7 Minute Miles

Peter Gabriel and Sting at Summerfest


Summerfest in Milwaukee just announced their 2017 lineup, which continues their amazing run of awesome bookings. I still don’t fully understand how they can get such great acts year after year, while charging so little to get in. There must be some serious beer vendor underwriting going on – plus now they are stepping up the other corporate sponsorships to improve the grounds.

While the closing night this year features the outstanding Outlaw Music Festival (with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Nathaniel Rateliff and Margo Price), I don’t think we are going to go this year. Reviewing the daily lineups reminded me I never wrote about last year’s finale: Peter Gabriel and Sting on the Rock Paper Scissors tour.

The problem with me forgetting about these posts in the draft folder is that I have a really hard time remembering exactly what happened. Thankfully this Sunday night show from July 10, 2016 was covered by the local newspaper. They also included the setlist I included below (followed by some really bad shots from our waaaaay in the back seats).

After re-reading the review, I do remember that I was really concerned heading in to the show about Sting covering Peter Gabriel songs and vice versa. We’ve seen Sting a number of times, but had never seen Gabriel and didn’t want to get a “fake” cover show. In reality, the show was the best of both worlds and was one of my favorites all year. I don’t recall how much the tickets were, but I know they were expensive and that I intentionally bought seats farther back to limit cost.

The only other things I remember about this trip is that we stayed in the really nice new rooms at the Potawatomi Hotel and we took our first two Uber rides (which also turned out to be our last Uber rides). Didn’t play much at the casino – Milwaukee pricing is a little too rich for my taste. Oh yeah, also made a quick pit stop at the Gritty in Madison…

  • The Rhythm of the Heat (PG)
  • If I Ever Lose My Faith in You (Sting)
  • Digging in the Dirt (PG and Sting)
  • Invisible Sun (PG and Sting)
  • Games Without Frontiers (PG and Sting)
  • Shock the Monkey (PG and Sting)
  • Secret World (PG)
  • Driven to Tears (Sting)
  • Fragile (PG and Sting)
  • Red Rain (PG)
  • Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (Sting)
  • Message in a Bottle (PG and Sting)
  • San Jacinto (PG)
  • Walking in your Footsteps (Sting)
  • Kiss That Frog (PG and Sting)
  • Don’t Give Up (PG)
  • The Hounds of Winter (Sting)
  • Big Time (PG and Sting)
  • Englishman in New York (PG and Sting)
  • Solsbury Hill (PG and Sting)
  • Every Little Thing She Does is Magic (Sting)
  • If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Gabriel)
  • Roxanne (Sting)
  • Love Can Heal (Gabriel)
  • Desert Rose (Sting)
  • In Your Eyes (PG and Sting)
  • Encore
  • Every Breath You Take (PG and Sting)
  • Sledgehammer (PG and Sting)
Originally published by DK on April 15, 2017 at 9:55 pm in Casinos, Concerts, Food, Longform, Music, Travel


flourish icon