A World of Music at Summerfest

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As Summerfest marks its 55th annual celebration of Milwaukee and the musical variety the city embraces, one fact becomes apparent. As it has grown over the past five decades to become the world’s largest music festival, Summerfest has come to encompass the world. The 2023 lineup delivers a swath of sounds from multiple countries and continents. Summerfest’s astounding international sonic smorgasbord may be experienced during any given segment of its nine-day run with a general admission ticket. Previewed below are acts representing the wide array of music from throughout the globe to be heard in late June through mid-July at Henry Maier Festival Park.  

Thursday June 22 

La Sra. Tomasa

2 p.m. Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard 

The title of the 2020 album by Barcelona septet La Sra. Tomasa translates to English as Joyful but Dangerous. That seems apt. Like so many of the best bands, they come off like a gang whose energy and shenanigans make a listener want to join them. The trick they perform best, though, is integrating musical styles from across the Spanish-speaking world into one variegated whole. Their versatility encompasses unironic mariachi, replete with sorrowful brass and busy guitars pivoting easily to fiery salsa or vibraphone-led ambient Cal Tjader jazz. That’s not to mention their facility with, among other genres, hip-hop and their generosity in enlisting the occasional rapper to join them. Their Live Sessions album and video series feature enough guests to lead one on paths to a bounty of other discoveries. As the band to inaugurate the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard, leading a bill with reggae legends Third World and The Wailers, Summerfest will start off in a most spirited way.

Friday June 23  

Bad Skin

3:30 p.m. Uline Warehouse Stage 

One release by Montreal’s Bad Skin is entitled Riot Girl. So, maybe they are a product of Bikini Kill and the other radically feminist bands prominent in the ‘90s underground. When they do get political, it can be by context, as in their pummeling remake of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” which atomizes the regrettable sexual subtext of Aqua’s Euro disco smash. When directly issue-oriented—as when they express general disdain for government, guns and presidents—their hooky passion overwhelms any study of theory they may have undertaken. That’s OK, too. They still declare themselves to be voices for the voiceless. Most importantly, Bad Skin rock. That they do in a way that registers on the harder end of the pop-punk spectrum, with tri-lingual lead singer Dope (Tamara Galdames Morales) who betrays a Joan Jett influence from times predating when anyone thought “pop” and “punk” should go together. 

Saturday June 24

Santa Fe Klan

10:15 p.m. Miller Lite Oasis

New York City’s first wave of hip-hop innovators could not have conceived of their music journeying over an international diaspora. As each culture adapts and morphs rap and the rhythms behind it via the styles they already know, anthropology narrows to ethnomusicology, and the unity of diversity is proven again. Thus, it is with Mexican rapper Santa Fe Klan. The 20-something (born Ángel Quezada in the Santa Fe barrio of Guanajuato) raps in staccato cadences and sing-speaks akin to Drake in Spanish. More abundant than the trippy synthetic sounds backing many U.S. MCs, however, is instrumentation germane to regional Mexican music. Mournful acoustic guitars and chromatic accordions dominate over drum machine thumps. Klan (one person who uses a plural moniker to include his fans and everyone involved in his career) is by no means alone, as Mexican hip-hop’s origins harken at least far back as the early ‘00s urban regional movement featuring acts such as Akwid and Milwaukee’s own Kinto Sol. Santa Fe Klan will be headlining the Miller Lite Oasis stage with opening support from, among others, hometown duo Browns Crew and one of his influences, MC Davo.  

Thursday June 29 

Shinyribs

6:30 p.m. Uline Warehouse Stage

“Keep Austin weird” goes the directive, a slogan adopted by Texas’ capital to promote its small business and nurture its bohemian atmosphere. Shinyribs has been doing his part to maintain strangeness in the city for over a decade. Or should that be “Shinyribs have been doing their part ...”? Shinyribs acts as both the nickname of bandleader Kevin Russell and the group he helms. The amiable front man, looking like Dr. John playing Santa Claus, fronts an assemblage of nine-to-ten members, creating post-genre roots music of bafflingly divergent, yet unassumingly natural, character. Incorporating East Indian tabla and jazzy flute into what would otherwise be a traditionally mournful country song may at first elicit a “Huh?” Hearing the fruit of Russell’s peculiar imagination, however, puts his seemingly crazy notions into sensible perspective. Weirder still is some of Russell’s wardrobe; its most prominent garment may be a cape adorned with a fringe illuminated like a neon sign that could have easily been in Sun Ra’s or Elton John’s closet. With their Tijuana Trainwreck Horns and choreographed Shiny Soul Sisters back-up singers, Shinyribs should be bringing much genial weirdness to the Uline Warehouse Stage. 

