WOD Summerfest Milwaukee 2023

The War On Drugs  

Summerfest Milwaukee

July 6th, 2023

It's a Thursday night, so we know that the music has to stop at 11 because there are people needing their sleep, even in Milwaukee, and that need to get up for work on Friday.  The perfect weather, 60F, some clouds, huge moon, and the atmosphere of Summerfest inhabits quite a few stages all along the shore.  It's the 55th year for this festival, billed now as the largest in the world.  At the ULINE stage, the venue closest to the city and water's edge, and facing towards the lake, the weather changes as this 7 member group, The War on Drugs, takes the stage.  Their setup time was over an hour, and there is a reason for that...

 

It seems that it is a "requirement" that you stand on your bleacher.  You don't stand in front of it.  You don't sit on it.  You get up on it and stand there...the entire time.  I did it.  And it was not a problem.   The music held us up there.  It was almost like an anti-gravity thing, elevating.  

 

The wall of sound that this band creates is nothing short of a RKnRL miracle. I've never heard so many blended hooks in one single concert.  The performance went on well past 11PM, and into the next day actually, in my head that is.  I could not shake the music, and didn't care to.  My head was bobbing all the way back to my home town, 1.5 hours away.

 

WOD has transcended the genre of rock and engaged a following that also transcends the age range, with thousands of listeners.  I witnessed a majority of college aged teens and 20s, but there were plenty of the 60s, 70s, and 80s era tie-died head-bobbers bouncing right along with them, myself included in that group.  From the opener to the end at 10:59:59, there was no lack of enchantment.  I've been listening to this group on Spotify for about a year, and had them on regular play, and I knew all of the songs, so that's always helpful in lending a pleasant experience.  But I was NOT prepared for something that was 6x better than the recorded versions. It was a sonic experience that you just can't escape. Kudos to their crew as well that make that happen.

Almost everyone has had a favorite concert, if you've been to them.  Mine was the Vigilantees of Love together with The Call in St. Louis, about 1990, with a good friend.  And it's been a high mark since then, until this concert.  I'd have to say it was an equivalent experience, in many ways.  Their live presence is something you'll just have to go see/hear for yourself.

 

For my music friends, I had summed it up with the following quote:

"Absolutely blown away...the real thing."

New WOD fan:

- Agitatus