Last weekend saw the Hudson Booster Days attracting a diverse crowd — except that most were from the Twin Cities rather than being townies. (I did see two longtime local folks while out and about, who stopped me to say hello, and yes I did recognize them after a few moments. That was it). And then late on Friday there were two more.
OK those last couple were wonderful and lovely ladies, not missing a stride although past 30, but you would be hard pressed to compare that night with something like New Years. So I think I will just boycott the local festivals for the month.
Not. As this weekend is the Fun Fest in New Richmond and there will be River Falls Days also.
Local servers, at least in Hudson, said that the Fourth of July was crazy busy, as was the case for taxi drivers in New Richmond, as well. And considering the time of the month, for more than one reason, they added that it was almost nonstop weekend trips to WalMart before The Fourth even arrived — not to speak of Fun Days — starting early and picking up as the day progressed. Picnic goods anyone? And maybe even that nasty looking piece of fireworks that later was setting near my door.
But in New Richmond this weekend …
The Bad Girlfriends have been showing what drives them by performing numerous gigs around western Wisconsin for several years, picking up more and more of a following with each venue they play. Newest on the list is Mallards on Saturday night. That’s outside, and for added fun there is a deejay inside.
At the nextdoor Wild Badger, its three straight deejays nightly throughout the weekend, then changing it up with Sunday’s Regret, which will wrap up its sets on … very early Sunday a.m. But this is no a sunrise service. Not to mention, there are $12 fish bowl drinks and $3 of their specialty Blackout concoctions. One could conceivably lead to the other …
There also is Champ’s on the other side of Mallards, and as well, the downtown stage has bands on three straight nights. Come Saturday, the biggest festival day of course, if you are still un-groggy enough to be up and about after the Mallards’ hot dog eating contest, the headliner band is Pasian and the Family Brass, following up on an act that’s one of two billed as New Richmond’s own, True Blue.
And due south in River Falls, the remaining bands are — and gee, am I begging off? — still too numerous to mention, both in Heritage Park and the various nightspots.
What, a New Richmond bartender said, why do we have roadblock wooded horses up already Wednesday night onto side streets? Come Thursday night there would be carnival rides. I could recognize an age-old staple, the Tilt-a-whirl, when glancing over from the main drag. And city crews, being proactive, were out late Wednesday doing some striping at a lighted intersection, as not to disrupt the traffic that would soon be heavier, both day and night.
River Falls has bolstered its festivals, this weekend among them, as they obtained a $30,000 tourism grant from the state to promote music and such all though 2022. Part of the result was an early sellout on tickets for its April bluegrass fest. Another was the executive director and others on the Chamber of Commerce staff being out hoofing it to distribute flyers often in the last couple of weeks, rather than being chained to their desks. Multiple bands over multiple places.
A few more tidbits in the post below.

To set the tone, not yet midnight now, but still the bang of dozens of fireworks high across the semi-scorched lawns, first a line of one pop then sets of two, staccato. I reference the midsection of the epic 18-minute song of human folly and crashing British airflight “Empire of the Clouds.” This combo of consistency and chaos could in many ways mark the tenure of this Fourth of July holiday.

— But wait. There’s more! Another holiday of sorts. In short order is Fun Fest in New Richmond and River Falls Days, (and OK you partiers know what city, obviously, that is in). So it all gets going with another act new to HudsonWiNightlife, Chris Kroese, in downtown New Richmond later today, that being Thursday. And all the things like carnival rides that are going on before and after his show. (Having, the downtown location, being back there, appears to be a big deal). And you know I could not get off on such a (celeb?) ceremonious celebration without a joke. Chris Kroese may sound in name like the Old School rap and/or hip-hop act Kriss Kross, but I have it on good authority that he is different, being a one-man show and more versatile in song selection. And less than 25 miles south — as the Crow and that’s not the old rock band flies, and unfortunately there is no straight Highway Star shot — but you still may want to hit the road and take in both, and not snuff the stuff in River Falls. Its amazing what a not so little ol’ state, but not Texas, tourism grant will do ya. So for much more on what’s going on at both these ends of St. Croix County, see my little ol’ website as the weekend approaches. —

