Junebug Show Diaries: August 2009

Sunday, August 30, 2009

8/29/09 - Howie's - La Crosse, Wis.

Tonight, we piled into vehicles and headed down to La Crosse, Wisconsin. This was our first show we have played across the Wisconsin border in cheese-head territory. It was totally all right. Everyone was super nice and super cool and we felt totally welcome. Howie's even put our name on the marquee. It was all good.

Howie's is a pretty cool place. It's split into two sections - bar and music venue - and it's surprisingly well sound proofed between the two. The stage area is sizeable and the decor is nice. It's got a sort of wooden, wilderness lodge motif.

I got there early and my wife and I went to dinner with Greg and Mandy Parmeter, some college friends who currently live in La Crosse. We went to a Mexican restaurant just a couple blocks away and it was tasty.

The show started off with the solo acoustic stylings of Nicholas Bjerke, followed by our friends My Lady Four, who will be kicking off their national tour in just about a week or so. Then it was us. We do what we can.

It was a decent road show, I think. It wasn't too heavily attended, but there were enough people there to make it fun. Greg and Mandy brought some friends from the community theater world. And there were just folks there wanting to hear live music. Who are we to argue. It was energetic and it was fun. Hopefully we made a good impression. I wouldn't mind going back.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

8/15/09 - Murphy's - Arnold's Park, Iowa

The whole Okoboji area is a lot of fun, with a lot to do. We had the entire day to just relax and enjoy the lake and corresponding festivities. My wife and I decided to see all we could see while we were there. The previous day, we purchased unlimited ride bracelets at Arnold's Park (the historic amusement park the town was named after). Today, we decided to take a boat tour of the lake on the equally historic Queen II. It's a replica of the original Queen steam boat that would take folks on tours of the lake in the early 20^th Century. The ride took a couple of hours (it's a big lake) and we purchased popcorn and Coronas to go along with the hot summer day. After the boat ride, we visited the Maritime Museum, which featured a boat that had sunk in the 1940s and was raised recently, revealing how well preserved it remained on the bottom of the lake. We then saw the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which included a Grammy Award won by the band Slipknot and artifacts relating to the place crash on "The Day the Music Died," among other things relating to Iowa music. I registered Junebug as a musician visitor and we moved on to the mini-donuts stand just down the hill from Murphy's, our weekend venue.

Liza and I returned to our hotel room and invited the other Junebug boys to come over for a beer, hang out and go grab a bite before the show. Nick was with family, who were camping out that weekend, but the others obliged. We went to the Taco House, which was quite good. We then headed to the venue.

It was another great show. There were more folks out tonight than last night. Last night, most of the crowd showed up after we were done, just in time to party with the Isles, but tonight, there was a good number of people present for our set as well. I felt like tonight's set was way better and more energetic than last night's. I was more used to D.J.'s drum kit after playing a whole set on it, so that was part of it. I got off the stage at the end of the night with an awesome attitude and feeling. Nick, however, said he felt last night's was better. So it's open to interpretation, I suppose.

Even if we weren't quite as good as last night, it was still a good show. You can always tell it's a good show when there are a couple ladies down front, hoochie dancing all over one another. It's fun for them, it's entertaining for us, so it's really a win-win situation. That happened tonight. And it got other dancing down front, so it can't be bad.

Then, the Isles again kicked our asses and took our names, because they are freaking amazing. Like I needed to tell you that.

After the show was over, the sound guy, whose name is Nick, praised us and told us he really liked us. He told us a bit about his musical projects and then moved into telling ghost stories about Murphy's. He took us into the basement to show us a creepy room in which everyone feels uneasy and in which the lights turn on and off routinely. They sometimes hear odd sounds coming out of that room and it freaks all the employees out all the time. I can report that nothing paranormal happened when we were down there, but he sure made us feel uneasy in the moment. But we got over it. We went back upstairs and BSed with the Isles peeps and then headed for our sleep places.

In the morning, Liza and I decided to go to the beach. As is usually the case when we're on vacation, the day we chose to go to the beach ended up being unseasonably cold. But that didn't stop me. I wanted to stand in the lake. So I did. Then it was on the road, back to Minneapolis, our home sweet home. It really was a great getaway weekend in a nice little resort town. We just happend to play some music while there. I'd recommend Okoboji as a nice place to spend a weekend.

As a post script, Dustin shot a video of what his and Anthony's night was like in their hotel room in Okoboji. He and Anthony were both half-asleep. I saw it once. When he shares it with me again, I'll share it with you.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

8/14/09 - Murphy's - Arnold's Park, Iowa

Arnold's Park, Iowa is a small resort town located right next to the town of Okoboji, right on Lake Okoboji. The town has a rich history, with an amusement park that is over one hundred years old, complete with a rickety wooden roller coaster (see the video below). Spending any time in this area gives you the idea that it's really only a summer town. The place is probably pretty near deserted in the winter months. But I suppose there's probably decent ice fishing on the lake, so I might not know what the hell I'm talking about.

