1. Summer Show at the Upper Room:     Friday, June 6

           We played at the Upper Room with the band Tune Up Special in a nice double-header type concert. For those who showed up, you probably remember the lowdown, but I will tell about what happened anyway.
          We started off the show with our song "Rock all Night" and shot straight into "Boredom". We used these songs to rally the crowd and to reconfigure some sound settings. After that, we played one of our newest songs, "More". Then, we played these songs after that in this order- "Attention for Affection", "Welcome", "All Right", "Invisible to You", "Preps", "Confined" (one of our newest songs and our heaviest song),  "Roller Coaster", "Naked", "Geek Overload", "Work Clock", "Little Girl", and "Wake Up World". At the request of another song, we played "Naked" again. It was a kind of "feel it" performance from my perspective, but it ran through O.K., I guess.
          After we played, Tune Up Special went up and did their thing. They are a great young punk/ ska band that features members from the former band "Corner Pocket" (a.k.a. Lovers and Madmen). I didn't keep track of how long they played, but I am guessing that they played about 8 songs or so. It was a good time.
          Just as an F.Y.I., the Upper Room now has a dart board and a new pool table, along with all of their other great entertainment.
          I thought that the concert was a good foretaste for our band of how the 2008 Battle of the Bands was going to be. I would like to say thank you to Shawn Rohde, the manager of the Upper Room for letting us play and for being a very communicable person. I would also like to thank all of the fans who came to watch us, because at many times, you guys rejuvenate us to play better and better. Thanks for the support! Also, I would thank Lewis Bell for helping out and for being an awesome friend to the band as a whole and to us individually. Thanks also goes from us to Alex Heldt for being such a great fan and roadie, and over just a month or two, I believe, we have found ourselves with a roadie who I really appreciate. Thanks also to Katie Embertson for tagging along with Alex and coming to our shows. Thanks also to those who weren't mentioned because of involuntary omission. It was a great time!

2. Eclectic Café Last Day Bash:     Sunday, June 29

          We played at the Eclectic Café with about ten to a dozen or so artists besides ourselves in an open mic performance. I will give the lowdown of the day.
          For those who don't know, the Eclectic Café had their last day ever during this Bash. They have now closed after ten years. Many people in Brainerd are going to miss that place, and I am sure of it. Anyway, the Bash was scheduled to start at 12:00 P.M. but, for some reason, they decided on the day itself to wait until 5:00 P.M. to start the music. Anyway, we were one of the first bands there (if not the first band there), and we got the first time slot. Each band or artist was only allotted four to six songs or so because many bands showed up, and they would only be playing until about midnight. After a long duration of setup, we were finally ready to play. Initially, there was only one functional mic and stand, but we were able to find another one, so thankfully, both Jeff and Sarah could sing. My drum set was set up in the back corner of the stage in front of the large curtains. We started off the Bash with our song "Welcome". After that, we winged it and randomly, but shrewdly picked five more songs. We played "Naked" as our second song, and we followed that up with "Little Girl". Then, we played "All Right". After that, we played a brand new song of ours called "I Refuse". To finish off, we played "More", and collectively ended our great memories at the Eclectic Café with two thumbs up!
          After we played, several great performances followed from bands like TherJoy, Masons Echo, Shallos, and about half a dozen more! A friend of mine, Eric Olson, needed a drummer for the day, so I winged it and played with him for 5 or 6 songs or so. That was fun! The groups played very well!
          The day went all right. We had our worries as were setting up because there was initially only 1 mic, and we do not know everything about soundboards that might not be our own, but our songs were solid. The balance was quite questionable at times, but I think that the aggregate performance was fairly solid. I am also basically 100% certain that this was our first Sunday performance ever. I would like to thank Matt Taylor (who I gave a signature broken drum head to) and the rest of his staff at the Eclectic Café for letting us play and giving us some awesome final memories, the other bands that played for keeping a lively, yet exciting setting in the Eclectic Café, Alex Heldt for his ever-increasing knowledge and compatibility as a roadie, Katie Embertson for sticking around and having an awesome time with us, our fans for pushing us to play better so that we can put on a good show for everybody, and to everyone else not mentioned as well! As a group and as a band, we are going to miss a great venue to play at in Brainerd.

