Inspired by our buddy-band Bunny's a Swine's post about the 10 greatest shows they played in 2010, we decided to do one ourselves. Here it is: MiniBoone's Top 10 Favorite Shows We Played This Past Year, from our record release party in February to Craig's wedding in August!
2/3, Big Changes Release Party at Glasslands with I’m Turning Into, Shark? and Pet Ghost Project
Doug: We put out a record last January, called Big Changes. We wanted to throw a party to celebrate, cause we thought it was a good record and felt really jazzed about it. So we were like hey Glasslands and they were like cool. We got some friends new and old to come on board and such it was.
Glasslands is a great place to see a show and to play a show. DIY vibes (fluffy cloud stage backdrop! nice people!) with upscale emenities (a sort of backstage! an “upstairs!). I was personally very psyched that we had OUR party at such a wonderful place. It was even written up in the New Yorker, which, you know, ANEURISM (though they didn’t mention us - it was about I’m Turning Into, who put on a badass set that night).
As for the show itself, it was as chaotic as you could expect. We listened to a recording someone made, and sure enough, it sounded like we were spazzing out of our minds. If I don’t remember our performance that well, it’s probably because I was in some sort of pride-beer-excitement enduced trancestate.
All in all, a nice way to bring our record into existence. Someday we’ll do another record release party. See you there!
2/26, Cake Shop, NYC
James: At this show we played with some great bands, the Vandelles, El Jezel, Telltale, and our good friends Quiet Loudly. You can see Quiet Loudly cheering us on in the pictures. We were the last band on the bill, and we were all really nervous to play there, at least I was, because the last time we played there we had a couple of our amps break on us. This time however, as soon as we start playing the second song, all the mics went out. And that was it, the sound guy said the PA was dead and he couldn’t fix it. So we just decided to play the set anyway, and scream as loud as we could.
We played a bunch of covers so the crowd could sing along. We jumped around in the audience and on stage, and gave everyone as many instruments and things to bang on that we could spare so that it would be some sort of communal experience. It could have been a complete waste if we had stopped after the PA blew, but we powered through it and it became one of my favorite memories of the band.
3/20, PaRtY zOnE, Fairfield, NJ
Sam: MiniBoone, five hardcore bands* and a couple kegs in a basement in Jersey. One dude was doing some weird Jujitsu dancing in the pit.** There was a B.Y.O. Meat grill out back. A beer donation got you an “I smoked asbestos at the PaRtY zOnE” T-Shirt. It was awesome. The back-line email we got a from the dude setting up the show pretty much sums it up:
Yo Yo Yo! What's up, this is Chris checking in to let everyone know so far what the fucking deal is with March 20th. I appreciate you all coming through and getting hammered, it is for sure going to be a fucking mad house. So check it, I'm gonna get a few kegs and all that bullshit [...]
I'm going to guess the cop boys are going to show up. I got no warrants anymore so I will have every set to play, but I'd rather avoid red and blue lights and any police in the house.
I'm working on getting food and shit, but like what kind of pussies eat at a party. We're drinking for Saint Patrick bro.
No Fights, No Bullshit. Well yes on the Bullshit part.
*well, maybe two hardcore, one thrashcore, one metalcore and one tradpunk band...Doug is better at parsing musical subgenres than I am.
**well, maybe KoppÅjutsu dancing...Doug is better at parsing martial arts styles than I am.
4/3, The Slaughterhouse, Ithaca, NY
Craig: Legendary show with Bunny’s a Swine. My brother invited us to Ithaca to film a music video in which MiniBoone would act as members of a fictional death metal band called the Knights of Death Metal, for usage in a film of the same name. My brother’s pal Sharkey set up a show for us at the house of an Ithaca townie, which doubled as the location of the video shoot. The shack in the back where we did the show was aptly called the Slaughterhouse.
We arrive in the early afternoon and begin setting up for the video shoot. Upon exploring the grounds, we find chickens running wild, a few dead roosters, a deer carcass hanging upside down from a tree, and the rusted remains of hundreds of bicycles. The interior of the shack where we are set to play is painted with a maniacal funhouse clown face, its toothy mouth yawning like the jaws of hell. A veritable death metal goldmine.
