Merlin's Rest
Minneapolis
Set:
| Pay the Toll to Ride the Junebug Flow | Modern Day Fairy Tales | Back in the U.S.S.R. [The Beatles] | M'Lady | Casanova | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Auld Lang Syne | The Date | Place | Golden Girls Theme [Andrew Gold] | Aphrodite | Clone You | Found My Boogie | On the Sidewalk | Sledgehammer [Peter Gabriel] | Damn the Man | Jumpstart My Rocket |
Tonight was an incredible occasion. It only happens twice a year, both times on the same day. Tonight we were celebrating 11:11, 11/11. The eleventh hour, the eleventh minute, the eleventh month, the eleventh day. A day and time we like to call "Eleven Eleven Eleven Eleven." We arrived ready to celebrate. We distributed party hats, noise-makers, and general excitement amongst the crowd. We had clocks onstage so everyone could keep track of when the big moment was getting close.
After opening with a couple of old standbys, we revived our rendition of the Beatles' classic "Back in the U.S.S.R." We haven't played this one for years, but we felt like it belonged back in our repertoire. So there it is, for our enjoyment and yours.
"Casanova" had a guest vocalist tonight, which was Russ from the always entertaining Julie Puppets. It's a pity there was so sound engineer tonight. Maybe then we could have heard Russ's vocals a little better. They sounded like they were probably pretty amazing. *sigh*
We played "Bad Mamma" tonight, and at the end Anthony says "give it to me ___ times," I think he forgot that it was his line. He looked back at me as if he was waiting for something. He eventually remembered. But it was so wonderfully awkward, I needed to share.
I then announced that we had four minutes before 11:11, 11/11. We launched into "Poet" and luckily finished just in time to celebrate the big moment! We all put on our party hats, blew our noisemakers, took a drink, sang "Auld Lang Syne," all made a wish, and kept the party going.
After "Place," Anthony told the crowd and the dancing girl that they made him believe again. This elicited laughter. I'm not sure it's what he was going for, but so it goes. After "Aphrodite," Anthony called out, "THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT!" Of course, it wasn't the end of our set. So all he did was get the crowd's hopes up. But we dashed those hopes by continuing, because it's what we do.
Tonight, we debuted a new song of sorts. It's a re-worked version of our song "Chosen Ones," but done in our interpretation of the style of Paul Simon. Junebug covering Paul Simon covering Junebug. We call it "On the Sidewalk."
After that we ripped into "Sledgehammer." Afterward we all felt kind of pooped. I said that song really takes it out of me. Dustin replied, "In the words of Lethal Weapon, I'm gettin' too old for this shit."
Also appearing tonight were our friends in Yasen Marie. Cody brought some friends. Tony's brother-in-law also stopped by -- all the way from Denver. Wha..?
Tonight saw the resurgence of an interesting phenomenon. That is the occurance of the lone dancing girl. We've had this creature appear at shows in the past and I'm sure we'll have it again in the future. The lone dancing girl is a creature that is really into what we're doing, feeling our vibe, perhaps feeling the effects of some substances, and generally "celebrating life." This is how tonight's lone dancing girl, Alana said it. Another important characteristic is that dancing girl is doing this completely by herself. Alana was a perfect example. She was loving tonight and danced to our tunes for the entire second half of the show. After our set was over, she approached each of us individually, congratulated us on our performance, hugged us, called us either "baby" or "honey" and kissed some of us on the cheek. This was someone for whom 11:11, 11/11 obviously held a lot of meaning. We appreciate your deal, Alana the lone dancing girl! We'd like to see more of that.
Be sure to come out next year when we celebrate (say it out loud, now) 11:11:11, 11/11/11.
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