Summerfest 2022: Best and most disappointing performances including Avril Lavigne, 2 Chainz, MGK, more
It felt so good.
Finally, for the first time in three years, Summerfest returned to the heart of summer, the way it’s been celebrated every year since 1968 — except 2020 and 2021, of course.
All of the COVID-related protocols of the September 2021 Summerfest were dropped, but festival officials still had some headaches.
At least eight headliners dropped out of the lineup, starting just a week before opening day with Justin Bieber, and continuing through closing weekend. Only three of those cancellations were because of COVID-19, and aside from Bieber, Summerfest’s talent team filled every vacated slot.
And the hundreds of thousands of fans who visited America's largest music festival — figures to be announced, but attendance will certainly be higher than last year — were rewarded with terrific weather every day of the run (quite a rare occurrence) and a whole lot of great music.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the Paste BN network, reviewed 95 performances, and these were the standout moments — for better or worse (listed below in order of occurrence).
Background: Justin Bieber postpones Summerfest performance following Ramsay Hunt syndrome diagnosis
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Best performances
The Breeders
“Getting to see Kim Deal sing the Pixies song ‘Gigantic’ with her other band, I felt like maybe I was hearing the song the way she always wanted it to sound for the first time,” wrote Cal Roach, Journal Sentinel contributing writer. “It was just a brilliant set from start to finish.”
Steve Miller Band
It was pretty fortuitous that the Milwaukee-born Rock and Roll Hall of Famer filled in for Heart’s Ann Wilson June 25, because his band’s June 24 Summerfest show was spectacular, said reviewer Catherine Jozwik, which included a nice tribute to his late godfather and Waukesha music legend Les Paul.
Senri Oe
Summerfest rarely books jazz, and it rarely books artists from Japan, but this year it did have stadium-filling Japanese pop artist turned jazz pianist Senri Oe. “Onstage, he retained the earnest intensity of an eager, very talented student,” wrote reviewer Jon M. Gilbertson. “He played with great clarity, letting the notes guide him instead of aggressively chasing them.”
The Far Side (formerly of The Pharcyde)
Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa and Wu-Tang Clan all played Summerfest's American Family Insurance Amphitheater June 25, but seminal rap crew The Far Side (formerly of The Pharcyde) blew them all away on a smaller stage that afternoon.
Max Weinberg's Jukebox
The E Street Band and former "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" drummer and three top-notch session musicians had a lot of fun playing a wide range of songs strictly by audience request. "It was perfect for this kind of setting," reviewer Erik Ernst said.
Todd Rundgren
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's show was certainly sloppy, writer Roach said, but by veering from his standard setlist, it was also "unpredictable, bizarre, and ultimately very entertaining. … I wouldn't have missed it for anything."
Michael Ray
The country up-and-comer also abandoned his live show blueprint at Summerfest, writer Ernst said, doing an acoustic mini-set that included an unplanned, first-ever solo performance of his song "Picture" at a fan's request.
Dean Lewis
Lewis possesses the same gift as Ed Sheeran for writing instantly memorable folk-pop melodies, but is much better at capturing romantic heartbreak with equally unforgettable lyrics.
Avril Lavigne
Virtually every person at the amp to see headliner Machine Gun Kelly was wisely there for Lavigne's set 40-minute opening set, singing along for "Complicated" (now 20 years old!) and superb new pop-punk singles like "Love It When You Hate Me." And the band was playing so hard that one of her guitarists' straps snapped and his instrument went flying and shattered on the stage.
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Jessie James Decker
Decker might be a "new honky-tonk chanteuse waiting in the wings," said writer Lauren Keene, drawing comparisons to country-pop titans Shania Twain and Kacey Musgraves.
2 Chainz
No hype man, no backing vocals, just the rap titan, his DJ, a hit-stuffed setlist, and quite possibly the largest audience the UScellular Connection Stage has ever seen. "Once he began, there literally was no angle left to see him clearly from," Joy wrote. "The pit was even declared at capacity."
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War
"Just really positive vibes," said Jozwik of the band's set. "I definitely made some memories there."
