Kapco’s ‘Live at the Lot’ brings music to Grafton
Summerfest was canceled Thursday, two Milwaukee venues announced they were closing down for good and the city hit the 13-week mark without a concert in a club or theater.
But in Grafton on Friday there was live music, from married Nashville duo Thompson Square, and it was glorious. It was the first concert in Wisconsin from a national act since the music industry effectively shut down March 12.
And it was the opening night for the first drive-in concert series in Wisconsin, Kapco Metal Stamping’s “Live at the Lot,” running through June 20 in one of the company’s parking lots.
“We’re excited just because we have to reinvent a new safe way to enjoy some of these things that we used to enjoy,” said Kapco President Jim Kacmarcik, who also runs a couple of other music-related businesses, K-Nation Entertainment and Given Music Publishing.
With social distancing preventing typical concerts and festivals, drive-in concerts are becoming a trend. Shows are taking place or announced in at least 12 states so far, and Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, is exploring possible drive-in shows for later this summer.
The first in the States during the pandemic was in Tennessee, a surprise show from Keith Urban for health care workers — the same kind of audience that was treated to a free private show for the first night of “Live at the Lot.”
“It’s been a difficult time. … It’s been constant change and adjustment, and we’ve been trying to do the best that we can,” said Laura Straus, a nurse at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, whose unit has exclusively worked with patients who show symptoms of or have tested positive for COVID-19. “It’s nice to be able to be outside and enjoy a night of leisure and peace and quiet and just friendly atmosphere.”
Straus was at Friday’s show with her husband and three children, along with about 150 or so other guests occupying about 40 cars. Load-in and exit were painless, with about 15 staffers wearing masks on hand to direct traffic and help people park.
Vehicles had at least one parking spot between them, with guests sticking to their designated areas unless they had to use a port-a-potty in the back, where tape on the ground marked where people should stand so they weren’t too close together.
Without the face masks and social distancing, it would have felt like a typical outdoor concert in the summertime. Even with those awkward (but necessary) parameters, it was blissful.
Some drive-in concerts are streaming the audio through radio transmissions, but there are speakers on the stage and PA systems at “Live at the Lot,” and guests are allowed to watch the show from outside their vehicles. With clear skies, a calm breeze and 64degree temps Friday night, everyone watched the show from lawn chairs or sitting on the hood of their cars.
Being able to actually hear people cheering, as opposed to just some cars honking, was probably a relief for Thompson Square’s Keifer and Shawna Thompson, who performed with just two vocal mics, an acoustic guitar and no backing band Friday.
If the scattered layout made it awkward, they didn’t show it, filling space
Protesters decrying racism march down Highway 60 in Grafton on Friday night, passing by the Live at the Lot stage. A quote from Martin Luther King Jr. was displayed on a banner on the back of the stage.
in the 17-song, 75-minute set with the kind of teasing banter you’d expect from a couple married for 21 years, a few sweet origin stories behind some songs, and admiration for the hard work and sacrifices of the health care workers before them.
“I don’t know if I’d be that strong,” Keifer told them at one point.
They came with a prepared setlist, fittingly beginning this drive-in concert with “Trans Am,” and hitting on their county chart-toppers “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not” and “If I Didn’t Have You.” But they quickly veered offscript with live-show rarities and an unrehearsed new song — the breezy “My Grass Is Green Enough,” a potential country hit that sparked a spontaneous clap-along halfway through.
There were plenty of covers, too, including a spirited “Brilliant Disguise” by Keifer’s idol Bruce Springsteen, an empowering “Won’t Back Down” from Tom Petty, U2’s “With or Without You,” and a cover of Milwaukee native Steve Miller’s “The Joker,” with the crowd supplying the famous wolf whistle.
There was a happy singalong to Thompson Square’s take on Bob Marley’s nourishing “Three Little Birds.” During “A Love Like This,” Straus, the Aurora nurse, flipped one of her smiling daughters while her husband twirled the other, and a co-worker the next spot over swayed with her baby in her arms.
And as Shawna Thompson’s voice soared for the band’s “Glass,” Kimmy Osterman and her husband, Karl, a furloughed worker at Watertown Regional Medical Center, slow-danced under a full moon.
“We have not had a date since before COVID,” Kimmy said.
“It’s great to have a feeling of normalcy,” Karl added, “even if it’s just for a night.”
Contact Piet at 414-223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
Piet also talks concerts, local music and more on “TAP’d In” with Jordan Lee. Hear it at 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9), or wherever you get your podcasts.