We put on miscellaneous death metal gear collected by Sharkey from the Salvation Army and build makeshift instruments out of nail boards, car parts, and trash cans. Filming commences. We take a lot of shots by the deer carcass. There’s a cemetery right across the street but we’ve gotten so much good material at the house that we don’t even have to go there. Video shoot is done, we hang around for a few hours, Bunny’s a Swine shows up, it gets dark, kids show up, a giant bonfire is lit, hamburgers cooked, we play a sweaty show in the crowded shack, and return triumphantly to the college. Creepiest show ever? Maybe, but also a total blast.
Supplementary material:
- The video we shot in Ithaca appears on a TV in the background of a scene in “The Knights of Death Metal”.
- See also Bunny’s a Swine's account of the event.
- Photo above by Candace Clement of BiAS
- Photo below by... Sharkey?
MiniBoone as the Knights of Death Metal... eating breakfast
5/08, Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn
James: This was a fun show. This place might have been and will might have ever be the nicest, coolest place I’ve played at. If you haven’t been to Brooklyn Bowl yet, make it a priority, the place is like a Dave and Busters for adults. Bowling, cocktails, good food, live music... that’s about it. Its got 4 things, 4 cool things. Anyway, we opened for Blues and Lasers, a fantastic southern rock band. They played an amazing show and so did we. yay! The stage was the biggest I think we had ever played on, and they had this awesome back stage loft area where they gave us free beer and food.
I realize that I keep on trying to talk about our actual show itself, but I keep getting distracted by how awesome the place was. In fact I have no idea how the show went. I think it went well, but I don’t remember, I was too busy staring at myself in the jumbo tron screens to the left of the stage right above all the bowling lanes. Don’t worry, I looked goooooood.
Craig: We broke strings on all 3 guitars, that’s how the show went. But we were treated like kings in the green room.
6/21, Outside Spike Hill, Brooklyn w/ Gunfight!, Quiet Loudly, Pet Ghost Project, and many more
Doug: This particular show was outdoors on a Monday afternoon in the middle of the hottest summer on record. Sounds like some real New York shit and it was. Pretty sure this was the first outdoor show we ever played, and we were a little nervous about how things would go over, especially since we were playing on a tiny sidewalk in a busy pedestrian area, right around rush hour. We watched as Gunfight made a pretty good case for why we might totally be awful in this environment - their tightly controlled melodies and harmonies brought back memories of hot afternoons sweating along to “Harvest”, and I couldn’t foresee any similarly positive connection to what our set might be, but what the hell.
Turned out to be one of the most entertaining sets, at least to play, all summer. I got to stare down people passing down Bedford Ave. on city buses, a pose I repeated later on with Amtrak during the I AM Festival, and is probably one of the most fun things ever. C’mon, you get to serenade commuters really loudly with odd rock songs - people totally unwilling to be listening to your shit? It’s a wonderful feeling. The best part about playing this sort of thing is that anyone and everyone has a chance to participate however they see fit. Most people preferred to participate by standing as far from us as possible, but a girl that was probably 4 years old was front and damn center. Craig decided to serenade her and even tried to, like, hold her hand. It was kind of creepy and the girl was smart enough to realize that, but she was still pretty into it.
7/13, Space Gallery, Portland, ME w/ Same Basic Bear and Domino Harvey
Taylor: This show was the show where I completely forgot where I was for most of the set. We played on the floor and it's probably the coolest DIY venue I can think of. They practically pour the free booze down your throat for you. Anyways, the other guys were in an especially goofball mood, and managed to knock their guitar cords out for what seemed like 37% of the set. Didn't matter. Energy was right on and no one broke a bone, surprisingly.
Craig: Just wanted to add that this was the first show where I did a handstand while singing on top of a barrel. Doug ran in circles around us and tripped over James’s amp and unplugged it. Sam invented the “cockroach dance” where he squirms around on the floor on his back and unplugs everybody’s cords.
Big ups to Hilly Town for booking this show!
7/23, House Party, Washington D.C.
Sam: I felt like we were playing the party in the "1979" music video. Except in that video Billy is wearing a winter cap and this house was about 120 degrees. MiniBoone tore through an extended set, stepped outside for a quick beer, then returned refreshed to bust through another dozen covers of motown favorites and other classic jams we’d been rehearsing for Craig’s wedding.
