Recap: Musikfest Day 6

Wednesday was a long night filled with lots and lots of awesome music, including our favorite band we’ve seen at Musikefst so far this year.  The evening started out with Cheezy and the Crackers, a reggae rock band from Jersey.  We wrote yesterday that their placement both at Volksplatz and at 5:30pm was curious due to their hilarious songs and lyrics like one named “Jerkin’ Off in Public” (take a guess what that’s about?).  We can only assume they were asked to tone it down for the family friendly crowd that’s usually out and about in the early hours of the evening, because nary a curse word did we hear.  Still, the band was good and fun with original songs, DJ-backed beats (by, yes, DJ Barely Sober), and great sax playing.  
Aw yes, gettin’ the corn on.
This was actually pretty hilarious and ballsy.  We see people playing acoustic guitars with a case out in front of them all the time at Musikfest, but this is on another level.  These enterprising young musicians pretty much posted up their own platz on Main Street complete with amps, stands, and all.  How they didn’t immediately get booted out is beyond me, but good for them.
And this?  This is Down North, our favorite band of the festival so far.  Billed as soul punk, these guys played their asses off, and frontman Anthony Briscoe was endlessly entertaining to watch.  Backed by blistering guitar riffs and funky bass, the band cranked through a bunch of original tunes as well as two amazing covers of Rolling Stones’ “Miss You” and a particularly heavy version of The Beatles’ “Come Together.”  The moves on Briscoe, coupled with his great singing, took a good performance and made it great.  He hopped off of the stage and brought his mic into the crowd, urging people to get up and dance.  By the time they finished out their hour and a half set, many new fans were born.   
After Down North finish up we wandered around for a bit and caught the tail end of This Mountain, who sounded pretty great (even if it’s not our kind of music).  It was then off to the SouthSide to await the 11pm Slingshot Dakota set. [Note: we previously misidentified the band as “This Country.”  Their name is This Mountain.]  
While we were on the SouthSide waiting for Slingshot to go on we saw a bit of Kristian Bush’s set.  The country singer, who is also a member of popular country act Sugarland, brought a huge crowd to the venue for a Wednesday night.  While, again, country isn’t really our thing, they sounded polished and the crowd was clearly enjoying themselves.  It’s great that Artsquest is bringing bigger acts like this for free shows during Musikfest, and it’s clearly resonating with the (many, many) country fans in the area.  Last year they brought country artist Sam Hunt to the same stage, resulting in a massive crowd.  Gotta give credit to Artsquest for getting these big country acts and putting them on a stage for anyone to see for free.
For the last set of the night we watched Bethlehem’s own Slingshot Dakota tear it up on the stage in front of a pretty good sized hometown crowd.  They played an hourlong set and were their typical awesome selves.  Wild haired-drummer Tom Patterson brutalized his kit while singer Carly Comando started out the set by belting out “May Day,” one of their strongest songs.  Like Trouble City, we love seeing these guys and are glad Musikfest keeps bringing them back and showcasing some of the great local talent to larger and more diverse crowds than would normally show up to basement/Funhouse shows.  We’re unsure if we’re going to have a recap for day 7, as real life calls and a day off may be in the works for this evening.  Regardless, we’ll be back tomorrow with more picks of what to get your weekend started with at Musikfest.