2/16/11 - Whiskey Junction - Minneapolis

Set One:
| Pay the Toll to Ride the Junebug Flow | Back in the U.S.S.R. [The Beatles] | Vacation to Oblivion | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Modern Day Fairy Tales | M'Lady | Spring Fever | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Godzilla [Blue Öyster Cult] | Aphrodite | Refrigerator | Last Night | Downtown Liquor Store | Like a Spy (Not the Stalker) | Dr. Phil (part 2, Dr. Phunk) | Cake | Place |

Set Two:
| Freebird [Lynyrd Skynyrd] (partial) | Come Together [The Beatles] | Found My Boogie | Casanova | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Law & Order Theme [Mike Post] | The Date | Say It Ain't So [Weezer] | Damn the Man | Soul Shaker | On the Sidewalk | Crossroads | Runnin' With the Devil [Van Halen] / To the Next Episode / Misty Mountain Hop [Led Zeppelin] | Clone You | Sledgehammer [Peter Gabriel] |

Encore:
| Golden Girls Theme [Andrew Gold]|

Tonight we played at Whiskey Junction. Down the block at the Cabooze, nationally known Galactic was playing. Earlier in the night at the Junction, a band called Soap played a Pre-Galactic party. So apparently, it seemed that Junebug was playing the During-Galactic party... But that didn't matter too much. There were still people at our show. This included, I might add, my mother, sister Laurel and niece Angell. They completely surprised me. I was loading in and I heard someone say, "Hey, is Junebug playing tonight?" It was my family members, who live in North Dakota. They surprised me! Plus, this was my mom's FIRST Junebug show ever. It was a momentous occasion, and I'm glad they made it out.

I'm glad I made it out, too, since they were there. I've been getting pretty sick with a head cold and today it was so bad that if tonight had been simply a rehearsal night, I would have cancelled. But the show must go on, stuffy head, runny nose, sweaty hands and all.

We opened the show with "Pay the Toll" and my kick pedal technical difficulties reared their head again. The dang thing fell apart in the midst of the song, but I was able to jerry-rig it mid-song. MacGuyver strikes again, dudes.

Anthony let the crowd tonight know that rock and roll will never die. It doesn't rust. "You can leave it in the fridge and it won't mold." I added that if you want to, you can use a little bit of jewelry cleaner on it every now and then to prevent tarnishing.

We played "Destiny, She Drives a Rolls" again tonight. However, this was significant since it was the first time we have played it for a Minneapolis crowd.

After "Godzilla" tonight, Anthony warned the crowd to "hide ya kids, hide ya wife." "And hide ya husband," I added.

"We don't write a lot of songs about appliances. But when we do..." "They're winners."

Since my family members were here tonight, we had to oblige their requests. Laurel particularly wanted to hear "Downtown Liquor Store," so we simply had to give in. (I'll tell you a little secret; we were going to play it anyway.) I added a little commentary after the song. "You know that part where we say, 'Now I'm playing blackjack with a two dollar whore because I had the balls to rob the downtown liquor store'?" I asked. "I bet my mom was very proud of me." It seems I was right, since she gave me a big thumbs-up after that.

We played another tune, and then came time to honor the wishes of another family member. My niece Angell really wanted to hear "Dr. Phil," and since we originally had planned on playing it in the second set, we bumped it up for her since they had to turn in early. "This is going out to the three hottest ladies in the room," Anthony said, pointing at my family members' table.

An interesting phenomenon took place tonight that I like to call the reference portion of our program. Someone said something about words to live by. Then Dustin said, "one to grow on." I said, "Now I know, and knowing is half the battle," and then added, "The more you know." "After these messages.. we'll be right back." "The Lakewood Mall." "Sight on Sound!" "Country Furniture really wants your business!" If you know what any of that means, good on ya. If you don't, my apologies for wasting your time.

We played "Place" and then did a set break. It was pretty much okay, too. Because at this point, the crowd who had been there at the beginning had filtered out to the Cabooze for the Galactic show. There were maybe about fifteen people still there, including barstaff (!). Ouch, right? Well, we took our set break around eleven o'clock or so and decided that maybe we'd hang out, get some food, and wait until more folks filtered in. No sense in spending our gold on stage when no one's there to enjoy it. So I visited with my family and some friends that were there. The other boys got some wings, I took more cold medicine, and we laughed and enjoyed one another's friendship. My family got going, since they had an early appointment and driving ahead of them, and we got back onstage around midnight.

As we were getting ready to play, some dude yelled out, "Freebird!" Yeah. "There's always one guy," I said. So we played it. Well, what we know of it, which was the first verse or so and then it fell apart. We've never played it before. So as I said tonight, a lot of people ask for it, "and then we make them sorry." "Everybody begs for it till they get it," Anthony added.

"Casanova" was dedicated to sex tonight. "Bad Mamma Jamma" was dedicated to all the fat chicks in the house. "The Date" was dedicated to all the ganja in Jamaica. It was a night full of dedications.

As the evening went on, more post-Galactic folks were trickling in for a couple more drinks. People were dancing, we were having fun. It was all good. After we finished off the night with "Sledgehammer," the remaining crowd began chanting for one more song. So being the good friends we are, appreciating all of the wonderful people still there, we played the Golden Girls Theme to thank them for being a friend. At the end of the night, I was exhausted and still sick, but it was a darn fun night, in spite of it. Good times.