The full-on city fiesta would be the next night. Still way in a front corner of the fourth room at Dick’s Bar and Grill, what, a Mexican food table, on July Fourth of all days. Lack of brats? And a lady across the pavement, staring straight and unwavering at the storefront in front of her. She’s who we all know, shining white light, searched for glitter if not gold??
The Sub House threw it back, with the three colors represented in mongo form five of the eight sandwich ingredients, and even brings farmer’s fruit into the fray to meet our (fickle?) appetites.
Another S word, Schneiderman’s I believe, said white glove treatment would be applied to all furniture deliveries, good color choice. The queen might do that with her expectations. And I won’t go into the man, I think, seen twice in a week roaming the streets of New Richmond, and cutting through the bars too, wearing a huge White Rabbit head.
This is one of three when it comes to the red, white and blue: Different folds of clothing in different places sporting all the colors, stretching as trendy various ways up and down and sideways, scant bits of skin between. Thus they incorporated an off-white tone; also present in hair of both a clerk and store patron, blueish tints added too.
Days before The Fourth, a tall blond was sporting a top of all those primary colors while at the bar and getting (a Pabst?), and I was going to complement her on the blouse choice, but then she abruptly took it off! It’s OK, as there was a dark blue camisole underneath. She would need that, because of the sheer sweat of fast dancing and her crazy hyper energy, and being swung over the shoulder of a friend with ceaseless flexibility, and that was shown her to be very lithe as well.

— Avenged sevenfold? (And more of my slaps at the quirks of our culture?)
That’s about how many cities with their storms, late in the get-going, cancelled their fireworks displays on the other end of Wisconsin. They made up for it here with a second appearance in the same number of days of across-the-street staccato.
But you couldn’t go there anyway, with a combination of flight cancellations and not enough flight attendants and flight overload of traffic. And get angry at the captain? Fight or flight?
Now the joke: With the rush to just get out and go … anywhere … in post-pandemic panic, we may be reaching a point where a plurality of the U.S. population is in the air at any one time. In the standard coach seats toward the back, they may have it over First Class when it comes to the often fading respect of Social Distancing, and with a greater number of planes and their people inside criss-crossing the country, that distinction may be crucial. —

Even weeks before that, Sam’s Club or such showed a blowup doll that was Uncle Sam, just past the checkout. And on the ride over, there was a second simply Sam, this time tethered on either side so he could not be taken away as written above by any Brit in post-colonial rage. Next to him Mickey Mouse in a Star Spangled uniform was not so lucky, being flattened to the too short grass.
Or a lone flag sitting by itself on a pole next to a tiny pond — and the only thing noticeable in the barren field all around.
Another wore the colors all, if you include a couple of denim pockets to constitute white. (More tints during this season: A thigh-high pink and yellow garter had much more height in front than back. But another’s outfit had all shades of blue and green, angelic but not algae). So the jeans give shades of red and blue, complete with a bit of off-white.
Not too many were around to appreciate it, being at cabins or house-based celebrations. The bars were manned with their crowds more like a Wednesday. At the Boosters Day band in the park on Friday evening, I saw a whole two people I recognized, as the homie crowds have changed around, although there were groups of people scattered throughout.
Brick’s Pizza up the way was an exception, with a full house.
And just where are, off the shelf, those Boston baked beans. A nice older lady helped me find them. Yes there is a story here, and starts Out East, far further then into Wisconsin, angling toward its center, to buy fireworks.