The Isles asked us to play a weekend in Arnold's Park with them at a bar called Murphy's. Well, we'd be crazy to turn down a weekend on the road with The Isles, because those cats know how to put on a show and we always have a good time with them.

We knew as soon as we walked in that it was going to be a good weekend. Right after we entered the bar, our eyes were drawn to a television screen which was playing Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle, right at a bare boobies scene. If that's not a good omen, nothing is. Come on. Boobies.

We loaded our gear in. My gear was minimal since we were sharing The Isles' drum kit. All I loaded in was my cymbal bag, stick bag, and merch box, then I was free to go relax until showtime.

My wife and I grabbed some nachos and beers at the bar next door. I forget the name of it, but it was some Texas grill type place. Dustin later joined us, right up until our call time.

It was a pretty solid show. I personally felt a bit shaky tonight, but I was assured that it all sounded good from the crowd. The energy was fine, and people were there drinking and enjoying the atmosphere. It was pretty typical as far as Junebug sets go. Nice and steady and bangin'. Nothing too abnormal to report.

After we were done, The Isles started and the place packed out. They pretty much ruled, like they always do. Nobody gets me dancing at shows the way they do. I had a blast during their set.

We're both here tomorrow night, too. We'll check out some of the sites and recreation tomorrow and then rock some more tomorrow night.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

8/12/09 - Uptown Bar - Minneapolis

Tonight we played a rare mid-week show, supporting touring Canadian band, Violent Kin. It was the Uptown Bar, and it was Wednesday, baby! That being said, there was a pretty good crowd there considering it was Wednesday night. Enough to make it worthwhile, anyhow.

When we took stage, Anthony introduced us saying that at our last show we were compared to a cross-between Weezer and Frank Zappa (which is a true story - we were told that). He then went on to explain that he felt it was a bit in error. Anthony feels were are more like Hanson meets Rush. Regardless of which is correct, they're all big shoes to fill as I (tony) pointed out.

We had a good, solid set of bangers. Nothing crazy happened. There were a moments of dead air, but whaddaya gonna do. After "Clone You", Dustin treated the title of the song as an insult. Instead of saying "F___ you," he said, "Clone you!" Here's hoping that it catches on, because I quite like it, honestly.

I've been doing this thing lately in which I take a picture on my phone at some point in the show and upload it to popular social networking sites, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. So those at home can get a real-time update. Whatever. I did that tonight. The picture appears here as well.

It was a fun show. It was a fairly uneventful show as far as Junebug shows go. We loaded in, played a show, loaded off, and enjoyed the other bands. Mission accomplished and accomplished well.

Post script: We had no way of knowing at the time, but this was the final show that Junebug played at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis before its unfortunate closing in November of 2009. The Uptown gave us our first booked show in Minneapolis and they were always welcoming. Furthermore, they always recorded the shows at the sound board and made a CD available to us. We'll miss the place.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

8/7/09 - O'Gara's Garage - St. Paul

Tonight we were invited by Twin Cities band (and all around nice guys), Jug, to open the show at O'Gara's Garage in Saint Paul. Fresh off the Fox 9 Battle of the Bands, we were ready to rock full force with a full set.

The setup process was fraught with drama. I (tony) had been made aware that there was going to be one drum kit to share. It's not my preferred situation, as you probably know, but I was resigned to it. However, I still had all my gear in my car from last night's show at the Fine Line. When I arrived, Jug's drummer and I were in discussion and I got the idea that though he offered the use of his kit, he understandably didn't really want stuff moved around too much. He mentioned the possibility of me setting up my kit in front of his to alleviate all discomforts. I thought this was a good idea, so I specifically asked the sound guy if this was something that would be okay. He said it was fine. In fact, he said it was peachy. I took him at his word. I loaded my gear in, put it all together, and when Jug finished their soundcheck, Soundguy told me to set up. So I did. Then when it came time to mic the kit, apparently the sky fell. Soundguy seemed upset about something. He informed me impatiently that he only had one set of lines for drum mics (Jug's drummer had his own mics) and he indicated that I was making his life difficult and that we were a pain in his ass. I told him that I didn't know about the line situation but that was why I had asked ahead of time. One of Jug's guys offered to bring in his own cables, but Soundguy quickly shot this down. He continued laboring, sighing and muttering things about either me or the situation (I didn't catch which) being stupid. I said, "I asked if this was okay and you said yes." "Yeah, but I thought you'd think it was too much of a hassle and not do it," he replied. "Well, you said it was okay, man. I'm just going by what you said. That's why I asked." I went on to explain that had he said it wasn't cool, we would have figured something else out. Nick and Dustin tried to smoothe things over by telling him that in putting on a good show, we're all on the same team, but he said he felt he was on the opposition and angrily said again that we were a pain in the ass. After he told me that he damn well better hear some excellent drumming, we got the show underway. It was too much drama, really. But afterward, I think he felt bad. He told me I sounded good and he later conveyed apologies to Nick for his attitude. So that counts for a lot. You have to give him credit for that. He also told Anthony that we sounded like Weezer meets Zappa. We all agreed that we'll take that.