Friday June 30 

Thaikkudam Bridge

4 p.m. Uline Warehouse Stage

The idea of East Indian progressive rock band Thaikkudam Bridge may first seem exotic to Westerners. The execution is more curious. Prog can require more players than basic guitarists, bassist and drummer. But 15 members? That number breaks down to six instrumentalists and nine singers. And if there are other subcontinental proggies incorporating elements of India's folk and classical traditions, the Bridge aren’t really among them. The most esoteric item on stage during a Thaikkudam concert—during which most of the guys are likely as not sitting—is a violin. Its inclusion makes Thaikkudam Bridge something of a parallel to 1970s Kansas, albeit with intermittently thrashier guitars. That latter angle manifests favorably when they interpret a Metallica number; similarly, having an ace keyboardist in tow proves handy when they slide into a Doors song. More peculiar is the English-as-probable-second-language rap passage in their breakthrough viral hit, “Fish Rock”—yes, the rhyming is dedicated to catching and consuming fish. If Summerfest is going to book a prog rock act, it may as well be Thaikkudam Bridge, to whom no one else on this year’s bill is close to comparable. 

Thursday July 1                       

A Flock of Seagulls 

9:30 p.m. UScellular Connection Stage 

A Flock of Seagulls, founded by brothers Mike and Ali Cross over 40 years ago, had a brief hit streak but have left an indelible cultural footprint. Some of that legacy comes from their hairdos. Mike especially. Giving himself the appearance of a blond Wolverine made a distinct visual impression. That image made high rotation on MTV in the cable outlet’s first full year of operation via the video for “I Ran.” The song and band linked England’s post-disco fashionista new romantic movement to new wave’s evolution through the 1980s. Their debut album holds other ‘80s gems, too; ditto for sophomore long-player, Listening, containing their final U.S. Top 40 entry, the melancholy “Wishing.” Since then, the Flock’s music and often gravity-defying locks have become shorthand for Thatcher/Reagan-era style. Punchline status hasn’t deprived them of work, though. The nostalgia touring circuit has been good to them, as has The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom they've recorded fresh interpretations of their work. With Wang Chung and Jesus Jones preceding A Flock of Seagulls on the UScellular Connection Stage, a night of danceable memories is nigh guaranteed.    

Thursday July 6 

Smash Mouth

10 p.m. UScelluar Connection Stage

Smash Mouth fooled many at first. The 1997 single that served as their introduction to MTV, alt rock and pop radio, “Walkin’ on the Sun,” sounds like the kind of ‘60s garage punk nugget that could have fit on the legendary compilation Nuggets. The San Jose band would revisit that feeling on hits such as “When the Morning Comes” and their rendition of “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love,” the latter originally recorded by actual ‘60s punks ? & The Mysterians. Those tunes were already deviations from the ska-punk by which they amassed a regional following. But Smash Mouth wouldn’t ultimately make their name by reviving the style of mid-20th century Jamaica. “All Star,” purposefully written to be a hit and give misfit kids encouragement, sealed Smash Mouth’s commercial fortune. Its applicability for movie licensing made “All Star” inescapable around the turn of the century. They also put their own twist on The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” for Shrek. Although original singer Steve Harwell left the group for health reasons, current vocalist Zach Goode replicates the charm of the man he has replaced.

 Friday July 7 

Good Boy Daisy

6:15 p.m. Miller Lite Oasis Stage

The twin sisters comprising Good Boy Daisy get it right when describing their music as “alt pop with plenty of rock influence.” The rock only somewhat derives from the affection for grunge vocalist Hallie Maynes and her guitar-playing sister, Dyllin, gleaned from their father, But the ‘90s Pacific Northwest style taught the twosome more tuneful lessons than many of the male caterwaulers on hard rock radio since Kurt Cobain’s passing. When they sing of heartbreak and romantic uncertainty, the turmoil in their delivery doesn’t morph into the gloom summoned by the flannel-wearing dudes their dad favored. The duo’s poppiness translates into both a judicious use of synthetic sounds and an accessible lyrical directness. That is to say, the Mayneses aren’t heavy like Lana Del Ray, but, in a Radio Disney way (were that station still active), Good Boy Daisy could serve as a gateway to more emotionally complicated feminine artistry. And unlike some musical former Disney stars, Good Boy Daisy haven’t gone through a rebellious stage to recast their public image—yet, anyway! Their Miller Lite Oasis Stage set should end in time for many of the siblings’ core audience to get home before dark, too.

Saturday July 8

Mayyadda

7:30 p.m. Uline Warehouse Stage

The strikingly white-haired singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer from Minneapolis often draws rhythmically from trap, the Southern hip-hop variant that has seeped into a broad swath of popular music. In other ways, though Mayyadda takes from soul music’s of older vintage to fashion something singular. To give her artistry a proprietary designation, she calls it BlackGirlMagic. The roots of her legerdemain go at least far back as the folk-imbued intensity of Bill Withers. More recent pathfinders like India.Arie figure into Mayyadda’s aesthetic, too. She has likely also fallen under the sway of folkies unafraid of electronics, such as Beth Orton and Ani DiFranco. And the way Mayyadda’s lyrics often mingle personal conflict and aspirational empowerment allow listeners a multitude of positions to come at her music from various viewpoints. Mayyadda’s purple-loving punk funk forebear from Minneapolis isn’t likely to fade from public memory any time soon. She is, however, forging something fresh and compelling to represent the Twin Cities.