Heart-Shaped Hops

GRUNGE UNPLUGGED. That's right, it's all happening! In this episode, Willard, Lee, and Jamnick join us for a few beers and chat about their own brewery adventure, including their upcoming Iowa tour and their collab beer with Heavy Rotation Brewing. If you've listened to previous episodes or know me at all, then you're already aware Grunge Unplugged is my favorite local band and a huge part of my brewery adventure. I am beyond excited for this episode and incredibly thankful they were willing to hang out with us and share a few stories over beers.

EPISODE BEERS (from Heavy Rotation Brewing):
Woo Hah!!, Premium Czech Pilsner
Wreckless Abandon, Witbier w/ Orange Zest
Farmer Frank's, Award-Winning Cream Ale

NEXT GRUNGE UNPLUGGED SHOWS:
6/12/26: LTD Brewing - Hopkins, MN
6/17/26: Tellurian Brewing - Charles City, IA
6/18/26: Shiny Top Brewing - Ft. Dodge, IA
6/19/26: Reclaimed Rails Brewing - Bondurant, IA
6/20/26: Brightside Aleworks - Altoona, IA
6/23/26: Aegir Brewing - Elk River, MN
7/10/26: Elm Creek Brewing - Champlin, MN
7/11/26: Boom Island Brewing - Minnetonka, MN
7/14/26: Music in the Park - Centerville, MN
7/24/26: Heavy Rotation - Brooklyn Park, MN

LINKS:

• Grunge Unplugged
• Heavy Rotation Brewing
• Courtney’s Untappd
• Dan’s Untappd
• A One Pint Stand

Visit our website at https://thebreweryadventure.com or contact us by sending an email to courtney@thebreweryadventure.com.

Be sure to subscribe to our Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thebreweryadventure!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Brewery Adventure. I'm Courtney.

SPEAKER_04 0:03

And I'm Dan. We're here to dive into the world of your local brewery.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

It's not just about the beer, it's about the vibe, the people, and the stories behind every tabroom.

SPEAKER_04 0:11

From small neighborhood spots to big bustling brew houses, we'll bring you along for the ride. So grab a pint and join us on the brewery adventure. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Oh yay. Wait, I didn't even drink. I'm so distracted.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Oh, that's refreshing.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

That is refreshing. But Dan, Dan, this is a very exciting day.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

It is.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I'm the most excited about this out of anybody here, and I don't know if everybody realizes that.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

You might need medical attention.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I might need medical attention. Today we are at Heavy Rotation in Brooklyn Park, and we have with us Grunge Unplugged.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I feel like we need some theme music that goes with that.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

I wish I could make musical noises with my mouth, because that would have been the perfect and we're all plugged in with Grunge Unplugged. What a fun time.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

We are plugged in.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

This is a changeup. Welcome you guys. Thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Oh, it's our pleasure. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Would you like to just take a second and introduce yourselves, your your name, maybe your your role in the band, and what you do for a day job?

SPEAKER_03 1:21

I'm Willard. My stage name is Willard. My first name is Mark, but nobody calls me that. So I'm Willard. We all do everything. So we play Cajon, percussion, we play guitar, we sing. My day job, I'm a seventh grade ELA teacher. For now, next year, uh I'm moving to a role where I will be what's called a QComp instructional coach, which is like a teacher who goes in and observes teachers and helps them improve their practice in the classroom.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

And so a teacher of teachers. A teacher of teachers. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

So, yeah, that's me. And I'm Lee, say like Willard said, we all play guitar and cajon and sing. And I'm a software engineer, so that's what I do.

SPEAKER_05 2:04

And hey, I'm Chris. And I'm a math teacher, high school math teacher. And I'd say in the band I do about half songs on Cajon, half on guitar. Good to be here. Got a lot of educators at the table. That's fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Yeah, the educators are outnumbering the non-educity.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

60% if my math is right, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Which is crazy. Coming from the English teacher.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

Usually to do those that type of calculation, I need some sort of uh cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

That is true. So I saw you guys years ago at LTD. I had not heard of you guys before. I'm very, very sorry. That was just randomly walking in one night with a friend of mine and you guys were playing. The place was absolutely packed. Everybody was singing along. There were people trying to dance, even though, again, it was packed and there was limited space and there's not a lot. Not a lot you can do to move.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

It's also not dance music. Like people will dance to Jeremy and it's like what are you dancing to? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

We prefer if people don't dance, if they just sit stoically and listen to us. And think about their bad choices in their life. That's usually what we like if that happens.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

I don't I'll I I can work on sitting stoically while you guys are playing. I don't think I can do that. I think I've I'm not dancing, but I I'm still bopping around when Jeremy comes on.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

I mean, Gloria Stefan said, the rhythm is gonna get you. So I don't know. I I'm not immune to that.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Well LTD was one of the first places that gave us a chance and let us play, which is nice.

SPEAKER_06 3:37

Thank you, LTD.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

We like going back there. Super cool people there. And so it's cool that you got to see us at that place because it's, I don't know, one of my favorite places to play. It's always a great crowd there. They have great beer.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

They have awesome beer.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

And yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

But you have to get there about two and a half hours early to get a table. Yeah. They tell us that people come two hours early to that place.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

I learned that the next time I went there to go see you guys and didn't show up two and a half hours early, I was warned then like you should have been here sooner. Yeah. And I think it was like an hour early, which I thought was gonna be plenty of time, but no, you guys have quite a following. Quite a following.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

There's always every show I've been to has been just packed full of people. It doesn't matter what venue I've seen you at, packed full of people, and really it is everybody singing along, and just it's a group experience.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Yeah, it's uh we're very fortunate that we have fans that go and see us multiple places, they see us multiple times. I mean, we have people who come if we're playing a Friday and a Saturday, they'll come both nights sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

We get they're driving down to Iowa to see us. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's really cool. Or two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Um the Iowa tour that's coming up, how does that happen?

