Set One:
| Sledgehammer [Peter Gabriel] | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | M'Lady | Last Night | Moon Over the Water | Place | Chosen Ones | Aphrodite | Fargo Gypsy Girl | What I Got [Sublime] | Lady Madonna [The Beatles] | Bumblebee |
Set Two:
| Lump [The Presidents of the United States of America] | Pay the Toll to Ride the Junebug Flow | Casanova | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Say It Ain't So [Weezer] | Found My Boogie | Golden Girls Theme [Andrew Gold] | Damn the Man |
We had never been to the Silver Dollar Saloon in Elizabeth, Minnesota before tonight. We didn't know what to expect going in. But boy, we didn't know what we were missing. Those small-town folk know how to have a good time on the weekend. We almost didn't know what hit us by the end of the night.
But I won't get ahead of myself. First things first. Nick wasn't able to be with us tonight. He had to head back to the Twin Cities early this morning. So filling in on bass tonight was our old high school friend and current guitarist for The San Haven Chuckle, Patrick "Bud" Hess. We had originally thought that he would jump up on a few tunes here and there, but he played the whole dang show, and he exceeded expectations. He knew every song and then some.
But I'm getting ahead of myself again. After we soundchecked the drums and we were just going to start, I inexplicably felt myself leaning back on my drum throne. I hadn't planned to lean back. Had I simply had more drinks than I had thought? Suddenly, I fell back all the way, nearly kicking over my hi-hat and snare with my flailing foot, but not spilling my drink. I stood up to realize that the post of my drum throne completely broke in half. It just broke. It didn't bend, it broke. It was like a clean cut. It was only holding on by about a centimeter of metal. Luckily, Lunchbox, the sound guy, had a spare drum throne in his back room that he was able to lend to me. I set my broken throne on the very front of the stage, as a monument in remembrance of me, and then the show began.
Forgive me. I'm getting ahead of myself yet again. The San Haven Chuckle played with us tonight, rocking and rolling our faces off as always. The Chuckle are primarily an originals band, but they have a wide range of covers as well. I couldn't help but shout out a few requests of covers I know they play, but have never heard. Among them was "Sledgehammer," with which they subsequently closed their set. So we opened our set with our own version of "Sledgehammer." Which is hilarious, because the crowd heard the song basically twice in a row. Comedy at its highest, my friends.
The comedy continued during "Poet" when during Dustin's guitar solo, Anthony decided to have a seat on the broken drum throne at the foot of the stage. Not surprisingly, it broke even further, and Anthony stumbled backward. Pure physical comedy genius. After that, "M'Lady" was dedicated to Mary Lou Retton.
As you know, the Junebug song "Moon Over the Water" and a portion of the San Haven Chuckle song "May They Wake" sound strikingly similar. This is, of course, because the Chuckle are shameless thieving bastards. I kid, I kid. It has become a bit of a tradition when we play together to sing each other's lyrics on those songs. Tonight, however, the Chuckle guys came onstage and sang the "Moon" lyrics in their own harmonies. It ended up rocking our faces and being pretty incredible. I wish you had been there to hear it.
There seemed to be a lot of audience participation tonight. It's generally good to have a healthy back-and-forth with the crowd, and they were all about it tonight. Before we played "Place" tonight, Anthony introduced it saying, "I'm sure you've got a place to go in the middle of nowhere..." and before he finished a dude yelled out, "Elizabeth!" Gotta respect pride in your community. After "Chosen Ones" we heard the clapping of one solitary person. Dustin said, "Thank you. You know who you are." Anthony commented that he didn't know if that particular room could handle how awesome we are. In response, some dude called out "Play some Styx!" We're not that awesome, dude. Not yet.
We attempted to continue our own brand of awesomeness, however, with the long-awaited return of the song "Fargo Gypsy Girl," which will be included on our upcoming album. Anthony introduced it. "This song's about sex! You know what I'm talkin' about!" Yeah, Bergs. I think we always know what you're talking about. But as a sidebar, the song is about a dude that falls in love with a mannequin. So sexy indeed.
