

JB, the guy behind the guy, you remember JB, R-Pel JB.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

The guy behind the guy, behind the guy.

JB's awesome.

He says, sun drop.

Have you ever had a real sugar sun drop ice cold?

They're so good.

They are dynamite.

They're like, they make Mountain Dew look like an idiot brother.

Like it's that good.

As citrus sodas go.

There was like, you got Mellow Yellow, Mountain Dew, Sundrop.

Sundrop to me is the granddaddy.

And especially if you use like that cane sugar and it's ice cold.

That is actually, that's a great text.

Thank you, JB.

Have you ever had the, have you heard of the brewery, the stubborn brothers?

No.

They're out of a chano.

Oh.

They make a drop top sour radler, which is basically a beer that tastes exactly like Sundrop.

What?

It is dynamite.

What's it called?

Drop top sour.

So it's it's stubborn brothers is the company right the brewery and yeah, it's it's a drop top sour radler and they also have a cherry one and last year when I was at This beer and bacon fest.

Oh,

yeah They

had a tent there and I got to try some of them.

They're just fantastic.

That sounds fantastic.

I love it

And also Cliff, who was here on the show last night, you know, I was very ashamed of myself because Cliff is a nature guy.

He is on the board of the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks, and he's talking about nature trails, and I didn't even make a joke that his name is Cliff.

Like, he has to like all that stuff.

That would have been a promo, come on.

I know, I blew it.

Getting soft in my old age.

Cliff says, was it cherry ginger beer?

Yep.

Yeah, that's a good one.

All right, and then, so.

I have to get this off my chest.

I was cleaning out my car today, and I found this, if you're watching on the stream, you can see it.

It's Taco Bell Rewards.

I understand getting reward points for flights or hotels, but every time I go stuff my fat face with Taco Bell, they reward me for it.

There's something so immoral about that.

You can get a free taco.

Is that what it is?

I'm pretty sure you can get one of those free Doritos tacos if you build enough

points.

Join and earn free food or something from Taco Bell, I assume.

That's hilarious.

Come on in, tubbies.

Eat our food.

We'll give you a trophy if you eat our food.

That's awful.

Yeah, they go there.

Alright, so we've got some text to get to here.

Our question tonight is where are you going?

It is National Tourism Day, ladies and gentlemen.

So tell us where you would like to go.

I said, internationally, I'd like to go to New Zealand, state-wise, or state, yeah, state-wise, I'd like to go to Dork County, and then I think I'd like to go back to New York.

I haven't been to New York City in quite a while.

Conrad said, Australia.

Yep.

The Dells and Charleston, South Carolina.

Tom from New Berlin.

Oh, he's talking about your golf game count rate.

He says, golf takes time.

I finally broke 90 last year.

Remember, the score is just a suggestion.

That

is true.

Congrats on breaking nine.

Yeah, you could do the Rodney danger or the Judge Smales and just kind of kick your ball.

Give yourself a better shot.

Exactly.

Listening on WAUK and the 612.

That's not the 612.

Matt is from the 612.

He says anywhere with my real ID.

Okay, there's the real ID.

I gotta look into that, cause I got a trip coming up.

I have to spend some time at the DMV.

608, Anna from Madison says, hi Pete and Conrad, I have two places where I wanna go, Key West and New England in the fall.

Key West is awesome.

Both can't miss this.

Yeah, Conrad knows all about Key West, his folks.

They chilled there for a while, but they're not there anymore.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no

Not as sexy as Key West, but a fine burg.

A

fine place

in Florida.

A fine place to live.

Absolutely.

Probably a lot cheaper too.

Brian, listening on WGBW, he's in the 920.

He says, my answer is the same for all three.

Leona, Wisconsin, to see the world's largest soup kettle.

There you go.

I don't care what else is going on in the world.

I want to check out this soup kettle.

Thank you for your honesty, Brian.

Steve from Florida Conrad's dad says, Ireland, Alaska cruise.

And I agree, Dorr County, but take the ferry to Washington Island.