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Uh it all started. Uh one of my good high school friends, Shelly, is uh the person kind of in halfway in charge, or she's a she's a big wig in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Uh and she asked, you know, she saw that I had a band and asked if we ever wanted to play at Shiny Top brewing in Fort Dodge, which I assume you guys have been to.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

I have not.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

Am I I've only been to a handful of Iowa breweries, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Well, Shiny Top is good. They have good beer. Okay. They have a pizza. Oh no. You go right in. It's uh jalapeno popper pizza. Yes, please. I don't know what they do.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Like they put poppers on the pizza, or there's jalapenos and like some cream cheese.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

It's a cream cheese sauce. And then there's jalapenos on there. Bake crumbled bacon bacon bits and regular cheese.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

It is amazing. It's amazing. Wow, wow, wow. It's something to behold. It is a sight to behold. As the French say, me gusta. That's that sounds yummy. But she she asked, you know, and it was like, okay, they only do music on Thursdays. So then it was like, do we drive all the way down to a small town, essentially, in Iowa to do one show on a Thursday? And so it became, okay, well, maybe is there another place in Iowa we could play on a Friday? And so I literally emailed every place that I could find that did live music in Iowa that was a brewery. Hey, do you want us could we play on Friday? Of this date, literally, you know, like whatever it was, June 10th. Can we play that day? And got a res a couple responses back, and then it was like, okay, we're doing two, uh, maybe there's some place we could play on a Saturday too. And it just kind of grew from that.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

That's awesome. So you made your own tour. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

And so we is this our fourth or fifth year doing it? Fifth? Because the first year, well, Willard's from Iowa. So that was the first time. So we said, like, would you guys be willing to go down to Iowa and do some gigs? We're like, yeah, we'll do it once, but it was so fun that we were like, we gotta do this every year. So it's become a thing and it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

It's nice that you can just pack them all in together and be like this in Iowa.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

And so this year we're going, we're going back to Shiny Top on that Thursday. And then we have a place Brightside in Altoona, who also makes really good beer. They had one four years ago. It was like a mango ale. Dangerous. That was dangerous. That might have been the greatest beer I've ever had in my life.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

You're drinking it and you're like, oh, this is a tasty fruity beer, and and you're assuming 4-2, 4-4, and it was like 7-2.

SPEAKER_06 7:33

And we're like, hmm.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

We're gonna have to use the drum as a pillow. Oh, I'm going in.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Sleepy time.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah. It was super good. Yeah, the the music sounded different from the beginning to the end of that game. At the end, it was a little different. I thought it sounded great. Yeah, it was great to us. We didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

We were you were in the beer zone. Yeah. The beer music zone.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Yeah. So we're doing those two, and then it's been kind of other random ones we've been able to fill in on the other times, but it's always it seems to be always Shiny Top on the Thursday and always Brightside on the Saturday. And then we have a couple new ones this year. The Wednesday we're at Tellurian, I think it's pronounced, in Charles City, Iowa. So that's a little bit further north. And then uh the Friday we're at a new place, Reclaimed Rails, which is Bondurant, Iowa, which is outside of Des Moines a little bit. Both of those places seem to do a lot of live music. So that's usually our favorite places to play, is where it's they already kind of have a following that you know they know, go to this brewery to see live music. Yeah. And they have people in the town that kind of go there all the time anyway. And so, yeah, that's coming up on the 17th, I think is the first thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yes. Of June.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

So it'll be good. It'll be a good time.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

That's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

How did you all meet? So me and Jamnik met through a mutual friend. He went to college with them. I grew up with them. Okay. And then we came out. And where did you grow up? Uh Northern Minnesota, like by International Falls. It's a small town called Little Fork. Okay. All right. And he grew up on the Iron Range. And we all meet he went to UMD with the guy I grew up with. Okay. So I went down to the visit my friend, and then we kind of got together and we messed around with some music and stuff and played music for a while. And then these two taught together for a while. Yeah. So that's how we all met.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

You know, I don't know if I even know this lore behind how they met. Oh my. You know, just we're all here to learn. Yeah, we're all learning together. This is great. But do you guys remember what the first song ever that you jammed with each other on?

SPEAKER_05 9:43

Well, I remember your friend played more folk music. And when we met, we're like, oh, you play rock guitar. Oh, you play more rock. We both played a lot of guitar, so and we all knew the same songs already. Like, you know that song too? So do I. Lino's the solo, I know the chords behind it. So yeah, I don't remember the sack song. Probably Patience or something like that. You know.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

That's a classic.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

And then yeah, we taught together. And then uh it all started, so Jamnik's girlfriend Christy was needing some music for like a teacher appreciation. Yep, at a brewery. At a brewery at 10K in Anoka. I assume she said, hey, you know how to play guitar. You can tell the story. Jamnik. You don't have to have me tell you.

SPEAKER_05 10:29

Yeah, she said, Why don't you and Lee and maybe Willard come by and play some songs? And we put together a set list. Yeah. Because we had a bunch of songs that we all know we already knew. And we realized about half of them were from the 90s, would you say? Yeah. Yeah. And I think was it your idea? You said we should keep playing music and focus on the 90s.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:48

People like that era music, especially in breweries.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Yes. It's that age demographic that's gonna listen to 90s music.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

And then he said, and we're gonna call ourselves Grunge Unplugged. And I said, that is a stupid, stupid name. Like, why wouldn't you want like a creative and then in my own? Wait, what did you want the name to be? Oh, I don't know. I I had no ideas. I'm not creative. But but like two other guys. Immediately, like within six months, I was like, that is the best name because people will see it and they know exactly what they're getting. Like it's they know they're getting grunge, they also know it's not gonna be loud. And I was like, that is the perfect name. Uh but at first I was like, that's dumb. That's dumb.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Did you get like an I told you so from anyone?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Uh no. No. No, I never said it was dumb to him.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

