Set One:
| Good Vibes | A Junebug Christmas | Found My Boogie | Back in the U.S.S.R. [The Beatles] | Hell-Bent Woman | Last Night | Godzilla [Blue Öyster Cult] | On the Sidewalk | The Date | Spring Fever | Moon Over the Water | Refrigerator | Like a Spy (Not the Stalker) | Downtown Liquor Store | | With a Little Help From My Friends [The Beatles / Joe Cocker] | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls |
Set Two:
| Poet (Who Didn't Know) | Modern Day Fairy Tales | Vacation to Oblivion | Come Together [The Beatles] | Casanova | M'Lady | Golden Girls Theme [Andrew Gold] | I Am the Walrus [The Beatles] | Crossroads | Law & Order Theme [Mike Post] | Runnin' With the Devil [Van Halen] / To the Next Episode / Misty Mountain Hop [Led Zepplin] | Jumpstart My Rocket | Aphrodite | Damn the Man | Soul Shaker | Clone You | Sledgehammer [Peter Gabriel] |
Encore:
| I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Dr. Phil (Part Two, Dr. Phunk) | Say It Ain't So [Weezer] |
Tonight was our mighty return to the excellent Sixth Avenue Gallery in Aberdeen, South Dakota. The show was billed as being both Junebug and Aberdeen's own lounge lizard Frankie Diamond, Jr. Frankie was supposed to come out of retirement tonight for a special show, but in what some would call typical showbiz fashion, the superstar cancelled at the last minute with little to no explanation. Diamond's people could not be reached for comment. Luckily, local singer-songwriter and a former Blue Orange band mate of mine (tony's), Will Brown, showed up to fill the slot and open the night.
When it was time for our set to start, there were various announcements being played over the P.A. system as if they were coming from a hospital or something, paging various doctors with familiar names to various hospital departments. Such as, "Dr. Bergman to gastrointerology, please. Dr. Anthony Bergman to gastrointerology." It all made sense, however, when the final announcement was "Dr. Junebug to the Sixth Avenue Gallery stage, please." The theme from television's ER played and we all entered the stage area in scrubs, surgical masks and rubber gloves. We kicked into an extended version of "Good Vibes" and the show was underway. Of course, throughout the night we would continue to make references to surgery or being a doctor or other such clever things. "How many of you came from the hospital tonight?" Because that's what we do.
Tonight's show was accompanied by the visual art of Nurse Rachel. Our friend Rachel Blazinski from Minneapolis was at this show, creating visual art, painting while using our performance as inspiration. She, of course, was wearing scrubs as well as a stethoscope. Because just as we are all obviously medical doctors who play instruments in this band, Rachel is obviously a registered nurse who paints alongside us.
For the second song of the night, Anthony explained that the last time we were here we should have played the next song, but didn't because it slipped our minds. But tonight we remembered. And so it was that we played the vulgar "A Junebug Christmas" tonight. In March. It went over well as expected.
After a couple more tunes, we debuted a brand new song. Actually we played it last night in Minneapolis, but this is the second time we've ever played it for an audience and the first for Aberdeen. It's called "Hell-Bent Woman" and it's a rocker. We've still got some minor kinks to work out, but we're rockin' it. It'll be included on the Beards project.
Next we played the extended jam-out version of "Last Night." Located on the stage when we arrived tonight was a piano. Now, we don't usually use piano live, but Dustin was inspired. During the "You shouldn't have gone to sleep at nine" part, he started banging out the chords on the piano. It was actually pretty amazing. It wasn't miked, so all you heard of it was the natural room noise, but since it's a quiet part of the song it worked. It was great.
We announced tonight that Brandon would be offering free mammograms and Dustin would be offering free proctal exams. Doctor humor. Like I said, we're geniuses.
We played "Godzilla" tonight, which is admittedly kind of a kickass song. But halfway through it, I realized something. I hope no one else made the connection, but I started feeling kind of bad that we were yelling, "There goes Tokyo!" in light of the very recent earthquake and tsunami destruction in Japan. Now, of course we didn't think of this ahead of time, and like I said, I hope no one else made the connection either. The song is about a giant lizard attacking the city, not a natural disaster. Regardless... sorry, Japan.
We played a chill out section of the set with "On the Sidewalk," "The Date," and "Spring Fever." Afterward, Anthony said that spring was on its way. Everyone was excited. I anxiously asked the crowd, "Do you have a fever?!?" Cheers of acknowledgement. "Well we have the cure! We're doctors for chrissakes!" various scattered chuckles. "I've been waiting all night to pull that one out." My career in comedy continues.