I guess before this gig, I had an impression of D.C. as a buttoned-up kind of place, but there were so many weirdos at this show. A “certified vision quest guide.” An African immigrant in a business suit who kept trying to give James and I his card. A kid who was thrown out after someone found him jerking off under the stairs. A dude with a machete tending bar. For me, this was the highlight of the tour.
7/31, Alex Gabriels Graduation Party, East Greenbush, NY
Taylor: My little sister asked us to play her high school graduation party over the summer to either A) show her friends she has an awesome taste in live music, or B) completely alienate herself from her high school friends before heading off the college. Whatever the reason, we happily obliged and headed upstate in the van in late July.
We prepped for the show by learning close to 10 songs we thought both the old timers and youngins at the party would enjoy. Songs like "Pretty Woman", "Wild Night", "Gloria", and then ones that we learned mostly did for our own enjoyment. We ended up playing 2 sets of music, highlighted by Papa Gabriels sitting in a harp for Ernie K Doe's "A Certain Girl", and Alex (my little sister) learning the bass line on the spot and totally nailing "Dreams" by the Cranberries. I couldn't be happier about the whole night. Dogs roaming in between bands members, quizzical looks from family members who had no idea what i've been doing over the past 2 years, and a relaxed vibe we rarely manifest. I think my favorite part of the night was my mom saying "The cops are here." to end MiniBoone for the night.
8/15, Craig’s Wedding, Thornton, PA
Craig: We were set to play a number of covers at my wedding when Taylor fractured his elbow two days prior to the event. Doug and my old band member Sam Allingham stepped in and saved the day, studying the drum parts on his own before stepping in with us. We practiced with him for the first and only time on the morning of the wedding, at the restaurant where the reception was to be held. We got about half an hour worth of practice and a couple requests to turn down before we were kindly told to unplug our instruments for good. It was just enough time to run through every song.
Later in the day, after the ceremony and the speeches, we tore through Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher,” and so began the best dance party that has ever happened at a MiniBoone show. My uncle brought my 80-year-old grandmother up in front to watch. I brought Marielle up on stage impromptu and sang “Dreams” by the Cranberries together with her. The boys performed “Unchained Melody” (my parents’ song) while I slow danced with my new wife. Taylor, blissed out on painkillers, jumped in on tambourine at some point. The whole thing felt like we were performing over the end credits of a romantic comedy. After all the wedding preparation and the last minute crises, we got our happy ending.
2/3, Big Changes Release Party at Glasslands with I’m Turning Into, Shark? and Pet Ghost ProjectDoug: We put out a record last January, called Big Changes. We wanted to throw a party to celebrate, cause we thought it was a good record and felt really jazzed about it. So we were like hey Glasslands and they were like cool. We got some friends new and old to come on board and such it was.
Glasslands is a great place to see a show and to play a show. DIY vibes (fluffy cloud stage backdrop! nice people!) with upscale emenities (a sort of backstage! an “upstairs!). I was personally very psyched that we had OUR party at such a wonderful place. It was even written up in the New Yorker, which, you know, ANEURISM (though they didn’t mention us - it was about I’m Turning Into, who put on a badass set that night).
As for the show itself, it was as chaotic as you could expect. We listened to a recording someone made, and sure enough, it sounded like we were spazzing out of our minds. If I don’t remember our performance that well, it’s probably because I was in some sort of pride-beer-excitement enduced trancestate.
All in all, a nice way to bring our record into existence. Someday we’ll do another record release party. See you there!
2/26, Cake Shop, NYCJames: At this show we played with some great bands, the Vandelles, El Jezel, Telltale, and our good friends Quiet Loudly. You can see Quiet Loudly cheering us on in the pictures. We were the last band on the bill, and we were all really nervous to play there, at least I was, because the last time we played there we had a couple of our amps break on us. This time however, as soon as we start playing the second song, all the mics went out. And that was it, the sound guy said the PA was dead and he couldn’t fix it. So we just decided to play the set anyway, and scream as loud as we could.
We played a bunch of covers so the crowd could sing along. We jumped around in the audience and on stage, and gave everyone as many instruments and things to bang on that we could spare so that it would be some sort of communal experience. It could have been a complete waste if we had stopped after the PA blew, but we powered through it and it became one of my favorite memories of the band.