And I've also learned uh yeah. How how Minnesotan of it is. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

No, I what I thought was you could do a reference to something, you know, like a lyric reference, but then only people who know that song are gonna know that it's a reference, so they won't really know what kind of music you're playing. And so I thought I thought the idea of like the genre and MTV unplugged, Pearl Jam unplugged, Allison Chains unplugged, it was always something unplugged. So then it was just like, oh, put them together, and then English teacher, you're gonna enjoy the assonance of the repeated vowel sound of the grunge unplugged. The U is repeated. Grunge unplugged has that, it just rolls off the tongue and it sounds real good. Yeah. These guys are staring at me, they have no idea that I was thinking about that. Did he just call us an ass?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

What happened? What happened there? With your teaching and with do the kids know that you're in a band? Have they come? Like I get to see I get to see Dan's former students will see him out at a brewery, and it's it's the funnest thing when they come up to him and like Mr. B and they go into this whole thing. I think it's really cool. It's a moment.

SPEAKER_04 12:54

Yeah, it's always fun to run into. I mean I've run into former and I because I started teaching in 02, so it's been a while. You know, the eighth graders I had in 02 are now in their mid to late 30s and of drinking age. Also, I have a hilarious story. You'll you'll enjoy this as both of you as teachers. There was a girl who was in my eighth grade speech class, and this was before everybody had a smartphone, and they would pass notes, and I was getting sick of the notes. I'm like, if I see another note being passed, I'm gonna read it in front of the whole class, and I don't care if it embarrasses you. This girl named Emily Girecki passed a note to her friend and it fell on the floor. I'm like, I'll help you with that. I'm like, and I I read it out loud, and basically it was about a kid who sat two rows over that she had a massive crutch on, and he's like, He's so hot. Do you think he would go out with me? And she just like I watched her turn beat red. So fast forward like 15 years later, I was at the Autumn Brew Review, and this gal walks up to me. I have the curse, and maybe you two have it too, where you don't forget a face. I can I can see somebody 20 years later that I had and when they were 13 or 14. I'm like, it's you, and I remember their first and last name. I'm like, Emily Jerecki, she's like, oh my god, Mr. Bobian. She was an English teacher in St. Louis Park, and she's like, I have never forgot when you read my note in front of the whole class. At the time I was so pissed, but now as a teacher, I totally get why you did that, and that was really cool. And I was like, wow, that's uh that's really kind of full circle uh moment. So yeah, that's always fun running in former kids at breweries.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Well, and your students, some of them know you have a podcast.

SPEAKER_04 14:39

Oh yeah, yeah, there was one time we were doing silent reading, 10 minutes of silent reading every day. Yep, and all of a sudden I hear the intro music, and I'm like, I'm like, that sounds familiar. I'm like, wait a minute, this kid, Brian Umbiro, who his parents wound up sending him back to Africa because he was so squirrely that, like, you're going to a military school in Nigeria to shape up. And he's like, on his iPad, and just like the look of sheer just not being able to process what he was hearing. He's like, Mr. B has a beer podcast. And I'm like, alright. Uh he's like, my dad likes beer. Why does it smell so weird? I had a sip once. It's disgusting. Are you drunk? Do you drink a lot? I'm like, okay, we're we're gonna pause the QA. Everybody go back to reading. I'm like, but seriously, tell your parents to follow. I need the I need the I need the numbers. So that's always fun. The one the streams of your education and and and fun side passions.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

Jamie, you just had some of your students find like your discovered some of your YouTube playing guitar videos or something.

SPEAKER_05 15:53

Yeah, I have a you personal YouTube channel where I post some pictures of the band playing and the videos and myself playing a little, and a kid found it and said that he was him and his kids in his English class were all watching it on the big screen. And he I asked, which one? It was just it was me playing all these different instruments in a split screen, and I kind of find it hard to believe that his whole English class was watching it, but of all your videos to choose from, was that a good one for them to be watching? Yeah, that one was okay. Okay. I instantly went on and took erased some of them right away. I think I had one where I was rapping. I was like, oh, get that out of there. But I usually don't advertise that I'm in a band to my classes.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

They don't figure it out at some point?

SPEAKER_05 16:39

I mean, they don't really care. 14-year-olds. I mean, I have a guitar club at school. Oh, that's awesome. Uh, one day a week where I a few kids come in and play guitar, I tell them. Because they like kids now like 90s music anyway. They still play. I'm like, what do you want to play? They're like, Nirvana? Sure, yeah, let's do it. So those kids know, but yeah, not my usual custom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

My students you know, I probably tell them at the beginning of the year, like, when I'm kind of introducing myself, like, I love music, I play guitar, I'm in a band, but after that it goes in one ear and out the other, and most of them. I have had a few that come up. Um there was there was one uh when we played at the roadside, uh it was like the first gig back after COVID, I think, where we're playing outdoors, and there was a former student, and she came up during our break after the first set, and I was like, oh my gosh, how's it going? And she said, Wow, I've never heard you swear so much. And then I was like, Oh, I guess I I kind of do swear a lot when we are you know, some of the songs obviously have a lot of swear words in it, and I like to throw out an occasional swear word when I'm doing some banter. That was uh that was her wear the swearing after that. I'm not gonna teach who I am.

SPEAKER_05 17:53

And there was a time where um it was here actually at Heavy Rotation where we there was an ugly sweater contest, and uh I had a bunch of ugly sweaters, I'm like, which one should I wear? And I had one where it was uh Mrs. Claws topless. And I thought, well, I'm not gonna save students or anything. I'm at a brewery.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

It's an adult space.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

You get here, front and center is a girl in my class with her parents. Oh no. Oh Lord. Some trying to cover up my shirt with my arms, making sure she doesn't see.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Mom, Dad, that's my teacher.

