5/29/11 - Art & Bicycle Spectacle - Red Rooster Coffee House - Aberdeen, S.D.

Set:

| Last Night | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Handlebar Mustache | I Am the Walrus [The Beatles] | Pay the Toll to Ride the Junebug Flow | Modern Day Fairy Tales | Vacation to Oblivion

| Casanova | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | M'Lady | On the Sidewalk | Bikin' With the Devil [Van Halen] | Like a Spy (Not the Stalker) | Refrigerator (country) |

Cheyana's Special Performance:

| Downtown Liquor Store |

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As I know I've mentioned before, we always love coming to the Red Rooster Coffee House in Aberdeen, S.D. It was where we started and it's always been a second home. We haven't been here in awhile, though. We've been to Aberdeen, at the Sixth Avenue Gallery, but not the Rooster. So when Dan asked us if we wanted to play the Art & Bicycle Spectacle, we gave a mighty "yep."

The original plan was to have the louder electric acts play on the outside stage and the lighter, acoustic acts would play inside the Coffee House. The weather was playing tricks, however, threatening to drop rain on the event all day long. Dan decided it would be better to not have the electric bands' gear all sitting outside in case the sky decided to dump (which, for the record, it didn't). But we loaded in and caught Small Town Anthem doing their thing. We were next in the lineup.

We started the show with a huddle-up and broke it with the common "Goooooo, Bayside!" This was completely lost on this crowd. It then occurred to me that we are older than most of the people in attendance. It is quite possible that they, unlike us, have not seen every episode of Saved By the Bell. We're showing our age. "I guess you guys are too young for that," I lamented.

We started out by jamming on the song "Last Night." We started in the middle, in the nice little jam section, and after vamping on it for awhile, kicked in and finished the song. Then, after ripping through "Poet," Anthony told the crowd about our new merch deals. (We have two new t-shirts as of this show.) He gave a sales pitch, saying, "We cut out the middle man... then hire him back to do our taxes... then cut him out again. Now he's suing us." A friend and superfan, Ann V. called out, "I'm an attorney!!! I will defend you!!" "Thank you," Dustin said. "We will need that."

We played a couple Beards tunes that are new to the Rooster, followed by "I Am the Walrus." We saw a million faces. We rocked them all.

There was a point in this evening's show in which people were heard speculating on whether I am, in fact, a gremlin. This was odd to me, but not unwelcome. It may have had something to do with me asking for water? They didn't want me to reproduce? I already did, though. But more on that later. I did get a glass of water - from a lovely young lady in the crowd. I've seen her at shows before, but I don't think I've ever met her, nor do I know her name. But she was singing along during the show, so she's a fan. At any rate, thanks for the water. I appreciated it greatly.

The show rolled on. During "Modern Day Fairy Tales," Dustin sat down in the front row while playing. You see, his niece was there and she's a big fan. She was decked out in her Junebug t-shirt and everything. So as he sat next to her, playing the show, she was smiling and happy about it. It was super cute.

Also cute was our old pal Cheryl joining us on "Casanova." As usual, she stole the show with her unique style of dancing and vocalizing. She gave various shout-outs to various entities (people, bands, baseball teams) and turned the stage back over to us. What we do without Cheryl? She's kind of the best.

Tonight I introduced a special fan in attendance. As you may know, I became a dad last month and my son, Josiah, was experiencing his very first Junebug show this evening. I would say that he loved it, but due to the hot pink ear protection he was wearing, he slept through the whole thing. Well, and he's just over a month old. Whatever. There will be more opportunities.

Throughout the show, our pal Roberto and his family kept calling out "Stalker! Stalker!" So, when it came time for there to just be one song left, it appeared that we absolutely had to play that tune. Anthony told them it was coming up next, but unbeknownst to him, Dustin had other plans. He told Brandon to play the opening line from Van Halen's "Runnin' With the Devil" and to Anthony's surprise, we kicked in. However, instead of singing the actual lyrics, Anthony paid tribute to the day's festivities by singing lyrics about bicycles. The chorus was "Bikin' with the devil." It was classic.

After that, we did play "Stalker." But Roberto and his family were not satisfied. They perpetuated screams of "Refrigerator! Refrigerator!" While we could have said, "one per customer," we obliged. But, instead of the version that everyone knows, we belted out an old-time country version of the song. They really didn't know what they were bargaining for, nor what hit them. Spontaneity is a beautiful thing.

So that was it. It was our set. The show was done. We were met with cheers and applause. Except one little girl in the front row was reduced to tears. Oh, she had liked the show. It was nothing negative. Except that she had been hoping with all her heart that we would play her favorite song. The little girl was Dustin's niece, Cheyana. And her favorite song is "Downtown Liquor Store." I had been under the impression that in order for that to be your favorite song, you had to be 21 years or older. But she proved us wrong. She wanted to hear this song so desperately. Dustin, being the nice uncle that he is, suggested that perhaps we give her a special performance of it outside. So we did. Here is the video.

5/19/11 - Driftwood Char Bar - Minneapolis

Set One:

| Pay the Toll to Ride the Junebug Flow | M'Lady | I Am the Walrus [The Beatles] | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Spring Fever | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Bed Intruder Song [Antoine Dodson / The Gregory Brothers] | Refrigerator | Modern Day Fairy Tales | On the Sidewalk | Sledgehammer [Peter Gabriel] |

Set Two:

| Come Together [The Beatles] | Casanova | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Hell-Bent Woman |

Encore:

| Downtown Liquor Store |

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Tonight we returned to the stage after a two-month (to the day) performance break. Our last show was March 19. After that we took some time to just rehearse and record some stuff for our next album Beards which we've begun. Not to mention, my wife pushed our baby out of her body. It's a pretty big deal. But we're back in the saddle again.

