7/3/13 - Wakeside Bar & Grill - Mina, S.D.

Set One:

| M'Lady | Beards | With a Little Help From My Friends [The Beatles / Joe Cocker] | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Please Please Me [The Beatles] |

Set Two:

| Fluffy Little Hands | Time [Pink Floyd] | Hell-Bent Woman | Mystic Princess | Downtown Liquor Store | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Law & Order Theme [Mike Post] | Refrigerator | Crossroads | All the Young Dudes [David Bowie] | Soul Shaker | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Golden Girls Theme [Andrew Gold] | Handlebar Mustache | Jumpstart My Rocket | Chosen Ones | Sledgehammer [Peter Gabriel] | Moon Over the Water |

Encore One:

| Heaven's Just a Mystery |

Encore Two:

| Last Night | Modern Age |

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 "Not a f*** was given."
Photo by Dustin

It's always nice to be back in the Aberdeen area. We were in Aberdeen just about a month and a half ago, but being out at Mina is a bit different than the typical downtown Aberdeen show. It was a totally different crowd. I had thought at first that we were just playing at a restaurant on the lake. It turns out we came out here to be the Wakeside's entertainment for their Independence Day celebration out on Mina Lake. The Aqua-Addicts ski show happened first, followed by Junebug, with a break for fireworks, and then Junebug played the rest of the night.

We got a bit of a late start, due to some technical difficulties at the soundboard. So that meant some anticipated quiet during the festivities and a little bit of an abbreviated first set. We had setlists crafted and written up, but pretty much abandoned it and cherry-picked songs that we thought would keep the folks engaged right off the bat. Although, by the time we got started, there wasn't much time before we had to stop for the fireworks. The man in charge said explicitly, "we need silence at ten o'clock." So we ripped through some hits along with a crowd-pleaser "With a Little Help From My Friends" and a wham-bang "Please Please Me." Then we paused for the fireworks. 

My wife and son were there, so we found a spot on the grass down by the water to watch the show. The fireworks were being set off very close. I had never seen fireworks that close before and it was pretty big, loud and cool. I'm not sure my two-year-old liked it as much as I did. But he seemed to dig it.

This is what we do.

It was kind of good that we had already made the decision to throw out the setlist. By the time the fireworks were over, it was totally dark out and there were no lights on the stage. We would not have been able to read them anyway. So we went by the seat of our pants and I kept track of the songs we played on my iPod Touch. 

About twenty minutes in, a dude came up and asked us if we knew any Zac Brown. When we let him know that we don't, he kind of gently lectured us on how the crowd was trying to connect with us, but it just wasn't happening. Evidently, the music of Zac Brown would have healed that wound. Unfortunately, it just wasn't in the cards. But there were plenty of other folks that seemed okay with drinking beer and visiting with their friends to our performance. It was pretty okay. "Poet" was dedicated to Zac Brown tonight, in memory of the guy who couldn't connect.

While we were in the midst of the show, the pyrotechnics crew were tearing down and cleaning up form the fireworks display. It seems that during the fireworks show there were some that did not discharge. They had to blow them up before they could complete their work, so there were these huge fireworks going off while we were playing. It gave the illusion that we were far more important than we are. Delusions of grandeur are fun now and again.

Anthony decided it would be good to end on "Moon Over the Water" since we were playing right next to a lake and you could see the moon. Y'know, out over the water. After the song was over, Anthony left the stage, but there were actually people asking for more music. So, after a little discussion, we decided to play "Heaven's Just a Mystery" as an encore. It's a good show closer. So we did. And the way that song ends, we generally end up leaving the stage one by one. So we did. And people were still asking for more. Anthony was already visiting with friends and family members, so it took some prodding, but we got him back up there to close the night out with a couple more songs. 

The party continued without us. After we tore down and loaded out, folks were still drinking and laughing and talking and generally celebrating our independence from King George.