— Do I know beans about beans? —

My friend from Boston, now moved to Minnesconsin, wouldn’t get to experience the annual million-viewed Boston Pops plus fireworks at their historic band shell, so I thought this could fill the silence like a muzzleloader of old.
So I checked the shelves fore and aft, and found everything that included even a Dr. Pepper flavor with beans.
I asked the nice lady, are not Boston Baked Beans a staple of the genre? Unless overindulged? But at the last, there was a can or two, buried in the bottom corner. And even New England Clam Chowder as a second choice. And lastly, a $2 sprinkling of pop rocks. Will the package box fit it all?
Plenty of pastel chalklines on the pavement have regularly been shown along East Sixth Street, for the moment taking shape as a U.S. flag in order to take up a square of concrete, and the form of holiday wishes and a fireworks buildup. But across the street, there has been a less charming greeting that borders on bullying. Since taken down. In the 400 block, a nice lady accepted a compliment about her making her yard beautiful, several ways over with flowers and the like. She added, nothing too tough, since all the green ornamentation could be found setting in wait in a nearby woodlot.
Harder to arrange and keep straight was likely the mouse ears playing off angel wings beneath.
Another outfit of similarity, daughter and mom, was nearly matching in its size, shape and color its hundreds of floral figures. The pose both took, standing next to each other at the bar-rail, further showed their resemblance.
So some would say, how dare you wear, or maybe even carry, a U.S. flag, or there will be (less than subtle) warfare, that being something they will not acknowledge this. But you can drape it over a casket. I won’t even start to quote the seminal punk band Black Flag, though they do back further than the rise of such thought.
In a gutter next to a main drag sidewalk, a big Fireball bottle could thus have used a firewall.
It was bring me some water, to revisit earlier in June, when edging as close as we have had to 100 degrees, and workers spread out 18 boulders of mostly the same size between plants and thousands wood chips, prior to another approaching holiday at the New Richmond Post Office. Your tax dollars at work. In a good way.

Hey, you have to rave about the rave, and its blue light special. But across those severance walls, but certainly not the halls, gotta get that gonzo but godforsaken tap in gear.
First, the rave party at the Wild Badger the weekend before The Fourth but a prequel, was set with the cool bartenders dressing the part, but wait — not all the dark-mood lights were in place quite yet. So go to it, with the evening beckoning, more bulbs have to be installed.
Mood as in funky and (softly?) tinted purplish lumens, like the shape you’d see Outshining the back-porch kind at a Fourth BBQ, as dusk comes and fireworks too. All around the top of the circular bar. So there was one bartender who stepped up as brave and made the lap, and with rave dress also evoking memories of un-stripped-down Coyote Ugly, which I just saw on late(r)-night TV. (One of her mates appeared too young to catch the joking reference, although I indeed tried). Just had to watch the first one’s step when there was a cash register at the edge or lip of the wooden bar-rail. I offered to lend a hand, but she’s good … I commended her on her litheness, (more on that in a day or two), and style as she rocked it, and added I just might have to run to Wal-Mart, or the closest rave shop, other, in the Cities or that one kinda mega store here — and get a set of full-on black lights as accompaniment.
That second server one had a combo of the longest lashes I’ve seen, and her darker but colorful patterned eyes that will long be remembered, even in The Brave New World of the pandemic, a full half-inch, (more on this trend in subsequent posts). And a third bartender with checkered shorts on most of the colors of the rainbow. Even the deejay got into it with trademark metal-punk gloves of black leather (finger holes?) Interestingly, the only one really dressed down was the shot girl.
But northern-end over, since we need our beer … A single tap line that at its length fought the Badger State culture, briefly. It stuck and for minutes did not deliver through the goods, but for a few free quaffs. But to cure? A bartender friend took the lead, followed by another woman and man, coworkers all, and the former came up with an answer. So how many people does it take to change a tap line. Three? But needed was woman’s touch, or two of them.
But it took just one Badger bartender to change real light bulbs.

