The 35th annual Wells Fargo Street Fest was held in downtown Davenport recently and I worked the stage area again this year (the 8th year) as the stage manager and the announcer for the bands.
The bottom line - it was just too hot. Temperatures hit over 100 degrees on the street on Saturday and the humidity was oppressive all weekend long. It literally zapped the energy out of everyone involved in the festival - including those who attended.
Attendance was noticeably down from previous years. Temps were still in the lower 90's and upper 80's well into the evening, and humidity levels rose as the night went on. A lot of water was being consumed and not a lot of beer.
The bands were, for the most part, OK this year. No one performance was really great, and the heat had a lot to do with that. After a couple of songs, musicians were dripping wet (if they weren't already before they got on stage). We went through 14 cases of half-liter bottles of water behind the stage that weekend. And at night, we went through a lot of beer, as well.
Starting off the festival at 11 a.m. on Friday were the Funktastic Five. Led by singers Nicole Collins and William "Whistle" Jones, and anchored by the great guitarist Nate Nicholson, the Funktastic Five played what could have been the best set of all the bands all weekend long. We had a good crowd down there for lunchtime and the band did a great job.
Following at 1:30 was Down the Deuce. Formerly known as "The Basement Boys", the band had to change it's name when a hip-hop band in Baltimore, MD sued them to stop using the name. Fittingly, Down the Deuce's CD is appropriately named, "Banned in Baltimore."
Down the Deuce is led by local advertising executive Terry Loder, with his son, Jeff, on bass guitar. Charles Griffen is the lead guitarist, with drummer Adam Reed. With not much of a crowd, the band was not as sharp as they've been in the past (they really do play off the crowd very well), and it was a tough gig for them coupled with the heat and humidity.
A group of young guys by the name of Micro Groove played from 4 to 6 p.m. They weren't all that good and I was a little upset they were hired in place of a couple of bands I had recommended to Mark Holloway from Davenport One. I found out later they had only been together for six months. Although, I will say that their leader, keyboardist Nick Vasquez, was a very good musician. But he couldn't carry the other guys very well.
Hal Reed and the MOB played next as part of the "all-blues" night for the Street Fest. Hal has been a noted harp player/singer in the Quad Cities for a number of years and is backed by a great band of musicians - Will Gustofson and Jeff Andrews on guitars, Claire Finley on bass and Jimi Van Hyfte on drums. His set was choppy with a lot of time in between songs to get some monitor issues sorted out. But for the most part, it was a good show.
Following Hal Reed was the noted Quad City area bluesman Ernie Peniston. Ernie is the consummate showman and I'm amazed at how many women swoon over this hulking big guy - 6'4" and well over 300 pounds. But Ernie's got the stage presence and the great voice that make the women moist in the crotch. I just laugh when I see the women who flock to him when he plays.
Ernie's backing band included Al Nache on drums, Barry Vestal on bass guitar, and a pleasant surprise - Paul DePauw on guitar. Paul is one of the most versatile guitar players in the Quad Cities and fronted his own band for a number of years. However, with two growing kids and a business of his own, he had to cut back on playing gigs. Ernie plays about six or seven times a month and Paul told me that it's perfect for him. "I show up, I play guitar, I get paid. It's the perfect gig. No worrying about bookings or making sure other guys show up."
I think there may have been a couple times when Paul upstaged Ernie with his playing. But Ernie didn't mind. He knows he's got a good band behind him and he lets them branch out from time to time.
Here's a picture of Paul's old band (with Al Nache holding the drum sticks next to Paul in the middle).
And closing the first night of bands for the Street Fest were the 2005 All-Iowa Blues Challenge winners (and finalists for the 2006 International Blues Challenge), The Mercury Brothers. 
The current line-up consists of Ric Burris on vocals and harp (one of the best blues harmonica players in the Quad Cities), Daniel Rangel on drums, Wade Braggs on guitar, and new bass player Donnie Gustofson. The band did a great job, but, once again, the hot weather zapped the enthusiasm of not only the crowd, but the band, as well.
Here's a great shot of Ric Burris, Ernie Peniston and Hal Reed back stage before the Mercury Brothers went on stage.
Saturday began as Friday ended - hot and sultry. The temperature actually was higher on Saturday. At one point, a thermometer in the shade on the street registered 103 degrees. I checked the humidity level at the airport at that moment, which was about 50 percent, and I later found that the combination felt like 125 to 133 degrees on the heat index chart. It was brutal.
The first band to play at 11 a.m. were my good friends from the Blue Collar Band. I've worked with these guys at a number of events and they always put on a good show. Carol Ann Chouteau is the lead vocalist, Rick Maddelein is one of the more underrated guitar players in the Quad Cities, Rick's brother, Bob, is the bass guitar player, and the group is lead by drummer Jim Van Acker. Their song list is primarily 70's and 80's rock, and they do a great job each time they play.
