Get ready for a reunion of veteran Milwaukee rock and rollers during the first weekend of July. A host of familiar names will perform in settings that you might never have expected to hear again.
On Friday, July 1 The Hound Dog Band and The Ox get together for gigs at Summerfest in the Potawatomi Bingo Casino Stage & Pavilion.
The Hound Dog Band – Sam Friedman, Mark Saichek, Ed Sison, Brad Seip, Randy Monaghan, Fred Bliffert, Tony Brown and Bob Knetzger – plays at 6 p.m., and The Ox – Jon Paris, Bob Metzger, Brad Seip and Ed Sison – follows at 8 p.m.
The following night, head over to Shank Hall at 8 p.m. to see The Last Polka, starring The East Side All Stars. You may remember some of these legendary cats from their reunion gig last year at Shorewood High School. Admission is $20.
Dynamite Duck – with Jon Paris and James Solberg, Mark Lillis and Jeff Hilgert – will perform, along with guests Jim Liban and Junior Brantley. Also on hand and on stage will be Jerry Harrison, Bob Metzger, Fred Bliffert, Ed Sison, Brad Seip, Sam Friedman, Mark Saichek, Tony Brown, Randy Monaghan and Bob Knetzger.
Harrison, of course was a Modern Lover and a Talking Head. Paris went to New York, where he's played with the likes of Johnny Winter, Les Paul and Bo Diddley, Solberg worked with Luther Allison, Junior Brantley was a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Metzger toured with Leonard Cohen, and the show's host, Fritz Bluebottom (aka Kim Jorgenson) went into the movie business and was executive producer of the Oscar-winning "Out of Africa" and other pictures.
Take a walk down memory lane or get schooled in Milwaukee's rock and roll past...
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
