Photo credit: Blaine Schultz
The Grovelers
Bassist Lemonie Fresh strolls onstage, takes her pink purse from her shoulder and sets it down. She could have been walking into a Riverwest coffee shop. Except she straps in for The Grovelers' performance Tuesday at Summerfest’s Uline Warehouse.
The Milwaukee band offered a set of songs that were short bursts of adrenaline, as evidenced by the blood vessels showing in singer Skip’s neck. His heavily reverbed Elvis-from-Hell vocal stylings are the immediate tipoff where this band has dug its roots. It has been written that Rockabilly shall inherit the Earth, and The Grovelers sound intent on carving out a chapter.
It is always interesting to witness how a local band used to playing local bars with substandard public address systems adapts to a big outdoor stage. The Grovelers easily met the challenge, aiming their garage sound beyond the last row and out into Lake Michigan, before the skies darkened and Mother Nature offered up her squall.
“We also like to puke out the classics,” said Skip before the band launched into Ray Charles’ “Night Time is The Right Time.” They also delivered thoughtful recitations of standards “Please Give Me Something” and “Muleskinner Blues” for the agricultural portion of the set.
Nearing the end of the show members of next act Good Boy Daisy walked across the stage, looking down their noses in disdain as guitarist Graff stomped on a nasty fuzz box. It was obvious the Grovelers were doing something right.
