An eclectic blend of music will be on display this weekend at Manitowoc’s Washington Park.
It’s the 44th year of Metro Jam with 10 musical groups on the schedule Friday night, and Saturday afternoon and night.
Co-organizer and one of the original founders, Bob Mittnacht explained that the event “started many years ago and still continues to be an effort to feature all different types of live music as we’re really kind of hitting on this year.”
He told Seehafer News, “The goal was really to give live musicians an opportunity to play in a very high-class setting in front of a lot of people. And we also put a lot of emphasis on bands that play their original material that they’ve written.”
The headliner for the free music concert, 80’s video music icons, The Producers, will take the stage at 8:30 Saturday night.
Mittnacht calls them a “Kind of a new wave band with an upbeat danceable rock (sound). They were real popular in that time period and even appeared on MTV’s New Year’s Eve Ball.”
Mittnacht explained the Friday schedule is a “European Music Tribute Night” which is built around the Cream City Hot Club at 8:00 p.m.
“They do what is probably best known as django reinhardt style music,” he noted. “It’s French jazz, Gypsy jazz as they call it and they’re some amazing players. They came out of the Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee and have been playing for a number of years.”
He added Metro Jam will begin with Lloyd Gosz & The Mystic Moods with Bohemian/German Polka sounds at 5:15 p.m., followed by Athas, playing traditional Irish tunes.
On Saturday afternoon at 1:15, there’s going to be a special tribute by the Fryin’ Kielbasa Brothers to late local musician Steve Heise, who was also a co-founder of Metro Jam and wrote Spiders In My Pocket.
Grow It Forward will handle beverage and food concessions on both days, Cher-Make Sausage and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay are presenting sponsors while SeehaferNews.com is one of the media partners.
For the full list of bands performing this weekend visit www.metrojam.org.