Tonight saw a return to the spontaneity of old. Some dude in the crowd came up and asked us if would play "What I Got" by Sublime. Now, as you know we're not a cover band. But we thought, what the hell. Why not? Keep in mind, that we've never played this song before, whether it be live, rehearsal or just messing around. We as a band have never played it. But we did. And it made the dude happy and he got his buddies on the floor and they stayed there for the rest of the set.
We decided to play another tune that folks would recognize, to keep them interested. We busted out "Lady Madonna" and rocked it well, complete with a back-to-back between Anthony and Bud.
We closed the first set with an energetic "Bumblebee," which Bud said he had been looking forward to very much. But before we played it, Anthony told the crowd that in the second set (which would be after our ten-minute meth break) he expected people to get naked. The reasoning was that there was probably a better chance of it happening tonight than during the week. Someone shouted out that we should get naked first. So I stood up and lifted my shirt. Protruting gelatinous belly, hairy nipples and all. Hey, give the people what they want.
As soon as the first set ended, a girl came up to us as we were at the bar getting drinks. Her name is Brittany (Britney? I didn't have her spell it). She had had a few drinks already and was definitely having a fun night, which is what we encourage. She began requesting all sorts of songs, but it seemed that "Lump" by the Presidents of the USA was the most emphatic of her requests. Again, this is a song we have never played, so we didn't make any promises.
We took the stage again to start the second set, and somehow in the ten or fifteen minutes that we were down, the place filled up. The Silver Dollar in Elizabeth was pretty well attended by this point. Brittany followed us up to the stage and requested "Lump" one more time. Anthony addressed the crowd. "We talked about getting naked, and it's not happening. I'm disappointed." I added that shaking booties and shaking boobies are all encouraged. And again we got the run-around. But we're rock stars, dang it!
Much to Brittany's delight, we played "Lump," though we had never played it before. I knew this song had a pretty specific drum part, that would sound crappy if not played pretty close to the original. But I couldn't remember what it was. I was a bit amazed though, because once I counted off the song, I played the right part. Brittany was ecstatic and totally into it, and was getting her friends into it as well. "I tip my invisible had to you, Brittany," Bud offered. "It's your job to get people on the floor. Round 'em up!" They followed. We played a bunch of our dancers next, including "Pay the Toll," "Casanova." The hoochies were feeling it. Until the end of "Bad Mamma Jamma" where there was a brief lull. The ladies started leaving the floor, and I asked them not to.
At this point, Brittany yelled out "Weezer!!" We looked around at one another, because strangely, we had talked about possibly throwing "Say It Ain't So" into the set anyway. Take note, though, that we also do not play this song. We've played it maybe twice in messing around in the rehearsal room, but aside from a private garage party in 2007, I don't think we've ever gone through it beginning to end. No matter. We whipped it out tonight and delighted our newest fan. With the playing of this song, all the asses were on the floor. There was a large group of hot chicks right down front dancing to what we were playing. That doesn't happen often with us, so we have to mention it when it happens.
Bud had to remind the crowd that "Again, we were told nakedness would happen." But still nobody took the bait. Except the other Chuckle boys who upped their game. Normally they moon us at shows, but this time, they mooned us with "Junebug" written on their butt cheeks. "June" on one cheek, "bug" on the other. So, apparently, we got our nakedness. But I would argue that it doesn't count.
"Dance now, because you only live once," Bud advised. "Speak for yourself!" was my retort. Take from it what you will. "Tip your bartender, for godsake!" I shouted. "For your health," Dr. Steve Brule (Dustin) added.
The time was winding down and the show would be ending soon. In one last ditch effort, Anthony said, "We were promised nudity. I'm just sayin'. We encourage that kind of behavior." Inexplicably, from the crowd came a woman's voice shouting, "It's not rape if you're willing!" I'm not sure how that applies to what was being said, but the fact remained that there still was no nudity.
We closed the set with "Damn the Man" and called it a night. The crowd at the Silver Dollar was a great crowd. Like I said earlier, these small-town peeps know how to cut loose. Especially Brittany, it would seem. After the show, she hung around Bud and me pretty closely, telling us how great she thought we were and that we should definitely come back to Elizabeth. Lunchbox, the sound engineer, liked us enough to invite us to sign the wall of fame, which we did.
It was a fantastic night, which we raved about all the way home. It was definitely the most fun Junebug show I have played in a long time. Even without the nudity.
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