You know, I've never done that as many times as I've been to Dorr County.

I've never been to Washington Island.

I had a friend when we went last time, he was like, guys, we need to take the ferry.

We need to go to Washington Island.

And we all are like, no, let's just let's just let's just stay drinking

here.

Yeah, we're just going to do the same thing on Washington Islands.

We're doing here.

Yeah.

Mike chimed in on social media.

He says moose jaw.

in Saskatchewan, Canada.

And I just looked up flights, 700 bucks to Moose Jaw.

You know, no one is going to Moose Jaw.

Those flights should be dirt cheap.

You know, I'm only thinking about the Wisconsin Dells Pizza place when they say Moose Jaw.

Oh, is that what it's called?

I'd rather go there.

And then our pal Rich Lucasio, April and I are driving down to Naples, Florida this Saturday, visiting my mom for Mother's Day and her birthday.

Oh, that's nice, Rich.

Love that.

Damn, my sister has a place in Naples.

I was there about a year ago.

It's nice.

You'll have a great time, Rich.

We'll read more of your texts coming up in a bit.

After the news, you will know everything you need to know.

Thanks to Civic Media's great news team, and we're coming back with Piat Levy, music writer for the Milwaukee Journal of Sentinel.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

What does Annie talk?

Oh, Annie says, Annie from Watertown says, what's wrong with radio?

She says, aren't you a radio show?

That's a great point, Annie.

That was good to say.

We are.

We are.

But there's so many, like, I mean, I think most of our listeners are not on the radio.

They're on the app or the stream.

But listen.

Listeners, any way possible.

The issue was Ollie couldn't give us a like or a follow because she was listening on the radio.

Having said that, if she just gave us a thumbs up in the privacy of her own living room, that's much appreciated too.

Just great to have you guys listening.

I don't care how you find us.

Just find us.

And thank you for your text.

Annie from Watertown also says, young folks just don't know how good soda with sugar is better.

I totally agree with that.

And I've had people say, nope, I like the high fructose corn syrup better.

None of it's good for you, but if you're gonna drink soda, and I do like a good soda once in a while, but I always go real sugar.

And I could not agree more.

I think it tastes much better.

All right, Rob Thomas is coming up in hour number two.

He'll be here at 7.20.

We'll talk movies with Rob.

Right now, I'm excited.

I can't believe it's been this long since we've had this last guy on the show, but he is an excellent writer for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He covers music, and he's just an all-around swell guy, and he joins us now on the stream, Mr. Piat Levy.

Hey, buddy.

Hello, Pete.

Thanks for having

me.

Good to be back on.

Yeah, like I said, I can't, and I thought of you because I saw the Summerfest lineup was out.

I'm like, oh my God, like, but I don't need to have you on just because the Summerfest lineup is out.

I mean, we should do this more often, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, no, I'm down any time.

So, but happy talk, Summerfest, music, anything.

Let's go.

Let's just jump in.

You know, I, should we start with Summerfest?

Let's start with Summerfest because there's a lot of acts and...

I mean, you're a guy who covers it every year.

Do you ever see changes year to year?

I mean, it's always exciting because there are new bands and there's bands you haven't seen before in a great opportunity to see them in a different setting.

But what do you notice, Piet?

I mean, you've covered this for years.

Is each year a little different or the acts just different?

Yeah, I mean, there's a formula to Summerfest.

I mean, they obviously want to do something for everyone kind of approach.

And I think every year they generally kind of do that.

pretty well.

There are times that it's a little more exciting from my perspective than other times where there's like certain genres that maybe aren't always super well represented.

And like last year, for instance, there was a ton of...

Latin music, a ton of Spanish-language music.

And that's pretty rare at Summer Fast.

And there's been a surge in popularity for Spanish-language music.

And there were several acts like that last year.

That was really exciting to see.

That was different.

And there was a lot of Milwaukee's hip-hop scene is just having a really golden moment right now with lots of major national media attention.

Pitchfork did a big write-up on them and Rolling Stone.

And they're getting shots from major players.

And last year, there was a ton of great Milwaukee rappers.

