Set:
| M'Lady | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Found My Boogie | Last Night | Crossroads | Chosen Ones | Clone You | Damn the Man | Jumpstart My Rocket |
This is pretty much the coolest thing we've done up to this point. I knew this when I arrived. I pulled my van into the loading area, parked it, and opened the rear door. I grabbed my snare drum and a rack tom and walked up the loading ramp to ask the stage manager where to put my stuff. He pointed me to the correct spot and as I headed back for the next load, I saw about four or five guys all carrying my gear up the ramp. I thanked them out loud and they replied, "Hey, it's our job." When I got back to the van, Dustin was standing there with his arms up and shoulders shrugged, saying "I didn't even get a chance to grab anything!" So basically, the point I'm getting at is that roadies are a nice luxury, and these guys treated us like rock stars.
After we loaded in, we got word that sound checks were running late and we wouldn't be needed for a while yet. So we picked up our "All-Access" lanyards and went elsewhere for a little while. By the time we all got back, the Jayhawks where soundchecking and we got to sit on the grass on watch that. Or watch from backstage, or on the stage, whatever. All-Access, you see. We also had a nice little tent backstage with our name on it, featuring snacks and a cooler filled with waters, sodas, energy drinks and beers. We also had access to our own port-a-potties backstage, so we never had to wait in line. It was sweet. Furthermore, our all-access passes got us into the catering tent to eat a very nice meal. They called us sir, and also treated us like rock stars.
It was also way cool being listed on the same bill as The Black Crowes, Mat Kearney and the Jayhawks. Anthony said that one of his most prized possessions now is a picture of him standing by a sign that includes both Junebug and The Black Crowes.
When it was time to start the festivities, we took the stage and Marshall from Cities 97 introduced us, saying, "These guys are a lot of fun. They're a great party band." He was one of the judges at the Minnesota Bands competition that got us here in the first place. It's nice to have him on our side. When we started our set, Anthony exclaimed "Cities 97 thought we were cool -- who are we to argue?"
Our energy was high and we were pretty well focused. Unfortunately, the early portion of our set was plagued with technical difficulties. During "Poet", Dustin's guitar pooped out and he had to frantically work on it on stage. During the breakdown at the end of the song, Nick had the presence of mind to cover Dustin's part, since his output was silent. We started "Bad Mamma Jamma" even though he wasn't completely set, and then my vocal mic went out. I have to give kudos to the stage crew, who ran right out in the middle of the song and worked on it fervently, resulting in it being fixed. Again, roadies are a nice luxury. Dustin eventually solved the problem and was good to go. But hey, we're Junebug. It wouldn't have been normal if there hadn't been some kind of issues happening.
We were told earlier in the day that during our set the Basilica bells were going to chime. We were prepared for this, and toward the end of "Found My Boogie", sure enough, there they went. (See the "Boogie" YouTube video below.) Apparently they weren't too terribly out of place, since an audience member was heard saying, "Whoa, when I heard that I thought it was part of the song." I made the remark that this was a Junebug first -- being accompanied by church bells. Dustin then played the riff from "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC and Anthony said we might run into legal issues with that one. Someone offstage mentioned spiritual issues. But none of us have been sued or struck down yet.
Tonight, "Clone You" was dedicated to the amazing stage and sound crews. We're not used to this kind of attention and treatment and these guys were earning their pay. They were all very personable and kind and we would like to clone them so we can take their clones with us where we go. Then somebody, I don't know who, said into a mic, "Thanks for coming out and support the band that didn't get paid." That's us.
It was cool. We had a good reaction. People stopped to listen to us and stayed for our whole set. People bought merch. People cheered. It as a truly great experience.
Finally, later in the night, I wanted to check out the Black Crowes. Well, I took my handy-dandy all-access pass and went backstage and watched part of their show from on their stage. Rock star treatment, I say. Then, when I was exiting their port-a-potty at the end of their show, I almost literally bumped into them on their way off stage. While I was exiting the toilet. That's rock 'n' roll.
View the photo gallery, shot by Junebug's official Basilica Block Party photographer, Kelli Wencl.
Enjoy these YouTube videos from this show uploaded by Heather Everhart.
Part of winning the Battle for the Basilica was getting TV spots on the morning news. Both Junebug and Section 30 made appearances on local stations, with Junebug showing up on Channel 5 and Channel 9.
This was our fourth in a series of four shows in a row this week. Tonight was the Rising Sounds Local Band Showcase. Rising Sounds is a show on Cities Live Internet Radio. We've been guests on the show before and we recently wrote and recorded an opening theme song for them. So when Dickey and C-Love ("champions of local music" as Nick said) told us they were putting together a local band showcase at the Fine Line, we were all over it. In fact, for the second song of the set, we decided to play the aforementioned theme song. It lasts eighteen seconds, so why not.
"Crossroads" was again dedicated to the lovely and departed Farrah Fawcett tonight. But before we got a chance for that, Dustin said that the next tune, "Poet (Who Didn't Know It)" would going out to our fallen brother who was a poet and didn't know it, Billy Mays. Now this upset me greatly, and I said that I don't know if I can handle looking at my Mighty Putty again without breaking down. And I have a broken chair leg to fix.
It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect and there was love in the air. This was Twin Cities Pride '09 and Junebug was playing the main stage. The whole of Loring Park in Minneapolis was full of vendors, political action groups, church groups, performers, onlookers, and amazing and diverse people.
This was a fun festival setup. There were a good number of people parked out on blankets and lawn chairs, while others walked past and filtered in and out. By the end of the set, probably about 150 had parked their butts in the general vacinity to hear the music. All together, there were probably about 800 to 1,000 people who heard us today. It all seemed to be a good reaction, too.
Tonight was the Final round of the Basilica Block Party's Minnesota Band competition. The first round consisted of Cities 97 crew selecting twelve bands from over seventy. The second round consisted of four groups of three bands with one band from each night advancing based upon audience vote. Tonight's finals consited of these four bands performing for a panel of judges. Additionally, voting would take place and the top two vote-getters earn bonus points. The two bands with the highest scores win slots at the Basilica Block Party. I (tony) am happy to announce that even though we didn't get any audience vote bonus points, we got second place, behind Section 30, earning a place on the Basilica stage on Friday July 10!
We all showed up on time, we got on stage and played a set at O'Gara's in Saint Paul. When we were done playing, we listened to the other bands and then went home. I have now said all that needs to be said about this show. Was it our worst ever? Only those present will ever know.
