A Great Night for Music

On stage in Mt Horeb's Grundahl Park. 8/5/26 dwm

 For more than 25 years musicians and music lovers gathered at the top of Grundahl Park to enjoy Wednesday Night Live.

 This past Wednesday was perfect with temperatures around 70 and a clearing sky as the sun sank in the west.

 My office friends and I made the trip to see a mutual friend on stage and enjoy listening and singing.

 There are other bands and singers higher on my list of favorites than the Fab Four, but the band has a lot of hits and it's music is the soundtrack for several generations.

Bill Guetschow on the drums. 8/5/26 dwm

The Madison Mystery Tour is the group we saw back in May in a Madison auditorium as they played the Beatles songs that made it into the British Top 40. It was a wonderful experience but there is something special about a show under the sky.

The drummer is a friend of mine, or should I say ours, since the six of us in the audience frequently sit around a table together while eating lunch. 

Bill Guetschow plays drums, sings back-up, and is featured on several songs during the show. Whenever we could, our merry little band shouted, "Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!"

Dance like no one's watching! 8/5/26 dwm

 I was surprised how many songs I knew or had at least heard before; of course, since the Beatles are considered the greatest rock and roll band in history, most of us at the show had the lyrics on the tips of our tongues when the opening notes were played.

 A particularly fun part of this summer concert were the stilt walkers.

 The stilt walkers are part of Madison's Wild Rumpus Circus. It's a circus arts program for children and adults and they literally took over when they walked out from the wings.

Some of the Wild Rumpus Circus stilt walkers. 8/5/26 dwm

The extra tall dancers were amazing to watch move around the grassy dance floor. A few stilt walkers had to be at least 15-feet tall, the short ones were 7-feet.

There were lots of other things going on at Grundahl Park Wednesday night. Local first responders were hosting a National Night Out party with a big crowd of their own. 

Since it was my first time at the park, I presumed the dozens of cars I saw parked on Blue Mounds Road were there for the concert, so I parked near them. It turned out I parked nearly a mile from the stage! 

That's what happens when you don't ask the member of your group who lives in the area where to park.

A couple hundred fans enjoy the show. 8/5/26

 Fittingly, the band opened with Here Comes the Sun after a rainy day then worked their way from the band's first album in 1963 to their final album, Let it Be in 1970.

 The band, led by Sean Michael Dargan, enjoyed themselves as much as the crowd. Dargan called out the young dancers that never stopped from the opening note until it was time to close the show. 

 My guess is that more than 200, possibly 300, people enjoyed the show - taking advantage of the moment when the energy made by the music and the crowd created a magical evening.   

The Wild Rumpus Circus stilt-dancers. 8/5/26 dwm