So there are moments like that that are really exciting to see.

But generally, it's something for everyone.

I mean, if you want to go and see, you know, Phil Vassar for the 30th time, you can go see Phil Vassar for the 30th summer fest.

But if you want to go see something different, there's something there too.

I mean, there's a Japanese metal band called Baby Metal.

There's going to be finally the new wave of Afrobeats.

It's another genre that just, that kind of music doesn't always make it to Milwaukee.

It doesn't make it to Milwaukee very often.

But there's a really exciting rising star in that field, Iris Star, that's playing.

That's really great to see.

So yeah, I think there's fresh stuff there.

There's the usual kind of stuff that you always see there.

And again, I think this year it succeeds as being kind of something for everyone.

And some of those gets are pretty unique.

you're going to see there this year.

Devo, I mean, they're going on tour, but it's one of their last tours, probably the last chance to see Devo in Milwaukee.

That's a pretty cool thing to see there.

San Francisco is kind of ahead of the curve, I think, with Benson Boone.

He's playing at the Amphitheater July 3rd.

When they booked it, I was like, gosh, I don't know if he's quite ready for the amphitheater level, but his popularity has just surged since then.

So they kind of proved me wrong.

A lot of those tickets are selling really well.

He just put an arena tour that's going on sale this week, and that's already the pre-sale has been really strong for that.

So, you know, there's going to be an artist named Alex Warren, who's, you know, it's a song of the summer contender.

He's going to probably have a massive audience on July 4th.

And then also, Fountains of Wayne, it's going to be their first show in like...

Gosh, over a decade, and they're going to be playing at Summerfest, which is really cool.

Who is that?

Who is that?

You know, Fountains of Wayne.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

That's so great.

Let's talk about the big headliners first.

Boy, it's funny because some of these acts, to me, what I would get excited about, and if I think if I lived like near Summerfest, I would go to see like Gary Lewis and the Playboys or some of these people that like were headliners decades ago, and now you can still see them.

if you like their music.

It's a great way to see them that's not that expensive.

But some of the headliners, like Def Leppard is still headlining.

That surprised me.

I mean, they're

a huge

band, but to be headlining the main stage still, that's kind of impressive.

Yeah, no, Def Leppard's still doing really well.

I mean, there's definitely a lot of love for them on that classic rock and that classic rock.

you know, they had a stadium tour.

The last time they were in town was a stadium tour with Motley Crew.

That sold really well at American Family Field.

That was 2022 or three.

So yeah, they're still they're still able to kind of pack big arenas.

I feel like they've even gotten more popular because I think the last time they played Summer Fest, they had they were co-headliners with Journey.

um

to fill that

amphitheater and then here they are they can kind of come back and I think they're doing well um on on their own so you've got stuff like that like death leopard that's been you know around for ages like I mentioned Benson Boone yeah uh you know that's kind of like you know again I think when they announced that show that was like back in I think

January or February and I just wasn't sure how well it would do because it's 23,000 seats in that amphitheater Yeah, but he's again has gotten really popular and kind of reminds me a little bit of in 2019 they booked Billy Eilish really early and people were like who's Billy Eilish at the time she was doing theaters and they're like is she gonna is she really a summerfest headliner and then yeah It was proven very quickly.

She is definitely that

caliber.

So it's a good mix of that kind of stuff.

You've got kind of a rare

a rare appearance from the Killers.

They're not doing a lot of dates this year.

They're really popular at the Lumineers.

Last time they played the Amphitheater, I think they sold it out.

And then, yeah, so, you know, there's just a really cool, there's a good mix, there's a good mix there.

Lainey Wilson is a huge country star.

She'll be playing in the Amphitheater too, so.

Do

you think,

do you think Def Leppard will play pour some sugar on me?

I do, I do think so.

It's

going to answer that so

seriously like we were on

the press.

No, absolutely.

Well, the killers.

It's interesting because some of these acts like James Taylor outside.

Doesn't seem that exciting to me, but I'm sure he's gonna crush like everybody there will be all about James Taylor So that's a great

one.

