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Booster Days gives a boost to the reopening of the music scene, and you’ll get Rhino and Bigly and The Shalo Lee Band as headliners, and also a hefty dose of Americana, soul, funk, rap and The Man With The Vox

For the lovers of summer festivals, Hudson Booster Days in the park is back after a hiatus in 2020, and although this year has a scaled back lineup, it still pulls its weight in band names, with the likes of Rhino and The Chubs and Bigly, which still rock out with high energy despite sometimes being a bit on the portly side, as classic rockers.
Rhino, as the lead headliner for the fest at 9 p.m. Saturday, is part of what could’ve been characterized as The New Wave Of Metro Cover Bands. And with that outback band name, you gotta give a whole lotta love to the Aussie style hat.
And more to love is in their song list. Included are the old and new of what combines for quite a bit of sampling, All Summer Long and Sweet Home Alabama – indeed both of the bookends are on their play list — and Angel is a Centerfold by the J. Giels Band. This choice is as refreshing a change as that fresh-faced siren herself.
The light and sound show for Rhino, a danceable and broadly speaking Top 40 cover band that encompasses all styles, is something to see, as is the sheer size of their stage – and the band shell can accommodate it — for this big band.
The other two headliner acts are the Shalo Lee Band, (she’s an Americana and southern rocker from River Falls who also includes All Summer Long to set the stage for Rhino), from 9 p.m. to 12:30 on Friday, and Bigly, (they throw in soul and funk and maybe even a little rap and vox), from 7:30-11 p.m. on Sunday.
Opening acts for all three evenings are: The Chubs on Friday and the Fire Water Gospel Choir on Saturday, both starting at 5 p.m., and Audio Circus, at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Noteworthy of the openers are that the Chubs have held their weight as a “premier variety band” for more than 30 years and that means they’ve seen all kinds of variety to pull from, Audio Circus has been a fixture at Ziggy’s and Smilin’ Moose even before this latest gig, and even more variety of themes is added to the fest because the Fire Water Gospel Choir is just one more act in the new revival of live music.

— News break: As The Fourth of July weekend is now here, and on its heels Father’s Day, things can get a little hairy … so for a lighter look at the holiday(s), see The Notes From The Beat department. Or the end of this post down below. You get to choose. Because you are an American, God Bless Us All —

For another musical avenue, Bridget Kelly brings her blues, rhythm and blues and Broadway talents as a (defining voice) singer/songwriter — and having collaborated as a writer with some lofty names — to Muddy Waters Saloon in Prescott on The Fourth itself, from 4-8 p.m.

But before then, people are said by every Tom and Dick and Harry on the TV News to be Heading Out On The Highway like never before on a U.S. holiday, as the grand old reopening opens further. Even the said-to-be-higher gas prices cannot stop Patriotic Americans from doing what they do. And we are not just talking about going up north to the cabin, or parts beyond, although there is definitely that also. Ask my new buddy Mike, and he’ll tell you, with just the right amount of detail, that his more-and-more popular ride share business saw a brief hit on the Friday before the weekend of the Fourth. Simply put, everyone did their cabin thang then, when they could, so they would have the whole next weekend free for Booster Days. Hudson has expanded its always-on-the-Fourth fireworks to July 3, which used to be just the realm of the newly departed Stillwater, so with little of such to be seen in western Wisconsin during the whole shebang — you would have to travel to the likes of Woodbury — Hudson is again, again, the only game in town(s). And to ye not yet road-weary travelers, the next weekend is when River Falls and New Richmond make up for their fireworks deficit with THEIR big summer festivals, and Hudson is annually the victim of these north-and-south bookends. So we will not be stepping on the gas until mid-July or later. And you can see “Rhino” without bolting across continents (see above).

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