Summerfest Preview: July 5, 2017

Here are the featured acts at Summerfest on July 5, 2017. Scroll down for the full lineup.

Tom Petty and theHeartbreakers w/ Chris Stapleton
American FamilyInsurance Amphitheater
7:30 p.m.

2017 marks 40 years since Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’debut LP, and the band is celebrating with (what else?) a nationwide tour. Inthe decades since the release of that self-titled record, Petty has issued 13albums with The Heartbreakers plus three solo discs and a pair of albums withThe Traveling Wilburys—an unlikely supergroup featuring Bob Dylan, GeorgeHarrison, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison.

Petty epitomizes a certain strain of what came to be calledclassic rock, although his music was always more solidly rooted in mid-’60srock trailblazers than many of his ’70s contemporaries. Petty remains committedto tightly written songs and memorable choruses. His best tracks can fill anarena with decibels yet also speak intimately to his listeners.

Petty and The Heartbreakers hit their stride with theirsecond album, You’re Gonna Get It!(1978), with its singles “I Need to Know” and “Listen to Her Heart.” Theirthird, Damn the Torpedoes (1979),went platinum on the strength of “Refugee,” “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “HereComes My Girl.” (For much of the ’80s through his death in 1994, Milwaukee’sHowie Epstein was The Heartbreakers’ bassist.) Petty has no lack of hits to choosefrom for his 40th-anniversary tour, including “American Girl,” “Free Fallin’”and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” (David Luhrssen)

T-Pain
Uline Warehouse
10 p.m.

It’s easy to forget how passionately people hated Auto-Tune when the effectfirst began to proliferate pop radio in the mid-’00s. These days, mostlisteners seem to accept it for what it is: a harmless aesthetic trapping. Butthere was a time when it was far and away the most divisive sound in music, andduring that era no artist was more associated with it than T-Pain. Theself-proclaimed “rappa ternt sanga” didn’tjust popularize the sound, he spread it everywhere—like some kind of roboticJohnny Appleseed. In a five-year span, he appeared on more than 50 chartingsingles, making Auto-Tune virtually ubiquitous.

Though he never disappeared from the public eye, the hits began to dry up forT-Pain following his pretty crappy 2011 album, Revolver, which is a shame. During his peak, on hits like “I’mSprung” and “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” nobody was making singles soeffortlessly smooth and good-humored. There’s still plenty of time for acomeback, though. He’s only 31 years old and a beloved personality with plentyof good will—as his viral 2015 performance for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert seriesdemonstrated. And just in case anybody doubted him, that concert proved onceand for all that, yes, the guy really can sing, even without Auto-Tune. (EvanRytlewski)

Girl Talk
Harley-Davidson Roadhouse
10 p.m.

If bedroommash-up artists appear like a forgotten dance music trend now, it’s simplybecause Greg Gillis hasn’t released a proper Girl Talk album in seven years. Nocontemporary producer can construct the wild, genre-spanning collages with thesame emotional pull and precise technical skill as the overtly meticulousDJ—and no one even attempts it much these days. Girl Talk cavalierly mergedtogether hip-hop, pop music and indie rock in short, spastic bursts that builtslowly into huge sonic climaxes. Listening to his albums felt like travelingthrough the architect’s expansive and eclectic record collection, but it wasalso something that could take a late-night party up an extra notch, too.

Withcurrent online music-listening norms still resembling the Wild West, thepseudo-controversy the DJ faced on potential copyright infringement issues fordistributing his Girl Talk albums without clearing the samples seems quaintnow—Gillis claimed he was safe under the Fair Use law and that turned out agood bet as no label ever sought legal action against him. But thatlegal-shirking certainly helped cultivate the renegade appeal of theguerrilla-style music, turning the long-haired, hippie-looking white dude fromPittsburgh into an unlikely rebel and much-respected DJ. (Kevin Mueller)