For example, during "Refrigerator," at the part where everyone stops and then I yell "two, three, four," I first said, "I'm a gynecologist." See what I did there? I referenced the evening's theme. Brilliant.
After "Like a Spy (Not the Stalker)" Dustin said that it was part of our court sentencing that we have to play that song at every show. I pointed out that "Downtown Liquor Store" was part of our other court sentence. During said song, It was a beautiful sound when we cut out and the crowd yelled, "to drink himself to death!" We love that enthusiastic participation. Good on ya.
Next, we revived a cover tune that we used to play in the old Aberdeen days that used to go over well amongst the beer-drinkin' crowd. The old Beatles / Joe Cocker standard "With a Little Help From My Friends." As it turns out, it's still a crowd pleaser. Who knew? Apparently Anthony did.
We took a brief break and came back to rock 'em with that 2008 favorite, "Poet (Who Didn't Know It)." We plowed through a bunch more tunes and had a local rap artist (whose name eludes me) join us on "Casanova." The rock continued through a few more tunes and the crowd rocked with us. We had some girl asking for couple songs or something. Then when we acknowledged her request, she apparently changed her mind. She didn't want that crap. So we hit her over the head with our brand new version of "I Am the Walrus" by the Beatles. And let me tell you, I'm really happy with how this one is turning out. I really think we rocked it hard, and I kind of didn't want it to end. I could have played that song all night, regardless of whether everyone else would have been on board with that.
A couple more tunes and then Brandon started playing a steady quarter note bass riff. I kicked in on drums and then Anthony announced, "We're gonna stop pussyfooting around now!" Boom. "Runnin' With the Devil." Then "To the Next Episode." Followed by "Misty Mountain Hop." Then the ending of "Episode." That's a solid rock-block, my friends. The pussyfooting surely did end there. And please call us Shirley.
Here's a brief little lesson to you regarding Junebug shows. If you request a song of ours, there is a roughly 99% chance that we will play it. We like to keep the people happy. And if there are people who like us well enough to actually want to hear a specific song of ours, we want to oblige that. Case in point: a person tonight (more specifically, Rory Behrens) shouted out, "Aphrodite!" So what did we do? We played it. It's really that easy, people.
However, when people request songs that aren't ours, there are no guarantees. When someone shouted out "Seven Nation Army!" (by the White Stripes), it wasn't met with as much success. Anthony started riffing on "Blue Orchid" (also by White Stripes) and I joined in. Then he stopped and said, "You only get a taste." We played "Damn the Man" instead.
We kept rockin' it. The people kept dancing. The ladies kept screaming. Nurse Rachel kept painting, but took periodic dance breaks. Then, with only song left in the set, our old buddy Drew walked in. If you don't know or remember Drew, he was one of the baddest mamma jammas to ever don a Wendy's uniform. He worked his way up to management back in the day and our song about Wendy's became required listening for his underlings. He even performed the song with us on his 21st birthday, way back in 2007. Sadly (for him) the remaining song on the setlist was not "Bad Mamma Jamma." In fact, this is the first show ever since debuting the song that we did not put it on a setlist.
After we finished "Sledgehammer," the final song on the list, the crowd demanded more. I mean demanded. Not just more songs, but "Bad Mamma Jamma" in particular. They were literally screaming for it. Literally. It was 3:45 a.m. and people were screaming for "Bad Mamma Jamma." Life is good, my friends. We played it, and threw it out to Drew tonight. Meaning, we've played this song at every. single. show of ours since July 2000. But you've got to keep the people happy. And the fact is, it's a damn fun song. Everyone got on their feet and crowded the front of the stage and shook their beautiful booties. It was an extended dance version of the song, and we expended a LOT of energy.
When we were done, there were even still more chants for "one more song!" Anthony said, "I don't think we can top that, guys." But again, they insisted. So we obliged with an extended dance version of that Junebug self-help hit, "Dr. Phil (Part 2, Dr. Phunk)." We have never had such a good reaction to that song as we did tonight. Anthony put his guitar down, picked up his Dr. Phil book and worked the crowd, going so far as to roll around on the floor with his feet in the air while screaming his catharsis. I had never seen him interact with a crowd like that. It was a pretty beautiful thing. The crowd connection we had tonight is unparalleled in our journey so far.
