Junebug Show Diaries: 6/26/10 - Pride 2010 - Loring Park

Saturday, June 26, 2010

6/26/10 - Pride 2010 - Loring Park - Minneapolis

We played again this year at Twin Cities Pride 2010. This festival is such a wonderful display of peace, acceptance and togetherness. I have been to a bunch of festivals, but never have I felt such a great, loving sense of community than I have at Pride in the Twin Cities. There's little to no judgementalism and everyone just wants to have a good time and celebrate life and humanity with other human beings (and some canines, too). People of all ages, shapes, sizes, races, walks-of-life, belief systems, political views, et cetera are present with positive attitudes and open minds. This is, therefore, a perfect crowd for a band whose primary goal it is to spread good feelings and a fun atmosphere.

I (tony) had to work today. But it was okay, I was working AT the festival. My employer, Downtown Dogs, has a booth at Pride and I was operating a lure course for folks' dogs. My shift was over at one o'clock, so I headed over to the Loring Stage, where our friends Yasen Marie were already on stage. I had a quick chat with the stage manager as well as the master of ceremonies, a fabulous drag queen named Gosh Alice Jones, and then we were ready to roll.

We took the stage and received a rousing introduction from Gosh, including a tidbit that we were featured in Who Cares magazine. "Who cares?!? WE DO!" she exclaimed. If only the rest of the world was as enthusiastic as Gosh...

After our first tune, Anthony welcomed the beautiful crowd, warning them that they were a little TOO attractive, a little TOO beautiful. "It's okay," he assured us, "I'll try not to get too excited." There were plenty of others getting excited, however. There was an older man who, during "Casanova," we could tell was just dying to grab the mic and join us. He didn't though. We remember the lesson of Dot Com. But he continued to be enthusiastic, however, and encouraged the crowd to get up and dance with him though "Bad Mamma Jamma."

Anthony introduced "Clone You" using the tamed-down explanation. "It's about loving somebody so much that you want to clone them so you can have two of them... at the same time. Yeeahh, that's it!" Nick interjected, "Or clone yourself so you can watch." "Easy," I butt in. "It is a family show, guys."

Before we started our last tune, I made sure to let everyone know that we are always happy to play this event and that we stand in solidarity with the meaning of this festival. Anthony then described the ultimate dream. Getting back to the planet where you came from and eating some Tollhouse cookies and milk. "Jumpstart My Rocket" finished our set.

The stage and sound crew at this gig were exceptional. Everyone was polite and patient and all around cool. The drunk kit sounded exceptional. Like last year, we had a sign language interpreter, which is both fantastic and surreal. I found myself watching her through much of the set. I kept thinking, that's what our songs look like?

Do any of you guys know who Ross Mathews is? You might know him as "Ross the Intern" from Jay Leno's show. Well, he wasn't present at our set that we know of, but he was at the festival. Both Anthony and I said hello to him. I just figured I'd throw that in there.