Cascio Groove Garage 2011 Headliners

I consider the Cascio Groove Garage to be the best place to take a break from the bigger stages, while still getting a chance to hear some great music. For 2011 the headliners have been booked, and here they are. The bands listed below are scheduled to start at 9pm every night. As always, there will be many other acts playing the Groove Garage. Stay tuned for further details for a full list of performers.
The Right Now opens the fest on June 29. I'm pretty sure that this link is to the correct band, but they don't have their Summerfest date listed on the site just yet.

On June 30, we're looking at The Jeanna Salzer Band. I'm playing a sample of their music as I write this, and I must say that she's an impressive artist, and the band is solid. Yay for Milwaukee! We have one very creative band and singer in Jeanna Salzer. July 1 is when the band I'm Not a Pilot hits the stage.

The Invaders play on July 2, The Uptown Savages perform July 3, and the Fatty Acids will headline on July 5th.

Who is Brighton, MA, and where are they from? Those questions will be answered on July 6th, at 9pm. I did a Google search of Brighton, MA, and found them among the expected search results of maps, things to do in Brighton, etc. I suggest a name change before they get famous, but who am I to judge?

Here are the four final headline acts for the Groove Garage. See you at the fest!

• July 7, Mark Mallman


• July 8, John the Savage


• July 9, Fresh Cut Collective


• July 10, Surgeons in Heat

Cascio Groove Garage at Summerfest

I hope that the Cascio Groove Garage is booking shows at Summerfest. For some reason, I really like that little set up. Perhaps it's the way it is tucked in between two buildings. There are actually a few trees to the left and right of the stage. It has that local talent too. Decapitado played there last summer. That was a great gig.

The Groove Garage used to be next to the food court. That was not a great location. There was traffic passing by. This traffic was headed to the Marcus Amphitheater, or looking for a place to grab a bite, and take a time out from the music. Now, the stage is just south of center.

Headliners for Summerfest are not entirely booked. I think that we will be hearing from the powers that be in the very near future. Summer is coming, and the headline acts will be locked in soon.

Summerfest is the Best Summer Event In Milwaukee

As all Milwaukeeans know, Summerfest is the highlight of Milwaukee summers. I went on the first night, June 25 and had a great time with some tasty food and awesome music. Here is a recap on my evening. I got to Summerfest around 3 PM and was greeted with some great weather. It was a nice hot afternoon so the Summerfest grounds were the perfect place to be to get a cool breeze off the lake and still enjoy the sun. I spent a few hours walking around the grounds along the lakefront, looking at the goodies all the vendors had to sell. I had a delicious late lunch of fried eggplant strips and a chicken parmesan sandwich at the Venice Club near the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse.
I took some time to take the sky glider across the grounds to get an aerial view of all the activities, stages and Marcus Amphitheater shows. It was a beautiful view and you could see the downtown skyline and the Milwaukee Public Museum. I met up with some friends a little later in the evening and saw an awesome local band called Toadking at the Cascio Interstate Music Groove Garage. Toadking are one of my favorite Milwaukee bands and they play a fusion of psychedelic music and folk rock. To after dancing and singing along to some great tunes, we went over to Coldstone Creamery to go cool down with a little birthday remix ice cream.
After taking a little break from music and dance, we went over to the Briggs and Stratton Big Backyard stage to go get some seats for Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. We caught the last few songs from Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons and ended up getting some excellent seats right in front as some fans left. We were in the second row close to the center and were up close and personal with one of our favorite musicians, Conor Oberst. The set was fun and brought out lots of fans who we sang and danced on the bleachers with. The band played for a little over an hour and we left just in time to miss a huge surge of people leaving the grounds. We had so much fun that we are going to go back tonight (June 29) to go and see Lupe Fiasco at the Miller Lite Oasis and Spoon at the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse.