Franti Rocks Summerfest!!!

Posted by meli on Thursday, July 07, 2011 in life of play, songbird, vlogs and home movies | 1 comment

Summerfest had one helluva line up this year, but the one show we were most looking forward to was Michael Franti & Spearhead! We showed up today super excited to watch him live. There was a meet and greet autograph signing with him at 7 to 7:30, and he was scheduled to perform at 10pm ... so we had lots of time to spare/(shop), lol.

"nothin' but love for you"

As we were walking the grounds; watching a few of the "street performers" and shopping... walking right in front of us was this super tall man with dreads pulled up into a messy bun. Right as I noticed him, before my mind could catch up, he turned his head slightly to the right and I saw his profile. OMG - that's Franti! I immediately looked down to his feet for confirmation; barefoot. Yep, that's TOTALLY Franti! I was trying to get Nicks attention without calling attention to everyone else around us (so not the type of fan that screams and gushes and attracts a crowd). Finally got Nick to believe we were literally a couple of feet behind Franti (he's a very negative/skeptical man [aftermath of his war injuries], so it can sometimes take a while before he'll believe me) Cool, right? The kids were stoked. We went up to say hi (while he was eating a cob of corn; fate ... read my love affair with corn).

so much taller then I was expecting!

Seriously awesome! We entertained ourselves the rest of the afternoon with bucket drummers, jugglers, nick getting his first piercing, and food. At 6:30 we made our way to the meet and greet tent. He came out ... we talked, hugged, high-fived, got some t-shirts & poster signed, and took some photos. He really is as down to earth, engaged, kind, and interested in people (fans or not) as he seems. There was a big ol' line behind us, and he had only a short amount of time to get to all of them, but he wasn't in any rush. He asked questions, generally took interest in the answers, and kept the conversation going. Yea, I love him - lol!

meet and greet!

signatures and conversation

family photo! yes, franti is now part of my family! lol

the kids had Franti sign their arms, lol!

After that we went straight to the stage so we could snag close seats. It was really early, so we had to sit through another performance before he went on, but as long as we were close to the stage, I didn't care WHO we had to sit through - lol. Thankfully, though, it was Here Come the Mummies ... so we had a good time singing and dancing with them while we waited. Well, most of us did ... Owen napped through it - lol! We were pretty damn close to the speaker, and he was past out! He's done it every night; at one point or another he takes a quick power nap through some loud ass rock concert ... and then wakes up re energized to finish out the party! Funny kid!

Here Come the Mummies
"let your freak flag fly"

And then it was FRANTI time! He put on a really great show. So totally interactive with the audience. He spent so much time out in the bleachers singing and dancing with the crowd ... or invited people from the crowd up to sing and dancing with him on stage. So fun! He closed out the show with Say Hey (I Love You), and he asked for some kids to join him. All three boys were ALL OVER THAT! We were in the second row, and thankfully we had a really great crowd around us. The people in front of us grabbed our kids and helped them over the gate in front of them. Up on stage they went to rock their asses off.

"shake it, shake it, shake it"
to the core!

I took a few videos through-out the show, and my flip was completely full. I was fumbling around trying to delete some previous videos so I could capture the kids up there. I deleted 8 minutes worth, and was sure that would be more then enough. OMG, it was JUST enough. I actually could have used 1 extra second, lol... that's how close it was. SO thankful I was able to capture all of it. I would have been so disappointed had I only deleted 5 minutes worth (which is where I was originally).

Anyway, like I said, I recorded a few songs that evening... check 'em out. The quality is really shaky/bumpy, but c'mon, it's impossible not to dance while Franti is on stage; camera in hand or not, lol. The last video, with the kids up there with him, is the worst of them all. My bad! Turns out the only thing that can make you dance harder then when Franti is on stage ... is if your kids are up there with him! Ha!

Shake it



Hey World



Sound of Sunshine



Say Hey (I Love You)