Summerfest has long been the domain of bright, cheery music, not aphotic hardcore and grinding metal, so it was a bit of a spectacle Thursday when the Cascio Groove Garage hosted a line-up of loud area bands, booked by the local punk scene’s busiest impresario, Kelsey Kaufmann of Cougar Den. Milwaukee’s hardcore scene has long hosted some of the city’s most visionary bands, so it was a welcome change to see some of its young warriors finally get their due at Milwaukee’s biggest music festival. Flanked by a supportive, receptive crowd of peers that crowded the front of the stage, most groups fit in at the Big Gig better than might be expected. Novel, for instance, proved they weren’t nearly as menacing as their demonic . . .

At first, Matthew “Matisyahu” Miller appears an unlikely a reggae savior, but by this point, the self-proclaimed former Deadhead turned Chassid has probably gotten used to the burden of proving that appearances can be deceiving. Still, when Miller first set foot before the noticeably packed Summerfest crowd, he seemed to stutter slightly, as if for a moment even he had trouble taking his success seriously. Thankfully, with the onset of “Jerusalem,” came an energetic . . .

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.

…Now that’s how you sing amazing grace. Milwaukee’s John the Savage imagine what would happen if Booker T used his MGs for evil instead of good. From the cacophonous percussion to the overzealous trumpet to their howling singer, Michael Skorcz (who channels Tom Waits’ drunken, pirate pastor persona), everything about their ramshackle sound is bold and loud, so the band made a swift impression with their headlining set last night . . .

With their Coldplay-slick ballads and Rooney-esque rockers, The Good Luck Joes’ have been making “Grey’s Anatomy” soundtrack-ready pop songs since before there was a “Grey’s Anatomy” soundtrack. Although the star-making ABC drama hasn’t adopted the Milwaukee group yet, a number of other ABC series have: the short-lived drama “Six Degrees” and ABC Family shows “Greek” and “Kyle XY” have featured the Joes’ . . .