Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 286

Year Three - Day 227 – October 20th 2011

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Today's the day

The show that I've been salivating to play since August. Boy Wonder, Jettison Juliet, Machine 22, The Morning Voice, and of course Vanity Theft in Minneapolis, MN. Andy has a few rash like spots on his arms and body.

Minneapolis, home of Bob Dylan, Soul Asylum, and of course Prince has become a second home to us. Other than home in Philly we've played Minneapolis the most times in the past two years. This particular city has proven to be very fertile for us, our audience is growing and the gigs keep getting bigger and bigger, not to mention it's one of the strongest music scenes I have ever seen. People like music there which makes it easier for us.

Taco John's and Naked Juice made for an...eventful 7 hour drive to The Twin Cities. We check into the hotel and pretty much immediately get to the 400 Bar. Of course I am immediately intimidated by the size and the posters on the wall. And as soon as doors opened at 8 people were coming in...the place was getting crowded pretty quickly. Brue is a helluva promoter, best I've ever seen. All I could think of was “Man I hope I don't screw this up” A text from Nichole Lynn calms my nerves.

Jettison Juliet was on first...they were really good, as they wind down I venture into the green room to do vocal Warm Ups, I do the same ones I learned from the Bang Camaro Vocalists pretty much to a T. I feel better than I did last night but we'll tune down to e flat just to make sure. I have the butterflies but I'm ready to go.

We approach the stage and when you've got a few nerves the worst thing you can do is look out into the crowd...so of course I looked out into the crowd. All my friends/supporters from the twin cities are here so I feel a bit better. I look back at my crew and I'm confident I can pull this off, but just in case I pray a silent prayer

“God keep me upright for 45 minutes and I promise I will take my black ass back to the hotel and go to sleep”

I count it off and we tear into the set

Slowdance
What's My Name
Ex-Girlfriend
Surrender
Sexy Machine
I Don't Dance
Feels So Good
Never Gonne Give You Up
Psycho

This show is probably us at our loudest. As I skulk around this stage doing my best Rock God impression I begin to notice something. I'm not in a rush, I'm taking my time and I'm enjoying it more. This all used to go by so fast, and now it's starting to slow down, I'm aware that you don't get moments like this very often so I want to enjoy every single second.
We're playing like a well oiled machine quite different from how we sounded on Wednesday Night at Home. I don't really want this to end but sadly it has to. I just have to work harder to make sure we play like this as often as possible.

But good for us the end of our set marked the beginning of Vanity Theft's. There are many words I can use to describe them but I'm only going to use two; Real Deal. An all girl band (which I love) from Venus or Mars or something. I dug the music and the show, they know exactly how to present themselves musically and on-stage, the perfect blend of sex and music. I'm sure when I have (imaginary) Grand kids I can tell them that I opened for Vanity Theft...who will likely be HUGE by then.

Then Machine 22 and The Morning Voice took the stage and killed it. All in all it was the best Minneapolis show so far. We hung out for a while with all the Minneapolis peeps and then dropped Jake off at The Airport. I close the hotel door and try to get some sleep.