I also love

and that's and that's the only that's the only James Taylor date with Jason Maras who you know Jason Maras puts on a really great live show So okay, that's cool that he's doing kind of this one off there.

This is great, too Like you've got again these bands like the fray or the psychedelic furs.

I mean

Are they still bringing it like when they play concerts?

Have you seen them recently or do you know anything

about them?

I haven't seen the second I look first in a while, but again, you'll have stuff like like that in the lineup and then you'll have you know newer things like

like T Grizzly, he's like a really popular rapper out of Detroit.

So there's like, there's just, it's just a, again, I think a pretty good solid mix of stuff.

And what do you know, Piet, if anything about Billy Corgan and it says, and the machines of God, is he, does he have all new music with this band or will he still play some pumpkin stuff?

He's still going to be playing pumpkin stuff.

The idea for that is he's going to be doing kind of some deeper cuts and some things like that, not with the pumpkin's lineup, but a pumpkin will be there to do pumpkin things.

What gets you the most excited about this lineup?

Is there a particular day you're drawn to or an appearance by one of these musical acts?

Yeah, I mean, I think I think I mentioned Lady Wilson.

I mean, she's really kind of the center of the country world right now.

That's going to be really big.

Megan Thee Stallion is that same weekend.

Megan Thee Stallion is playing June 28th.

That looks really exciting.

You've got Vincent Boone.

You've got the Killers.

You know, some of those acts are still very much a list level or killers may not be quite essential into the pop culture zeitgeist, but still very popular.

Yeah.

And yeah, and then there's just like, like I said, there's stuff on the grounds.

I think the Founds of Wayne booking is really cool.

I think.

Devo being there is really neat.

There's just, there's some good kind of rarity kind of stuff going on too.

I love that Iris stars part of this lineup.

It's great that there's Afro beats representation.

I mean, what I was a little disappointed about was there's not a ton of Milwaukee hip hop yet, but the full schedule isn't out yet.

And there aren't really that many Spanish language acts.

Last year there was a ton and it just seemed like it was just really exciting to see.

Cause that's just something that's been overlooked, I think in at the surface lineup, you know, there's just a few genres like that where it's just like,

It should be there and it's not.

It's

supposed to be something for everyone and it generally succeeds, but then there's things like that where it's like clearly missing.

And that was great to see last year.

There's less of that this year.

I'm hoping there's still a few slots to fill.

I'm hoping we'll see some things in those few remaining slots.

My guest is Piat Levy.

He writes about music for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He's been doing it for years and doing it incredibly well.

I noticed also Richard Marks will be there, but very low down.

He seems like one of those retro acts, Piat, that like I thought he would be at a bigger stage.

I don't know.

Is that surprising?

Yeah, he'll still be he'll still be closing a stage.

I mean, a few years ago, he was playing like a like a 4 p.m.

slot.

So, you know, yeah.

He'll have a closing night slot.

I mean, again, if you're into Richard Marx, he's there.

You can go see Richard Marx.

If you want to see Wayne Chun, you can see Wayne Chun if you want to see something newer.

There's a lot of newer stuff too.

So I think they did a pretty good job.

There's always room for improvement always, but I think it's a pretty solid summer festival.

It looks great.

I have a Richard Marx story.

I have kind of an axiogram with Richard Marx because when I moved to LA with

my

wife, my aunt was dating his father.

And we were supposed to stay at their house while we got acclimated to LA.

Well, they were in a horrible car accident.

His father ended

up

passing away.

And he was a great guy.

And

he was a

very, very well-known composer.

And he wrote jingles like for Ham's beer from the land of sky blue waters.

You know, that was Dick Marks, Richard's dad.

Well, Dick was great.

And he said, stay here.

And we get out there.

And Richard Marks locked us out of the house.

Richard Marks.

I

might show up at

that concert and give him a piece of my mind.

He was trying to be nice about it.

He didn't like my aunt, so he called me and he's apologizing.

I'm like, dude, we just drove 2,000 miles.

