Three Dog Night, Brittany Howard and the best and worst of Summerfest 2024's opening night

Summerfest 2024 started out a little gray and cooler than usual Thursday, but there was plenty of heat coming from stages around the grounds of Maier Festival Park.

Here are some of the best and worst things we saw and heard on Summerfest's opening day for 2024.

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Three Dog Night

While the expectation of seeing Three Dog Night was a baby boomerfest, the band's set at Summerfest's Uline Warehouse Thursday night was not. Every age was represented in the audience, which is wild for a group that has been performing since 1968. Every single seat was taken, with many more in the crowd standing.

After an absurdly long opening-night fireworks display, Three Dog Night kicked it off with a myriad of greatest hits, from “Black and White” to “Mama Told Me (Not to Come).” The first few notes of every song were met with thunderous applause.

With only two original members still active in the band (Danny Hutton and Michael Allsup), they still did not miss a beat. Vocals were still on point, especially the falsettos. They lacked movement, but that is to be expected.

The only negative to the show was that it should have started earlier. 10 p.m. seemed a bit late for many of the fans.

— Damon Joy, Special to the Journal Sentinel

Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday’s set was scheduled for 9:30 p.m. at Summerfest's Generac Power Stage but was pushed back to make way for the fireworks, as hits by the likes of Kansas, Journey, and Styx played over the sound system. World-class entertainment indeed.

The band took the stage at 10 p.m., ripping into “S'Old” with no trace of irony. Frontman Adam Lazzara strutted in a snazzy purple jacket; in fact, the whole band sported stylish eveningwear as they cranked out tune after tune in weirdly businesslike fashion at first. (In 2024, this band apparently still qualifies in some sense as “punk.”)

There may have been technical difficulties, however, as an extended period of dead air prior to “Amphetamine Smiles” found Lazzara addressing the crowd in full rock-star patronizing fashion. The band sounded fine from the crowd, though; once the sound issues were worked out, Taking Back Sunday seemed to gain strength with each song.

“There are a lot of choices tonight; it was tough for me to even come up here,” said Lazzara, then gushed about fellow headliner Brittany Howard before an impassioned rendition of “The One.” Is Taking Back Sunday still relevant to anyone besides its fans? Maybe not, but they definitely weren’t mailing it in Thursday night.

— Cal Roach, Special to the Journal Sentinel

David Kushner

The UScellular Connection Stage hosted melodramatic crooner David Kushner as its first 2024 headliner. His fanbase was definitely in attendance, as there was a deafening scream every time he started a song.

While his voice is a beautiful, resonant baritone, his songs tend to have a CW teen-drama vibe, although they were performed swimmingly.

It was a bit slow and depressing at times, but it’s clear that it connected with the fans. “Miserable Man” received the biggest crowd reaction, but, again, it was a bit on the slow side. Kushner also did some unreleased music and teased a new album.

Before his last song he reminded fans of his strong Christian faith and the fact that his music has had 1 billion streams. That’s right, 1 billion.

— Damon Joy

Wyatt Flores

By the third song of Wyatt Flores’ afternoon set Thursday, a guitar string had busted. By the eighth, he cracked open a beer.

By the 12th, there was a massive singalong, for “Please Don’t Go.” By the end of the set, his shirt — the first Wyatt Flores-themed Hawaiian shirt, he claimed — was off and thrown into the pit.

Summerfest tends to get off to a sleepy start its opening day, but Flores at the BMO Pavilion wouldn’t have it.

He had good reason to be in a great mood, revealing this was one of his last gigs touring in a van before upgrading to a bus around July 4. That made sense considering the sizable crowd for a 4 p.m. Thursday slot, filled with people who suspect he’ll be the next big star in the mold of fellow Oklahoma native Zach Bryan.

That’s a safe bet. Like Bryan, Flores is already good at creating a fun ruckus on stage, like when he fed off his fiddle player and keyboardist for a run of crackling solos Thursday for “Life Lessons,” or surprisingly spun the Fray’s “How To Save a Life” into a barn burner.