When that song was over, they still weren't ready to stop partying with us. So we pulled out one more final final final song. Final final this time. Anthony encouraged the crowd to sing along. It was Weezer's "Say It Ain't So," and the crowd sang along with every word. Again, it was a beautiful thing, and I can't tell you how much I love Sixth Avenue Gallery. When the song was close to ending, Dustin grabbed a guitar and smashed it into pieces on the stage. Parts flew everywhere and crowd members actually scrambled to grab them up as souvenirs. How odd for us to experience such enthusiasm, but we're happy to accept it.
When it was time for our set to start, there were various announcements being played over the P.A. system as if they were coming from a hospital or something, paging various doctors with familiar names to various hospital departments. Such as, "Dr. Bergman to gastrointerology, please. Dr. Anthony Bergman to gastrointerology." It all made sense, however, when the final announcement was "Dr. Junebug to the Sixth Avenue Gallery stage, please." The theme from television's ER played and we all entered the stage area in scrubs, surgical masks and rubber gloves. We kicked into an extended version of "Good Vibes" and the show was underway. Of course, throughout the night we would continue to make references to surgery or being a doctor or other such clever things. "How many of you came from the hospital tonight?" Because that's what we do.Tonight's show was accompanied by the visual art of Nurse Rachel. Our friend Rachel Blazinski from Minneapolis was at this show, creating visual art, painting while using our performance as inspiration. She, of course, was wearing scrubs as well as a stethoscope. Because just as we are all obviously medical doctors who play instruments in this band, Rachel is obviously a registered nurse who paints alongside us.
For the second song of the night, Anthony explained that the last time we were here we should have played the next song, but didn't because it slipped our minds. But tonight we remembered. And so it was that we played the vulgar "A Junebug Christmas" tonight. In March. It went over well as expected.
After a couple more tunes, we debuted a brand new song. Actually we played it last night in Minneapolis, but this is the second time we've ever played it for an audience and the first for Aberdeen. It's called "Hell-Bent Woman" and it's a rocker. We've still got some minor kinks to work out, but we're rockin' it. It'll be included on the Beards project.Next we played the extended jam-out version of "Last Night." Located on the stage when we arrived tonight was a piano. Now, we don't usually use piano live, but Dustin was inspired. During the "You shouldn't have gone to sleep at nine" part, he started banging out the chords on the piano. It was actually pretty amazing. It wasn't miked, so all you heard of it was the natural room noise, but since it's a quiet part of the song it worked. It was great.
We announced tonight that Brandon would be offering free mammograms and Dustin would be offering free proctal exams. Doctor humor. Like I said, we're geniuses.
We played "Godzilla" tonight, which is admittedly kind of a kickass song. But halfway through it, I realized something. I hope no one else made the connection, but I started feeling kind of bad that we were yelling, "There goes Tokyo!" in light of the very recent earthquake and tsunami destruction in Japan. Now, of course we didn't think of this ahead of time, and like I said, I hope no one else made the connection either. The song is about a giant lizard attacking the city, not a natural disaster. Regardless... sorry, Japan.
We played a chill out section of the set with "On the Sidewalk," "The Date," and "Spring Fever." Afterward, Anthony said that spring was on its way. Everyone was excited. I anxiously asked the crowd, "Do you have a fever?!?" Cheers of acknowledgement. "Well we have the cure! We're doctors for chrissakes!" various scattered chuckles. "I've been waiting all night to pull that one out." My career in comedy continues.
For example, during "Refrigerator," at the part where everyone stops and then I yell "two, three, four," I first said, "I'm a gynecologist." See what I did there? I referenced the evening's theme. Brilliant.After "Like a Spy (Not the Stalker)" Dustin said that it was part of our court sentencing that we have to play that song at every show. I pointed out that "Downtown Liquor Store" was part of our other court sentence. During said song, It was a beautiful sound when we cut out and the crowd yelled, "to drink himself to death!" We love that enthusiastic participation. Good on ya.
Next, we revived a cover tune that we used to play in the old Aberdeen days that used to go over well amongst the beer-drinkin' crowd. The old Beatles / Joe Cocker standard "With a Little Help From My Friends." As it turns out, it's still a crowd pleaser. Who knew? Apparently Anthony did.
We took a brief break and came back to rock 'em with that 2008 favorite, "Poet (Who Didn't Know It)." We plowed through a bunch more tunes and had a local rap artist (whose name eludes me) join us on "Casanova." The rock continued through a few more tunes and the crowd rocked with us. We had some girl asking for couple songs or something. Then when we acknowledged her request, she apparently changed her mind. She didn't want that crap. So we hit her over the head with our brand new version of "I Am the Walrus" by the Beatles. And let me tell you, I'm really happy with how this one is turning out. I really think we rocked it hard, and I kind of didn't want it to end. I could have played that song all night, regardless of whether everyone else would have been on board with that.
