Set:
| I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Clone You |
Tonight was the big Fox 9 Battle of the Bands finale at the Fine Line. After five weeks of voting often and hard, every hour on the hour, every day of the week, this was it! We were totally excited and pumped and ready to walk away with the studio time, retail CD package and gear package. We had worked hard getting people to vote and getting the word out, and this was it!
I (tony) arrived to find Nick already present and loaded in. I found out we were soundchecking last because we were starting first. Yep. We were opening the show in a six-band battle of the bands. If any of you have ever participated in one of these things, you know that's pretty much an instant death sentence. No matter, we kept our chins up, laughed about it, enjoyed some free pizza and water and resolved to still kick some ass.
We had our two songs ready. You see, when we earned our spot through thousands of votes in the voting rounds, we were then informed that each band would get exactly two songs to wow the audience and judges. If you know us, you know we're more of a longer-form band. We work best in a full-length album situation or a full set, even if it's only a set of five songs. With that, we're able to show who we are and show all of you a good time. What we don't necessarily excel at is proving who we are in two songs or less.
At any rate, we had our two songs ready and the man announced us. We took the stage to near silence. There were some cheers, but aside from our loyal Junebug cheering section, they were just polite. I enthusiastically said into the mic, "All right! Fox 9 Battle of the Bands, huh?" Silence. I'm talking near pin-drop, cricket whisper silence. I burst into laughter at the sheer absurdity of what was going on. Here we were, on the Fine Line stage, with eighteen-year-olds and parents staring holes through us, scrutinizing us before we had even begun. We had a number of people there supporting us, but a majority of the attendees were there to see other bands (one in particular, more on that later) and every band was completely different.
And so it was that we started our first song - "I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's)". Now, as you may know, this is a funky song. People like to get down to this one. I can't remember an audience in the history of Junebug that did not at least tap their feet to Bad Mamma Jamma. It's one of those that requires you to move in some form or another. Oh, but last night's concertgoers could not be swayed. It's the first time I've ever seen an audience standing completely stock still with arms crossed and mouths crooked during that song. I mean, you'd think it was a song about poop and boobies the way these people seemed to disapprove. No matter. We kept our energy high and we rocked it out the way we always do. Becuase nothing was going to get us down. We were there to have fun, even if all the night's evidence was against us. And have fun we did. Heck after Bad Mamma Jamma, the crowd even applauded. Though, aside from our loyal Junebug cheering section, I think it was simply good sportsmanship.
Anthony introduced "Clone You" by saying something about, "the person you have on your arm at this moment... what if you had two of them?" I then added, "Imagine the possibilities!" A bunch of people chuckled, but one older lady in particular had a very sour look on her face at that description. It actually made me happy. It wasn't the idea of three-way sex with yourself possibly being offensive to her that made me happy, but rather, that we actually elicited some form of emotion from this particular segment of the crowd. That was a plus.
I would say that "Clone You" went off without a hitch, but that simply isn't true. Nick's setup had a technical difficulty and his bass completely cut out at one point. He fixed it though, like a pro. Before Nick's malfunction, I actually hit myself in the face with a drum stick and dropped a beat. I know that Dustin noticed. I'm not sure if anyone else did. But the judges most likely did. Whatevah.
We played our two songs, determined to have fun and that's what we did. We stayed positive and all that. We listened to the other bands and enjoyed a couple of drinks while we visited with a number of showgoers.
Eventually the final band played and the judges went to their deliberating. After hearing the other bands, and knowing how our "set" went, we weren't really too expectant of anything. Out of six bands, there were three places to win. Third place went to Steve Sullivan and the Factory, a talented blues/rock band. Second place went to F.A.I.T.H., my personal favorite performer of the night. They had incredible energy and their rock was good. Her bassist also happened to be Reuben Rodriguez, a dude we knew from Aberdeen. It was good to see him.
First place went to Select 3. You see, there was a talent agency that decided they wanted to put together a musical performance group. They held auditions and selected three (get it) fellows to be the focal point of the band. There is also a drummer and a bassist, but they mostly hang out in the lower lit background area of the stage while the three other fellows sing and play guitar and/or keyboard up front. If you want a good idea of what's going on, think of the Jonas Brothers or any other sort of Disney-esque, sugary, make your teeth hurt kind of act. They had the eighteen-year-olds and older ladies in the palm if their collective hand. They wowed the crowd and evidently, the judges.
Not appearing on the winners' platform were well-established and celebrated reggae/hip-hop act, Dred I Dread (whose singer, Peewee Dread, was so kind as to offer me a blessing in the stairwell) and both Section 30 and Junebug (each of which played the Basilica Block Party earlier in the summer).
Once we got into the night, we didn't really expect to win. We were hoping for a place in the top three, but we didn't count on it. The crowd was very torn at the results and very vocal about it as well. I personally did not participate in any kind of shouting or hollering, but I heard things, let me tell you. The front section of the crowd was very pleased with the winner, but as I worked my way toward the back of the room, there were some very unpleasant reactions as well. Shouted and softly spoken negative comments were heard, along with both cheers and boos. A number of folks disagreed with the judges, quite obviously. It was too much drama for me, so I booked it out of there.
So that's how it turned out, folks. It was an experience. And that's what life and rock 'n' roll are all about. The experiences, whether awesome, crappy, or just odd, are what makes up this whole crazy thing. Thanks for all your votes, people. For reals. We would not have had this experience without the love, time, energy, and support you've doled out to us. You people are loyal and we love you. You make it worth rocking. We'll keep it up if you will.
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