Tonic performed on the BMO Harris Pavilion stage at Summerfest on the last day of the festival. The band took the stage at 5pm (Central standard time), and opened their gig with “Open Up Your Eyes.” The song was featured on Tonic’s Lemon Parade project, which was released in 1996. Summerfest’s artist lineup had several 1990s bands, some of them included Smash Mouth and Toad the Wet Sprocket. It seems fans of the other bands also flocked to the Pavilion to see Tonic play, and the venue was almost at full-capacity.
The band also performed “Take Me As I Am,” “Wicked Soldier,” “Sugar,” and “Mountain.” The older crowd at Summerfest seems to appreciate these 1990s bands the most, and they really are engaged throughout the entire show. Although it was sweet, watching the dancing couple in the aisles must be completely embarrassing for their children. There were actually a few couples ballroom dancing during the band’s gig. Unlike most music festivals, Summerfest is one of the few festivals that have a wide age range of audience members- you can see people as young as three years old and as old as seventy.
Tonic didn’t blow me away with their set, but singer Emerson Hart sounded great and he appeared to be very comfortable onstage. Probably the best moment of Tonic’s set was when they performed their huge hit “If You Could Only See.” The crowd sang along to the entire song, and I was surprised to see that a lot of young people in the audience also knew the lyrics to “If You Could Only See.” Back in 1997, the single went to Number 1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and it also peaked at the top of the charts in Canada. “If You Could Only See” would eventually spend 63 weeks on the Hot 100, and it respectively reached Number 11 on the chart.
Tonic’s Summerfest Setlist: 01. “Open Up Your Eyes” 02. “Take Me As I Am” 03. “Top Falls Down” 04. “You Wanted More” 05. “Sugar” 06. “Count on Me (Somebody)” 07. “Mountain” 08. “Wicked Soldier” 09. “Come Rest Your Head” 10. “Mean To Me” 11. “If You Could Only See” 12. “Soldier’s Daughter” 13. “Casual Affair” 14. “Irish”