Prelude:
| One Note Tour |
Set One:| Pay the Toll to Ride the Junebug Flow | M'Lady | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Modern Day Fairy Tales | Vacation to Oblivion | I Am the Walrus [The Beatles] | Beards | On the Sidewalk | Crossroads | Handlebar Mustache | Theme From Inspector Gadget / In the Hall of the Mountain King / Refrigerator | Like a Spy (Not the Stalker) | Godzilla [Blue Öyster Cult] | Bumblebee |
Set Two:
HIJACKED
Tonight was supposed to be an awesome night. Tonight was supposed to be a top-of-our-game, blow-em-out-of-the-water night. It had been a great weekend for music in Aberdeen, with the Pigout/Music Fest and the Red Rooster's Big Pig Sideshow, followed by the after parties at the Gallery, of which we were a part. There was a chance that there were going to be members of other great bands at this show, and that we could hang with them and make a good impression. You never know where good networking will get you. Well the night didn't turn out exactly as we had planned. More on that as the story warrants.
Tonight marked our first foray into having a visual viewing element since playing anime and Transformers: The Movie on television screens all those years ago. Anthony acquired both a projector and a screen and we put them both to use tonight, projecting trippy visualizations triggered by the sounds of our instruments. That element was pretty successful and cool. We'll be doing that more often.
We took the stage and Anthony thanked the crowd, saying that tonight was part of our "One Note Tour." I counted off ("one, two, three, four!") and we all hit one note... except for Anthony, who hit two. Always giving a little extra.
We opened the show with "Pay the Toll" again tonight. And it seems that we should probably work out the ending on this one again. We've consistently been ending it incorrectly. But since the ending is supposed to signify a train wreck, I suppose it's fitting. Because, boy oh boy. It's been a train wreck. Mission accomplished?
Anthony announced that tonight we were only going to play for about twenty minutes and then go pass out somewhere. We played "M'Lady" and he shouted, "Thank you Aberdeen, GOOD NIGHT!" And began to take off his guitar. "Okay," he relented. "We've got a couple more for ya."
That "couple more" included the live debut of the title track off our upcoming album, Beards. It's called "Beards." There's more where that came from, people. We also played "Handlebar Mustache," also from the Beards project.
We hobbled through the rest of the set. Which included a very shaky performance of "Crossroads," the over-functioning fog machine freaking out Dustin, and the revival of an old bit -- the combination of the "Inspector Gadget" theme and "In the Hall of the Mountain King." From there we went immediately into "Refrigerator." Now, there was supposed to be this weird bit in which we stray from the song and do strange things not easy to explain. As it turned out, I was the only one who remembered to play it, and I got strange looks from the other guys in the band, which made me look an idiot. So after the instrumental section, before I count us back in, I said, "Hey remember that part in which we were going to do that thing? We forgot to do it. Two, three, four!"
Before we played the final song of what we thought was the first set, "Bumblebee," Anthony said that after the break, "we'll be back to blow you away!" I commented, "No promises, no refunds." Dustin introduced the song saying that "this is a song to let people whom you tolerate touch you." And then we rocked it.
So let me back up a second. Above, when I said the night didn't turn out as planned, I don't mean to insinuate that the whole thing completely sucked. No, there weren't as many Pigout musicians there hanging out as we had hoped. No, we didn't perform at the top of our game. But there were some good moments for sure. We talked to a lot of friends that we don't see often. We debuted a new song. Brandon's bass solo in "Godzilla" kicked ass. The screen visuals were great. Our attire was awesome (but I won't really give it away, since we'll use it again). So it wasn't ALL bad.
But now is when things got weird and uncomfortable. Remember when we said that we were going to take a short break and be right back? Well, just as we were coming off stage, there was a mad scramble by the staff to bring up monitors and mic stands, cables and guitars. Just as I had gotten over to the sound board to turn off my recording gear, there were dudes already on stage checking mics. This was not the problem.
It's common for venues to have other musicians fill the set breaks. They don't want silence. They want to keep the people there. If they go outside, they might realize how late it is and just leave. So.. GREAT. Have a band fill the space. It just would have been nice if we had been notified ahead of time. But, as that goes, no big deal.
We were scheduled to play until 4:00 a.m. It's an after-hours venue that goes LATE into the morning. So we had planned to take a 15-20 minute break and then get back up with our 'A' material. Because at the Gallery, the later in the night, the more raucous the crowd, and the more fun the party. So we saved our "gold" for the second set, when everyone was more into it.
Herein lies the problem. After our scheduled break time was up (twenty minutes), this other group was still sound checking. And still checked for ten minutes beyond. --I'll repeat that.-- The unscheduled band that was supposedly going to fill our 20 minute break was still sound checking 30 minutes later. We asked a member of management what was going on. He said they wanted to get up and play and he was giving them a half hour once they got going.
That was kind of a bummer. Because as luck would have it, we had things to do the next day. It wasn't as if we could just stay and play until 6:00 a.m. as management suggested. One of our members had a job to do in the morning and I had to get on the road and drive in the a.m. to join a family gathering that I was skipping to play this show. It would be nice if we could have just said "screw it" to our responsibilities, but that's not how it works. We had all planned on being done by 4:00 a.m. and loaded out by 5:00, as was the agreement.
So when 3:45 rolled around and this other group was still performing, we made a decision that if they were still playing at 4:00, we were out of there. Four o'clock arrived and we started changing back into our street clothes. Management came in at 4:02 and asked if we were ready to go back on. Strange thing was, we had been ready to go back on ten minutes before this unscheduled, unannounced group had started. "We're done," we said. "These guys are on a roll. Let 'em keep playing."
So we went and tore down our gear and loaded out.
When it's all said and done, we stayed for the agreed-upon amount of time, and we still ended up getting paid the agreed-upon sum. We just didn't get to play our agreed-upon sets and felt pretty second-rate, even though we all drove from Minneapolis to be there for this event. And the other band, whose name I don't even remember, was not bad at all. They were really decent and it wasn't their fault. They weren't dicks or anything. It was just a very unfortunate situation for us. There was also an opening band this night called "The Long, Rattling Chain." I came to find out later that they were supposed to be the ones playing our set break. So they got hijacked, too. As I understand it, they left somewhat upset.
So if you missed this show, no big deal. If you were there specifically for us, we're sorry you didn't get what you paid for.
Elk River, Minnesota puts on this series in town called "Chalk It Up!" It's pretty cool. Bands play and kids use sidewalk chalk to make art on the concrete. The space was beautiful. It was Rivers Edge Commons in Elk River, right on the banks of the Mighty Mississipp. It was one of those places in which if you snap any picture from that space, it would be postcard worthy. (Do people use postcards anymore?) 
We got set up and waiting for a little while. Brandon drew a portrait of Dustin with some chalk. Dustin relaxed on the grass while playing some guitar (see video below). I chilled with Michael a bit and we all shot the breeze. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone else coming down the hill, expecting it to be Anthony. It wasn't, but who could it be? It was our old pal, PJ! You never know when he'll pop up, but we're always happy to see that dude. Anthony finally did arrive, however, and we got set up and sound checked, just as people were filtering in.