It was our first time playing at the Driftwood Char Bar in South Minneapolis. It's definitely got a "neighborhood bar" feel, with most of the patrons being regulars, it seemed. We had an opening act tonight, Not Quite Canada, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They're friends of Anthony's and the bassist happens to be an IPR grad. They brought their brand of semi-acoustic, banjo goodness from the northland. We hope to get out to their neck of the woods this summer as well.

We took the stage when their set was up and I decided that I would be addressing the crowd in a faux New York accent all night long. You know how I roll. It was a decision I made, and it was final. No arguments.

We opened with "Pay the Toll," and it should have been an indication. It wasn't too bad, but when the ending came along, it was a train wreck. Interestingly, that's what we try to portray musically at the end of the song anyway, but this time it went well beyond intent.

We continued with an old standby, "M'Lady," and afterward, Anthony thanked Not Quite Canada for having performed. I, in my faux New York dialect said, "Almost Canada, big hand for them. Almost Canada -- that's what they're called, right?" A person in the crowd said, "Not Quite Canada." "Not quite? Ah well, I was almost right." "Not quite," she replied. Maybe it was better heard than read, I'm thinking.

This was followed by our version of "I am the Walrus," which was quite rousing, I felt. When it over, Anthony said "I don't think I have to tell you who wrote that one!" New York Tony answered for the crowd, "It was the Monkees. We all know that."

We attempted a brand new cover tune tonight. It's a song about justice. It's called the "Bed Intruder" song. If you've never heard the original, look it up on YouTube. You won't be disappointed. So we played it. And we will play it again.

The next song on the agenda was "Refrigerator" and Dustin, Brandon and I attempted to play this song in a old country style. I started the train beat and Brandon played a nice bouncy bass line as Dustin played some good ol' country guitar. Sadly, it seemed that Anthony didn't realize we were playing "Refrigerator." He stopped us and announced that he had a sick obsession with his refrigerator, that it lets him touch it in nasty ways. He counted off the song with an extremely slow tempo, which we played. We stopped and regrouped. He counted off an appropriate tempo and I attempted the train beat again. No good. We then played the song normally. After all that.

ANTHONY: This song is off our self-titled album. It's called "Modern Day Fairy Tales."
TONY: It's not self-titled, you know.
ANTHONY: (laughs) I know.
DUSTIN: We take American Express!!

We finished off the first set with "On the Sidewalk," and "Sledgehammer." We somehow forgot how the ending to "On the Sidewalk" was supposed to go. "Painful" wasn't supposed to be one of the choices, but it's the choice we went with. "Sledgehammer" was actually better, however.

Anthony announced our set break, letting everyone know that we were all going to be back after taking this huge dump we'd been holding in. Dustin mentioned that we had already started it, all over the stage throughout the set.

We returned for the second set and in my faux dialect I announced that we were now re-branding the show. It was now entitled, "Rock You Before the Rapture," since this weekend is May 21, the day in which that looney ol' pastor predicted Judgement Day to be. We warned the crowd about the danger of the raptures. They're dangerous, you see, like in that movie about the people on the jungle island. They were running from the raptures, and the raptures learned how to open those doorknobs. You know, the velociraptures. They can learn. I then mentioned that their sight is based on movement, and Dustin interjected to correct me. "No, no, no. Those are the tyrannosaurus raptures." I concluded with, "Watch your butts for the raptures. They'll eat ya. It's rapture weekend."

We ripped into "Come Together" to start the second set. About eight bars into it, Dustin turned to look at me, turned back around and walked off the stage - while playing. He walked into the crowd, greeted some fans - while playing - and then went into the men's room. It was here that he played out the remainder of the song. Taking a cue from Dustin, Brandon walked off stage and went to the back door of the venue - while playing. He then closed the curtain that separated the entryway from the main room - while playing. Had Anthony and I not been virtually tied to the stage, we probably would have wandered around, too. After the tune was over, Dustin explained he journey into the men's room by informing us of the huge dump he took in there.

Anthony introduced "Casanova" by inviting some love-making. "If there's a special someone in the audience you want to make love to, feel free." We played the song and rocked it. Immediately afterward, Dustin boisterously exclaimed, "You just had sex!!"

We rocked an extended version of "Bad Mamma Jamma," which was kind of awesome. There was a great reaction, lots of dancing and singing along. But when it was done, Heidi, the sound person cut us off. "One more, one more, one more, one more," she said. So, basically the idea we got from her was that we had time for one more. Which is odd, because we were only four songs into our set. But looking at the clock, she was right. We decided to play "Hell-Bent Woman," which rocked their faces. For reals.

Just as we were finishing up, we heard chants for "one more song, one more song." We asked Heidi and she responded with "One more, one more, one more, one more." So, basically the idea we got from her was that we had time for one more. So at our pal Donovan's request, we played "Downtown Liquor Store" and invited him to sing along with us. Though he admitted he doesn't really know all the words, he joined us and it was funz.

The crowd loved it, and when we were done, I gave a reminder warning; "Watch out for the raptures, folks. It's rapture weekend."