Madison’s quartet of eastside summer festivals are some of
the best entertainment you can find for the price. Since the price is free, the Waterfront
Festival, Fete de Marquette, Orton Park Fest and Willy Street Fair attract as
many music lovers as they do art lovers, food cart lovers and families looking
for all ages fun. And most of the folks
in attendance fit into more than one category.
I think it is fair to say that there were a few more Jon Dee Graham
lovers by the end of the night. Graham
and his rhythm section, the Fighting Cocks, put on perhaps the best show I’ve
seen them play outside the basement. The
Fighting Cocks are seldom the same two musicians, today it was longtime Graham
sideman Andrew Duplantis on bass and a new face to me, James McMurtry’s drummer
Darren Hess. While he may have been a
new face to me, it turns out he goes way back with Jon Dee, having played with
him before he even released his first record.
I had been in Minneapolis the night before to see Jon Dee
and company at Morrisey’s. The swanky
Irish pub was an unlikely venue for the band, the tiny stage and free admission
didn’t exactly bode well for the band, but it turned into a pretty great show
with enough quietly respectful fans to balance out the folks who were
talking. Tonight was another story, with
a festival stage under them they had room to spread out and really
deliver. Jon Dee’s enthusiastic and
infectious charm converted the uninitiated and impressed even those who were
already in the know. He drew from his
impressive catalog choosing some of the most effective songs from his canon. Always my favorite, “Airplane” and its lead
in “I’ll Wait” were stunning, and a few people even joined in on the chorus to
the latter, repeating the mantra as Jon Dee encouraged, like “you’ll really be
there.” I’d asked for “Lucky Day” but
was just as happy with another track from It’s Not as Bad as It Looks the artfully wounded “Beautifully Broken,” with
its message for all the “drugglers and strugglers, God’s broken little
birds.” As happy as the crowd was with
the set, I don’t think anyone was happier than Jon Dee himself. “I think we reached some people
tonight.” I think he’s right.
The final band of the night, the Bottle Rockets, had been
watching from the side of the stage, and they seemed a little intimidated about
following the force of nature they had just witnessed. But if anyone can bring the energy, it’s
them. Always a killer live band, they
did not disappoint. The handful of new
songs bode well for a new record and the selection of “virtual hits” (fan
favorites that should have been) should sell a lot of copies of the upcoming
Bloodshot reissue of their earlier material.
The massive 46 track two disc set compiles their first two releases,
self titled and Brooklyn Side, along with live tracks and outtakes. Any Bottle Rockets show wouldn’t be complete
without “Indianapolis,” “Radar Gun” and “$1000 Car,” but one song we don’t
always hear is “When I Was Dumb.” My
favorite song, they know it is the one track I will always ask for. When they hadn’t played it before the encore,
I was pretty sure it was off the list for tonight, but I was about to be
pleasantly surprised. When they came
back lead singer Brian Henneman announced the song, saying “sometimes she gets
it and sometimes she doesn’t, it just proves that sometimes it pays to be a
pain in the ass.” I was embarrassed, but
delighted. In fact with half the bands
on today’s line-up having been basement alumni, I felt pretty special all
night. Thanks Orton Park!
The Kissers
Jon Dee Graham & the Fighting Cocks
The Bottle Rockets
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