The Sky Was All Purple; There Were People Running Everywhere

Throw down your DaVinci nonsense and pick up the latest Bret Easton Ellis novel. Turn off that "Lost" garbage and tune into some "Charles in Charge" or "Inspector Gadget." Pull on your off-the-shoulder distressed sweatshirt and tease out your well-conditioned and -colored chick bassist hair, because -- as decreed by the clandestine shadow cabal overseen by Larry Mullen, Jr. and Erno Rubik -- the eighties are invading Milwaukee!

Violent Femmes -- Summerfest Amphitheater (w/ Ben Folds), May 29
The English Beat -- Miramar Theater, June 4
ABC -- Waukesha's Taste of Summer, June 10
Buzzcocks, Joan Jett, Helmet, the Germs, and others -- Van's Warped Tour, June 17
Elvis Costello -- Summerfest, June 29
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers -- Summerfest Amphitheater (w/ Pearl Jam), June 29 and 30
The Go-Gos -- Summerfest, July 1
Bauhaus -- Summerfest Amphitheater (w/ NIN), July 2
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts -- Summerfest, July 2
Psychedelic Furs -- Summerfest, July 4
Poi Dog Pondering -- Summerfest, July 9
The Bangles -- Summerfest, July 9
Gary Numan -- Shank Hall, July 30
Flock of Seagulls, When In Rome, Missing Persons, Animotion, Gene Loves Jezebel -- Oneida Pavillion, July 31
Devo, Bow Wow Wow -- Oneida Pavillion, September 7

Do you realize where you are? It is 1987, you are halfway through a Jay McInerney novel, and you're turning seventeen in the Fall. This is the summer that Could Have Been, only 19 years too late.

[[NOTE: This list does not include folks like Sammy Hagar, David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper, Toto, and, um, POISON! who, while having some connection to the 1980's as a decade, are a bit too timeless and yet too outside of time to be seriously considered on the list above.]]