Set:
| Spring Fever | Last Night | Share | Golden Girls Theme [Andrew Gold] | Refrigerator | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | I'm a Bad MammaJamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Found My Boogie | M'Lady | Moon Over the Water | Place | Casanova (jam) | To the Next Episode | Chosen Ones | Soul Shaker | Like a Spy (Not the Stalker) | Jumpstart My Rocket | Crossroads | Jamming Out in a Soundproof Room | Damn the Man |
Aberdeen was the second half of our Dakota Junebug weekend. It was the Junetacular Junestravaganza Mini Tour! The poster was designed by me (tony) with a big top circus theme. Well, as luck would have it, my father-in-law had some radio advertising time that he donated to us. He put together an ad that sounded like it was promoting a circus. It ran on 106.7 and 94.1 in Aberdeen and it was hilariously wonderful.
Fro9 opened the show, followed by A Month of Sundays, moving on to Junebug. Anthony had hoped it was going to be a nice, sunny, mellow day so that "Spring Fever" would make sense. However it was 42 degrees and rainy. In June. But we played it anyway, although it was more upbeat and peppy in an attempt to fool the masses into believing it really was nice outside. Also, we started it before Nick was even on stage. He was waiting in line for the rest room. But he joined us soon enough at it was all good.
At one point tonight, I told the crowd that we used to live in Aberdeen. It was met with a loud, "Bull crap!" So we had to defend ourselves by letting everyone know we still have 605 area codes on our cell phones and we even whipped out our South Dakota driver's licenses to prove something or other, I'm not sure what.
Something happened tonight that leads us to believe we must be doing something right. At one point during "Poet" a pair of ladies panties flew forth from the crowd and got hooked onto Anthony's thumb while he played. He finished the song with the undergarment attached to his hand. This is rock and roll. This is why we do it.
It's also a sign of a good show when there is a dogpile in front of the stage. Sometimes this happens in Aberdeen. It did tonight. It's kind of baffling and my thirteen-year-old brother-in-law wasn't sure what to think of it. Was it cool? Was it not cool? He alternated between approving laughter and shocked disbelief. But that's really the kind of thing we're used to as members of this band -- utter confusion.
One of the reasons that it's always fun to play the Red Rooster is that as our former home base, we're able to get away with pretty much anything musically. In the Cities we don't always play some of our more mellow tunes, but at the Rooster, people appreciate them. So we were able to whip out songs like "Share," "Place" and "Spring Fever." We're also able to do our more experimental numbers like "Jamming Out in a Soundproof Room." This one was actually requested tonight and we were happy to oblige, though Nick had never practiced it.
We hadn't been to Aberdeen since March and we won't be back until October, but it's always worth it to be at the Rooster. We love all our Aberdeen fans and can't wait to see them again.
We embarked upon our Junetacular Junestravaganza Dakota mini-tour! First stop: The Nestor Tavern in Fargo! The show started with our dear ol' friend, Kelsey Lee, followed by Pat Lenertz & Friends, finally leading to Junebug. This show was really cool because there were a lot of old friends in attendance. Our crowd was made up of probably 90% Jamestown High School alumni, which has never happened before to our knowledge (aside from that one show that Tony and Anthony played as a duo in 1996 AT JHS). There were people from our grade and the class below us as well as two of my (tony's) sisters and people who went to JHS with them in the '80s. So throughout the night, it was fun to just throw occasional shout outs to JHS and hear them holler. Nick proposed a toast to the Jamestown "Cougars" but then asked what our mascot really was. Everyone shouted "BLUE JAYS" and at one point I sang the Blue Jay Booster, much to Joey Schmuhl's delight (although she kept requesting "I Want Kathy", which we don't play).
It was a pleasant turn of events that there were no natural disasters this time around. We halfway expected there to be a tornado or severe hailstorm or something of the sort. Earthquake, hurricane, Godzilla, [insert SimCity disaster here (excluding flooding, we've already done that one)].But there wasn't even so much as a famine. Sadly, it seems our powers of devastation have faded.
Tonight was the second round of the Battle for the Basilica. The first round consisted of judges' review of our album and promo sheet. Out of 70 submissions, we were among the top twelve selected to compete in the second round. Twelve bands were split up into four nights of three bands each. One band from each night advances to the finals on June 25, with two of them winning a slot at the Basilica Block Party. This amazing weekend includes such bands as The Black Crowes, The Hold Steady, Tapes 'n Tapes, Counting Crows and the Jayhawks among others.
Junebug fans came out of the woodwork tonight to support us and vote for us. They were dancing and cheering and hollering and having an awesome time -- and so were we. We all felt very positive about this show, and we just banged right through a high-octane set with not a lot of break or banter, just full-on less talk, more rock.
We returned to the Cabooze for a full night of loud rock with Smiling Politely and Cryptic. This show ended up being better than our previous show at the Cabooze. Cryptic has a pretty solid and loyal following and so does Smiling Politely, so there were plenty of folks present.
Other than all that, we hung out in the green room, had a few beers and had some good chats with the other bands and talked more about where we're headed as a band. We're all positive, folks. The dreams are big and we'll keep on chasing them.
We all packed into my (tony's) van and headed to Winona, Minnesota. By "we all" I mean Anthony, Dustin, Liza and me. Nick drove himself. That's one of the bummers of not having a vehicle that fits the band, the gear, and the merch girl. We end up always having to take at least two vehicles. It sucks, especially in a world in which we're trying to be more environmentally conscious. But that's what we did.
We played last tonight and it was another one of those bangin' shows in which we really tried to keep everyone grooving and in the venue, since most of them probably came for GLaGSpeed. We didn't want to be the room broom of the night, if you know what I mean. Like I said before, it was a very cozy room. The stage pretty much just accomodated the drumkit and the amps, with the others standing on the floor in front of it. And boy, was it hot. Luckily, though, there was an open window right next to the stage and from time to time, I could feel a heavenly cool breeze. It was a really fun room, though, and we were sure to tell the staff that we loved it.
Tonight was our first time playing at the Nomad World Pub in Minneapolis. It's a nice place, kind of long and narrow with a stage at the back end. What the stage lacks in width, it makes up for in depth. We had to stagger ourselves in a pretty strange formation in order to all fit, but it all worked out. The sound guy (whose name eludes me) was a perfectly nice guy who helped us out and talked us through it.
Tonight's show was put on by Positively Tangled and Junebug was sort of a last-minute addition. Our previous experience at Stasiu's was mixed, whereas there weren't a lot of people there, but our energy and show were great. It seems that the same thing happened this time as well.