Its not often that you see this kind of activity, but the Fourth of July is for all ages, so there will be a big ol’ pile of sawdust to play in at the full-day blowout Saturday that heads off the holiday weekend at northernly UW Wanderoos in the heart of Amery.
So this is the dirt, so to speak, on playing in the dust, and if you are an adult, maybe even Old School and loved to see things like mud wrestling, this type of fodder underfoot will likely be the closest thing you’ll come upon these days. Catch it right after the kiddie parade. And its not just Dust in the Wind, as this is not Kansas, and you will not have to wait until dusk to play. But there is music, two different forms (see below).
(The only thing that we think can rival this as far as novelty is yard Olympics, part of ongoing events, through a charitable group called Cared4 4ever and spearheaded by a golf-course-extended not far south of Wanderoos. But with that said, as Saturday passes by and the rest of The Fourth prevails, check out the other special-events-based offerings that Wanderoos throws out there regularly, all throughout the year, and That Other Lions Club Thing in Hammond that takes the form of Heartland Days later in summer).
Also at the Wanderoos 55th annual Independence Day observance is a kickball game, again Old School, and its family friendly so don’t emulate that Dodgeball movie, but there is a beanbag tourney. To get fueled up for those things, there is a chicken dinner with entre option alternatives and all the fixins. The kickball kicks in at 12:30, and well beforehand is a 5K walk/run. So there is a lot going on early, so get there early.
Allyson Dyg is the one playing afternoon music, and with that kind of creative spelling one must think the music is anything but also-ran. Just like the sand/mud alternative. Then for four hours until midnight its County Line, fitting because of the location of Amery in Polk County, slightly north of the main urban center of this region and that’s a good thing, and you can bet there will be a whole lotta country kickin’ at this Old School street dance. And to also go traditional, you can come back for fireworks here on The Fourth itself. That as you might expect with a three-day holiday is the mainstay, main day for most such shows across western Wisconsin, and there are several in various locales, mostly running up and down the St. Croix River, extended a bit east.
Kinda kitty-korner south across the county line in Hammond, dead center in St. Croix County, is the annual tractor and truck pull on Saturday starting at 5 p.m. The tractor classes sound impressive, with 18 different four and five digit numbers as style IDs, and they throw around terms like not only Farm, but Turbo, Improved and Pro. So this isn’t just your daddy’s old basic green or red John Deere.
Truck classes are stock gas truck, improved gas truck, outlaw diesel truck (mine favorite name with or without Vin) and open diesel truck. Admission is only $10, and that’s a few cents per class you can view, and under ten are let in free, so educate the youngsters on the beauty of the roar and the visual spectacle, as again, this is a family holiday, and our forefathers built this country on horsepower, even if a different type.

But to get another new Booster musically, in this Day on Sunday all afternoon especially, check out Picks of the Week. But don’t wait, as you may be getting a call about parade lineup slots on Saturday morning, when it is announced. But call us child, we don’t necessarily plan on calling you.

As primarily a music website, we must mention as the ultimate in zeal the “Ice Cream Man,” or in this case women, and their old fashioned delivery truck that started serving Hudson and then branched out with fondness to other communities.
The truck in the size and shape, with colorful decals, of that driven by the postal carrier, but bringing even better items for you to enjoy. The carousel tune it plays, much like tinkling of a bell, announces its arrival well before you see it, in a delightfully understated and never loud way, as it toddles along slowly like one of the youngest of its patrons, building the anticipation of its arrival starting when it is still a block or so away — so even if in your house you have plenty of time to slip on your summer shoes and flag it down.
Principle owner Karen Storie is outrageously friendly — in a good way. We’ll let her tell the story, about the miles and smiles the truck has logged in service, from here.
“I bought the business from a friend four years ago. I now run this business (as a family affair) with the help of my four daughters (cool names of Madi, Kerrigan, Kellan and Brekkyn). We have expanded our business and are now running eight routes during the week. We do routes in most of the surrounding communities including New Richmond, River Falls, North Hudson, Somerset, Roberts, Stillwater, Oak Park Heights, Bayport and Lake Elmo.” They also do many community events with local schools, as well as many employee and customer appreciation events.
The business runs three months during the summer. During the school year, Storie works as a special education teacher in the New Richmond School District.
“I think the biggest thing about our business is the customer service,” she says. “Myself, along with my other employees, really try to find a connection with all of our customers. We want the ice cream truck to be a part of their summer time memories. It is our belief that everyone; young and old should have the opportunity to feel like the ice cream is just for them. We always try to go above and beyond for all that we serve.
“I love the many things we hear throughout our routes and events:
— This reminds me of my childhood.
— This is the best day ever.
— Our summer doesn’t officially start till you come to visit.
— You are a staple of our summer.
— We chased you (hey, it happens) because you are the best.
— Thank you for bringing happiness into our summer.
— My child counts down the day till you come every week.
“A little boy told his mom as he was walking away the other day, ‘I love that lady,’ or the one little boy, said ‘I never seen a ice cream truck person as good as you.’
“We have become part of our customers’ families watching babies being born and then growing,” Storie says. “We celebrate wins of their soccer games. We watch broken arms happen. We feel sad when our customers move away and are happy when we meet new customers move in. We watch customers pass away, cry with their spouses and think of them when we sell their favorite ice cream treat to someone else. We truly are lucky with how we have turned from a business to being a part of something greater.”
And it all started with ice cream. Cream del a cream.

