BMO Harris Pavilion | Breaking And Entering

REVIEW: Charli XCX at Summerfest

Pop star Charli XCX arrived at Summerfest Friday night taking the stage at BMO Harris Pavilion. It was her second time at Summerfest and fourth time in Milwaukee overall.

Charli XCX hails from England. Her musical career started when she’d post songs on Myspace as a teenager, eventually attracting the attention of a promoter who started booking her for warehouse raves in east London; from there, she signed with Asylum Records in 2010 and began working with producers Ariel Rechtshaid and Patrik Berger. Her name comes from the MSN Messenger username she had at the time. One of her early highlights was doing vocals on the hit song “I Don’t Care” by Swedish duo Icona Pop in 2012.

Her debut album “True Romance” came out in 2013, exploring the darker side of synthpop. Her 2014 sophomore album “SUCKER” found her channeling a lot of frustration she had with the music industry at the time through combining elements of electropop with pop punk sensibilities; the record was written for women and girls to feel a sense of empowerment, XCX said in interviews. Also in 2014, she was featured on Iggy Azalea’s single “Fancy” and then her song “Boom Clap” from “SUCKER” was featured in the film “The Fault in Our Stars.” In 2015, she toured with Katy Perry and then Jack Antonoff before headlining her own UK tour.

Starting with her 2016 EP “Vroom Vroom”, Charli XCX began moving in a more experimental, hyper-electronic, and future-pop direction. She recorded a third album but scrapped it after it got leaked; instead, in 2017 she released the mixtapes “Number 1 Angel” and “Pop 2” featuring production from A.G. Cook. She continued working with Cook on her highly ambitious 2019 album “Charli” that found her collaborating with over a dozen artists ranging from Troye Sivan to Lizzo to Haim and many more. “How I’m Feeling Now” is XCX’s fourth album and was her “quarantine record” done DIY-style in six weeks when COVID hit. Her most recent album “CRASH” came out earlier this year in March; with this record, XCX went for a more conventional dance-pop sound inspired by stars of the 80’s and 90’s such as Janet Jackson.

Almost half of XCX’s set Friday consisted of songs from “Crash”, opening with “Lightning” and finishing with “Good Ones.” Her three covers of the right weren’t really covers; rather, they were songs by other artists she’d done vocals on (“I Don’t Care” as mentioned before, “Spicy” by Diplo, and “Out Out” by Joel Corry and Jax Jones). She also performed “Boom Clap”, “Vroom Vroom”, two songs from “Charli”, and a couple others including her most recent single “Hot in It” with Tiesto.

XCX brought plenty of excitement to the pavilion; she engaged with each section of the crowd frequently and was elated to be at Summerfest, especially since it was her first concert in two weeks. There was a stage platform that she frequently leapt to the top of as she’d sing although she spent plenty of her set running across the stage singing as well. Accompanying her were two marvelous backup dancers that left for wardrobe changes periodically. The visuals were stunning as well; animations throughout her set featured lightning, the moon, volcanoes, and a cryptic-looking hall.

Charli XCX was a blast. She’s off to the 80/35 Music Festival in Des Moines, Iowa tonight!

REVIEW: Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band at the BMO Harris Pavilion

When it was first announced in March that Ringo Starr would be playing the BMO Harris Pavilion at the Summerfest grounds, it was immediately earmarked by many as a highlight of an already busy 2018 full of great local concerts. That’s admittedly a bit of heavy pressure to put on the 78-year old Beatles drummer, as well as his All Starr Band consisting of Colin Hay from Men At Work, Steve Lukather of Toto, Gregg Rolie of Santana and Journey, Graham Gouldman of 10cc, Warren Ham, and Gregg Bisonette. However, Starr and his band exceeded expectations on Saturday night with a prompt two-hour set that played like a catalog of greatest hits on shuffle.

