Station 4
Saint Paul, Minn.
Set:
| Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | I'm a Bad MammaJamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Last Night | Chosen Ones | Lady Madonna [The Beatles] | Aphrodite | Jumpstart My Rocket |
This was Junebug's first time at Station 4 in Saint Paul. I (tony) had never even been there before. So when I first walked in to the bar it seemed very small, with a diagonal wood floor back in one corner. I mistakingly thought that was where we would be playing. So I was pleasantly surprised when I was led into the actual venue area. No, it's not just a corner of the room, it's a fully functional show space.
There were a lot of bands on the bill and we were a last-minute addition to replace someone who had dropped out. This was an all ages show, and that mixed with all the other bands provided a great new crowd that has never heard us before. They seemed to dig it, too. One thing is certain - Junebug has never played a gig so LOUD.
Our set was compact and concise. We had about thirty minutes, so we just threw together our sure-fire crowd-pleasers. We ripped through them with vigor so as to embolden those assembled in their expression of enjoyment. Or something.
At any rate, we had fun. The sound guy did a nice job too, with monitor mixes and house mix and such. And Carp, the drummer for My Lady Four, said that my kit sounded really good. My kit doesn't usually sound good...so kudos to the sound guy for that. And personally, I love playing on a stage that has an actual drum riser.
We had a brief photo session before the show in the alley behind the venue. Some good shots were had. Finally, Nick's brother and niece were at the show tonight so they deserve a "shout out." Holla!
So it was that Junebug decended upon the southern suburb of the land, the town of Savage. The gentlemen of Cryptic (who are close personal associates of Nick's) invited us to play with them at Neisen Bros. Sports Bar & Grill. Well, we did. I (tony) was talking to Liza and Katie and we both agreed that it reminded us a bit of Aberdeen. If we were to combine the Eagles and Lager's, it might be close to Neisen's. There was a pretty fun crowd there, too. There was a table full of what I imagine are bar regulars who had evidently had a few drinks and were ready to rock. And as we were finishing up, the bikers descended. Pretty amazing.
Junebug returned to the Turf Club tonight, but this was Nick's first time there. We played this show with the Brutes and Droners. Junebug has played with the Brutes before (July 1, 2006), but when we tried to reminisce, we found out that three out of four of the guys in the band were not in the band back then. Anthony and I (tony) each went through them one by one and we each got three strikes. Funny stuff.
Tonight was interesting indeed. It was by far the smallest show we've ever played. It was honestly just the bands (My Lady Four and Haroh), the girlfriends/wives, a couple parents, and a few others. But that didn't stop it from being fun. Oh, not at all.
If we thought the last show was fantastic, we didn't know what was coming to us. This Fine Line show trumped all Twin Cities shows thus far. We had been looking forward to playing the Fine Line for a long time and it really was a blast. We had people from Aberdeen drive out for it and some friends from college and high school were there as well. Gabe and Hannah even flew in from Kentucky to be there. Awesome. We had the benefit of having the crowds of Love in October, Jon Wayne and the Pain and My Lady Four there, too...which didn't hurt at all.
Tonight Anthony told the brief version of the story of how the album came about, saying that Gabe had heard our demo version of "Place" and decided he wanted to make it sound good. We then invited Gabe onstage to sing "Place" with us. It was kind of a cool gesture to say thank you for all the work he put into it and the strings he pulled to get our album made. Very fun.
We loved the Fine Line. The staff was all excellent and the sound guy was amazing. We heard from a number of people that it was the best live mix they'd ever heard.
Yes!
And so we returned to the Red Rooster Coffee House for the second time since we moved away, and the first time since our album Share was finished and printed. Our Twin Cities CD release party isn't until October. But we decided we wanted to celebrate with Aberdeen first.
Since we had no bassist tonight, we asked Jeremy Burckhard to come up and play bass on a couple of our older tunes, "Found My Boogie" and "Bad Mamma Jamma".
During some downtime on stage, when Anthony was messing with his settings or something, I decided to fill some dead air with jokes provided to me by our old friend, Rory Behrens, who was no in attendence tonight. Q: What time do you know you need to go to the dentist? A: Tooth-hurty. Q: Where does patio furniture go when it dies? A: To the cement-ery. It should be pointed out that nobody laughed. I was just trying fill the dead air. Someone from the crowd asked what kind of cheese was not mine. Dustin emphatically replied, "That's nacho cheese!!" Then we played a song.