It was a pretty decent set. Sadly, I'm not too sure if the crowd wasn't too much into it. But we're pros. When the chips are down, we bring it. We give our all no matter what, because you never know who is going to hear you. We rocked it, rolled it, funked it and everything in between.

We played "Place" tonight, which has become a bit of a live rarity. We went for it, and during the intro I was able to snap a photo of Dustin and upload it to Facebook/MySpace from the stage before I came in on drums. The picture can be seen above.

Our band has been cursed with string breakage lately. Tonight it was Anthony. It threw him off a bit psychologically, but he still sounded good. It just diminished some of his morale, I think. But we finished out our set with "Damn the Man" and "Jumpstart", two solid, rockin' tunes.

Tonight's show was actually pretty solid. We took the negative energy from before the show and transformed it into gooey, chewy rock goodness. Our energy was really good, as usual, in spite of any setbacks. Anyone who chose not to come out to this one truly missed something good. Just sayin'.

Friday, August 7, 2009

8/6/09 - Fox 9 Battle of the Bands - Fine Line - Minneapolis

Set:
| I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Clone You |

Tonight was the big Fox 9 Battle of the Bands finale at the Fine Line. After five weeks of voting often and hard, every hour on the hour, every day of the week, this was it! We were totally excited and pumped and ready to walk away with the studio time, retail CD package and gear package. We had worked hard getting people to vote and getting the word out, and this was it!

I (tony) arrived to find Nick already present and loaded in. I found out we were soundchecking last because we were starting first. Yep. We were opening the show in a six-band battle of the bands. If any of you have ever participated in one of these things, you know that's pretty much an instant death sentence. No matter, we kept our chins up, laughed about it, enjoyed some free pizza and water and resolved to still kick some ass.

We had our two songs ready. You see, when we earned our spot through thousands of votes in the voting rounds, we were then informed that each band would get exactly two songs to wow the audience and judges. If you know us, you know we're more of a longer-form band. We work best in a full-length album situation or a full set, even if it's only a set of five songs. With that, we're able to show who we are and show all of you a good time. What we don't necessarily excel at is proving who we are in two songs or less.

At any rate, we had our two songs ready and the man announced us. We took the stage to near silence. There were some cheers, but aside from our loyal Junebug cheering section, they were just polite. I enthusiastically said into the mic, "All right! Fox 9 Battle of the Bands, huh?" Silence. I'm talking near pin-drop, cricket whisper silence. I burst into laughter at the sheer absurdity of what was going on. Here we were, on the Fine Line stage, with eighteen-year-olds and parents staring holes through us, scrutinizing us before we had even begun. We had a number of people there supporting us, but a majority of the attendees were there to see other bands (one in particular, more on that later) and every band was completely different.

And so it was that we started our first song - "I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's)". Now, as you may know, this is a funky song. People like to get down to this one. I can't remember an audience in the history of Junebug that did not at least tap their feet to Bad Mamma Jamma. It's one of those that requires you to move in some form or another. Oh, but last night's concertgoers could not be swayed. It's the first time I've ever seen an audience standing completely stock still with arms crossed and mouths crooked during that song. I mean, you'd think it was a song about poop and boobies the way these people seemed to disapprove. No matter. We kept our energy high and we rocked it out the way we always do. Becuase nothing was going to get us down. We were there to have fun, even if all the night's evidence was against us. And have fun we did. Heck after Bad Mamma Jamma, the crowd even applauded. Though, aside from our loyal Junebug cheering section, I think it was simply good sportsmanship.

Anthony introduced "Clone You" by saying something about, "the person you have on your arm at this moment... what if you had two of them?" I then added, "Imagine the possibilities!" A bunch of people chuckled, but one older lady in particular had a very sour look on her face at that description. It actually made me happy. It wasn't the idea of three-way sex with yourself possibly being offensive to her that made me happy, but rather, that we actually elicited some form of emotion from this particular segment of the crowd. That was a plus.