3/20, PaRtY zOnE, Fairfield, NJ
Sam: MiniBoone, five hardcore bands* and a couple kegs in a basement in Jersey. One dude was doing some weird Jujitsu dancing in the pit.** There was a B.Y.O. Meat grill out back. A beer donation got you an “I smoked asbestos at the PaRtY zOnE” T-Shirt. It was awesome. The back-line email we got a from the dude setting up the show pretty much sums it up:
Yo Yo Yo! What's up, this is Chris checking in to let everyone know so far what the fucking deal is with March 20th. I appreciate you all coming through and getting hammered, it is for sure going to be a fucking mad house. So check it, I'm gonna get a few kegs and all that bullshit [...]
I'm going to guess the cop boys are going to show up. I got no warrants anymore so I will have every set to play, but I'd rather avoid red and blue lights and any police in the house.
I'm working on getting food and shit, but like what kind of pussies eat at a party. We're drinking for Saint Patrick bro.
No Fights, No Bullshit. Well yes on the Bullshit part.
*well, maybe two hardcore, one thrashcore, one metalcore and one tradpunk band...Doug is better at parsing musical subgenres than I am.
**well, maybe KoppÅjutsu dancing...Doug is better at parsing martial arts styles than I am.
4/3, The Slaughterhouse, Ithaca, NYCraig: Legendary show with Bunny’s a Swine. My brother invited us to Ithaca to film a music video in which MiniBoone would act as members of a fictional death metal band called the Knights of Death Metal, for usage in a film of the same name. My brother’s pal Sharkey set up a show for us at the house of an Ithaca townie, which doubled as the location of the video shoot. The shack in the back where we did the show was aptly called the Slaughterhouse.
We arrive in the early afternoon and begin setting up for the video shoot. Upon exploring the grounds, we find chickens running wild, a few dead roosters, a deer carcass hanging upside down from a tree, and the rusted remains of hundreds of bicycles. The interior of the shack where we are set to play is painted with a maniacal funhouse clown face, its toothy mouth yawning like the jaws of hell. A veritable death metal goldmine.
We put on miscellaneous death metal gear collected by Sharkey from the Salvation Army and build makeshift instruments out of nail boards, car parts, and trash cans. Filming commences. We take a lot of shots by the deer carcass. There’s a cemetery right across the street but we’ve gotten so much good material at the house that we don’t even have to go there. Video shoot is done, we hang around for a few hours, Bunny’s a Swine shows up, it gets dark, kids show up, a giant bonfire is lit, hamburgers cooked, we play a sweaty show in the crowded shack, and return triumphantly to the college. Creepiest show ever? Maybe, but also a total blast.
Supplementary material:
- The video we shot in Ithaca appears on a TV in the background of a scene in “The Knights of Death Metal”.
- See also Bunny’s a Swine's account of the event.
- Photo above by Candace Clement of BiAS
- Photo below by... Sharkey?
MiniBoone as the Knights of Death Metal... eating breakfast
5/08, Brooklyn Bowl, BrooklynJames: This was a fun show. This place might have been and will might have ever be the nicest, coolest place I’ve played at. If you haven’t been to Brooklyn Bowl yet, make it a priority, the place is like a Dave and Busters for adults. Bowling, cocktails, good food, live music... that’s about it. Its got 4 things, 4 cool things. Anyway, we opened for Blues and Lasers, a fantastic southern rock band. They played an amazing show and so did we. yay! The stage was the biggest I think we had ever played on, and they had this awesome back stage loft area where they gave us free beer and food.
I realize that I keep on trying to talk about our actual show itself, but I keep getting distracted by how awesome the place was. In fact I have no idea how the show went. I think it went well, but I don’t remember, I was too busy staring at myself in the jumbo tron screens to the left of the stage right above all the bowling lanes. Don’t worry, I looked goooooood.Craig: We broke strings on all 3 guitars, that’s how the show went. But we were treated like kings in the green room.
6/21, Outside Spike Hill, Brooklyn w/ Gunfight!, Quiet Loudly, Pet Ghost Project, and many moreDoug: This particular show was outdoors on a Monday afternoon in the middle of the hottest summer on record. Sounds like some real New York shit and it was. Pretty sure this was the first outdoor show we ever played, and we were a little nervous about how things would go over, especially since we were playing on a tiny sidewalk in a busy pedestrian area, right around rush hour. We watched as Gunfight made a pretty good case for why we might totally be awful in this environment - their tightly controlled melodies and harmonies brought back memories of hot afternoons sweating along to “Harvest”, and I couldn’t foresee any similarly positive connection to what our set might be, but what the hell.
