7/10/10 - Great Aberdeen Pig Out - Aberdeen, S.D.

Set: | Come Together [The Beatles] | Found My Boogie | Modern Day Fairy Tales | Casanova | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Chosen Ones | Jumpstart My Rocket |

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And so it was, that Junebug returned to the Pig Out two years later in 2010. This year, the festival was held in Aberdeen's Central Park, rather than the traditional Main Street. Also different, there were no cookoffs or eating contests... which is what I thought the Pig Out was named after. So, it's pretty much become a music festival now, with some vendors. At least that's what I saw. The face of the fest is changing. Whether it's for the better remains to be seen. Oddly, there's no shortage of controversy in that town over anything dealing with enjoyment for young people. A few years ago, there was a free festival-like show in Melgaard Park that we were a part of, and people wrote nasty letters to the editor about not being able to get their Sunday nap because of all the noise in the park. Likewise, with this year's Pig Out, there were letters to the editor about the swear words coming from the fest. So this is what the town is dealing with in putting on music festivals. There are all sorts of unnecessary politics going on in the community and among the organizers. It's goofy. But we decided we were just going to get up on stage, play our hearts out and have a good time. Because that's what it's about -- having fun.

Due to a last-minute schedule change, we were taken off the main stage, and put on the secondary stage. It seems that the promoters accidentally left Jon Wayne & the Pain off of the lineup schedule and they had to scramble to fix it the day before. We ended up with a later slot, though, so that actually made the change a good thing. There were more people in the park at the later time than the original time.

It was a hot one, for sure. There were two stages, and they were both arranged in east corners of the park, which meant that the sun was beating down on them the whole time. The stage we played had a black floor, so that helped absorb the heat and turn the performance area into a sauna, which is exactly what you want on a 95º day.

We did a very brief line-check while the band on the main stage was finishing up. Then when the mighty Scott Sauer behind the soundboard gave us the signal, we started right up. "We're Junebug, we're gonna rock and roll you," Anthony announced, "then kiss you goodbye." We opened with the Beatles' "Come Together" and got the party started.

After the palates were whetted with a few tunes, Anthony announced that our brand new album is now available -- at this very show! It's the first time it has been available, and we decided to give away a free CD to the first person to run down to the foot of the stage and tell us the name of the third track on our first album, Share. The answer is, of course, "Share." Nobody seemed to know it and Dustin said that was a good sign. In the end, a young man in the crowd did know the answer, so he got a free copy of Modern Day Fairy Tales.

As I said before, it was a very hot day today. So I let the festival-goers know that across the street Wesley and the Jones family were selling cool, tasty and refreshing lemonade in an effort to raise money to go on their mission trip to Moldova. "My friend lived in Moldova for awhile," Dustin said. "Mine, too," I added. Dustin explained, "It's the same friend." Chuckles.

Anthony introduced the next few tunes telling the crowd that "we're gonna get funky. It's okay though," he went on. "We okayed it with the City. We filled out a funk license." Bam!

It was a good, short, concise set, designed to keep the crowd wanting more. Which is just what they'll get tonight at the Red Rooster. We saw some old friends today, including Junebug's former bassist, Josh Rieck. He was playing with the Sherpa String Syndicate, and we got to visit with him a bit. The Pig Out was good, if a little disorganized. And a security guy tried to take my video camera. And we almost didn't get our full compensation. But it all turned out well in the end. The Pig Out was good.

Photos courtesy Stargazing Photography