From Foo Fighters to Green Day, best and worst of Harley-Davidson festival in Milwaukee

Harley-Davidson throws itself a party in its hometown every five years.

But this year’s 120th anniversary-commemorating Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival, which wrapped up with its customary motorcycle parade through downtown Milwaukee Sunday, marked the first time in a decade that the company has hosted a music-focused festival — and the first time in 15 years that it has done it at Veterans Park on Milwaukee's lakefront.

I say, keep the music coming.

Harley may be in the motorcycle business, but the roar of engines goes best with terrific music. Sadly, music was an afterthought the last go around.

And while Veterans Park is a more rugged venue than the Summerfest grounds, it’s a beautiful site. Despite the 15-year gap since the last Harley bash there, it generally was well laid out and organized for the 2023 edition.

And in terms of Harley-appropriate headliners for the two-day, 10-band concerts in the park, Green Day and Foo Fighters are hard to beat.

Here are the best, and worst, from the Veterans Park portion of the Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival.

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Best set

Two years ago, Foo Fighters gave Milwaukee a concert the city will never forget: the first triumphant, major show after the pandemic put live music on pause for 16 months. This time, playing for a sold-out crowd of 45,000 —the band's largest audience ever in Milwaukee — Foo Fighters delivered a show that was just as memorable, from a brilliant introduction to dynamic new drummer Josh Freese to a heart-bursting tribute to the band's late drummer Taylor Hawkins, playing Hawkins' favorite Foo Fighters song, "Aurora."

Worst set

Phantogram’s dreamy synth pop slowed the pulse coming off of KennyHoopla’s raw and raucous punk set Friday, and frontwoman Sarah Barthel sure put her foot in her mouth, trying to connect with the Harley faithful by gushing about the hair and jeans and sex surrounding her, drawing deafening silence from a possibly confused, possibly offended crowd.

Best fan service

From the pre-show singalong of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with video cameras capturing singers in the crowd for the big screens, Green Day signaled that their fans were the star of the show. Beyond that warmup and exceptional fan service from an exuberant and eternally youthful Billie Joe Armstrong and company, a few fans got to get on stage, including a couple getting engaged, a fan taking over vocals from Armstrong for “Know Your Enemy” (and joining him at the mic), and another fan who got to play guitar for a cover of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge” (and actually keep the guitar).

Funniest fan moment

Nicholas knew what was coming. At other Foo Fighters shows this year, the band has been playing snippets of songs new drummer Freese has recorded, including Michael Bublé's "Haven't Met You Yet." So Nicholas, standing right in the front, made a sign that read, "I know the Bublé song," earning him a chance to come on stage and sing it for 45,000 fans. After getting a hug from Grohl, Nicholas coolly sat by the drum kit, and when his singing moment arrived, confidently unspooled the mic from the stand like he was ready to blow everyone away. Instead, he blew it, earning some uncle-like ribbing from Grohl before the frontman wryly told him to get off his stage. Nicholas wasn't embarrassed at all, and still got a chance to be on the Foo Fighters stage. Grohl commended his courage, and dedicated "My Hero" to him.

Most committed fan

Despite the heat, one guy showed up both days dressed in a full Spider-Man costume, which started to look a little grimy by the start of Day 2.

Best elder statesperson

Now 64, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joan Jett got to show a huge crowd she’s still going strong, much like the motorcycles beloved by the Harley faithful, singing “I Love Rock ‘N' Roll” like she still means it. And while the crowd may have viewed this as a victory lap, a couple of solid new songs showed Jett isn’t coasting.

Best stage move

KennyHoopla left the Harley stage thinking he’d done a terrible set, but crowd chants of his name Friday drew the Oshkosh rocker back for an unplanned encore, which he celebrated by nailing a backflip from atop the drum kit.

Best sibling rivalry

With Green Day and Foo Fighters both booked for Harley, the Freese brothers both got to play the fest, with Jason playing saxophone and keys for Green Day Friday and older brother Josh playing drums for Foo Fighters Saturday.

Best local talent

Abby Jeanne was a fine ambassador for Cream City talent, setting the perfect tone with a fest-opening set of retro soul rockers. That said, Harley officials suggested in January two local bands would play the Veterans Park shows, but ultimately only booked one. Hoping for more representation next time.

Best local behind-the-scenes talent

Josh Adams, who runs Milwaukee-based, concert-focused video production company Mindpool Live, has been Foo Fighters' video director on the road since 2011. But this hometown show was definitely the best video work I've seen him do with the band. There were dizzying edits that matched up to intense rock passages, to a cool aerial camera pointed down at the drum kit that got a lot of mileage, and staggering crowd shots that showed how massive Saturday's turnout was.

Classiest tribute

Social Distortion had to drop out of the festival (The Cult replaced them), while frontman Mike Ness recovers from surgery related to Stage 1 tonsil cancer. So fan Cody Jinks brought a little Social Distortion to Harley fest with a rollicking cover of “Reach for the Sky,” and dedicated it to Ness.

Most covered band

Sly and the Family Stone goes great with festivals, to say nothing of its historic Summerfest appearance. So no one should have been surprised they were covered twice in two days at Harley fest, with Abby Jeanne singing “I Want to Take You Higher” Friday and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts taking on “Everyday People” Saturday.

Best visual nod to other artists

I liked the stickers representing various bands splattered all over Armstrong and Jett’s guitar. But I most admired the pseudo-uniform sported by half of Jinks’ band. The pedal steel player had a Dolly Parton shirt (respect), the keyboardist a Norm Macdonald shirt (cool) and one of the guitarists wore a shirt representing alien shock band Gwar (unexpected). Jinks wore a vintage Joan Jett shirt.

Best between-show distraction

Watching the motocross stunt team Nitro Circus flying and flipping through the air on their bikes in the distance was surprisingly Zen.

Logistical notes for next time

I’ll confess, considering Harley hasn’t staged a festival like this in so long, I thought it would be kind of a mess. But everything ran quite smoothly. I never saw any huge lines at the dozens of bars on the Veterans Park grounds, nor at the port-a-potties, food vendors or water refill stations. A couple of clearly marked fest experts clearly knew their stuff, and the phone reception was surprisingly strong for most of the weekend.

One thing Harley organizers should consider tweaking is to cut one of the bar sections and turn it into a second merch area. Lines for band merch, and especially Harley merch, were long all weekend.

And it may not take five more years for the next time, either. On Saturday, the company announced that the homecoming would return in 2024, from July 25 to 28 — although there’s no word yet if they’ll be doing another huge Veterans Park music festival next year.

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: From Foo Fighters to Green Day, best, worst of Milwaukee Harley fest