Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 28

Day 27 - April 7th 2009

http://myspace.com/boywonderrocks

Last night’s sleep was the worst. I slept on a really bad fold out couch which was all springs. We had to be out by 10 because we had a seven hour drive to Minneapolis for the next show. Chicago was amazing and Minneapolis had a lot of work ahead for itself if it expected to match it.

The band was up pretty late playing Wiffle Ball at the Double Door last night so I think we were in for a more laid back trip today. We drove for a while and then we ran into the Leslie guys in their new van. We pulled over at a Gas Station and kicked it for a bit. Rod and Alex decided to ride with them giving everyone a little more room in the van.

Everyone pretty much slept and then for some reason we all decided to play DJ in the car. We all tried to find cheesy 90’s songs on our ipod and would rotate them out. Oh the tunes we heard; Marky Mark’s Good Vibrations, B.B.D.’s Poison, Motown Philly by Boys II Men, Mama Said Knock You Out by LL. This went on for quite some time as we headed towards Minneapolis> We all ran out until we moved onto just sweet tunes. We all whopped it up and had a great time on the car ride down. Our van was definitely the better one. Once we hit Minnesota it was straight Prince until Dan mention that Tom Tom (our GPS system) was dying and needed to be plugged in. I tried to get some sleep after that. I got a call from my good friend Rachel who said that she and some buddies were gonna be coming having never actually met Rachel before I was pretty stoked.

A few hours later we arrived at our place of business for the evening.



The World Famous First Avenue, most notably it’s known for being the club where most of the music scenes were shot for Purple Rain. It was a bit surreal to be there because I am a major Prince fan, his music has been so influential in my development and a songwriter and musician so to stand where he stood, play where he played was just a dream come true. We arrived and they had some guys out there to help us load in. We ran into Electric Six who let me have some of their hot water for my throat coat tea. Sean and I went to Luce for some pizza (pretty good by the way) and I tried my best to take it easy when we returned to the club. Leslie looked like juggernauts on that big stage with all the lights and what not. I hate when their set’s over, mainly cause there is no more sweet music. Then it was our time. Before we went on I had a thought “What if Prince had a Merch Table at gigs and had to announce it after he was done” I shared it with Morgan Brown and we had a chuckle.

I handed Dan my ipod for the special intro music. A few minutes later Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy comes on as the curtain comes up. Then they proceed to go into thunderclap. Pete rings in out on the streets and we hit the stage. The Stage was huge. I was a bit overwhelmed at first as I thought “Prince probably did a split in ass-less pants right where I’m standing.” Then when I looked to my left I saw Rachel, her buddies and Kibra. Probably possessed by something purple my ass shaking was brought to a whole new level. We really did our thing. It was one of our better shows. I thought Bryn played especially well. The energy in the room was amazing. I was excited to (finally) see some black people in the audience. Nickelback was playing across the street we made sure we insulted them as much as possible.

After the show was over I was whisked away by Rachel and Co. (who loved it) and we had a couple of drinks and got to talking before Electric Six came on. I wished I was less sweaty and gross, especially he company of such beautiful women Then they came on and killed it. I grabbed Kibra and we danced for most of the show. Dick Valentine stopped in the middle of one of his songs (he does this every night and then orders the band to continue and they always hit it) but tonight was different than normal. He led the crowd outside in what seemed like a riot of some sort. Turns out he was leading them to see the star that was just painted in their honor on the side of the building. He led them back inside and proceeded to continue to kill it.

Rachel left cause of an emergency so Kibra and I hung out for a few hours until I returned to the hotel. I had a really good time. Meeting cool people makes the tour twice as good.

Minneapolis knows how to party too, maybe it’s a regional thing. I really liked the city, it had an awesome vibe especially for a Tuesday Night. It’s way too cold for me to ever live there but I would love to bring my crew up here and find someplace to get funky.

We’ve got Fargo tomorrow. Never been to North Dakota so I’m looking forward to it. Four full weeks on the road. Sometimes it feels like forever but it’s going by really fast.