Lineup Includes ’70s Favorites

By Dave Tianen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

May 14–The ’70s will live again at Summerfest’s M&I Classic Rock Stage with a lineup that includes Kansas, Three Dog Night, Cheap Trick and Earth, Wind and Fire.

The daily lineup at the retro stage is as follows:

–June 26 at 9 p.m.: Three Dog Night. Few ’70s bands could rival the number of hits that Three Dog Night scored including such monsters as “Mama Told Me (Not To Come),”"Easy to Be Hard,”"Joy to the World,”"An Old Fashioned Love Song,”"Never Been to Spain,”"Black and White” and “Shambala.” Chuck Negron is no longer in the band.

–June 27 at 10 p.m.: Think Floyd. Think Floyd is a Pink Floyd tribute band that bills itself as the Definitive Pink Floyd Experience.

–June 28 at 10 p.m.: Blondie. Along with the Velvet Underground, Blondie is credited with being one of the first bands to link the New York art community with the world of rock ‘n’ roll. The group also had one of the most vivid front women in rock history in Deborah Harry. Milwaukee’s Daryl Stuermer will open for Blondie.

–June 29 at 10 p.m.: TBA.

–June 30 at 8:30 p.m.: A Tribute to James Brown. As well as being the premier showman in soul music and a major musical innovator, James Brown assembled a storied band. This tribute features Brown’s original horn section along with Bootsy Collins who went on to become a major funk star in his own right.

–July 1 at 8:30 p.m.: Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. Another strong woman from rock’s past resurfaces at Summerfest with the appearance of ’80s spitfire Benatar. Benatar scored 15 Top 40 hits in the ’80s including two perennials: “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and “Love Is a Battlefield.”

–July 2 at 9 p.m.: Creedence Clearwater Revisited. One of the saddest estrangements in rock history is that of Creedence Clearwater Revival. A bitter dispute with Fantasy Records, led John Fogerty to split with his mates, and he has never performed with them since they broke up in 1972. Now Stu Cook and Doug Clifford carry on with a Fogerty sound-alike.

–July 3 at 10 p.m.: Kansas. Although “Dust in the Wind” was their only Top Ten hit, Kansas has proved to be a remarkably durable music institution. They have now capitalized on their progressive rock leanings to play symphony pops shows. They recently played a date with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

–July 4 at 10 p.m.: Mountain. For a band that lasted just three years in its original configuration, underwent frequent personnel changes and endured the murder of one of its co-founders, Mountain has proved to be a highly resilient institution. As recently as 2007, Mountain was recording new material with the release of the Dylan tribute album “Masters of War.”

–July 5 at 10 p.m.: Cheap Trick. Based in Rockford, Ill., Cheap Trick has treated Milwaukee as a second home during its long history. Cheap Trick combined a certain blue-collar bar-band mystique with a streak of onstage comic zeal to sustain a career far beyond what the odds might have dictated. The Zombies, a surviving remnant of the second wave of the British Invasion, will open for Cheap Trick.

–July 6 at 9 p.m.: Earth, Wind and Fire. Another Wisconsin neighbor, Chicago’s Earth, Wind and Fire reigned as a funk powerhouse in the ’70s and ’80s and retains an active recording profile today.

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