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<\/p>\nAttendees of Naperville\u2019s annual Ribfest celebration on July 4th got lessons in both timeless songs and tested patience as inclement weather threatened to\u2014and finally succeeded in\u2014 hijacking the festivities.<\/p>\n
However, that\u2019s not to say that the enthusiastic crowd didn\u2019t get the chance to rock out first.<\/p>\n
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Leading the afternoon\u2019s lineup was one of the brightest spots in Chicago\u2019s musical history: The Buckinghams. After nearly sixty years in the business, vocalist Carl Giammarese and bassist Nick Fortuna (along with keyboardist Bruce Soboroff, guitarist Dave Zane, and drummer Rocky Penn) revisited all of the classics that one could hope for, from \u201cSusan,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t You Care,\u201d \u201cMercy, Mercy, Mercy\u201d through set closer \u201cKind of a Drag.\u201d Taking a retrospective approach, the quartet (backed with a hallmark horn section) took on a medley of their peers that included The Grass Roots\u2019 \u201cTemptation Eyes\u201d and \u201cMidnight Confessions,\u201d Tommy James\u2019 \u201cI Think We\u2019re Alone Now,\u201d and The Turtles\u2019 \u201cHappy Together.\u201d Offering up some nuggets of history, Giammarese noted The Buckinghams\u2019 discovery of the earliest incarnation of a band so synonymous with Chicago that they share the same name before launching into a cover of \u201cDoes Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?\u201d The Buckinghams\u2019 set was the perfect accompaniment to a sunny, Midwestern afternoon.<\/p>\n
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The premature evacuation of the park due to the possibility of an impending storm proved to be absurdly frustrating, as it forced veteran roots rocker Melissa Etheridge to cut her set short and caused many fans to miss significant portions of her set due to the poorly organized re-entry plan. Upon the park\u2019s reopening, Etheridge was barely allowed an hour\u2019s worth of music, which was unbefitting a headliner of her stature, though she had time to lead the crowd through jubilant versions of \u201cCome to My Window,\u201d \u201cI Wanna Come Over,\u201d and the crunchy blues of \u201cBring Me Some Water.\u201d A track that she commented on as being a cautious one to play as it tends to open the skies. This as mother nature’s doom and gloom leered over her guitar strapped shoulder, but never came.<\/p>\n
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Within three minutes of hitting the stage, The Stray Cats proved that they were kings of cool with a raucous version of \u201cRock This Town\u201d as vocalist\/guitarist\/rockabilly master Brian Setzer shimmied about the stage and drummer Slim Jim Phantom lept and swung in time with bassist Lee Rocker. They kept up the momentum with \u201cRunaway Boys\u201d and \u201cToo Hip, Gotta Go,\u201d though nature intervened, and as dark clouds rolled overhead, the band had just enough time for all-time classic \u201cStray Cat Strut\u201d before organizers pulled the plug on one of the most anticipated Chicagoland sets of 2018.<\/p>\n
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Ribfest has a reputation for delivering some serious headliners, particularly in recent years, and this year was no exception, though that cache was partially squandered this year by the mismanagement of Wednesday\u2019s offerings. While nature may be unpredictable, having a reasonable evacuation policy and honoring the ticket\u2019s promise of \u2018rain or shine\u2019 were, understandably, the baseline expectations of those gathered for Wednesday\u2019s headliners. Let\u2019s hope that Ribfest\u2019s organizers take a hard look at how they plan to handle that unpredictability in the future when booking bands who have a cult following as strong as that of the Stray Cats as some came as far as Berlin Germany, Montreal Canada and Sacramento California.<\/p>\n
For more on the Stray Cats, click here<\/a><\/p>\n For more on Melissa Etheridge, click here<\/a><\/p>\n For more on The Buckinghams, click here<\/a><\/p>\n