Turned out to be one of the most entertaining sets, at least to play, all summer. I got to stare down people passing down Bedford Ave. on city buses, a pose I repeated later on with Amtrak during the I AM Festival, and is probably one of the most fun things ever. C’mon, you get to serenade commuters really loudly with odd rock songs - people totally unwilling to be listening to your shit? It’s a wonderful feeling. The best part about playing this sort of thing is that anyone and everyone has a chance to participate however they see fit. Most people preferred to participate by standing as far from us as possible, but a girl that was probably 4 years old was front and damn center. Craig decided to serenade her and even tried to, like, hold her hand. It was kind of creepy and the girl was smart enough to realize that, but she was still pretty into it.
7/13, Space Gallery, Portland, ME w/ Same Basic Bear and Domino Harvey
Taylor: This show was the show where I completely forgot where I was for most of the set. We played on the floor and it's probably the coolest DIY venue I can think of. They practically pour the free booze down your throat for you. Anyways, the other guys were in an especially goofball mood, and managed to knock their guitar cords out for what seemed like 37% of the set. Didn't matter. Energy was right on and no one broke a bone, surprisingly.
Craig: Just wanted to add that this was the first show where I did a handstand while singing on top of a barrel. Doug ran in circles around us and tripped over James’s amp and unplugged it. Sam invented the “cockroach dance” where he squirms around on the floor on his back and unplugs everybody’s cords.
Big ups to Hilly Town for booking this show!
7/23, House Party, Washington D.C.
Sam: I felt like we were playing the party in the "1979" music video. Except in that video Billy is wearing a winter cap and this house was about 120 degrees. MiniBoone tore through an extended set, stepped outside for a quick beer, then returned refreshed to bust through another dozen covers of motown favorites and other classic jams we’d been rehearsing for Craig’s wedding.
I guess before this gig, I had an impression of D.C. as a buttoned-up kind of place, but there were so many weirdos at this show. A “certified vision quest guide.” An African immigrant in a business suit who kept trying to give James and I his card. A kid who was thrown out after someone found him jerking off under the stairs. A dude with a machete tending bar. For me, this was the highlight of the tour.
7/31, Alex Gabriels Graduation Party, East Greenbush, NY
Taylor: My little sister asked us to play her high school graduation party over the summer to either A) show her friends she has an awesome taste in live music, or B) completely alienate herself from her high school friends before heading off the college. Whatever the reason, we happily obliged and headed upstate in the van in late July.
We prepped for the show by learning close to 10 songs we thought both the old timers and youngins at the party would enjoy. Songs like "Pretty Woman", "Wild Night", "Gloria", and then ones that we learned mostly did for our own enjoyment. We ended up playing 2 sets of music, highlighted by Papa Gabriels sitting in a harp for Ernie K Doe's "A Certain Girl", and Alex (my little sister) learning the bass line on the spot and totally nailing "Dreams" by the Cranberries. I couldn't be happier about the whole night. Dogs roaming in between bands members, quizzical looks from family members who had no idea what i've been doing over the past 2 years, and a relaxed vibe we rarely manifest. I think my favorite part of the night was my mom saying "The cops are here." to end MiniBoone for the night.
8/15, Craig’s Wedding, Thornton, PACraig: We were set to play a number of covers at my wedding when Taylor fractured his elbow two days prior to the event. Doug and my old band member Sam Allingham stepped in and saved the day, studying the drum parts on his own before stepping in with us. We practiced with him for the first and only time on the morning of the wedding, at the restaurant where the reception was to be held. We got about half an hour worth of practice and a couple requests to turn down before we were kindly told to unplug our instruments for good. It was just enough time to run through every song.
Later in the day, after the ceremony and the speeches, we tore through Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher,” and so began the best dance party that has ever happened at a MiniBoone show. My uncle brought my 80-year-old grandmother up in front to watch. I brought Marielle up on stage impromptu and sang “Dreams” by the Cranberries together with her. The boys performed “Unchained Melody” (my parents’ song) while I slow danced with my new wife. Taylor, blissed out on painkillers, jumped in on tambourine at some point. The whole thing felt like we were performing over the end credits of a romantic comedy. After all the wedding preparation and the last minute crises, we got our happy ending.
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