6/28/14 - Minnesota Saloon - Saint Paul, Minn.

Set:

| Beards | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Please Please Me [The Beatles] | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Stan | Mystic Princess | Fluffy Little Hands / Time [Pink Floyd] | Hell-Bent Woman | Heaven's Just a Mystery |

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Poster designed by
Tony Kollman

Today was one of those few-and-far-between occasions in which we've played two shows in one day. We've done it before, but not often. Earlier today, we were at the Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minneapolis, and this evening we were at the Minnesota Saloon in downtown Saint Paul.

We shared the night with That's My Uncle, The Doohickeys, and Precursor. It was a bit of an eclectic and diverse lineup. In addition to having never played this venue, we also had never played with any of these bands. They were a lot of fun. There were a lot of dirty jokes told and filthy innuendos made. My kind of night. 

The set we played tonight was pretty similar to what we played this afternoon. Why mess with what works, right? And those guys that were country dancing like they were riding bucking broncos through our whole set didn't seem to complain. 

Before "Mystic Princess" tonight, Anthony did warn people that they should be touching appropriately during that song. He said, "We're stopping the song if it's inappropriate." Evidently everyone complied. We did not end up turning the bar around and going home. But then some guy yelled out "Freebird!" I almost turned it around myself.

We closed the night with "Heaven's" and ended up rocking and jamming the end in our normal way. While it was happening, I noticed that one of the buckin' bronco guys was seemingly in a trance. Afterward, he approached the stage as we were tearing down and said, "That was a f***in' journey."

All in a day's work. But be advised: we don't play "Freebird."

6/28/14 - Twin Cities Pride - Loring Park - Minneapolis

Set:

| Please Please Me [The Beatles] | I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's) | Beards | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Mystic Princess | Fluffy Little Hands | Prelude / 7 Eleven | Modern Age | Stan |

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We were asked back to Twin Cities Pride again this year. This is the fifth time in six years that we've played this festival and we love it every time. There's always such a positive air of love and inclusion hanging over Loring Park during this festival. And that's what we've always been all about: unity and good times. We're always happy to be a part of that atmosphere. 

We played the Loring Stage again and this year it was emceed by the fabulous Foxy Tann, the self-proclaimed Boss of Burlesque. She started by welcoming the crowd and she said, "I'm so glad to see the youngsters here blowing out their ears so they're ready for their teenage years!" Touche, Ms. Tann. She later went on to talk about how she would be shepherding us through our debauched weekend. Love it. 

We kicked off the set with "Please Please Me": that old chestnut written by some youngsters in Liverpool. Afterward, Anthony welcomed the crowd to the show and said he hoped there was somebody pleasing somebody behind some bushes somewhere. Keepin' it classy as always!

We kept rockin' it - another solid high-energy set filled with rockers. It was mostly tried and true Beards material, but there were some offerings from Stan. In a rare occurrence, we underprepared our set and were told we had more time that we had originally allotted. We happily added on. People were loving it. There were people dancing, individuals both of grown-up and child variety. Our crowd seemed to grow as the set went on, which of course is a good thing. It seemed the crowd energy maybe lulled a bit during "7 Eleven" but we brought them back with "Modern Age," I think. We closed out with "Stan," the title track from the new album we're working on. I'd call it a success.

The weather was beautiful -- at least for our set. Later on, there was a huge downpour of rain and some of the musical performances ended up cancelled, but the weather for our set was perfect.

If I had one criticism it would be this: I wish that, as in years past, they had asked us for lyrics to provide to the American Sign Language interpreters onstage. Each year, they have ASL interpreters onstage and I love watching them to see what our songs look like. This year, just moments before our start time, I spoke briefly with one of the interpreters and she asked if we happened to have any lyrics printed out. Sadly, the answer was no, so she asked if she could at least have a setlist with song titles, which I happily provided. However, I did notice there were a number of times in which it seemed she couldn't necessarily make out the lyrics well enough to sign them. So that was a bummer. On the bright side, she did seem to catch most of it and it was fun to watch as always.

The crew on this stage is fantastic. It's been pretty much the same crew every year if I remember correctly. I recognized all their faces and they are always so kind, helpful, professional, accommodating, etc. Any words you would use to describe an excellent stage crew works on this team. The mixes in both the monitors and the mains were fantastic. I thanked them after the show and being the consummate professionals, they turned it around on me and said I was the one who was good. I know the truth, though. Working with professionals feels good.

Happy Pride, Twin Cities! We hope to see you again next year!

6/6/14 - Nomad World Pub - Minneapolis

Set:

| Modern Age | Beards | Destiny, She Drives a Rolls | Prelude / 7 Eleven | Please Please Me [The Beatles] | Mystic Princess | Fluffy Little Hands | Veronica |

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Poster provided by
ItMusic

Tonight's show was put on by the music site ItMusic.us. In some corners of the inter-webs it was promoted as "June for Junebug," because, well, our band name has the word June in it. We have taken advantage of this coincidence in the past ourselves (e.g., Junestravaganza and Junetacular). 

We have often had this idea, when we've played the Nomad in the past, to play a short, sweet, energetic set. We had that idea going in tonight, too. It would have worked if we hadn't been plagued by minor technical issues. There were a few breaks for tuning, and most notably, at one point Dustin had to go to the mic and announce, "Our drummer fell over."

The troll under the banner

Yes, boys and girls, sometimes drum thrones fall apart. And sometimes drummers fall down. The first clue was when Anthony counted off a song in which the drums come in first and nothing happened, because, well, I was literally on the floor. But being the consummate professional I am, I repaired my equipment on the spot and everything was all good. Anthony told the crowd that we'd send an apology card in the mail at a later time. He then backtracked and stated that this was just the extended intro to the song. But then, we nailed it. We rocked it good.

Rockin' the Nomad.

Aside from those issues, it was a pretty solid little set. I do like playing the Nomad. The space seems very conducive to rock and roll as long as there are people there, like there were tonight.

Tonight was a special night because we all got to meet Dillon's mom who was in attendance. Mary was a welcome guest.

Also appearing were Aitas, The Dang Ol' Tri'Ole, and Little Star - a really fantastic guitar and cello duo.

'Til next time, Nomad, Thanks and good night.