The free Friday Night Live concerts in Downtown Waukesha don't start for another month, June 1st, but it was hard to tell on a recent Friday that it hasn't already begun. A week ago Friday evening, when the weather was nice and doors were open, I found myself downtown with about an hour to spare so I explored. I was pleasantly surprised by the many musical offerings at bars, a coffee shop and bookstore. I stopped by Martha Merrell's Books and Norm told me there's going to be a new stage near Rochester Deli this summer with the added possibility of live radio remote broadcasts by The Fish. Norm is a big promoter of the Friday concerts and doesn't quit when summer's over. Martha Merrell's continues to host groups on Friday nights and has already scheduled Mike and Kathy of G-Man Music, Bill and Lin O'Connor, Tom and Barb Webber, and Spring City Grass for Fridays in May.
Downtown Waukesha isn't the only place to find good music on a Friday at no cost. I thought about going to UWW's Spring Concert this last Friday because I live a couple blocks away, because it was free, and because the Handbell Choir was performing. I love handbells. I forgot about the concert, though, when I read on WaukeshaNOW.com about the
"Gathering of Cultures," another event at UWW. It sounded pretty good - free ethnic food, a band, a jazz and blues singer, Latin dancers, a pinata and more. I expected a couple small samples of food but got a plateload, probably my only chance to taste food from Speen Queen BBQ and Mardi Gras. Not bad.
It looked like the blues singer was going to be a no-show so, after the pinata but before leaving, I wandered the hallways and came across the ad for the Spring Concert, which had already started. I walked fast to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in time to hear and see the Handbell Choir perform, a stroke of luck. At concert intermission I wandered back to the Commons to see how the setting up of the band was coming, then back to the Theatre for the Symphonic Band. The Symphonic Band is unique because it consists of students from UWW and other schools plus members of the community. I had a few minutes before the symphony took the stage so viewed some fantastic student art in the gallery outside the theatre.
After the final bow, it was probably around 9:00, the Reggae band,
Mountain Lions International, had started. The crowd had thinned because of the no-show jazz singer, which is too bad because this band rocked. The remaining 25 or 30 of us, some dancing, had the time of our lives. The band truly enjoyed singing and dancing, drumming and strumming till past midnight. I was amazed by the songs, none of which were offensive, and I loved the upbeat tempo, too.
Mountain Lions International have an interesting story to tell, and not just through their music. The Lions got their start in 1997 when two students from Sierra Leone, West Africa, met at UW Whitewater and discovered they had similar tastes in music and a flair for song writing. They later formed the makings of a band with bass guitarist Jon, lead guitarist Chris, both from Wisconsin, and drummer Juan, from Mexico.
I'm fortunate to be able to partake in many local events and try to keep expenses to a minimum. These two free UWW events were among the best I've been to and it shows how well WaukeshaNOW.com works. I saw it there first.