SPEAKER_05 18:25

Which one? The one with the topless Christmas claws, that one.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

That's great. If you hear in the background, we are at heavy rotation. There's a meat raffle going on.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

Nothing goes better than meat raffle. I didn't hear the number. Oh, he didn't say it. Oh, he's drawing.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

We're ready, we're ready.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Oh, no. We got all the 90s here at the table. We got 94, we got 90s. Aproponent, given the fact that you really lean heavily into that one? I think I thought you said nine something.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Oh, LTD was the first brewery that gave you a shot.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Well, a 10K was. And then I think LTD was the second. We played at a golf course as well.

SPEAKER_04 19:11

Mulligans in uh hopefully not during the backswing of anybody who's a real anal retentive turd, because that would be awful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Yeah. And I mean In the bar. It was mulligans at uh the ponds.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

Yeah, way up north.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

The ponds, yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

10K mulligans. Inbound was pretty early. LTD, Inbound was an early one as well. Torg. Torg.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

You guys seem to play like now pretty exclusively at Reese. Is that intentional? Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

It is. We played a a few a couple bars, and it was just like people are used to at a bar like hearing certain songs, and we don't play those songs. And so then they'd come up and say, like, oh it was it was at uh well I won't say the place. But then there's people during break who's like, oh, this is so fun. We want to dance. Can you play some Michael Jackson? Are you listening?

SPEAKER_06 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Because that's not in our repertoire, nor will it ever be.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

There's a lot of there's a lot of pluses to a brewery. Yeah. One, there are first and foremost, we play from six to nine usually, so we're done. Yeah. Early. Instead of nine to one or something like that. Two, the people are older, our age, so they want to hear this music, and they they know a lot more of this older music that we're playing from.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

I say old music, but I know you keep saying it, and I keep being like, oh man.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Yeah, so it's people our age that know this music. Three, people are sitting and they're relaxing. Yeah. And they're hanging out. You you're not supposed to really get them up and excited and dancing and that kind of stuff. I don't know. So it just kind of fits better with our vibe. Because we we have very upbeat songs. Lee likes screaming quite a bit. He does a great Kirk Cobain. Uh but we also have a lot of mellow songs, too. And you're, I don't know. You guys have a lot more experience playing in bar bars than I do, but I feel like if you started playing Nothing Man and in at 2 PM at Serums, people would probably riot or boo you up to serve.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Your Pearl Jam options are even flowing alive at a bar. Yeah. Even those. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Yeah. So it gives us a lot more flexibility of what we play. And we I don't know. I don't want to talk for these guys, but I think we take some pride in playing songs that a lot of bands don't cover. We like playing the deep cuts, we like playing songs that are more mellow, we like playing the ones that Well, we get to play songs that we like.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

It's not what we want what the audience wants to hear. It's what we play what we like. And the people that like those songs become our audience. So that's what's cool about it, I think.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Yeah. And we I I spend probably way too much time in my life making set lists. We do a differ a different set list every show.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Which is always fun to see. Like what do they play?

unknown 22:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

And so I think that's also what helped build our kind of our following that people come and see us because they know even if they came and s saw us on Friday, they come on Saturday, you're going to hear a bunch of different songs anyway. So you might as well see us twice in a weekend.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

What's the total number of songs in your Lee's got it. What what can we pick from? How many there's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

We know 234 songs now. Oh my god 30? Uh 40. 40?

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Yeah. Yeah okay that's impressive. Yeah. And I mean two of those two thirty, I would say regular songs that we play would probably be 150 that we play where it could be as long as I sing the beginning for Lee, we could probably play them just like that, you know, at the drop of a hat. Probably 150 of those. How often do you get together to practice?

SPEAKER_04 23:04

Because like zero I don't know like we that would be so hard. I don't understand how musicians do that.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

We when we first joined we practiced twice. I once or twice.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Because we're like here's some songs we better learn how to play them and we practice and and then we learn some more songs and we're like okay should we get together and practice these and we're like nah let's just see what happens. So we we haven't practiced in seven years. Wow. We just we text each other like hey should we add this song sure and then it's like what do you who's gonna play Cajon who's gonna play drums who's gonna play lead or sing who's gonna sing it and then we just learn our parts and it usually works the first time. If it doesn't work the first time we do it the next gig and we'll have learned from our mistakes and it'll work that time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Who decides the the set list for each show?

SPEAKER_02 23:53

He makes the set list uh Willard makes all the set lists.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

I I've you know I've opened it up I said hey you guys want to and they say no a first band controversy.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

No no no I suspect Ono just shot it's like that's my job I it's a weird thing to say that I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

I do enjoy it. It's something that I do on usually I do it like a week ahead of time so that I can send it out so that Lee can ignore it until we're three seconds away from playing. I'm just giving Lee crap it's funny to be a vegan podcast for now but I usually do it like a week ahead of time and it's something like on a Saturday or Sunday morning having coffee in the morning listening to records just something to do like while I'm doing that like on the computer and it's it's pretty nerdy I don't know I have a s I have a spreadsheet and I type into it. But that way you know I can take whatever I it's like each tab of the spreadsheet has all our songs. It has what the last gig was I can duplicate it take a bunch of songs out put a bunch of new songs in to make sure it's you know it's different and then I keep track of which brewery so then like the next time if we're playing at LTD for example I can look at the last time we played at LTD. What songs did we play then? Make sure that we don't you know have the same opener and closer songs so that there's some variety in there.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah I don't know it's a lot are there songs reports on the set list that you guys are like I don't want to do that one.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

There's only one I'm not gonna say no I I I was just saying recently it's like 200 and what I just say 230 songs. They're all songs that I love.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Okay good.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Except for one I don't like it's uh it's the uh it's on the single soundtrack though na na na na nah na dyslexically I don't just put that on I know I know I know I don't I don't ever say anything because I'm fine doing it people like it whatever I just don't but we're in Minnesota so we gotta do Paul Westerberg I mean that's the way it goes.