The reality of this show is that if you were expecting a full night of Beatles tunes, you might be disappointed, but if you were a fan of the decades of classic rock that were in many ways a byproduct of The Beatles, you were in for a treat. Seeing the band member’s names on paper might make you wince a little as well; drummer Bisonette is the youngest member of the band at 59 years old. However, seeing the band live, everyone truly was a star(r), technically proficient as ever. Starr brings over a half a century of being a rock star, and the rest of the band have several decades of being on top of their game as well. When it meshes together, as it did on Saturday night, crowds like the jam-packed Pavilion audience eat up song after song. No solo was left untouched, and no part was altered for age. It was like watching a surreal jam session for two hours without a lull.

The set list bounced around in terms of showcasing the bands associated with each member, Starr included. In fact, Ringo seemed to know what he did best for many years with the Beatles; play the background. While we did get a fair amount of Ringo Starr solo material, and Beatles cuts “Boys”, “Don’t Pass Me By”, “Yellow Submarine” and “I Wanna Be Your Man”, much of the night was spent with tracks from Toto, Santana, Men At Work, and 10cc with varied vocalists. In many ways that worked to the show’s advantage, creating a comprehensive set with no real filler. It was, however, a little awkward to hear the band play Johnny Burnette’s “You’re Sixteen”. That could’ve maybe been cut from a set of many sexa- and septuagenarians.

Starr’s solo songs, “Photograph”, “Anthem” and “It Don’t Come Easy” made it to the set, but Ringo himself was the one to poke fun at his work. “Before joining The Beatles, I had written many songs” he quipped at one point, to follow with “most of them weren’t recorded”. This was also a great time to remind you that Toto and Men At Work had some bangers in their catalog (1. yes, I said it. And 2. Toto still does – they played the same BMO Harris Pavilion at Summerfest 2017). The band also played “Africa” and “Rosanna” of recent Weezer lore, but only referring to them as “a certain alternative band”, which leads one to believe perhaps Lukather isn’t too thrilled about their ironically hip covers.

Nevertheless, Lukather, Hay, Bisonette, and Warren Ham were the real standouts of the band, providing a shot in the arm whenever a boost of energy was needed. For 78 years old, though, Ringo was quite spry as well; dancing, swaying, jumping, and even running within the course of the set, in the middle of many, many peace signs to the crowd (naturally). There was only a pair of back-to-back songs – 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” and Santana’s “Black Magic Woman”, that Starr was not on stage, playfully mentioning the songs were “Magical musical moments” to the crowd while he was away. There’s no shame in needing a breather at nearly 80, but it wasn’t as if the band was dead in the water without their main member.

No matter how long of a review that could be written about Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band on Saturday night, special moments would be almost assuredly be left out. There were enough winks and nods to all of the bands involved that made for an overload of nostalgia. The night closed on the all-too fitting “With A Little Help From My Friends”, and a touch of “Give Peace A Chance” which became an enthusiastic crowd singalong. Ringo Starr brought plenty of peace and love to the BMO Harris Pavilion, but he also delivered a night full of memorable moments, as well.

REVIEW: The Shins at Summerfest

1 / 6

The setting was almost too perfect to close out Summerfest 50. A calm, warm night was far from the torrential downpour that plagued the first night of the festival, and inside the BMO Harris Pavilion, a full crowd anticipated The Shins to finish out their festival docket. The lights slowly faded down, a clip of the “Laverne & Shirley” theme song played, and James Mercer led his band onstage. In a flurry, we were into “Caring Is Creepy”, the first track of not only their setlist, but their 2001 debut, “Oh, Inverted World”. If you were a fan of all of The Shins’ work, this was your night to see it live.

It felt as though the band knew that most of their work didn’t lend kindly to a Sunday night, 9:45 time slot. There was very little time between songs, and early set numbers included a sped up version of “Australia”, “Name For You”, and “Mine’s Not A High Horse”, which might not have lent themselves well to the acoustics of the BMO Harris Pavilion, but did get the crowd up and into the set. After a couple of songs, the black curtain behind the band dropped, revealing a floor-to-ceiling, glowing blacklight skull, similar to the “Heartworms” artwork, which yielded a collective “woah” from the audience. Those early tracks were followed by “Girl Inform Me”, which was unfortunately marred by feedback issues. A small blemish in the course of the night, but “Chutes Too Narrow” cut “Gone For Good” got everything back up to speed.