I

don't, I've not

sucker punched many people in my life, Piat, but

Richard

Marx is on the list.

I'm half kidding.

All right, so there's more to that story too, but we'll do that over a beer sometime.

OK,

so what else excites you about the Milwaukee?

Like you mentioned the hip hop scene in Milwaukee.

And I remember you kind of talking about that last year.

What else is happening in Milwaukee musically that we should keep our eye on?

Or what excites you?

Is there a new band or a new sound or something?

Yeah, there's I mean there's also some all sorts of stuff.

I mean the hip-hop scene is really exciting There's a really good really great rock scene right now with like where emo is kind of leading the way and there's a band called bug moment that that is really good kind of I think leading that charge and there's a lot of really good bands in that scene You know, there's some really great singer songwriter stuff.

There's just like it's just it's great because

There's just so many exciting things sort of happening.

Starfish will have some of them.

I'm really hoping we'll see more of those bookings, but there's a Nile, Nile Times Nile is a rapper that's really good.

He's playing.

You got Buffalo Nichols, who is a walkie-based artist who does acoustic blues music and is really, really good.

He's playing on June 19.

The Keystones is a really fun, you know, Strokes inspired rock band that is worth checking out.

They'll also be at surface and I'm sure it'll be more, more kind of local acts announced for that too.

But yeah, there's a ton of, ton of great stuff coming out of Milwaukee.

You go to jsonline.com slash music.

I'm going to be a shameless self promoter.

There's I'm writing all the time.

So yeah, it's a pleasure.

Yeah.

It's a pleasure covering it.

Cover such an exciting town that's seen.

That's fantastic.

How many of these shows, like, I know you have a family.

Is it hard for you to get out at night and go watch bands?

Do you still have to do that, or is it done?

You know, we gotta take a quick break.

Let's think about that, and when we come back, we'll pick up there, and we'll have a few more minutes with

our

guest, Pete Levy, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who is with us here at Nightlight.

We are coming right back.

Do not go anywhere.

Our question of the night, ladies and gentlemen, is, it is National Tourism Day.

Where are you going?

Let us know and we will read your text on the radio.

It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight.

You're listening to the Civic Media Radio

Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

civicmedia.us.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwab.

Great to have you with me on this Wednesday night.

We're talking music at the moment.

Rob Thomas will be here from Madison Film Critic and CityCast Madison.

Newsletter editor will be here at 7.20 to talk movies and some things going on in Madison as we make our way around the state tonight.

Right now, my guest is Piat Levy.

He writes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

and covers music.

And do you get outside of Milwaukee much, Piet?

I know Milwaukee's your focus, but you kind of alluded to the fact that you kind of have your finger on the pulse all over the state, don't you?

Yeah, I mean, I watch what's going on, but I don't get to get out very often to go see shows in different towns around the state.

There's plenty to cover in Milwaukee.

And honestly, there's too much to cover.

There's so much great music coming out of the city, so much great original music.

So, you know, there's still a lot of great local bands I haven't seen live yet.

And there's just a lot to, there's just so much.

It's just too much.

And so it's a great problem to have.

It's an awesome problem to have.

And it's just, it's

really

real to write about it to share, share what people are doing in their own backyards and amazing things.

Yeah.

So how, how do you do that?

How often do you get out during the weekend and see live music?

Well, I don't go out like every week during the week during to see live music I'm just like listening to stuff all the time and then covering a ton of shows and I'll be at summer fest all nine days Summer is really kind of the busy the really busy season for me So I'll be covering kind of a lot of a lot of stuff be at summer fest and the Harley Fest and going to lots of kind of one-off concerts and just kind of you know Checking out as much stuff as I can listening to as much stuff as I can Yeah, just trying to really stay stay connected and tapped in there's just there's a ton to cover but it's a thrill to do it

Yeah, you talked about this festival that hasn't announced their lineup yet, which is a neighborhood festival on the east side called the Summer Solstice Music Festival.

Whereas Summer Fest is kind of a spectacle and it's this huge event, that sounded really cool.

Is that still happening?