SPEAKER_05 26:00

Yeah yeah there's not many 90 songs that are bad.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

I mean I they're all good I like them all really I mean you guys added a couple at Metronome that you prefaced with we're playing this once and we're never doing it again.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

It's true. We're not even supposed to talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 26:17

I didn't mention the song names I don't know if you have a beep if you have a beeper on this we can uh there is a way to censor so there's some that are maybe there you go there you go so when we went to the when we played this the lady told us to I'm a c at a shoney's in Roseville that is I found it I love it I love this thing this is so fun.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

So maybe they're not all good.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

I mean they're fun so the ones you preface with that though I were really fun and everybody was still singing along no it's and it's more we like those songs I haven't I don't think we have anything against those songs it's just too like predictable like they're the big hits you know that's just like we've never played Smells like Teen Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

No never ever?

SPEAKER_03 27:04

No Wow and that's it's not like I'm against it or something like that. One it's it's not a great song to play acoustically anyway but it's more so like if you're gonna play the thing that everybody plays it's like you know we can do something different. We've kind of created within our fans at least I think songs that have become kind of our signature songs that Peaches Yeah that Hunger Strike Peaches Loser Loser Pepper Pepper like songs where now people are like yeah we've heard those a hundred times so it's like you you play songs enough that that's why we're constantly adding more songs is because we have songs that are even we have started to play maybe too much. But it's tough when making a set list you can you know all the songs and you know how the crowd reacts to each song and you know like this is a really popular one people love that one. It's like ah am I gonna cut that one out and put a different one in that's maybe not as popular. And so I don't know it's a give and take sometimes or sometimes you have new songs and you don't know if they're gonna be good or not or if you're I mean we don't practice so are you gonna play them correctly. So then we space out here's what here's a new one and then right after it's a it's a really good one that we know that's really good.

SPEAKER_04 28:27

And then you know like that that's something I was going to ask is like because I think you know when you go to a concert there's definitely kind of peaks and valleys as far as like energy is concerned and even with acoustic music you know there's some songs that you hear and do you worry about like the crowd getting too energetic and then you can't really like you have to kind of dial it back to keep those going. I know that I've my the only band I have not seen many bands in in person. I've seen the Rolling Stones the Village people Bruce Springsteen and Weird Owl those are the only concerts I've ever been to as far as they're known but if I exactly the Mount Rushmore of American uh musical uh excellence but you know if you go to any of those concerts there's like an energy that kind of builds and the tapers off and it builds again and then like you have the Encore and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band always play the same encore songs and it if they didn't I think people would lose their minds and riot.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Yeah yeah but how does that what's that process like to try to make it different I know you don't want to like have any two shows be exactly alike but like how long does that take or or what's that process like I would say we usually start mellow if it's a typical brewery gig start mellow and then we get to maybe a first fast song and then we do a few fast ones in a row and then maybe a a couple chill ones to cool down and then and then kind of big big closers at the end of a set. If it's like a festival or if we have a limited time a lot of times we'll just start off real fast right away but I don't know it's I I again I don't want to talk for these guys and what they what they think is going on or what I think is going on. But I I have I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan and so I'm hugely kind of influenced by them when thinking of set lists. Their big thing a lot of times is kind of starting mellow to kind of ease into it and then bring it up and then having like a chill period and then some kind of big ending closer to a set and then they come out for a second set again kind of a chill opening and then climb it up to a an a climax at the end, you know uh for an encore or something like that. I don't know if that's what you guys have noticed about Arcalis at all.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Do you guys know this is happening?

SPEAKER_05 30:58

Yeah just so you put a song in the middle of the second set so Lee can go to the bathroom I guess. Yeah a song that Lee doesn't play on Lee doesn't have the teacher bladder like we do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

It's usually creep by radiohead.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

That's Lee's peace that's the bathroom break song it's that's one where it's like we've played it so many times the It's also never on the set list because we just reserve it to for when I have to pee. So I'll just like Willard play creep and then I'll so it's on the set list but unofficially it's in our it's in our recording at some point. Yeah not every night but well most yeah most nights but it's only second set.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

First set is easy. Yeah this is gonna be a whole new thing when I hear creep coming but then also like we start mellow and we start with or I always start with songs that are easy to sing to warm up my voice at the beginning. I probably should do vocal exercises. Listen if you don't practice you also don't have to warm up I mean we're we're kind of flying by the kind of use the first couple songs as a vocal warm-up as well so there's you know I don't know probably 20 of our songs that are really easy to sing that are kind of in the lower register. And so those are usually we kind of become the openers. And then like I said yeah usually there's a first fast song. It used to always be Corduroy but you know I try to go against your tendencies and switch it up and sort of trying different stuff now. Like we just added uh plowed by Sponge and that's been kind of a very a fun kind of first fast song to put in there.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Who gets to decide what's added?

SPEAKER_03 32:44

Usually it's me we all yeah we throw out ideas and it's me throwing out Pearl Jam and Oasis songs and these guys not responding. Yep. The last time we did like a we did like a spreadsheet again kind of nerdy but yeah we kind of voted the last time we ranked we had a bunch of ideas ranked them each one to ten and like tabulated and it kind of worked out that there were like six songs and they were all different bands that were kind of the top six and it just kind of worked out nicely like that.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Are people like emailing you and telling you at the show like I I want you to play this constantly.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

That's like the number one thing we probably we get people yeah emailing messaging Facebook commenting coming up after gigs you should play this song you should play this song you should play this song I see you just become good it's always yeah I mean but also some probably that are like why don't you play Team Spirit Yeah I don't know if I've ever had anybody ask why we should we play Smells like Team Spirit are you guys ever?

