Gusterrific

I just spent the past 10 minutes surfing the website of one of my favorite bands; and, I was very disappointed to learn that they are not touring right now. The last time I saw Guster, was during the summer of 2003, when they played Milwaukee’s famed annual music festival, Summerfest- and frankly, I am itching for an encore.

I remember the show like it was yesterday ~~~ Guster was slated to play on one of the Summerfest free stages at 10 PM, and after a few rounds of manipulative coercion, I somehow managed to convince good friends Hope Valentine and Beaker Callahan to go with me right after work (a good 5 hours early) in an effort to get the best possible seats.

For weeks before the show, I quietly obsessed about sitting front row center and about the t-shirt I was making to wear which would read “Wisconsin is for Lovers,” (a clever play on a shirt the band sold on their website which read “Guster is for Lovers”). I even went so far as to think about how one of the band members would see the shirt and invite me back stage, where a romance would most certainly bloom, and at that point they would invite me to join them on the tour.

Indeed, good seats were essential to the success of my plan.

By the time 5 PM rolled around on the day of the show, I was a ticking time bomb of excitement just waiting to go off. As I sprinted to my car, and drove towards the Brown Deer park and ride (our designated meeting spot), all I could think about was my favorite Guster songs and strategize about how I would communicate song requests to the band backstage (Beaker would have to flash a bouncer). Indeed, I was ready for any possible scenario.

What I didn’t plan for, was all of the unemployed teenagers who also love Guster-but were not hampered by tedious commitments like “putting in a full work day” or “the necessity of holding down a job in order to pay the bills”-which were the very things that kept me from heading down to Summerfest when the park opened at 9AM (which would have put me at the stage a full 13 hours before Guster was slated to go on).

So, even through we got to the Guster stage 5 hours early-the closest seats available were in row 10. Not bad for normal people; however, when you have a competitive edge as sharp and elaborate as mine-10th row is just not good enough.

As you can probably tell at this point, the band did not invite me backstage or to join their tour; however, somehow my #1 song request, “Demons” was the first thing they played-(which was a true relief, because Beaker made it pretty clear early on that she was not going to flash her boobs to a bouncer).

What a great band.