Summerfest!!  Oh hell yeah...  

Picture a giant amusement park.  Then imagine that all the rides were replaced with big stages.  That's pretty much how I describe this place to everyone (except people who really, and I mean REALLY like amusement parks).  

Before I really begin tho, I need to take us back a day to Indianapolis.  Because the only thought I can possible have to stem the tide of shame I feel about hitting Dave's car (he's the owner of Locals Only, the bar we play in Indi, and a dear friend), is the thought that I autographed his Cadillac with the back bumper of our tour van.  Dave, I love you brother.  Thanks for not punching me.  You had plenty of opportunity to.

Also, one detail that didn't get mentioned about the Indianapolis van breakdown fiasco, is that we got ourselves to a car rental place, which was lucky for us because it was right about 6:00 and most places were either closed or closing.  We found one that was still open, and were able to rent a replacement van to get us to Milwaukee for the Summerfest show while the Ford dealer worked on our own van.  Awesome.  So I hit daves car, then get us to the rental place.  We get the rental van, and as we pull away the place closes its doors.  About 15 minutes later we hit an almost unnoticeable small bump in the road.  What happens?  The van instantly turns off.  That's the best way I can put it, it was a full and immediate shutdown.  As we coasted to the next turn we could make in a dead rental van that was a replacement for our dead touring van, we began wondering if there was something trying to stop us from making it to Summerfest.

So we scrambled and all got our phones out, desperately searching for another rental place that might still be open.  Thats when we FINALLY started getting some good news.  Yes, there was another place, not too far.  Yes, they had another new van for us to rent.  And when I tried turning the key on the broken down van we were in, it worked.  So I took it nice and slow and avoided as many bumps as I could. 

We got to the new rental place, and, of course, their computer network had shut down.  At this point we were wondering "Where's Ashton?"

Ok, enough, we got the van, played the indi show, and headed off to Milwaukee.

The Summerfest show?  Fuckin-a it was awesome.  A few years back, we did Summerfest, and at the end of the night we got to see our favorite band (pretty much all three of us count them as a big favorite) Built To Spill on one of the big stages.  Well to our pleasant surprise, this was the same stage we were to be playing today.

So we rolled in and had plenty of help from the stagehands with our gear.  We did the soundcheck which went extremely well, and, being the first band up, drank a few beers and did our thing.  Being the first band, it wasnt exactly a packed house, but we definitely attracted our fair share of the concertgoers.  And while handing out free cd's to those that stuck around, I got a lot of hi-5's and a lot of people saying they loved us.  We love you too.  Seriously.

We also got to meet and hang out with the awesome people from Halestorm, who were the headliners on this stage.  Lizzy and Arejay couldn't have been nicer.  I really hope that doesn't ruin their street cred tho.

Big thank you's to everyone working the stage that day, to Halestorm, Mike Scheid, who was there taking pictures (which I will be uploading very soon) and also to everyone who hung out and watched our set.  We had a blast, hope you did too :)