SPEAKER_02 33:47

I don't I don't remember ever being asked that yeah we have a gig I I don't think anybody's ever requested it.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Yeah we have done and I I've done it just to be a dick sometimes I'll say I'll introduce it and I'll say hey you know we've never played this song before and then I do the first two chords and then I say you know it's a lot of people want us to play it we've never have but since tonight is a special night we'll do it. And so here it is and then you instead of playing Spells like T Spirit you go into More Than a Feeling by Boston because it's the same first two chords. Didn't he do that one time Kirk Lobain did that one time as well yeah so it's it's not like unprecedented to do that. It's just it's kind of we've we've said on several occasions we try to do things to you know antagonize our audience and and kind of and anger them a little bit just to keep them on their toes a little bit when it comes to venues that you've played in breweries what are some of your favorite places to perform I'm gonna defer to these guys.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

I'm talking too much I'll let you guys know well so we play up in Uncommon Loon in Chisago on uh Chisago City on Thursdays which is the only Thursdays we do but we get a huge crowd there and it's start to finish like a lot of fun. Yeah I I like you know it and really good beer. Yeah and it's really good beer. I I tend to like the smaller the place the better like it even though like less people get to see you and stuff but it's a it's just more intimate like you feel like you're just more in a circle of playing guitar around a campfire kind of in those little places. But other places uh I I like here heavy rotation and also Elm Creek Brewery. Both those places good beer but also really close to my place my house so that that's always nice.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Yeah Elm Elm Creek's patio in the summer is always a lot of fun. It's a really it's a it's a big patio which is nice and they have the big shades kind of over you as well so that's always a lot of fun. LTD is always fun because it's always a really good crowd. And like Lee said and we we alluded to earlier with like people showing up hours ahead of time to get seats. We have people that say like you know you should play bigger places you should play bigger places you should cart charge a cover you know like that kind of stuff and it's like we could we could we could but then I think we if you saw us in a massive place I don't think it would be the same. I don't know we did play uh we played at that food truck festival at the Mississippi crossings in Champlain that big outdoor thing and it it was kind of comical like the three of us sitting on cajones on this massive stage in a massive amphitheater and it's like we just don't really fit that feeling yeah I don't know Torg we always have a really good crowd and they always sing they sing from song number one when we play there um they're ready to go they're ready to go there's there's no warming up at Torg.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

No they're they're as we're setting up they're sitting there ready.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

You guys might not have warmed up but they did.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Yes inbound like just the kind of the way it's arranged they have that stage that's up which is nice that and it's it's pretty big actually as well so that it's it's nice to play there as well. Oodapils is nice as well yeah indoors or outdoors there at their outdoor spaces I love their outdoor space um and the indoor yeah just right in front of the cool brewery like the big brewing tanks and everything like that on a stage is pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_05 37:40

Where haven't you played that you're like we're just waiting for our moments I mean there have been places that I I don't want to call out people what is the Madison Square Garden venue for of grunge unplug where are you where are you looking to get it's mostly like places that we haven't played are just places I've emailed they haven't emailed me back is most most of the places are I don't know like how how can we give me names I'll go chain myself to the defensive I mean Autumn Brewer Review was amazing because there was like a hundred breweries there and we got to play for all of them at the same time so that was fun.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

Yep yeah I don't know there's not like massive places that we haven't played it was fun seeing you at the Twin Cities Oktoberfest at the state fairgrounds this year.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

Was that your first time there?

SPEAKER_03 38:24

Yes or you don't yeah that was fun yeah I don't know I think it would be cool we've we've tossed around the idea but it's never like gotten past the idea stage but it would be cool to like do a Duluth weekend and play it some places up there. Yeah or do a uh Rochester weekend and play it some places down there. Like you know we've done the Iowa thing which is fun. Forager has a nice outdoor stage down in Rochester.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

Yeah so I don't know I feel like there was a there were maybe a couple years back when I was booking the Iowa tour we were looking for like a like whatever the first day was going to be the Wednesday or the Thursday and we hadn't found a place and I did I like emailed the places in Rochester like oh we could do it kind of on the way down to Iowa or something like that. And I just never heard back.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

It's tough you never know when you're emailing you're just kind of like if you tell the owner of Little Fishel that you're gonna lean heavily into Oasis he will have you there because he loves that band. Okay. He's Scottish oh okay so I don't know if Oasis is Scottish but they're from Manchester.

SPEAKER_03 39:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

So they're English yeah same neck of the woods.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Not a geography teacher.

SPEAKER_03 39:37

There's a lot of breweries that I love that don't just don't do live music. I mean that's another thing. Or there's breweries that are really cool that do live music but it's only for like uh you know special events or something like that that we haven't been asked to do we've never had a bad time at a brewery.

SPEAKER_05 39:52

Yeah. Well they've all been good.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

Yeah yeah there are unfortunately some breweries we've played at that have since closed unfortunately but um yeah that's that happens one of our favorite spots but I don't know I don't there's no place that that we haven't played that I'm like itching to play.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

I wanted you to have a Madison Square Garden you're like we're just waiting for this this brewery to let us in. Dan can work on the Rochester ones for you.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

Yeah I'll tell Steve to check your inbox follow up well I suppose it'd be surly the backyard of surly that'd be a good one I don't know if they have Friday night Saturday night three guys we played at uh don't worry they won't play Teen Spirit Who was it uh Hopkins what was the festival that we Raspberry Festival Raspberry Festival and we played I don't know we played at like two or three o'clock on this big stage but the band before us was like a 10 piece funk band they were amazing they were super good I can't remember their name but they had like four singers and like horns and all this stuff and they played before us so they get done and we here we come with our six by four rug roll it out sit down taking up a tenth of the space.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Yeah that was interesting it was fun though yeah yeah the crowd liked it so that's why you gotta do gimmicks like having a megaphone and walking through the crowd and singing or before you got here Dan they were talking about some things that happened during the shows like have you seen this have you seen like I've missed all of these like cool moments I've shown but apparently they happen like toward the end of the night and that's usually when I'm like I'm gonna sneak out I'm learning lessons.