Halsey
Halsey created a stunning, Picasso-like live drawing during the three-minute "Be Kind." They saved Summerfest from "Stranger Things" baddie Vecna with a spot-on rendition of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill." And a week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, they spoke out about having a life-saving abortion and turned "Nightmare" into a visceral rallying cry for women's rights.
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Boyz II Men
"They still, very much, got it," Joy wrote. In addition to lending their pristine pipes to hits and deep cuts, Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman picked up a bass and guitar, respectively, as fellow member Wayna Morris sang a beautiful rendition of the Sam Cooke classic "A Change Is Gonna Come."
Halestorm
The hard rock band's empowering frontwoman, Lzzy Hale, has a voice that is "incomparable," Keene wrote, suggesting she's "a once-in-a-generation talent you have to see live to believe."
Delta Goodrem
The Australian pop singer wasn't even listed in the Summerfest schedule or promo materials, but anyone who showed up on time for Backstreet Boys at the amphitheater got to see an artist whose vocals shined far brighter than the very talented main attraction.
Ric Wilson
The Chicago up-and-comer's opening set for Cordae "started slow with sound issues and a seemingly tentative MC," Ernst said. "By the end, Wilson and his band had created the kind of energetic and meaningful hip-hop show that moved the crowd physically, mentally and emotionally."
Charli XCX
Charli XCX's BMO Harris Pavilion performance "was like being at a nonstop party," Jozwik said.
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Illuminati Hotties
Summerfest has never had such a cool band play such an early slot as Sarah Tudzin's funny punk project, which still drew a large crowd despite the 1:45 p.m. start time on the festival's final day.
Zola Jesus
Zola Jesus (real name Nika Roza Danilova) reminisced about seeing Britney Spears at Summerfest and wowed her home state crowd "with the strut of a rock ’n’ roll belter and R&B pipes," Gilbertson wrote.
Biggest disappointments
Jason Aldean
Jozwik had good things to say about Aldean's opening night set in the amphitheater, but some intoxicated fans giving security, and Jozwik, a hard time were definitely a buzzkill — and Aldean's "drink up" rallying cries didn't help matters.
Quiet Riot
Summerfest boasted a whole bunch of hair metal acts, some of them, like Lita Ford and Stryper, were quite good. Not the case for Quiet Riot, which has no original members. "Randy Rhoads must be rolling in his grave," Roach said.
Wiz Khalifa
"Khalifa’s set was slick, for sure, and loaded with modern-pop hooks," Gilbertson wrote. "But most of the real work came from his DJ, drummer, bassist and keyboardist."
Gayle
The "abcdefu" hitmaker was clearly nervous and not ready for primetime, Keene said, after she was upgraded to closing headliner at the Generac Power Stage after two previous artists given that slot, Willow and Nessa Barrett, both dropped out.
Machine Gun Kelly
Kelly has clear talent and charisma, drawing the largest audience for any act at Summerfest this year (although Bieber's audience, if he had played, would have been larger). But the rapper turned punk rocker nearly ruined his party with obsessive, bitter, self-absorbed references of the criticisms he's received for his music.
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Third Eye Blind
"Pacing the more stimulating songs like 'Graduate' within a regularly decelerating performance, Third Eye Blind showed its age, badly," Gilbertson wrote.
Milky Chance
Roach felt the German alt-rock act was underwhelming, and was bewildered by their large crowd.
Niko Moon
Moon's a talented country songwriter, evident by hits he's co-written for Zac Brown Band and clever lines in his originals. But he also smothers his own songs with basic hip-hop beats that sound virtually identical across his catalog. It's a cheap gimmick to make his songs stand out — and they certainly do, but not in a good way.
Rod Stewart
Stewart's signature raspy vocals were thin and strained when he last played Milwaukee 10 years ago, and at the Summerfest amphitheater, they were worse. Nevertheless, he had a few solid singing moments — "Maggie May" especially — plus a set filled with timeless hits performed by a flashy band. And Stewart, now 77, is an incredibly energetic performer, even kicking soccer balls into the crowd for "Hot Legs."
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Portugal. The Man
“They’re better than the Beatles. They’re better than the Rolling Stones,” Beavis and Butt-Head announced via video introducing Portugal. The Man. Keene suggested a dull series of covers — from Pink Floyd to Nirvana to KISS to the Beatles — made that bold claim incredibly far from the truth.