'Beards' Album Release
Set:
| Beards | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Modern Age | Hell-Bent Woman | Soul Shaker | Mystic Princess | Fluffy Little Hands | Give Yourself | Poet (Who Didn't Know It) | All the Young Dudes [David Bowie] | Handlebar Mustache | Heaven's Just a Mystery |
Encore:
| M'Lady |
Tonight was the big night that was a long time in the making. We worked hard on Beards and we worked on it for a long time. Eleven tracks, three producers, multiple studios, and about a year and a half later, we've got the album in our hands.
I had never been to the Ritz Theater before. I walked in from the cold rain to find myself in a pretty little theater with warm lighting and stadium seating. The stage is wider than most stages we've played. The seating was about perfect. It's not a huge theater, but we didn't necessarily expect a huge crowd. It was just about right.
We loaded our gear alongside the other two bands, greeting them as we came. The audio and lighting crew were busy bees, buzzing around the stage getting things set. Our friends from Level Up Multimedia were also there, setting up their video production equipment for the evening's festivities.
I won't bore you with all the specific details. You can watch a replay of the live stream below and see all the details for yourself.
But I will tell you that the other bands were class acts. They are both extremely talented and supportive and we are happy to have shared the stage with them. Kevin Bowe said some very nice things about Junebug and about both me and my son as well. That gave me warm fuzzies. I love that dude.
I can also tell you about how tonight felt. In a word: fun. We had fun tonight. We worked really hard on this album, and we practiced really hard for this release show in particular. I think overall it paid off in both instances. The record is great (in my not-so-humble opinion) and the show was a resounding success. We played well, and at least I could feel the energy amongst the four of us as well as with the crowd.
And speaking of the crowd, there were a lot of wonderful and beautiful people there. I couldn't mention them all because there were too many of them to accurately remember without leaving someone out. There were friends, family, and some friends we haven't seen for awhile who traveled some pretty respectable distances to be there.
The energy climaxed at the end of the night with our show- (and album-) closer "Heaven's Just a Mystery." And as we all walked off stage one-by-one, we could feel that it had been a success. My wife later told me that with the sound and lighting at the end, there was a surreal element. I overheard someone else refer to the ending of the show as "epic." Okay, I'll take that. But one thing we hadn't planned for was that the crowd might just want "one more song, one more song." Honestly, we hadn't even thought about or planned for that possibility. So when Anthony walked off stage, he immediately went outside to go around to the front of the building to greet people in the lobby. After Dustin came offstage and there was no one left out there, the applause kept coming. People were calling for one more song and we were like, "Okay, what do we know?" Dillon ran outside to try to catch Anthony and Dustin and I wandered back out onto stage and awkwardly held vigil in near silence while we waited for the others to return. As it turns out, it wasn't nearly as long as it felt. So we played "M'Lady," appeased the masses, and called it a night. A very, very fun night.
This was the release of our album Beards. It was a long time in the making. We think it's worth the wait.
We give a big thank you to Craig Grossman, Paul Bolen and Student Run Records who organized and promoted tonight's show.
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| Image courtesy of Level Up Multimedia. |
But I will tell you that the other bands were class acts. They are both extremely talented and supportive and we are happy to have shared the stage with them. Kevin Bowe said some very nice things about Junebug and about both me and my son as well. That gave me warm fuzzies. I love that dude.
I can also tell you about how tonight felt. In a word: fun. We had fun tonight. We worked really hard on this album, and we practiced really hard for this release show in particular. I think overall it paid off in both instances. The record is great (in my not-so-humble opinion) and the show was a resounding success. We played well, and at least I could feel the energy amongst the four of us as well as with the crowd.
And speaking of the crowd, there were a lot of wonderful and beautiful people there. I couldn't mention them all because there were too many of them to accurately remember without leaving someone out. There were friends, family, and some friends we haven't seen for awhile who traveled some pretty respectable distances to be there.
 |
| Image courtesy of Level Up Multimedia. |
This was the release of our album Beards. It was a long time in the making. We think it's worth the wait.
We give a big thank you to Craig Grossman, Paul Bolen and Student Run Records who organized and promoted tonight's show.
Enjoy these select performances from the album release party:
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| Poster designed by Tony L. Kollman |
