Bands draw crowds to Haymarket Heydays

"Everybody feeling good tonight?" Curtis Grubb, vocalist and lead guitarist of Grasshopper Takeover, asked over his microphone in the Historic Haymarket District on Friday night.The reaction received was a wave of hollers and applause from Haymarket Heydays attendees.The theme for this year's annual free event was "Movin' and Groovin'" and that was what was seen in the Haymarket next to J. Finnegan's and the Creamery Building this past weekend.Omaha's Grasshopper Takeover got the crowd moving and grooving around 7 p.m. when its pop rock sounds echoed throughout the Haymarket as the kick-off performance for the two days of events, concerts and street dances."The crowd size was much better this time," said Bob Boyce, Grasshopper Takeover drummer, comparing it to the last time the trio had played at Heydays."It's a better turnout than we expected," said James McMann, Grasshopper Takeover's bassist, "especially considering that the Huskers are playing," referring to the NU baseball team's first game in the College World Series.The band didn't hesitate in the middle of the concert to check out the score. But, Kate Washington, a sophomore University of Nebraska-Lincoln student and Grasshopper Takeover fan, kept track and yelled out the current scores.The band then invited Washington to sing "Take Me out to the Ballgame." which seemed to get the crowd even more pumped up than they already were."I was really excited to go up on stage and sing," Washington said. "This was my first time being at Heydays, and I had a lot of fun."As of now, the band doesn't have a busy summer schedule, but it will be releasing a new album in about a month. Lincoln's own Groove Puppet took the stage after Grasshopper Takeover."We moved Groove Puppet to Friday night to up the crowd size," said Jacquie Hirschman, coordinator of the event.Saturday's performances started with the Mezcal Brothers, a nationally-known rockabilly band.That Thing You Do came next, with songs from the film of the same title.The band got the crowd in an uproar with its music and skits. The skits were a new addition to this year's Heydays, Hirschman said.Alongside the great entertainment, the Farmer's Market, held every Saturday morning from May through October, was another Heydays attraction."Out of the whole year, this is their biggest weekend," Hirschman said.The market vendors weren't the only ones at Heydays, though.The Haymarket restaurants had first pick in deciding whether to set up during the street dance."We blocked off a lot of the restaurants' doorways," Hirschman said. "So they got to sign up first."But the crowds, which Hirschman said were larger than previous years, were drawn to the Haymarket for the main events: the bands.The music was an effort to bring in more teenagers and college kids this year, she said."Recently we adapted the Heydays to high schoolers and college kids to get a better turnout," Hirschman said."We used to adapt it to families and children, but never got as good of a turnout as this."