Friday, August 29, 2014

8/29/14 - Honey - Minneapolis

Set:
| Modern Age | Prelude / 7 Eleven | Stan | Please Please Me [The Beatles] | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Mystic Princess | Fluffy Little Hands |



Poster by Tony Kollman

It was a weird night. It was a fun night.

I always like descending the dark staircase that leads to the Honey dungeon. Although I know that good times, music, and beers await, something in the back of my psyche says, "dungeon, Will Robinson!" It's a nice place. I dig it.

You know how you have one of those nights? Where, like, a lot of stuff just goes wrong? Our pals in the opening band had one of those nights. I felt bad for them.

In addition to arriving right at start time due to circumstances beyond their control, one of their members didn't have his instrument. He quickly left to get it. Spoilers: by the time he got back, their set was pretty well over. There weren't many folks there to start out the night either. Like I said, I felt bad for them. They're good folks. I mean, they have their own comic book, for pete's sake. We don't have a comic book. The good news was, they cut some dude's hair on stage.

(fig 1.1) Night's beginning.
Ours was a short set, but sweet. We started tonight with "Modern Age". We've never really seen that as a set opener before. Change is good, though, and it worked out well. It ends with a great energy which was a good way to get the ball rolling.

We continued the trend of playing some of the new stuff ("7 Eleven" right into "Stan") as well as what are becoming some old Junebug standards ("Destiny," "Mystic," and "Fluffy"). We almost, almost played a brand new one from the upcoming album called "Rush Hour," which we've been working on for an upcoming recording session. Anthony nixed it for time. Don'choo worry. It's coming.

As the set began and as it went on, more and more folks filtered in. It was a decent-sized house by the end. The applause got louder as the night proceeded. We were pleased and surprised with how it filled up as opposed to how sparse the population was just before the night began (see fig 1.1). 

This was our last in-city show for awhile. We have one more show left, out of town. We'll be buckling down and focusing on the recording of the next album.

Until next time, Junebuggers...

Thursday, August 7, 2014

8/7/14 - Amsterdam Bar & Hall - Saint Paul

Set:
| Prelude / 7 Eleven | Stan | Please Please Me [The Beatles] | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Mystic Princess | Law & Order Theme [Mike Post] | Fluffy Little Hands | Chosen Ones | Beards | Veronica |



Poster by Tony Kollman.
We descended upon the Amsterdam in St. Paul for the first time tonight. Great atmosphere, great stage, great beer, great staff. We've become pretty good band-friends with What Tyrants and Moving Parts. It's always good to get together with those guys and make the music happen. We did so on the brightly colored stage of the wonderful Amsterdam Bar & Hall. I did so with Heineken in hand. The bar is called Amsterdam, after all. 

We hit 'em with the new stuff right off the bat. The first two we played tonight are the first two on the upcoming album we're working on. It's a decent flow. Give 'em a taste and leave 'em wanting more. I don't know how many times I've typed those words in this archive. But there it is again.

All the pretty lights, as seen from
behind the drum kit.
We didn't have a lot of time to fill tonight, so we made sure to hit some of the favorites: the typical Destiny, Mystic, Fluffy, you know. We tried out our new arrangement of "Chosen Ones" again. It's okay. It's definitely fun to play. I hope it translates well to the listener. 

We closed 'er out with "Veronica," which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I heard Anthony's acoustic demo for this song years ago and I couldn't wait to get it into our repertoire. Now that it's here, I consistently advocate for its inclusion in our setlists. Tonight it served as a great closer. 

Random notes: What Tyrants was kind enough to offer the use of their drum kit tonight. The Amsterdam frites are delicious. There was a woman in the crowd that looked eerily like the girl I dated my freshman year in college. It wasn't her, but Dustin and Anthony knew exactly who I was talking about when I mentioned it.