SPEAKER_04 41:43

Yeah I'll have to stay stay longer.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Stay until the end.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

Yep every time four hours early stay to the end just make a day of it make a day of it yeah I can do it.

SPEAKER_03 41:55

So the logistics of this Iowa tour it sounds like you've been doing that for a couple summers five summers do you think you would ever extend it because it sounds like you have four stops five stops four stops four stops okay four stops and five that has to be a lot of like moving parts you know contacting places and doing that yeah the first time we did it it was Thursday Friday Saturday and then it was then we did a no we did it on Sunday too at Exile was that the first time I thought it was oh it was okay we started off right away we came out at uh yeah yeah yep okay so it was Thursday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday the Sunday show was I mean it was bad for several reasons one I mean it was the first time we did it we were all super tired by then you know like four days in a row of playing and drinking beer and uh you know and then we were playing outside it was kind of an early it was lunch everybody's eaten lunch on a patio super windy it was the it was so windy oh that sucks it was blow I what I remember is the wind blowing so much that I I had to pause like after a song and go take an allergy pill because it was like dust dust and pollen from the corn was going into my face and then the wind blew a uh an umbrella on a on the patio it shot an umbrella up into the air and it fell on us do you remember that and then Hovland had to grab it and like and then also there was the the bar behind us the outdoor bar on the patio had a big chalkboard sign and the wind blew it and it fell off of the wall and crashed in the middle of a s in the middle of a song while we're playing. It was it was just bad. And then meanwhile people were again eating their cheeseburgers and chicken fingers and not even caring what was going on that we were playing music at all. So after that it was like, okay, no more Sundays. So then we were like, can we find a place on Wed finding a place that does live music on Wednesdays is really tough.

SPEAKER_04 44:08

I suppose you're locked into the end of the week pretty much.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

But we did find, you know, we've we've found places that do Wednesdays. But I feel like if we wanted to extend the Iowa tour, then it would be like we get done on Saturday and then we're not gonna play again until Wednesday, and then we just sit down in Iowa and wait, you know. And I could probably stay with my dad or something. You know, I don't know if I want to I love my dad, but I don't know if I want to stay like four days, five days. And I got a job. I can't. Yeah, we worked. Lee's got a real job. You know, Jamnik and I, we who cares? It's the summer. We don't do whatever, but it would be it'd be fun to go other places. Like I said, Duluth, Rochester. Uh they have beer in Wisconsin, I've heard. Uh, you know, if you go in there, but again, it's like sale, like you're cold calling people, yeah, cold emailing them. Do you have a band manager? Kinda.

SPEAKER_04 45:02

I mean I'm every time I think of a band going on tour, I think of the show Flight of the Concords. I don't know if you've ever seen that with Murray, the band manager, and he's like, Where are we going to play? Murray's like, hey, Central Park. And they think where they're playing at Central Park, he just said, Hey Central Park, and it was like this little podunk place, and then like, huh.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

I I have a shirt that says uh Emergency Band Meeting. That's good. Uh Present, uh Jermaine Present, Mary Present. I love that show. It was like two seasons, though, or was it one? One or two? I don't know. It was two seasons.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

It was amazing. And I've watched that that that actor who plays the the band manager. Yeah. His name is Reese Darby. He's a stand-up comedian. His stand-up comedy is so funny.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

I don't think I've seen the stand-up. I've seen him in other movies. Uh he was in uh uh that Jim Carrey movie. Uh it's it's solid.

SPEAKER_04 45:59

So I think about you know, logistically coordinating that is tricky. Yeah. Because yeah, it's a lot of like kind of like trying to track people down and yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

We have uh like for example, this uh coming up tour. So we have we're playing Charles City, so we have uh a hotel that we're seeing in there, and then we're going down to central Iowa. We were originally gonna play at a brewery, but they switched ownership, but we booked an Airbnb that was really close to it, but they switched ownership and then canceled all of their music. Oh and so canceled our show, so we had to find someone else, and so now we have an Airbnb that's like not anywhere near where we're playing. Oh, bummer. Um, so logistics like that that we have to think of. But other than other than where we're playing and a place to stay, it's mostly like do we want to go golfing while we're down there? What are the good breakfast spots while we're down there? And where's the nearest tasty taco in Des Moines or something like that when we go down? But we get recommendations from fans. Yeah, we all you know, we usually stay with my dad after we play in at Shiny Top because it's close to my hometown.

SPEAKER_05 47:10

And every year we played there, we've gotten more and more fans from Minnesota to come join the party. That has to be really nice to see. Probably not in the first year, the second year, I think there's a few that followed us down by the fourth year, fifth year. We had a handful of fans from Minnesota that came and stayed in the Des Moines to come down to the island.

SPEAKER_03 47:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:30

One of them uh invited us over to his pool and barbecued for us. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

Oh, sweet.