But like Bryan, it’s Flores’ vulnerable, ultra-specific-but-universally-felt lyrics that really lures them in — like when he sang “I believe in God but he don’t believe in me,” with a lump in his throat Thursday, during “I Believe in God.”

And there’s one song they especially loved at Summerfest, which Flores smartly saved for next to last: his heartbreaking break-up ballad “Milwaukee.” You better believe fans proudly sang along for that one.

— Piet Levy, [email protected]

Brittany Howard

When Alabama Shakes first came to Milwaukee in 2012 on the heels of their breakout hit “Hold On,” it was already clear that the backing band was there solely by the grace of singer-guitarist Brittany Howard. It’s safe to say the band she brought to the BMO Pavilion Thursday night blew away anything the Shakes were capable of.

Then again, perhaps Howard's musical vision pulls everyone in her orbit to greater heights. Her new album, "What Now," is guaranteed to end up on plenty of yearend-best lists with its wide-ranging blend of psychedelic soul, jazz, rock and all manner of dance-inducing genres.

While Howard's voice was the most potent element as always, she and her band brought all of her influences to life at a ridiculously under-attended opening-night show. They played like it was a Madison Square Garden sellout. Surely some in attendance had their minds completely blown. There just weren't enough singalong hits to lure massive Summerfest crowds, apparently.

— Cal Roach

Kevin Kaarl

As the audience crooned along, Kevin Kaarl transformed the Miller Lite Oasis into a bar, where he and his listeners celebrated and cursed out the heart of youth.

As the sun faded, bodies swayed and lovers embraced under the spell of the delectably slower songs like “Abrazado a Ti” and “me va a costar.”

With the occasional trumpet solo from his twin brother Bryan and drums that commandeered the rhythm, Kevin Kaarl and his band proved that softer indie-folk music could easily keep up with their pop, rap counterparts in dominating the stage.

The performance was largely interactive, as audiences sung Kaarl’s lyrics back to him and responded to his questions with laughter and jeers. In “Vamonos a Marte,” as Kaarl asks his lover to follow him to Mars, he was met with a galaxy of phones waving back at him.

For the finale, Kaarl sang one of his most popular songs, "San Lucas," to a nearly packed stage. Even after Kaarl’s exit from the stage, crowds clamored for more, chanting “otra, otra, otra.”

— Jane Park, [email protected]

The War and Treaty

Husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty played the BMO Pavilion Thursday as the sun began setting on the first day of Summerfest. Their set began like an old-time gospel/soul revue, albeit in modern casual dress.

“Hi Ho” had the paved area grooving, although the bleachers had only begun to fill in. The couple then unveiled a forthcoming single, “Television,” tongues in cheeks and radiating joy.

“My religion is love,” said Michael Trotter Jr., and there was no shortage of emotion onstage between him and wife Tanya Trotter. Things got intense as the pair harmonized fiercely during “Blank Page,” the romance of hearts and voices almost unbearably perfect.

They’ve gained notoriety for accolades in the country scene, but they tend to blend the fullness of American music all together. “Yesterday’s Burn” may have been the only strictly country tune they played.

Their young nerdy band hung on for dear life and swung with the variety-show feel of the proceedings admirably for the most part; it scarcely would have mattered if it had been the Wrecking Crew behind them.

— Cal Roach

Trapper Schoepp

Milwaukee singer-songwriter Trapper Schoepp, played to a nearly full Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard Thursday night.

I heard him before I saw him. I thought I was hearing a middle-aged man with a raspy Bruce Springsteen-like voice, only to find a young man who looked like he couldn’t be more than 25. Not only was his voice captivating, but his guitar playing was equally as mesmerizing.

Trapper and his dynamic band fearlessly performed his brand of American rock with bluegrass undertones and the audience was very receptive — some even dancing before it was dark.

Some major highlights were Willie Nelson's “Me and Paul” (Schoepp was the opener at Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival when it came to Summerfest in 2019) and his days on Milwaukee’s east side, “Settling and Sleeping Around.”

Did I mention there was an upright bass? You can’t lose with an upright bass.

— Damon Joy

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The best and worst of Summerfest 2024's opening night in Milwaukee