Even the most diehard longtime business owners have to retire someday.
Even if like me, they’re German. (On a writer’s salary, I probably will never able to fully hang it up). And these three departures are so recent that its likely their pensions have not yet fully kicked in.
So we start with the Winzer Stube in downtown Hudson, which as a German restaurant had roots there and the owner often returned back for business purposes. You can only globe-trot like that for so long, unless like some former traveling salesmen I know, its for pleasure not work, and they hit it hard for a while after hanging up their shirt and tie for what I’ll call a leisure suit and flip-flops (how’s that for a style combo).
But back to that German joint, it marketed itself as being rated the fifth best in the country. You don’t get that way without having a crazy ethnic-driven work ethic. But places like that never really close, venue-wise, just change hands, so now has been opened the Black Rooster restaurant, perhaps named for those cool dark basement digs.
Then the store in New Richmond that like a model, can go by just one name, Vintage. Packing in all those great finds, in a way that’s orderly, saps the energy of even a young person. There was a slow rollout of deeply discounting items for quick sale, and other much-bigger-than-trinkets set outside on the edge of sidewalk and offered for free. I met the new owners by chance, who had just bought the building, and were moving out the last of it in favor of a second venue on the other end of the Twin Cities. What would become of the big New Richmond building? The couple said I would have to stay tuned.
Last of this trio is Chapter 2 Books, on the east end of Locust Street in Hudson. The owner who seemed to always be behind the counter, and was a combo of slightly terse and pleasant, appeared to just be overtaxed by all the new basics of doing business, in a town that had a transitional clientele during the height of the pandemic. When approached for an ad on my blog, he said he’d prefer to wait until after all those youngsters from the Cities stopped coming over and raising Cain, not to encourage such types to come into his store.
Relatedly, just down the way on the main drag, The 517 eatery ended its short run in a between-blocks building that has not been kind to a series of such business owners. In this day of hard-to-fill-positions, it had been advertising for everything from managers on down — virtually everything but wait staff. The first sign, in early June, said that the venue would be closed for a few weeks while conducting a restructuring. Then later in the month came the axe falling, that they would be closing and the building soon put up for sale. A nice addition, repeated from the first sign, was that if you had unused gift cards, call to have them refunded.
The old Season’s Tavern in North Hudson, now empty for years, falls into this realm. For a long time, one of the the realtors listed on their Big Sign went by the name of “Johnson.” A very unscientific search revealed that in the greater market area for the tavern there are 57 agents by that surname (OK, just kidding).
And also, in New Richmond, despite some heavy housing construction on certain ends of town, there are some name businesses on the south side that now have their lots empty. To wit: The local movie theater, a big box automotive store, and the local Freedom Value Center (or so it was).

