Christmas for Beer Lovers!

The Great Taste of the Midwest Beer Festival was held on August 12th this year. Some combination of Motor Primitives has played at the festival since they've offered live music. When I hadn't heard anything from Ted, the "Entertainment Czar," by July, I became concerned. One email later we were in! This year, we had the full band plus the most extraordinarily talented, multi-instrumentalist, Ellie Erickson.
The best way to get to beer fest is by bicycle. Though we showed up at different times, the entire band rolled up on two wheels. With our instruments strapped to our back, we pedalled along the bike path, past the cars & shuttle buses and right up to the valet bike parking offered by the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. The picture above is of the Casbah pedicab rented out for the day for a wedding. Yup, that's right! This lovely couple had a just married sign on the back of the pedicab and they're celebrating their reception at the beer fest. If you look close, you can see the brides veil.
Volunteer musicians are allowed to enter the fest one hour before the masses so, we got there a little early to savor some expertly crafted brew.
As Robin and Kat "warm-up" before our first set, Matthew and I are off doing a little scientific taste testing. The verdict is.....Yuuuuuummmy! I personally loved the St. Louis Brewery Pilsner and the Delafield Brewhaus Pilsner.
Then, after sufficient "testing" the rhythm section kicked in. It's always been a challenge to be heard at this festival. We're supposted to be acoustic and, once the crowd hits its peak, we're typically inaudible.
This year, Ellie brought her battery-powered Crate amp which allowed us to boost our bass and lead guitar. That helped a ton. I still had to yell rather than sing so, by the end of the second set, my voice was toast. But, I felt warm and toasty too!

Here's a good picture of our friends Jim James & the Damn Shames. As per usual, they're getting the ladies to kick up their heels!

BTW-All photos taken by Michael D. Barrett, esq.