The Wildbirds, an Appleton ensemble that spun dirty blues into tidy, rootsy pop songs, was one of the area’s most commercially promising bands, but the group’s time together was cut short by an abrupt break-up after a tour behind the group’s last record, Golden Daze. A little time apart did the guys some good, though, and now they’re back together, looking to tour and adding new songs to their repertoire. They headline Summerfest’s all-local...

Although Summerfest was conceived largely as a showcase for local bands, over the decades slots for opening bands became elusive as the festival began to emphasize national headliners, explains Michael Houser, a former Summerfest board member and the current chief executive...

...

...

Three of Milwaukee’s most reliable bands brought a little bit of the Cactus Club to Summerfest Monday night at the Cascio Interstate Music Groove Garage. Music history is filled with great dropped ideas, and the 1990s, in particular, were rife with them. Milwaukee’s Testa Rosa picks up some of these loose ends, continuing where bands like Belly, That Dog, Throwing Muses or pretty much any other band that ever featured Tanya Donelly or one of the Haden triplets left off. Allusions to the ’90s abound: The guitars adhere to the same strum-and-squall dynamic of ’90s alterna-pop; Betty Blexrud-Strigens cough-syrup-smooth vocals evoke Kim Deal; the hazy bass riff on “Ollie Delilah” nods to Weezer’s iconic “Only in Dreams” riff.

As usual, some of the best bands playing Summerfest today hail from right here in Milwaukee. Among the draws playing the all-local Cascio Groove Garage stage today is alternative-rockers Testa Rosa, country-rockers Juniper Tar and, at 8:30 p.m., The Celebrated Workingman, who throw down happy, hooky indie-rock.