7/12/11 - Chalk It Up! - River's Edge Commons - Elk River, Minn.

Chalk It Up!

Set:

| Come Together [The Beatles] | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | Spring Fever | Found My Boogie | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Casanova | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | I Am the Walrus [

The Beatles]

| Moon Over the Water | The Date | On the Sidewalk | Beards | Theme From Inspector Gadget / In the Hall of the Mountain King / Refrigerator | Jumpstart My Rocket | Crossroads | Bumblebee | Sledgehammer [Peter Gabriel] |

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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?)

I rolled into town and started setting up my gear. Accompanying me was my younger brother-in-law, Michael, who is staying with us in Minneapolis for a week. He helped me in a roadie-type capacity. As I was setting up, both Brandon and Dustin arrived and began setting up as well.

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.

We played a few songs to start it all off. We got to our new song, "Destiny, She Drives a Rolls" and Anthony introduced it as being on our upcoming album Beards. I guy in the audience cheered. Anthony said, "Beards are good. Mustaches aren't bad either." The dude who cheered had a beard.

We continued with the show and during a tuning break I talked about how cool this show was. It was really neat to see the kinds dancing and doing art. I pointed out to the good people of Elk River that not every town does cool things like this. Anthony remarked at how well the kids were loving it, saying that perhaps this has been our demographic all along.

After an apt performance of "On the Sidewalk" (because we were on the sidewalk, by the shoreline), we went into "Beards." Anthony thanked everyone who planned ahead and great a beard specifically for the performance of this song this evening.

We continued through our set, enjoying the beautiful weather, the beautiful sunset, the beautiful scenery, and the beautiful people. During the last few songs, more people were starting to filter down the hill to the show. I saw a number of phones out, taking video of our performance. I encouraged everyone to put the vids on YouTube, but I haven't found any yet.

At any rate, this was a great show. This event was wonderful and we were happy to have been a part of it. We hope you have us back sometime, Elk River!