In the meantime, the Elvis' came to see me behind the stage. These guys dress up like Elvis and crash many of the big events around the Quad Cities. They're always in the parades and they walk part of the Bix 7 race on Saturday morning.
Two of the guys, Dale Dietz and Cory Langer, I know from Cindy's work place at Deco Tool here in Davenport. Dale used to be Cindy's direct boss until he retired last year. And Cory still works with Cindy. Dale and Corey are pretty professional when they're at work, but they do like to cut loose when the plastic wigs and the double-knit jumpsuits come on. Here's a picture of Dale dancing in front of the stage. Those guys were literally baking in those wigs and jump-suits.
At 1:30 p.m., Jordan Danielson and The Great Space Coasters took the stage and put on one of the more surprising sets during the Street Fest. Even with a fill in bass player, they did an exceptional job and it was a shame that there was only a handful of people there to watch them.
4:00 p.m. brought on a band by the name of Identity Crisis, a group of about 13 to 16 people (depending on the song) specializing in sort of a "big brass" rock sound. Many of them are local teachers. Actually, they're not very good. But one of the guys in the band is an executive for Wells Fargo Bank here in Davenport, so Mark Holloway's hands are somewhat tied, politically, so to speak.
Identity Crisis played last year and really stunk the place up - horrible singing, missed cues, not everyone on the same page, musically. This year I will admit they were much better, but still not all that great. And they're a nightmare to move on and off the stage in 30 minutes or less.
Following Identity Crisis was the start of what I've wanted to have for a line-up at night for two or three years now, but couldn't pull it off in the past. Spatterdash at 6:00 p.m., Jim the Mule at 8:00 p.m. and Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls at 10:30 p.m.
Spatterdash put on their usual high energy show with lead singer Chris Sindt and guitarist Leo Kelly jumping and dancing throughout the 90 minute set. Chris is probably the best front man in the Quad Cities today. He's a good singer, he has wonderful stage presence and really holds a crowd.
As usual, Spatterdash was very good, with the multi-talented Matt Hauser on guitars, keyboards and vocals, and the driving drumming of Sean Dorton. Since Randy Archer's untimely death last February, Brian Wilkens - aka "Willie" - has been flying in from Phoenix a couple times a month to play bass for the band. I don't know what Willie does for a living, but it's got to pay good for him to be able to do that.
Jim the Mule did a good job, but I think it was evident from the start the gusto they usually display on stage went away during the first couple of songs. It had gotten more humid, the guys were sweating, the crowd was not as big as we'd hoped, it was just too hot to play.
Still, Tom Swanson and Dan Videtich on guitars, Jason Gilliland on bass and Ryan Koning on drums did about the best they could given the conditions. But they feed off the crowd and the crowd was just too hot to give it back that night.
Finally, Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls took the stage around 10:30. The crowd was no where near the packed scene it was the year before when they headlined the Saturday night part of Street Fest for the first time. Liz Treiber did her best to get the crowd going, but there wasn't much to get out of them. Leo Kelly bounced on the stage with his brother, Bob, playing the guitar and bass, respectively. Even their energy level wasn't as high as I've seen in the past.
(Then again, Leo ran the Bix 7 race earlier in the day in an hour and 22 minutes, he played with Spatterdash for 90 minutes, then took a break for a couple hours and came back to play for Wicked Liz later that night - what an animal!)
And Greg Hipskind did a fine job of keeping the beat. But even Greg said that it was tough to sustain any type of high emotion for the gig because of the heat and humidity.
About halfway through Wicked Liz's set, Liz, Bob and Greg took a breather and Leo had Willie, Chris and Sean from Spatterdash come up and play some songs. I thought they would only play a couple songs, but Chris was into it and they kept going. Finally, I had a couple people come up to me and ask if Wicked Liz was done playing, or what the deal was. One lady said to me, "I came to see Wicked Liz! This is bullshit!" I had to seek out Bobby Kelly to find out what was going on, myself.
We got Wicked Liz back up there and they finished out the night. But you could tell that they were all just zapped from the heat. The heat took a toll on everyone.
And it was evident with the crowds all weekend, as well. It was not one of the more memorable gigs I'd seen either Wicked Liz, Jim the Mule or Spatterdash play.
All in all, over the 8 years that I've worked the Street Festival, this was the worst one. It just wasn't all that fun as it's been in the past and the weather was the direct reason why. I keep saying that I won't do them in the future, but I keep getting sucked in. But this may truly be the last one I work.
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