Mercer was the most energetic of the night, and owned the spotlight that was mostly on him throughout the show. In fact, his energy mostly outmatched the audience, with the exception of singalongs like “Kissing The Lipless” and “Phantom Limb”, which seemed straightforward until it became a mashup with a verse of Tom Petty’s “American Girl”. If we renamed Summerfest 50 as “Pettyfest”, you almost wouldn’t be too far off in that description. The whole night went with very little breaks in the action, as each song would end, the lights would go black, and then we would come up again on another indie rock jam. When he did address the crowd, Mercer was kind and funny. One address described an incounter where he ultimately believed that the audience is what makes a concert great, and another was to playfully inform the crowd that the band was here to represent Columbia Records before playing a track from “Heartworms”. The night was mostly jam-packed with music, though, which really was the best way to see Summerfest out for 2017.

The longest break of the night came after the band’s normal set, which ended with radio-friendly single “Simple Song”. A glowing kickdrum was the only thing lit for maybe all of about three or four minutes, before they returned to the stage with the low-brooding song, “The Fear”. An interesting choice to start an encore, but it did show off the band’s touring string section, which accented the band throughout the night. The energy picked right back up though, with “New Slang”, and the night closed on the building energy of “Sleeping Lessons”, culminating in a crescendo of singing, house lights on the crowd, and actual movement from the otherwise too-cool-to-dance BMO Harris Pavilion crowd. It felt as though the build-up throughout the night was for that moment, and all of the energy in the stands released in that instance.

For a band that mostly makes very chill indie rock, The Shins knew how to get their crowd going on a Sunday night, end-of-festival time slot. To make things even better, the show ended on a great moment, in a 11-day span that was already filled with very cool moments to begin with. Between the atmosphere, the band, and the show itself, The Shins proved to be a great way to close out a Sunday night, and an even better way to close out Summerfest.

REVIEW: Toto at Summerfest

It’s no secret that Summerfest tries to cater to everyone. That being said, with the exception of Steve Aoki, Thursday night’s headliner lineup generally skewed a little older than most nights, capped off by Toto headlining the BMO Harris Pavilion. With a career that spans 14 studio albums and six Grammys, there was plenty of material for Toto to throw into a 90 minute set, and they visited many of those albums. The pavilion was packed, and a sizable, enthusiastic (read: slightly inebriated) crowd gathered outside of the reserved seating rails to watch the band rifle through 40 years of material.

The band got things going early, with “Hold The Line” making an early appearance in the set list. Following that, a myriad of songs that may have not been the most commercially successful, but were still solid nonetheless. The band, now anchored by original members Steve Lukather, David Paich, and Steve Pocaro, gave a spirited performance, and really didn’t show many signs of slowing down over the course of their set. The band played straight through, with extended versions of many songs, giving fans a variation on the tracks that they can hear on almost any classic rock station daily.

While the crowd outside of the rails were dancing throughout the night, many of the fans within the BMO Harris Pavilion remained seated, until the band instructed their crowd to stand up to sing “one that everyone knows”, before going into an extended version of “Rosanna”. The band didn’t seem to mind jamming on hits that some fringe fans were there to see, as solos and lengthy breakdowns were commonplace by this point in the night. The band also teased their biggest hit, “Africa” at least once before going into a different tune. They knew what many people were there to see, and maybe also knew that they had to hold that song for the final jam of the night.

One interesting portion of the show was the band’s history outside of Toto itself. Many of the musicians that now make up the touring act were once either session musicians or songwriters for some of the pop and rock classics of the late 70’s and 80’s. When introducing the band to the crowd, they would accompany their name with a snippet of what they had done as a credited musician that, unless you’re really into Toto, might not have known. This included vocalist Joseph Williams breaking off just a tiny bit of “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King, in which he is the adult singing voice.

The band managed to kick out a couple more early tunes following that point in the night, with the crowd still standing, and the evening culminated in a close to 10 minute version of “Africa”, complete with solos and a group singalong from the entire BMO Harris Pavilion. For a band that has been making music for 40 years, there didn’t seem to be any fatigue from Toto, and we’ll likely all be singing “Africa” with them for years to come.