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.

You could say its the market conditions. Or you could say its an extension of the usual open-close slate for a holiday weekend. Or you could say that everyone, even musicians need a family-or-such day off …
But this just passed Memorial Day found that there were not only the usual take-Monday-off schedule blips that included some nightlife spots that you’d think would be the last to shut down, but they transitioned into other closures earlier in the three-day weekend. But don’t let that mar a big musical Monday.
There was a way to still get such music shipshape, and holiday themed, come that day, with a rollout of five hours of tunes in the park along the water — as the Village People aren’t the only ones who as far as song are In The Navy — but more on that in a bit.
If you wanted to get what could be called a non-music fix that Monday, you were out of luck if your plans included the downtown Hudson cigar shop and smoking lodge, some local pharmacies, a grocer where you could find that chocolate ice cream to die for, and even the public library that could offer that addictive read you’ve come to crave, (better luck two days earlier if at the Friday Memorial Library in New Richmond).
Even that tavern a couple of blocks down that has on-again and off-again Mondays off, took the whole weekend closed (starting Saturday to put it in the books). A shop across the street made the odd choice to be shuttered on Saturday but then open on Sunday.
So what to do? Someone sailed in from across the seven seas to add bounty on Monday.
Riding the wave of country stardom, Sailor Jerri, a veteran of the U.S. Navy although still youthful looking with long brunette locks behind the mic, strummed and sang starting at 2 p.m. at Lakefront Park, perched along the St. Croix River in Hudson. She (metamorphically speaking) had sailed in after leaving Nashville by riding the Ohio River, then the Mississippi River and it locks, then the St. Croix River, passing the Kinnickinnic River to get to the Lakefront Park Park bandshell.
This was also a benefit for the Freedom Park Center in the county, which is shown on posters with a map that uses as a reference point, of course, Hatfield Lake.

— The show gained by trekking miles by the hundreds and hundreds from her home base brought in thousands for the cause, spearheaded by the local VFW. There remains an option for donations, of course. And for more holiday-ish happenings, now that its June 1, check out Notes From The Beat. —

This event to close out with better weather what had been a rainy and cold month. April showers bring … May showers and most flowers would have had to wait. And a sign alongside the street earlier had said it all, May Day and after, no mow of grass.

(As you read the below color commentary, consider that the coach of the St. Louis Blues, nemesis of the Wild, and a couple of sports talking heads from one of the new(er) mega-networks, all sported various duos of pastel colors on their suit-breasts and you would think that non-gainly for figures in a sport where the fathers of the current stars mostly had missing teeth from (well-placed?) pucks. Especially when it goes against sacred team colors. And then there is me, Howdy Joe, with still after all these years only a shadow of a photo up top, (no one has missed). Pitchers usually don’t get chipped teeth, but …)

The Bucks weren’t out there for long — is it ever long enough even when savoring a title? — in the Wild this Deer District season. The Buck has stopped here, and fewer fear the deer. And the Minnesota Wild? Amounts to a Twin killing, to bring in baseball and our now boys of summer.
But in this year’s playoffs, both of those other two teams — thus like twins — pulled a Packer to pack in another squad and exited the playoffs early, as last weekend’s ending games revealed basically same day. There’d be no repeat of Charles Barkley making the then astounding prediction that the Milwaukee Bucks would find it all and win it all, and prompted the staging of the many hundreds of dollar bills — like their reigning down of threes — falling from the set’s glowing ceiling to the stage. Light is fleeting when you Ride The Lightning. The lyric could lie in a billboard, “Slay the Greenshot.”
We also had precious little time to watch the commentators … commentate … as was the new makeup of the old matchup between The Round Mound of Rebound — in the shape of a quarter, in both the first and the fourth — and the Shaq of similar girth. And Kenny would this year only have a few instances of analysis, by marching up to the Biggest Of All TV Screens and make his points about Midwest Xs and Os. Throw in one more analyst and they all needed more than 10 yards to be put between their Gang of Four sprawling set as they sparred and shouted, in front of a camera lens that shot more horizontal then vertical. There was not nearly as much social distancing by those who picked apart the puck use at the Wild games.
There also would not be a Bucks vs. Lakers best-of-seven, such as in days of yore, but we did have the Celtics coming to town to win a 4-3 series. They did just the opposite in their Game One of the next series, blowing a 13-point lead and going on to lose by 11, in part because of a record number of (other) blocks surrendered. The site where the Bucks lost their antlers would be in that other Milwaukee arena, the Bradley Center, which also provided a shift, not instead being called Miller Park. When I wrote about the retired jerseys hanging there with a different kind of sleeve, and not one of big center Bob Lanier who’s obviously and rightly been in the news of late, I forgot to mention that they indeed go on facia “around the horn” to encompass a series of banners seen from anywhere in the park, not just the Game Sevens.
To take it down a level, so many college stars, and not those in the sky, have announced that they’re entering the so-called “transfer portal” to go to a team with better perks than just parks, having been won over by chances of winning the playoffs and the heart of the fraternity girl provided. OK, that was a way Old School way of what shall I say, enticement to join?
Or, as Osbourne’s song goes, “the astral plane we’ll travel through.” And despite lack of regional games to cover, and such concerts to go to, Ozzy’s lookalike, with his big rounded shades, can be seen at your friendly area Super WalMart, hawking their eye glasses. What? Is it Elton?
And what about those avid viewers of color commentary who when the camera panned, drew a bead from behind, so they would no longer have to endure … Terry Bradshaw, in third and long, having three-piece-suit double trouble, via a wide pink and mauve tie. At the next chair was a talking head with one of tiny black and white polka dots. No self-respecting middle linebacker would wear that. Incomplete. And the Wildless foe, St. Louis, moved into a best of seven where both teams have the Blues on their jerseys.
Don’t know about Gopher coach Fleck in that regard. But he is the near namesake of Ben Afleck and the Aflack Duck via Gilbert Godfried in a football-game commercial — presumably the polar opposites of what is just ducky about sense of style. And we won’t go into those waters about the local real estate agent, sign on the corner, by the name of Fletch, and any comparison to the Chevy Chase portrayal of a defective detective by nearly such a name, although their first names both end in Y).
But the bartender had the Blues over her precious Wild, who set the stage for what was to come by dropping a 2-0 lead to lose 5-2. She was adamant about asking about the final outcome, as it busy and the opposing goals came too quickly to be tracked. Every Series Is One Less To Your Last. On the evening following the downfall, and deflating her mood, she kept the same murky expression while lamenting what had happened, even while turning her head away from me.
That what-are-you-known-by was called online a strange “illusion” when referring to the Minnesota Wild logo combining themes. It was not an illusion that the singer who did her National Anthem thing at a recent high school playoff game, and was caught similarly, on camera a different time, wearing the pro hockey logo-ed jersey and/or hat of the other team! Oh Canada!