The parallels to national acts are without parallel.
With that said, I was sure that Yam Haus would be back on the national stage again soon, so no rush to laud them. Having YouTube subscribers and monthly listeners on Spotify that are scratching 100,000 each, they wound up being in the Haus and starring on a noted U.S. music talent show. But at least in this particular case, in spring, the house ended up being made mostly of sand. Enter Sandman? Their foray into national attention ended with the first round, although that round was, again, well noted.
So, Minneapolis-based band Yam Haus has already busted out of its small-town Hudson roots. It represented Minnesota, not the Badger State, on NBC’s signature show hosted by Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson.
Composed of Lars Pruitt on lead vocals, Jake Felstow on drums, Zach Beinlich on bass and Seth Blum on guitar, the four have opted for alt pop. For Lars, that’s unlike a namesake who has made his fame through metal-band drumming. He takes the lead in on-stage banter and interaction with the guitarists, as I first witnessed at Pepper Fest.
Pruitt, Blum, and Beinlich met when Hudson High School students.
Then in 2017, there was Yam Haus. Since then, they’ve filled arenas across the Midwest, including First Avenue in a gig that has not been rivaled there by a local band for over a decade, and played major festivals, like Basilica Block Party. Weezer step aside. Although there have been many acts with strong Hudson ties that have played well, and very far into the top 20 of shows like American Idol. And on the other end of the state, the billboarded name Von Maur seems to owe to the word structure of Yam Haus, at least in number of letters, placement of vowels and even the visual shape of consonants.

— Speaking of visuals, it was just Father’s Day, and this item is about what dad truly believes in — maybe one thing more than the other. I might have to ask him, as he just got off the garden tractor after using it to survey a yard project involving my brother’s house, and as he leaned to the side to I guess prevent tipping, I said to my bro, “He’s driving a Simplicity. Which means it has no side bumpers. Because … it’s a Simplicity.”
Anyway, on the way back, we passed that wonderful tandem of shops I’ve alluded to before, Your Father’s Mustache salon or sorts, and a psychic spiritual advisor. Now I love most psychics as they know me well, but I gotta tease. I’ll bet that when you are driving there for a reading, they will divine that dad is in the next-door getting his handlebar trimmed. Also they will predict that the barber pole will still to there in red and white the next day. —

But back at it, the contest from the producers of The Voice and Eurovision Song Contest, brings together 56 artists representing every state and territory. The American Song Contest will tab its best hit single.
Yam Haus, which stands for “you are me,” and is happier then Metallica’s largely similar signature line in Sad But True, faced music acts of all sizes, for the chance release their tune through Atlantic Records. Putting together the show has been dubbed a Herculean task, executive producer Audrey Morrissey (cool rock last name) said in a press release, along the lines of staging the Flight of Icarus. (I met the guy, at the old Dibbo’s, who was a big part of producing that Iron Maiden stage show).
Could they, still, be the next big song? Epic masterpiece also?

This could the the northern exposure of the St. Croix County music scene. Northwest corner.
It is, the way I see it, a deejay style that features what are not full stanzas, but what could be seen as a line or two, that mix this in a different style and then merge it, taking it off in a new direction that is different but has common rhythm, then bringing them back together. It more commonly is termed mixing and sampling and other styles, and often features an electronic music vibe, at times harkening toward hip-hop.
All sorts of these variations, from many different acts, can be seen this weekend at a festival in Somerset, at a huge and lauded outdoor music venue than is more often thought of for rock shows. I know of this because a nephew, isaak, (stage name and when getting tickets you have to get it right, as for Caps you’d have to go with his recently obtained MBA from the little ol’ state of Texas). He is again one of the performers, as he has been honing his act with great gigs since his early teens, and I knew right away, even though that was back about a decade, that I was hearing something unique. Mixing and matching was at another level.
More of this scene can be seen at the Wild Badger, just up the road in New Richmond, on most weekends. In particular, striking my fancy for those things beyond the ordinary, is DJ Kurt, also known as Just Kurt, minus the German squibbles over the top of the vowels that I purge out even though that is my heritage. Even if its Old School, you gotta have a whole lotta love for equipment that includes a record-player turntable front and center. And to change it up, but much of a similar practice, there is also often there DJ Kris Holliday.
This style that went beyond just spinning tunes, but leaned toward performing music, even if recorded in advance, began with DJ J Strong at Dick’s Bar and Grill in Hudson two nights a weekend, again almost a decade ago, with his dubbed references to bring in rock ‘n roll. There is also the request option of Aaron RamonMC, who no doubt has much the same attitude of both the seminal punk band whose name begins with those letters, and the main gig, who is known to spice it up with intense, urban-street-language. But as far as numbers of dancers, the Smilin’ Moose just up the road soon built on it and took it to a new level.

