Big V's
St. Paul, Minn.
Souncheck:
| Clone You |
Set:
| Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Last Night | M'Lady | Aphrodite | Moon Over the Water | Chosen Ones | I'm a Bad MammaJamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Clone You | Lady Madonna [The Beatles] | Jumpstart My Rocket |
Tonight was our first time at Christensen's Big V's in Saint Paul. It was good. Before the show started, Cody arrived with his laptop and held the world premiere for our "Last Night" music video shot earlier this month. About twenty people huddled around his screen and applauded when it was over.
Right after the showing of the video, Cody and I experimented with the coin-operated cologne dispenser in the men's room. You put in a quarter and pull down a lever and cheap cologe literally squirts out, like a child's water gun. If you're not standing in the right spot, it could go all the way to whoever is washing their hands at the sink. It was strong and cheap. And classic.
Well, we took the stage, which we shared with a tree (no one, including the staff, was really sure whose it was or why it was there). We opened with Poet and afterward, Dustin said, "I think we've got time for one more?" Just kidding, silly. We played longer.
The comedy stylings seemed to be flowing tonight, apparently. Dustin announced that he had to pee. He then asked for a bottle... specifying "something little." Anthony ranted about hump day (since it was Wednesday) and said that this crowd didn't want to be mistaken for a Thursday crowd or just sit in a chair like all of those lazy Tuesday #$@&s. Dustin interrupted and said, "those lazy Tuesday farts. My mom doesn't like that kind of language." To which, Anthony bafflingly replied, "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'."
You know on the album, on the song "Aphrodite," when that girl sings the background part. Well Dustin sang that tonight. The girl's part. In her octave. I informed that crowd that I literally had his balls in my pocket and he'd be getting them back after the show.
And speaking of giving, Anthony told everyone that we were giving back to the community tonight. He said we were all donating plasma at the end of the show.
During a particularly rocking version of "Clone You" tonight, Dustin's guitar went sourly out of tune and everyone noticed it. Afterward, he explained that he accidentally bashed his guitar against the wall during that song, which caused the out-of-tunage. "But," he went on, "that's rock 'n' roll."
So true, old friend. So true.
Once again, the members of Junebug become victims of our own punctuality. What I mean by this is that we almost always show up on time in a world in which virtually nobody else does the same. When we're told load-in time is 8:00 p.m., we show up at 8:00 p.m. Crazy, right? We were left sitting in wait for some time.
Our first performance at Cheapo Discs in Uptown Minneapolis went swimmingly, as they say. Sadly, there was a miscommunication and the camera crew was not there to tape for the television broadcast. He is on vacation, we were told. However, we were told it would be totally fine to reschedule another show, since the taping was one of the main reasons we wanted to play this particular show. So be on the lookout for that.
An observation I (tony) had was that good, energetic, fun sets are pretty much the rule now, not an exception. It seems that probably 95% of the time we come off stage and congratulate each other on how great the show felt and how awesome the energy was and how much fun we had. Even when there aren't a lot of people in attendance. Each time this happens, it feels as if this show was an oasis in a desert of suck, when in reality, they all have been feeling great. It was just something I noticed, based on my own feelings, of course.
We returned to the Uptown Bar tonight. We were slightly worried about turnout since the news was reporting that the roads were treacherous and slippery, when in reality they really weren't bad. Turnout was actually pretty decent for a Tuesday night.
This was Junebug's first time at Station 4 in Saint Paul. I (tony) had never even been there before. So when I first walked in to the bar it seemed very small, with a diagonal wood floor back in one corner. I mistakingly thought that was where we would be playing. So I was pleasantly surprised when I was led into the actual venue area. No, it's not just a corner of the room, it's a fully functional show space.
At any rate, we had fun. The sound guy did a nice job too, with monitor mixes and house mix and such. And Carp, the drummer for My Lady Four, said that my kit sounded really good. My kit doesn't usually sound good...so kudos to the sound guy for that. And personally, I love playing on a stage that has an actual drum riser.