I would say that "Clone You" went off without a hitch, but that simply isn't true. Nick's setup had a technical difficulty and his bass completely cut out at one point. He fixed it though, like a pro. Before Nick's malfunction, I actually hit myself in the face with a drum stick and dropped a beat. I know that Dustin noticed. I'm not sure if anyone else did. But the judges most likely did. Whatevah.

We played our two songs, determined to have fun and that's what we did. We stayed positive and all that. We listened to the other bands and enjoyed a couple of drinks while we visited with a number of showgoers.

Eventually the final band played and the judges went to their deliberating. After hearing the other bands, and knowing how our "set" went, we weren't really too expectant of anything. Out of six bands, there were three places to win. Third place went to Steve Sullivan and the Factory, a talented blues/rock band. Second place went to F.A.I.T.H., my personal favorite performer of the night. They had incredible energy and their rock was good. Her bassist also happened to be Reuben Rodriguez, a dude we knew from Aberdeen. It was good to see him.

First place went to Select 3. You see, there was a talent agency that decided they wanted to put together a musical performance group. They held auditions and selected three (get it) fellows to be the focal point of the band. There is also a drummer and a bassist, but they mostly hang out in the lower lit background area of the stage while the three other fellows sing and play guitar and/or keyboard up front. If you want a good idea of what's going on, think of the Jonas Brothers or any other sort of Disney-esque, sugary, make your teeth hurt kind of act. They had the eighteen-year-olds and older ladies in the palm if their collective hand. They wowed the crowd and evidently, the judges.

Not appearing on the winners' platform were well-established and celebrated reggae/hip-hop act, Dred I Dread (whose singer, Peewee Dread, was so kind as to offer me a blessing in the stairwell) and both Section 30 and Junebug (each of which played the Basilica Block Party earlier in the summer).

Once we got into the night, we didn't really expect to win. We were hoping for a place in the top three, but we didn't count on it. The crowd was very torn at the results and very vocal about it as well. I personally did not participate in any kind of shouting or hollering, but I heard things, let me tell you. The front section of the crowd was very pleased with the winner, but as I worked my way toward the back of the room, there were some very unpleasant reactions as well. Shouted and softly spoken negative comments were heard, along with both cheers and boos. A number of folks disagreed with the judges, quite obviously. It was too much drama for me, so I booked it out of there.

So that's how it turned out, folks. It was an experience. And that's what life and rock 'n' roll are all about. The experiences, whether awesome, crappy, or just odd, are what makes up this whole crazy thing. Thanks for all your votes, people. For reals. We would not have had this experience without the love, time, energy, and support you've doled out to us. You people are loyal and we love you. You make it worth rocking. We'll keep it up if you will.

Monday, August 3, 2009

8/3/09 - North Metro TV Studio - Blaine, Minn.

This was a fun thing we did. I (tony) had been cruising the musician listings at Craigslist and I came across North Metro TV in Blaine looking for a musical act for their monthly "Inside Entertainment" program. I responded and they felt we were a good fit. And so it was that we convened at their television studio and set up our gear. I arrived a bit, I might add, but it wasn't too late. I was still set up and ready before the shooting was scheduled to begin.

We met Ben, Damian and Danika, the hosts of the show, and chatted a bit off-camera about public television stations, the Twin Cities music scene and the Basilica Block Party. Everybody, crew included, were perfectly friendly and totally cool. We got a real good vibe off of everyone and they all made us feel very welcome and comfortable.

"Inside Entertainment" isn't a live show, but rather it's prerecorded. When everyone was set and things were to begin, we taped all the bumpers all in a row. We did roughly thirty seconds of four different songs ("Chosen Ones," "Last Night," "Found My Boogie," and "Moon Over the Water") that were used during the program when the show went to and from commercial breaks. We had to decide decent starting and ending points for each song clip. It was easier than I thought it would be and it went well, with the exception of "Last Night". I think Anthony forgot the point at which we were going to end and he kept playing for a couple extra seconds after the rest of us had stopped.

After we completed the bumper clips, the hosts went on to do the show, which was made up primarily of movie reviews and taped interviews with personalities from the films reviewed. During this time, we sat in the studio and observed the taping for a bit, then went to the parking lot and enjoyed a tasty beverage.

When that portion of the taping was complete, we went back to the performance area and pounded out "Bad Mamma Jamma" with a vengeance. Following that, Ben Hayle, one of the hosts of "Inside Entertainment", interviewed Anthony in the performance area. He asked about the Basilica Block Party, fast food, and the origins of the band. Following the interview, Ben threw it back to us to play them out with "Poet (Who Didn't Know It)".

It was a very fun evening and we enjoyed it greatly. Doing TV shows is always fun, and we very much appreciated this opportunity. We had a great time.

Junebug Show Diaries