          Brainerd's Battle of the Bands 2008, titled "Mirage" and sponsored by Youth as Resources, was a fun event! Our band got the 9:00 P.M. time slot, which was the penultimate time bloc for the artists in the competition.
          We played a set that consisted of the songs "Welcome", "Invisible to You", "Little Girl", "I Refuse", "Rock all Night", "Naked", and "Wake up World" in that order. It was a sweet set, but the only new song in it was "I Refuse". The crowd really got into it there. However, after all the artists had performed, we found out that we were not picked as one of the top three bands.
          That news stung pretty badly, as we had won third place in 2007. In spite of the disappointment, it was a worthwhile performance. We did win $50.00 in a drawing because we signed up as the second-earliest artist, losing to only "Ampson Twelve" in that respect.
          One thing that we were disappointed about was that the Y.A.R. staff won't show the full results, like they have done in previous years. We don't understand why, but it is something that we have to cope with.
          Don't get me wrong- this was still a good performance. I would like to give personal thanks to the people in charge of the event, the judges, the fans who came out to hear us, the Mozey family for coming to see us, including Dave's parents, and Jeff and Sarah for rocking out once again.

4. Crosby Music in the Park:     Thursday, July 24

          We had a fun experience in Crosby on Thursday, July 24^th, 2008. We played on this day for the "Music in the Park" series that took place throughout all of the summer. The event was held at Crosby's main park, which is Serpent Lake Park. We had over an hour to play, and we made sure that we had a lot of songs ready to go.
          After the Cuyuna Range Community Band played, we were up. We started around 7:30 P.M. and played for over an hour. We played about 20 songs. It was a fun time! People of all ages were there to listen to us. Some even had brought their little kids there!
          This was a really good show from my perspective. Playing outdoors made this show fun, and people of all ages stuck around to listen to us.
          The man in charge of sound there, John Pribyl, did an excellent job. In fact, I would personally say that he had done a greater job with sound than anyone that we had worked with prior to this point. I guess that he also has a recording studio in northern Minnesota, and he said that we could possibly record a high-quality demo with him there sometime. This was also a paid show, and we got a hefty sum.
          I would like to say thanks to Katie Embertson, Alex Heldt for becoming an ever-increasingly better roadie, the people there, the Mozeys, and John Pribyl for his irrefutable job with sound. This was a great performance musically, and we really enjoyed this summer evening!

5. Hanging out and traveling integrated together:

          As a band, we spent time in the summer just hanging out. We went to each others' houses during the time (mostly to mine, however, because that is where we practice 98% of the time), but it is always good as a band to get to spend time together outside of music. On Monday, June 30^th, just one day after the Eclectic Café Last Day Bash, and 2 days before Brainerd's 2008 Battle of the Bands, we hung out at my house. We practiced our music, skated, played games, and ate hot dogs. It was a fun get-together. Also, we had all done a lot of traveling during the course of the summer. I went to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Charlotte, North Carolina during the summer. Jeff and Sarah went with their family to Washington State to visit some of their relatives form their old home. It was a summer of travel, but hangouts, too!

6. Ackonwledgements:

          I would like to take this time to thank some people. I would like to thank Shawn Rohde, manager of The Upper Room, Matt Taylor, manager of the former Eclectic Café, John Pribyl, Lewis Bell, Alex Heldt, Katie Embertson, our fans, the Mozey family, and my family. All of you, plus all others not mentioned, thanks for all of the support!

          That is our summer 2008 blog. We hope that you enjoyed it. Stay tuned to our MySpace page for more updates. Thanks for taking time to view this blog!