BoDeans
2006.06.29 Summerfest's Miller Oasis • Milwaukee, WI

Sam Llanas, Kurt Neumann, Bukka Allen, Eric Holden, Noah Levy

Thursday June 29, 2006
Summerfest's Miller Oasis Stage - Milwaukee, WI
Opener: Carbon Leaf

This is what summerfest is all about....

The entire day was just plain fantastic. Some unexpected glitches, but when it came down to it....it was the perfect night....great music, great friends, great weather and cold beer. What more could you ask for!

We arrived sometime around 11:30am and waited outside that gate until they opened at noon. Unfortunately we missed soundcheck, but I was told that they were doing sound check around 11am and played CTF, Good Things & TRS. Once the gates opened, we secured out spots up front, and settled in for a day that was filled with lots of music, lots of laughs and lots of smilies. By 3:20pm we were well into the second band’s set when they lost power on stage. But we quickly learned that it wasn’t just the Miller stage...the entire summerfest grounds had lost power. Unfortunately it stayed that way for the next two and a half hours. We heard rumors that some improvised and did unplugged sets amist the crowd but for the most part it was uncommonly quiet throughout the entire grounds until 5:00pm....when the UW Marching Band made their presence known. They came, they played, we sang and then they left and we still didn’t have any power. But we were having a good time....as long as the beer was cold....we weren’t going anywhere. Just after 6:00 the power came back, we cheered and then we were treated to a fun set of covers from the Love Monkeys even with some very unsightful barefeet! <eek!>

Had heard good things about Carbon Leaf, and was looking forward to checking them out.....wow.....did they ever make a first impression on me! Loved every minute of it. Especially the almost Celtic sound they had mixed into a few of their songs.

Fireworks filled the sky over the lake until 11:00pm and then the real show began.......

The guys came out right on time, looking mightly fine as always and wasted no time going into a set that had us moving and grooving all night long.

Setlist:
1. Say About Love - PURPLE GUITAR! Yahoo! :)
2. Good Work w/Batman - we were rocking so much that I lost count of how many times we fell off the bleacher. Seemed like Bukka and Eric were quite amused but this, too. :)
3. Makes U - Bellissima!
4. Don't Be Lonely - Wow! What a performance by Sam!
5. Angels - always a treat to have this in the set!
6. Texas Ride Song - I end up on the ground in pursuit of honest to goodness jumpin' which wasn't happening up on the bleacher!
7. Nobody Loves Me - Dance, Sammy dance! And dance he did! :)
8. Still the Night w/Wanna Be Sedated - Kurt introduces it by asking if we're ready for a sing-a-long song and that we're going to sing so loud that Tom Petty (who was playing on a different stage) is going to wonder 'what is going on over there!' And then at the end Sam goes and sings Wanna Be Sedated! Just way too much fun! "Twenty...twenty....twenty four hours ago....!!"
9. Jenny Rae - awesome as always
10. Stay On - I know someone next to me was lovin' this one! :)
11. Runaway - no Del intro, but the song still sounded great anyway! Nice little change in lyrics though...."She didn't want to do it...but he really pissed her off!"
12. Fadeaway - they kept teasing us....playing the Bed's too Big melody...but never actually singing it.
13. Naked w/Runaway Train - Sam introduced this saying that he was listening to Tom Petty when he wrote this song and then went on to dedicate it to Tom Petty as well. And then to top it all off, Sam interjects lyrics from Petty's Runaway Train near the end of the song as well. But that was after Kurt made all the BoDivas' night by pointing right to us when it came time for "Hold You!" & "Control!". I think that one even beats out Boston! :)
14. Closer To Free - total frenzy, and we were lovin' every minute of it!
--encore--
15. Paradise - One guitar and their two voices. Simply amazing. And the crowd sang every word.
16. True Devotion - The counter melody sounded wonderful!
17. Wild World - Way too much fun! Has always been a favorite off Resolution and I was all prepared to sing along with the "Breaking my heart....." line, but alas...they didn't sing it. Throughout the show, a beach ball or two made it's way onto the stage, but after this song, Eric gave one of them a great big kick straight out into the crowd! I believe a fellow BoDiva's reaction was "Nice kick!!" :)
18. Good Things - and one final rocking sing-a-long to end a perfect show day!

Before we knew it, security was yelling at everyone to leave as it was very evident that every other stage had finished long before. We made our way back to the hotel, re-living all those memorable moments and looking forward to the next show, which of course is never soon enough! :)