With the possible exception of Brewers manager Ned Yost, few people in Milwaukee inspire as much passionate second-guessing during the summer months as Bob Babisch.

As the vice president of entertainment for Summerfest, Babisch oversees the 11 stages and more than 600 bands that will provide the soundtrack for the 41st edition of the Big Gig, which begins Thursday at the Lakefront.

Like Yost, thousands of bold but ultimately unqualified "experts" think they could do Babisch's job more effectively.

We caught up with Babisch twice last week, first at a FUEL Milwaukee event at the Marcus Amphitheater and then in his office at Summerfest headquarters.

Enjoy this Milwaukee Talks with Bob Babisch.

OnMilwaukee.com: The clock is ticking. How are things going?

Bob Babisch: It's crazy, as usual. The usual craziness. But, it's good. I think that it's going to be a big year. We've got a bunch of fun stuff going on.

OMC: Two years ago, you told a great story about how you were eating dinner with your kids at Panera Bread Company when you got the call and found out that the Tom Petty / Pearl Jam contracts were locked. Did you have any thrilling moments in booking this festival?

BB: There were a couple. Getting Stevie Wonder back was really cool. He hasn't been here for years and years and having him on opening night is great. I think Alicia Keys is a good show. Tom Petty is always big for us. Mellencamp will do OK. And, the Jonas Brothers. Definitely the Jonas Brothers. I wasn't sure how that one was going to do.

OMC: Why the hesitation? They are huge Disney stars and the movie ("Camp Rock") is just coming out.

BB: I wasn't sure about that show, but I talked to (promoter) Leslie West, who put that show on at (her venue) the Eagles Club. She told me how fast it sold and I was convinced. When we put that show on sale, we were the biggest show they had. They weren't doing sheds (amphitheaters) yet. Live Nation bought the tour and they were putting them in 3,000-seaters and 6,000-seaters. Everybody waited around to see how we did here. Lo and behold, there was a shed tour after that. That was pretty cool.

OMC: OK, let's talk about the ones that got away.

BB: You mean the bands we couldn't get?

OMC: Yes. Who were they?

BB: Go down the list of everybody playing in Europe. We wanted Coldplay. We wanted Radiohead. We wanted R.E.M. really bad. We were going to be their last show before they went to Europe, but they decided to leave early. We tried to get Beck. Neil Young. We tried to get that tour with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. We held the date forever, but they decided to go to the West Coast.

Just go down the list. Name a band, and I can tell you where they are playing during our window and why we didn't get them. We put offers in to everybody, but you can only do the people who want to work for you and want to work in your time frame.

OMC: Some people understand that. Others don't.

BB: That's the way it goes. What people have to understand is that just because a band isn't playing here doesn't mean that we don't like them or that we didn't try to get them. We tried to get everybody. I offered a few bands more than $1 million and we still couldn't get them.

OMC: Stevie Wonder is an interesting act to have on opening night. Do you feel any special pressure to come out of the gate with a strong act on the first Thursday?

BB: Thursday is always tough. Two things about booking this festival are tough. The first Thursday is tough. For some reason, a lot of bands like to come through here on the weekends.

The other thing that's tough is when you get down to one day or two days left to book. That's always tough. When you start out, you tell people "We've got 11 dates, what do you want?" When you get down to the last one or two, now you have a specific date. It's a Saturday or a Monday or a Wednesday. Now, you have to find somebody to route through on that specific day. That's when you keep grinding and grinding. Those are the tough ones.

OMC: What's the Cliff's Notes version of how the booking process works?

BB: We try to have an eclectic lineup. We do about 650 acts here and about 175 of those are national-caliber acts. To do those 175 national-caliber acts, we probably put in about 400 or 500 offers. It takes that many to fill our stages.

Starting in November, we sit down and look at all the acts that are out there -- acts that have played here, acts that haven't played here and acts that are in that $20,000 to $75,000 or $80,000 price range. We make our list and we go fishing. We put in about 150 offers all at once. We say "Here are the dates." Some of those shows happen. Some don't happen. But, that's our first real kick at the cat. We go from there and take the touring acts that are out during our time and try to convince them to do our date.

We're in an interesting spot because there are two big festivals -- Coachella and Bonaroo -- that take place in the two to four weeks before us. Two to four weeks after us, there is Lollapalooza. That can make our job tougher, but the biggest thing is that a lot of bands decide to go to Europe during our window. Or, they decide they want to be home over July 4.

Once we have our headliners figured out, we start putting local acts in there and we set our stagger times and we really get going. We have 150 stage managers, stagehands, equipment haulers, runners and caterers to keep these stages going. It's a big machine.

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2 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by mikeb on June 26, 2008 at 11:46 a.m. (report)

Would it makes some sense to change the dates of Summerfest as Mr. Babisch concedes that various factors such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, Europe and the 4th of July make it difficult to book many of the truly in demand acts? I'm not saying that it should be moved out of the Summer, but perhaps a more workable set of days.

Posted by curlyboy1978 on June 25, 2008 at 8:38 a.m. (report)

Nice interview - I wish more the of the SF haters would be in his shoes and understand how they tried to get some of those cooler acts and just didn't work. Too bad about R.E.M.!!

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