Yeah, that's still gonna be happening in June.

And there's like a ton of great festivals and fairs are gonna be happening.

I mean, that's what's so great about Milwaukee is...

You know, I mean, it's it's the city of festivals is obviously the nickname.

There's

so

much stuff happening, whether it's, you know, summer solstice or whether, you know, it's Pride Fest or whether it's Irish Fest or German Fest or, you know, all these different kinds of things, the state fair.

There's just so much stuff to go to.

Yeah, a ton of things to go to.

And a ton of it is really fueled by music.

So there's just it's just a really it's an incredible time because it's just

you know, we're in the cold for so many months, and it's just

great to kind of get out and

hear so much stuff and just enjoy, enjoy the great weather, enjoy great music, enjoy great company or whatever it might be.

So, yeah, it's going to be a busy summer for sure.

What about Harley Homecoming?

Is that who's playing there?

What will that event be like?

And is it

open to the public?

Yeah, so I mean...

Yeah, oh yeah, totally.

I mean, it will be.

I mean, Harley Homecoming has become kind of the second, probably the second biggest music festival in Milwaukee behind Summerfest.

You know, every five years, Harley Davidson would do this big bash.

across the city.

A lot of times they'd have musicians.

You may, people may remember Elton John was famously a surprise performer in the Harley Homecoming many years ago, which got some mixed reactions, but did a free show.

But still some people were expecting like Springsteen or Rolling Stones.

Springsteen played there

though, years ago, didn't he?

He did.

He did exactly.

He did the one after that.

So every five years Harley would do this.

But then the last few years they've been doing an annual

music festival, or the annual festival, where they have things going on at different dealerships around town, things at the Harley Museum, at their power train operations.

And then the centerpiece is this Veterans Park concert.

This year it's happening July 11th and 12th.

It's actually happening the weekend after last week at a summer fest.

And the last couple of years I've had acts like Who Fighters and Green Day.

and red hot chili peppers and jelly roll and hearty and this year it's really it's really become you know it's very rock heavy and this year it's like basically all country americana acts obviously a lot of them will be rocking too but it's definitely in that mold and you've got Chris Stapleton as a big headliner Hank Williams Jr is a big headliner

Wow.

And then these buzzy acts like Turnpike Tributors and Treaty Oak Revival and Sierra Feral, Charlie Wesley Godwin, a lot of really interesting acts that are kind of in that country or alt-country or Americana vein.

And I think last year they had...

I mean, it's it's tens of thousands of people.

I think last year was it was, you know, with the two days combined, I think it was around 50 or something like that, 50,000 people.

So it's it's become a big thing.

It really and it feels like for anyone that's gone like Lollapalooza in Chicago, it's got more of that that kind of vibe because you're just you're going in a field.

Yes, there's Port of Hotties,

but it's still, you

know, there's, you know, you're still surrounded by the skyline and.

It's still great and it's cool that there's enough room in a city like Milwaukee to have that.

And then on top of that, you've got festivals like pretty much every weekend.

You know, this summer is going to be interesting from a Wisconsin concert perspective because this summer you'll see the first concerts at Camp Randall in Madison since 1997.

Camp Randall's is getting back into the concert game.

Last year it was approved that it could sell alcohol.

That was the thing that kept the tours from coming.

When there were some shows there in the 90s, like Rolling Stones, U2, they were dry shows.

They did not sell alcohol.

And alcohol sales are very much desired and really from a financial standpoint, very much needed for huge tours like this at this point.

So now they can sell alcohol.

Uh, this year for its first year as a concert venue again, you've got Morgan Wallen, who's, you know, just a massive country star doing two nights in June.

One of those actually opposite summer fest.

And then in July, you have cold play, which they're tours, like the top selling to cover in terms of, in terms of tickets.

Um, so they'll be there too.

So you've got that in addition to summer fest, in addition to the Harley fest, in addition to all the other festivals and everything else kind of going on.

Lots of options.

Uh,

Buddy, thank you for your time.

This is great reconnecting.

Let's do it again and not wait so long.

Love