Shelby’s benefit event in her “hike to remission” from cancer, taking place Saturday afternoon and into the evening at Mallard’s in downtown New Richmond, goes beyond the typical in raffle items.
This takes the form of a several-item gallery of guns, pro game tickets for four, ATVs and more that have great monetary value, as you can tell anytime the product description goes into dozens of words.
There is music by more than one act, if you include the longtime favorite Ponzi Scheme band that takes the newly established stage afterward, and into the later hours, as Mallard’s opens up what will be a regular weekend excursion into rock ‘n roll, to compliment its signature food from all over the map, and drink. The current big gaming room will be revamped for music to facilitate the staging process. All the better for taking in those eyes, regardless of mask or bandana, and you just might catch them if you catch her working behind the bar-rail.
And the nextdoor Wild Badger bar also opens up its back patio for the summer, with the Oatmeal band and Chris Snyder playing. (The seats/instruments that in May had been housed at the rear of the stage, and separated from the rest of the audience area by a dangling downward, informally set yellow police line, will be brought on and put into force, a harbinger of what this weekend will offer. A prelude had been slated for last Friday, as the creatively spelled Nici Peper took to the guitar).

Pea Soup Days in Somerset features two musical groups, one that’s collected rave reviews locally and around the broader region for years, and the other, while well established, hitting their home turf as a debut in the village.
The festival runs this Thursday through Sunday, June 9-12.
Phil and the Blanks serve the role of the fest’s musical opening act on Friday night, and the ultimate killer band of both the sexes, Bad Girlfriends follows on Saturday night. Phil as the good doctor, in onstage banter, might have a few things to say about those bad girls and boys following him.
Phil will front his New Richmond-based band when it treks down the way to Somerset, a hometown of one of the members, and play there for the first time. Look out Ozzfest!
Their covers include The Eagles, Beatles, Doobie Brothers and Eric Clapton, so their sound can be guitar-driven or have other focuses, and vary from a bit heavy to light rock.
They also will go around again with a new set of their originals. That’s right, the second time around with that.
And they may indeed wear their sunglasses at night — like in some of their cover art — come the second set, as the show simply smolders.
Bad Girlfriends rocks and also dips into country, classic and current, and there is a fiddle player in the band, prominently placed onstage.
They also step out of the normal cover band realm and deliver a powerful performance, of course, and you could say epic, of music by the Tran-Siberian Orchestra. They also have enough vocalists, multiples of both genders, to rip through a diverse set list that goes beyond the standards and includes the likes of Dropkick Murphy’s, Joan Jett and Elle King.
Rocker Tommy D has four different tasks with the band and bears resemblance to Axl Rose, often complete with a Bad-Ass headband, as the Bad Girlfriends do covers of that group. And to my buddy Tommy B and his cool Axl imitation, with hands all around the mic and/or harmonica, you’ve got some competition.
Music starts at 8 p.m.
The annual parade features the Somerset Marching Band, an announcer’s area in front of the Village Hall, and has almost 40 entries, which will take a new route through the village.
Grand marshal is Dave Bracht a longtime community supporter, as he started the bi-annual Haunted Hayride and the circus that comes to Somerset every other summer, so show him some love by attending various of those events. He is a former president of the Somerset Lions Club and founding member. He is the owner of Dave Bracht Real Estate.
The lineup of the golf tournament, held at Bristol Ridge, is complete and the softball tournament brackets were recently posted on the Pea Soup web page.