MILWAUKEE - The Gufs shouldn’t be so comfortable. They are all jammed on the same sofa in the library of The Iron Horse Hotel, yet they are strangely at ease as they field questions from a television reporter. These guys are just hours away from a headline performance at Summerfest and eventually make it clear to the reporter they are having a blast.

“It’s like a huge reunion,” says Morgan Dawley with a laugh.

The band should be at ease with the Summerfest part of this moment (it‘s just that sofa that looks cramped).   There is something reassuring about familiar turf.

“It’s home,” says Goran Kralj as he leans in from his far corner of the undersized (for four guys) piece of leather furniture.  “It’s where it all started.  It’s twenty years of some unbelievable memories.”

“There’s nothing better than Summerfest for getting everybody together again,” says Dawley.

“You know summer is such a great time here,” says Scott Schwebel the lone member of the band still living in greater Milwaukee. “To be able to play in your hometown at essentially the most iconic event in the city it’s cool.”

There are bands that come to Summerfest who pause when asked what it means to play the world’s largest outdoor music festival.  They aren’t pausing to consider what that means.  They are pausing because they don’t know where they are.  The Gufs are not one of those bands.  They formed the band in 1988 when they were college students and soccer players in Milwaukee.

“Summerfest was what everybody dreamed of doing,” says Dejan Krajl.  “Now to be headlining here after 20 years and to have all those fans out there still… it’s good.”

Of course, the Gufs are no longer all living in the same place and chasing the same rock and roll dream.  They are spread out across three states.  It isn’t quite as easy to write or play gigs.

“We’re all settled down we’re all married,” says Dejan.  “Three of the four of us have kids. Getting away from that takes a little bit of a consideration.”

Still the Gufs are willing to make such considerations.  They are writing again the way they used to write.  They get together, jam, brainstorm and create.  The result is good music. They aren’t about to stop.

“We’ve sort of said jokingly that we would continue playing as long as there was still one person out there that wanted to hear a Gufs song,” said Goran with a smile.  You get the impression he isn’t joking.