Wednesday, May 31, 2006

5/30/06 - Broken Axe - Moorhead, Minn.

May 30, 2006
The Broken Axe
Moorhead, MN

Soundcheck:
| Piper |

Set One:
| Found My Boogie | Modern Day Fairy Tales | Raise Your Voices | Casanova | Pay the Toll to Ride the Junebug Flow | Piper | Downtown Liquor Store | Cake | Li'l Red Riding Hood [Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs] |

Set Two:
| Poet Who Didn't Know It | Share | Potion | Spring Fever | Place | Every Rose Has Its Thorn [Poison] / To the Next Episode | It | Like a Spy | Refrigerator |

Set Three:
| Underneath the Sweet Love | I'm a Bad MammaJamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Back in the U.S.S.R. [The Beatles] | Clone You | The Date | Chosen Ones | Aphrodite | Jumpstart My Rocket | Big Holy Spatula Jam | Bullet in Your Head | Damn the Man |

Encore:
| Black Betty [Ram Jam] | Bumblebee |


First off - the Broken Axe is a great venue. It's a new bar in Moorhead, Minn. that used to be part of a zoo built in 1939 by the federal Works Progress Administration following the institution of president Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" (specifically the so-called "Alphabet Acts") as a means of combatting the economic effects of the Great Depression, namely the loss of jobs, by hiring mostly unskilled blue-collar workers in various diverse construction projects. But less history lesson, more rawk.

The Broken Axe's stage is literally above the bar. All the gear needs to be hauled up a narrow staircase and the stage is on the open second story above the bar. If you were to drop something off of the front of the stage, it would actually hit the bartenders on the heads. Dustin even offered to stage dive if people called their friends. Long story short, it didn't happen. Anyway, there is a sound guy and a lighting guy and it all turns out looking and sounding really good.

The show started tonight with Kelsey Lee, an old friend from high school. She played the opening set and we love her as usual. We took the stage with "Found My Boogie" and rawked good and hard right off the bat. The first set consisted mainly of older, upbeat Junebug material that we had fun with. The second and third sets were more rawkin' and funky and the crowd seemed to really get into them. We sold a few EPs and ate some great food. We also watched half of "Roger Waters: The Wall Live in Berlin" on their TVs before the show.

The crowd roller coastered, big then small, etc. but it seemed pretty good for a TUESDAY night. We had a great time and the Broken Axe is certainly a venue we would love to return to in the near future.

NOTE: The cover of "Black Betty" was not planned. And we don't even know the song. It's just that Anthony was told we'd get free shots if we played it. I don't know if the shots happened.

Tonight's show was otherwise noteworthy on two counts: This is the first show we have ever played in the great state of Minnesota and we debuted a brand new song, "Share".

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

5/29/06 - 10,000 Skates - Aberdeen, S.D.

May 29, 2006
10,000 Skates Festival

Melgaard Skate Park
Aberdeen, SD

Set:
| Aphrodite | I'm a Bad MammaJamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Casanova | Back in the U.S.S.R. [The Beatles] | Jumpstart My Rocket | The Date | Refrigerator | Clone You |


One month after the last outdoor Melgaard show we all got together for a second. This one was called "10,000 Skates" and was organized by Ryan Clay and Josh Andrews of YAPA, and our very own Anthony Bergman from the Donkey store in Aberdeen. There was a skate competition and bands played on a stage comprised of a flatbed trailer. There were concessions provided by Thatzza Pizza and the Coffee Smith. It was a great time. Young and old came out to enjoy this event and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.

Junebug took the stage around 4:30 p.m., just as the sun was coming over the trees and beating down on the area in which we played. The crowd was great and they were ready to boogie. There were a lot of familiar faces today (including Drew - ROCK ON) and many new faces to us as well. We even sold two EPs. Sweet.

We debuted two NEW SONGS today - "Aphrodite" and "Refrigerator". They both went pretty well and we're excited to show these songs to a Fargo audience tomorrow night.

We were joined by guests on two songs today. First, "Casanova" featured B.J. Clark with a little freestyle hip-hop and "The Date" featured our dear friend Elizabeth Andrews on violin.

What a fun show. Everyone should write letters to the editor of the paper letting the people of Aberdeen know that this kind of event is welcome and appreciated. Do it before the old people complain first.

See you in Fargo tomorrow night!