A couple more tunes and then Brandon started playing a steady quarter note bass riff. I kicked in on drums and then Anthony announced, "We're gonna stop pussyfooting around now!" Boom. "Runnin' With the Devil." Then "To the Next Episode." Followed by "Misty Mountain Hop." Then the ending of "Episode." That's a solid rock-block, my friends. The pussyfooting surely did end there. And please call us Shirley.Here's a brief little lesson to you regarding Junebug shows. If you request a song of ours, there is a roughly 99% chance that we will play it. We like to keep the people happy. And if there are people who like us well enough to actually want to hear a specific song of ours, we want to oblige that. Case in point: a person tonight (more specifically, Rory Behrens) shouted out, "Aphrodite!" So what did we do? We played it. It's really that easy, people.
However, when people request songs that aren't ours, there are no guarantees. When someone shouted out "Seven Nation Army!" (by the White Stripes), it wasn't met with as much success. Anthony started riffing on "Blue Orchid" (also by White Stripes) and I joined in. Then he stopped and said, "You only get a taste." We played "Damn the Man" instead.
We kept rockin' it. The people kept dancing. The ladies kept screaming. Nurse Rachel kept painting, but took periodic dance breaks. Then, with only song left in the set, our old buddy Drew walked in. If you don't know or remember Drew, he was one of the baddest mamma jammas to ever don a Wendy's uniform. He worked his way up to management back in the day and our song about Wendy's became required listening for his underlings. He even performed the song with us on his 21st birthday, way back in 2007. Sadly (for him) the remaining song on the setlist was not "Bad Mamma Jamma." In fact, this is the first show ever since debuting the song that we did not put it on a setlist.After we finished "Sledgehammer," the final song on the list, the crowd demanded more. I mean demanded. Not just more songs, but "Bad Mamma Jamma" in particular. They were literally screaming for it. Literally. It was 3:45 a.m. and people were screaming for "Bad Mamma Jamma." Life is good, my friends. We played it, and threw it out to Drew tonight. Meaning, we've played this song at every. single. show of ours since July 2000. But you've got to keep the people happy. And the fact is, it's a damn fun song. Everyone got on their feet and crowded the front of the stage and shook their beautiful booties. It was an extended dance version of the song, and we expended a LOT of energy.
When we were done, there were even still more chants for "one more song!" Anthony said, "I don't think we can top that, guys." But again, they insisted. So we obliged with an extended dance version of that Junebug self-help hit, "Dr. Phil (Part 2, Dr. Phunk)." We have never had such a good reaction to that song as we did tonight. Anthony put his guitar down, picked up his Dr. Phil book and worked the crowd, going so far as to roll around on the floor with his feet in the air while screaming his catharsis. I had never seen him interact with a crowd like that. It was a pretty beautiful thing. The crowd connection we had tonight is unparalleled in our journey so far.When that song was over, they still weren't ready to stop partying with us. So we pulled out one more final final final song. Final final this time. Anthony encouraged the crowd to sing along. It was Weezer's "Say It Ain't So," and the crowd sang along with every word. Again, it was a beautiful thing, and I can't tell you how much I love Sixth Avenue Gallery. When the song was close to ending, Dustin grabbed a guitar and smashed it into pieces on the stage. Parts flew everywhere and crowd members actually scrambled to grab them up as souvenirs. How odd for us to experience such enthusiasm, but we're happy to accept it.
Finally, tonight I decided to run an experiment in broadcasting the show on Ustream to an internet audience. A number of people actually watched the broadcast and gave really nice feedback. Perhaps we'll continue this experiment, and perhaps we'll work on broadcasting in better quality. A playback of most of the broadcast can be viewed below. The first song is missing, as is the encore set.
The night was a success. We left the stage at a little after 4:00 a.m. and we were all fairly pooped out. We greeted folks and had a couple more beverages up in the VIP room and decompressed a bit. We retold tales of things that happened that night, and things we want to do in the future. Friends new and old laughed and joked along with us. I had a truly beautiful time this night. We love Aberdeen. We love Sixth Avenue Gallery. We'll be back soon, I imagine.
The night was a success. We left the stage at a little after 4:00 a.m. and we were all fairly pooped out. We greeted folks and had a couple more beverages up in the VIP room and decompressed a bit. We retold tales of things that happened that night, and things we want to do in the future. Friends new and old laughed and joked along with us. I had a truly beautiful time this night. We love Aberdeen. We love Sixth Avenue Gallery. We'll be back soon, I imagine.
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