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Local Weather for Appleton, WI
| The Shorty Report: A bridge not too far |
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By Roxy Reno Are you like me, do you like good live music? Do you enjoy a cocktail every now and again, maybe small bars in small towns, short road trips? How about the Lakeshore? Door County? How about a girl behind a bullhorn? Accordion? Guitar? How about sweet ass bowling alleys? Do you like to fish? What about punk rock in an empty department store? How do you feel about bridges? Do you have Sartre’s anguish (when walking over a bridge you have an impulse to throw yourself off it) by any chance? How do you feel about a community as an entity getting behind the preservation of a 79-year-old veteran’s memorial? What about historic preservation as a whole? Are you down with that? What would you think about supporting any or all of that on the cheap? In a nutshell the festival basically runs like this: four days, 150 bands, 17 indoor venues, 1,000+ volunteers at a cost of $25 to the consumer for the entire weekend. Thursday and Friday are basically pub crawls with each venue hosting 7-10 bands per night, Saturday and Sunday are big outdoor events. Both Saturday and Sunday are able to be held indoors if the weather is crappy. Thursday night is free; it’s a great hook because if you go Thursday you will be coming back.  Three reasons to attend the Steel Bridge Songfest: Nobody is getting rich: The festival is run by Citizens for our Bridge, Inc. (CFOB), a non-profit a 501c3 organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the historically significant Sturgeon Bay (Michigan Street) Bridge, a Door County Veterans Memorial, and the historic downtown district in Sturgeon Bay. The organizers themselves, as well as the general workers, are unpaid volunteers who commit literally thousands of work hours to organize, plan and promote the event. The proceeds from this event go directly into the Historic Trust Fund that provides gap financing for the maintenance and preservation of the multi-span Warren/Parker truss bridge built in 1930, dedicated as a veteran’s war memorial on July 4, 1931. The bridge is nationally significant not only for it’s design but for the unique upper bascule section, which is one of only two examples existing in the United States. The music is phenomenal. The talent is from all over the country, every kind of genre under the sun, from polka to punk. The uniqueness of this event, what the organizers call The Construction Zone and CD project, have a big part to do with that. The Construction Zone is a week-long collaborative songwriting intensive for professional and aspiring songwriters. Writing takes place in motel rooms, coffee shops around town, by the waterside, any place writers go to find inspiration, stimulation, focus. Writers are encouraged (but not required) to derive inspiration from the Steel Bridge. There are two recording studios operating 24/7, with full-time engineers for documenting songs. Every night there are round robins where writers play for each other the songs they’ve written. Unlike some songwriting events, there are no attendance fees for “aspiring” writers. The intense collaboration allows individual artists to expand techniques and network with other artists. The writers retain full ownership of their contribution songs but donate the recorded music to the CFOB effort and a compilation CD. What happens when you bring together songwriters of national and regional prominence set them up for a week in Northeast Wisconsin with food, cocktails and the sole intention of creating something unique, then set them loose on an unsuspecting public? It’s madness! madness I tell you, in the best of ways. The energy that comes off these people after a week of intensive work is amazing, and the performances that start on Thursday bear that out. The community: I’ve been to my share of festivals and for the most part they seem to want to keep the festival goers and the general community at arms length from each other. Sturgeon Bay on other hand opens its downtown and invites you in with open arms. The Steel Bridge Songfest make it easy for the consumer. All of the indoor venues have schedules for the night’s entire lineup posted so you know who’s playing when and where. All of the venues are within walking distance of each other so the pub crawls on Thursday and Friday are fun and easy. It’s just one of those things, for no particular reason the place gives off a welcoming vibe. Lest I forget, Sturgeon Bay is a hell of a place to fish. You can fish the canal for monster walleyes and northern pike or give the big lake a try, maybe take a charter, for salmon and lake trout. Saturday’s events kick off with all of the horns in port, including the bridge horns, and the Coast Guard boats sounding at noon. If you are in a boat you are encouraged to participate. The super bonus of Steel Bridge Songfest is the drive up. Me, I recommend Highway 29 east out of Green Bay, stop at Keith’s in Bellvue for some friendly conversation and a High Life shorty. Eddie Whipps Supper Club in Poland is well worth the effort. Kewaunee is a Lake Michigan shore town that has changed very little in 30 years and you can get the Drive By Truckers on the jukebox at the Kewaunee Bowl. After that it’s north along the lakeshore (Hwy 42) Alaska, Algoma, Maplewood, before entering the gateway to Door County. Straight through the trip takes an hour and a half; last year it took us seven hours, so depending on your personality, plan accordingly. Finally, a word about the founders and organizers. Pat MacDonald and Melaniejane put together the music aspect of this festival and are not just talented as all get out they are down to earth, straight up folks. Pat’s sister Christie Weber spearheads the historic preservation aspect as well as being a liaison with the community and its leaders. They (and the thousand plus volunteers) do a wonderful thing for us rubes who live for music and fun. It’s great to be able to celebrate being in Wisconsin in the summer and this is a great way to do it. I hope you’ll join me. |
