Tonight, we ran down the road to sunny St. Cloud, Minnesota to play at the Red Carpet Nightclub. We had never played there before, but it was a pretty cool place. It's big, with all sorts of strange hallways and passages. You can imagine getting lost there.

When I say, "we ran down the road," I mean Anthony, Nick and me (tony). Dustin was at home sick. This was the first time since high school that a show has been played by us under the name "Junebug" without Dustin performing. He had "the piggy pox" as Nick said, at it really was better that he get rest instead of exposing it to you all. But he was missed, surely. There were a number of songs that contain guitar solos played by our Sparkle Sprinkler that were just too thin tonight. For example, the solo section of "Poet" was so empty that I vocally sang Dustin's guitar solo. The solo sections in "M'Lady" and "Jumpstart" weren't so lucky. Additionally, the intro to "Lady Madonna" which Dustin plays was mildly rough and "Sledgehammer" was scrapped altogether. So playing a show without Dustin was certainly doable, it just isn't desireable.

Our old friend PJ Pearson was present tonight, with his show recording gear. So a recording of this strange Dustin-less show exists. In fact, it's playing in my headphones as I type this. I don't think we've seen PJ since our CD Release party on October 17, 2008, so it was nice to catch him again.

Also in the crowd were a few of Nick's old hockey kids, all grown up and drinking adult beverages. They cheered for us, we cheered for them.

Regardless of the fact that we were Junebug minus one, we still had fun tonight. Anthony said we were napalm, gasoline and orange juice all mixed together, that we were highly volatile and the Red Carpet couldn't sue us if we exploded since it was in our contract. He also expressed love for those present. He said "We love you more than we're legally able to love you... you may need a restraining order."

Speaking of love, before "Clone You," Anthony asked if anyone in the crowd loved anyone so much they wanted to clone them and do stuff with them. There was a lone voice that replied, "Myself." Oh, come on. We've all thought about it. He just had the courage to say it. Kudos to that guy.

Perhaps the most enthusiastic person of the night was Jonalyn the waitress. She was extremely friendly and peppy and was dancing to our danceable tunes. She made the show worthwhile. I gave her a CD.

We played this show with Cryptic tonight and used some of their gear, too. The tables will turn tomorrow night in Hopkins.