Set:
| M'Lady | Rising Sounds Theme | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Broken String Jam | Last Night | Found My Boogie | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Crossroads | Casanova (Jam) | Chosen Ones | Damn the Man |
This was our fourth in a series of four shows in a row this week. Tonight was the Rising Sounds Local Band Showcase. Rising Sounds is a show on Cities Live Internet Radio. We've been guests on the show before and we recently wrote and recorded an opening theme song for them. So when Dickey and C-Love ("champions of local music" as Nick said) told us they were putting together a local band showcase at the Fine Line, we were all over it. In fact, for the second song of the set, we decided to play the aforementioned theme song. It lasts eighteen seconds, so why not.
Tonight was really laid back. The crowd was medium sized and we knew that everyone was there for a good time. We felt a very conversational vibe tonight. The crowd talked to us, we talked to them. It was all very familiar and nice. So when I (tony) completely disregarded the setlist and started "Last Night" at the completely wrong place, and was then taken aback when Anthony started the actual next song, everyone was very forgiving.
"Crossroads" was again dedicated to the lovely and departed Farrah Fawcett tonight. But before we got a chance for that, Dustin said that the next tune, "Poet (Who Didn't Know It)" would going out to our fallen brother who was a poet and didn't know it, Billy Mays. Now this upset me greatly, and I said that I don't know if I can handle looking at my Mighty Putty again without breaking down. And I have a broken chair leg to fix.
After the song was over, Dustin said that he was getting a little too choked up to play the song. So the sour notes you heard were all Billy. "No amount of Mighty Putty," he added, "will fix my broken heart."
Dustin furthermore mentioned tonight that out of all the shows we've played in the past four days that this show definitely had the best sound. That's something I've noticed about the Fine Line, and it's part of what makes it such a fun room to play. Dustin also calmly mentioned that he surmised "we're really raising the roof tonight".
Also appearing tonight were Mayda and Section 30.
It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect and there was love in the air. This was Twin Cities Pride '09 and Junebug was playing the main stage. The whole of Loring Park in Minneapolis was full of vendors, political action groups, church groups, performers, onlookers, and amazing and diverse people.
This was a fun festival setup. There were a good number of people parked out on blankets and lawn chairs, while others walked past and filtered in and out. By the end of the set, probably about 150 had parked their butts in the general vacinity to hear the music. All together, there were probably about 800 to 1,000 people who heard us today. It all seemed to be a good reaction, too.
Tonight was the Final round of the Basilica Block Party's Minnesota Band competition. The first round consisted of Cities 97 crew selecting twelve bands from over seventy. The second round consisted of four groups of three bands with one band from each night advancing based upon audience vote. Tonight's finals consited of these four bands performing for a panel of judges. Additionally, voting would take place and the top two vote-getters earn bonus points. The two bands with the highest scores win slots at the Basilica Block Party. I (tony) am happy to announce that even though we didn't get any audience vote bonus points, we got second place, behind Section 30, earning a place on the Basilica stage on Friday July 10!
We all showed up on time, we got on stage and played a set at O'Gara's in Saint Paul. When we were done playing, we listened to the other bands and then went home. I have now said all that needs to be said about this show. Was it our worst ever? Only those present will ever know.
Aberdeen was the second half of our Dakota Junebug weekend. It was the Junetacular Junestravaganza Mini Tour! The poster was designed by me (tony) with a big top circus theme. Well, as luck would have it, my father-in-law had some radio advertising time that he donated to us. He put together an ad that sounded like it was promoting a circus. It ran on 106.7 and 94.1 in Aberdeen and it was hilariously wonderful.
Something happened tonight that leads us to believe we must be doing something right. At one point during "Poet" a pair of ladies panties flew forth from the crowd and got hooked onto Anthony's thumb while he played. He finished the song with the undergarment attached to his hand. This is rock and roll. This is why we do it.
We embarked upon our Junetacular Junestravaganza Dakota mini-tour! First stop: The Nestor Tavern in Fargo! The show started with our dear ol' friend, Kelsey Lee, followed by Pat Lenertz & Friends, finally leading to Junebug. This show was really cool because there were a lot of old friends in attendance. Our crowd was made up of probably 90% Jamestown High School alumni, which has never happened before to our knowledge (aside from that one show that Tony and Anthony played as a duo in 1996 AT JHS). There were people from our grade and the class below us as well as two of my (tony's) sisters and people who went to JHS with them in the '80s. So throughout the night, it was fun to just throw occasional shout outs to JHS and hear them holler. Nick proposed a toast to the Jamestown "Cougars" but then asked what our mascot really was. Everyone shouted "BLUE JAYS" and at one point I sang the Blue Jay Booster, much to Joey Schmuhl's delight (although she kept requesting "I Want Kathy", which we don't play).
It was a pleasant turn of events that there were no natural disasters this time around. We halfway expected there to be a tornado or severe hailstorm or something of the sort. Earthquake, hurricane, Godzilla, [insert SimCity disaster here (excluding flooding, we've already done that one)].But there wasn't even so much as a famine. Sadly, it seems our powers of devastation have faded.