SPEAKER_05 47:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

What's the craziest fan interaction you've ever had? Or what's the goofiest story uh that's happened at a sh at his show? Um man.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

I feel like he's got one and he's just not saying it. I feel like he is not.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

I mean, there there's crazy stuff, or there's there's fan interactions that like uh, hey, do you want to play some Michael Jackson so we can like there's stuff like that where it's just kind of like dumb, like people who have you been listening? Yeah, like that request songs that are like so off the wall that have nothing to do with. I mean, we have a light up sign in front of us that says grunge unplugged, and they'll request songs that have absolutely nothing to do with it. There's that kind of stuff. I I think more more like really cool fan stuff. Like we have that uh that same guy, Chad Dose, his daughter, you know, draw drew some pictures for us like while we're playing live, like sketches us. And we've added that a couple times. Other, you know, random fans are like young, like their kids will be like drawing pictures of us or drawing like our logo and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 48:40

We'll have a couple brothers that come to almost every one of our shows and they have their own spreadsheet of how many times they've seen us and where. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Really fun, really fun people, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

People that yeah, they do that kind of they do the artistic stuff. We have people that uh uh I'm thinking of I mean I'm missing on their names right now. When we do story time for Hunger Strike. Karin, yeah. Karin and Neil and Tara, they come, they sit down and we give them shakers, and they do the shaker parts, you know, during Hunger Strike. I don't know, just cool things like that. I don't know. We've had uh randomly, you know, a lot of times there'll be people in the audience that take pictures of us and then they'll tag us and you know send it to us. Or we just had a a guy, uh oh, I can't remember his name. I remember his Instagram tag. I think Grainy Vibes, I think. Grainy Vibes, I think, is at his at on Instagram, who took a actually here at Heavy Rotation took a bunch of super cool like black and white photos of us. I don't know, people just just do cool stuff like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

Dan, I'm not on the crazy list.

SPEAKER_04 49:48

Well, I don't know about that. Miss four hours ahead of the venue opening.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

That's not true.

SPEAKER_03 49:58

Sometimes people are so crazy they come to our shows and they don't stay to the end when we do all the cool stuff.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

I'm learning my lessons.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

At the end, there's like standing on top of cars and there's music that happens on the other side of the room, and I'm missing all that.

SPEAKER_03 50:13

Sometimes you climb on sometimes I take my cajon and I chuck it into a into a ravine.

SPEAKER_04 50:19

When will you play at Red Rocks? That's what the people want to know.

SPEAKER_03 50:23

As soon as they ask.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:26

Do you pre- do you have a pre- I mean obviously you talked about as soon as I sneak my guitar into one of the yoga classes that they hold that anybody can go to.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

Yeah. You mentioned the windy chalkboard debacle, but do you prefer indoor versus outdoor or are they all just kind of different?

SPEAKER_03 50:42

There's something about an outdoor show in the summer when it's not ridiculously hot. Out on a patio, you know, out on a patio. That is pretty cool. There is something really cool about that.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

The next one at LTD is outside, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:54

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. There is also something really cool about when it's crazy snowing outside and people come to the our hundredth show at it was at LTD actually. Was a crazy snowstorm. And people still came, and then it's like you I don't know. It's probably a Minnesotan thing when it's all snowy outside and you feel that sense of community, you've made it to this warm spot together, and you're hanging out and beers and music. There's something really cool about that. We played at Inbound the Saturday, Friday or Saturday before the Super Bowl when it was held here. And that was another one where it was like crazy snowy. But you know, like people were out and about because it was Super Bowl kind of stuff, and that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

You guys have another cool thing coming up here at Heavy Rotation. Oh, yeah, we haven't talked about that. No, we have not gotten into this. I don't I don't know if I told you this. They are brewing a beer here.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Oh, nice. Fantastic. I don't know what it entails, but oh Dan can tell you.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Dan's brewed a beer here. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:58

It's really cool. Because Josh is just so fun. And you know, sometimes brewers tend to mostly be scientists. A lot of them are engineers, and they're not really uh social butterflies, but but Josh is so welcoming, and I didn't feel like when I brewed a beer here, I had a lot of questions to ask, and I'm like, is this a dumb question? He's like, no. And so, you know, some people just tell you the answer, but he'll actually like physically show you and kind of give you the whole rundown of how the process works, and that's really fun. Um, also, you'll probably do a beer brewing tradition that uh Josh got from the used to be part owner and brewer over at uh Falling Knife who passed away two years ago, Tom Berg. It's called a hot toddy. So when you brew the beer, you make the wort, which is like that's like the sugar water that the yeast gets added to when it cools down. So you have to do a sample and see what it's like. So Josh was like, You want a hot toddy with the with the wort? I'm like, yes. So he pulls out a bottle of bullet bourbon and got little taster glasses, filled them each with a little bit of the hot wort and put a little bourbon in there and did a little cheers, and that's kind of a fun little kind of brew day tradition, but it's nice because it's very hands-on. It's not like all mechanical. Sometimes you go to a brewery and it's just like you're basically on an iPad pressing buttons and watching little things light up on a screen. It's like, okay, the water's transferring to there, it's going. But Josh will let you get hands-on and like mix stuff in, pour in the hops, de like stuff out.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

I mean, and are you ready for this?

SPEAKER_04 53:43

And beer as it's being brewed, I think smells amazing. Because it's the it's the warm grain and just like a very aromatic. Do you know what style of beer you're going to brew?

SPEAKER_03 53:54

I believe. No, don't quote me on this. I believe it's some sort of ale that's fruited with uh pineapple and papaya. Oh, that'll be good. Okay. I believe. It it does have a name. It's grunge related. I think it's pretty cool. It's all hopologies. Oh, I like that. So again, that could have been our band name, but people would have been like, what? And they wouldn't have gotten it. I like that. That's a great name.

SPEAKER_01 54:22

You saved it for a beer name. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You're doing the right thing.

SPEAKER_04 54:25

When will you brew that and when will it be on tap for people?

SPEAKER_03 54:28

We are brewing it next week. Next Wednesday? Thursday? Next Thursday. Okay. And then it's it's going to be ready for our gig here on July 24th, which is the next time we play here.

SPEAKER_04 54:41

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

What time of day did you have to be here for your brew day?

SPEAKER_04 54:45

I mean, because it was during MEA, I am I asked if we could just like, I think I said 9 30. He's pretty easy to work with.

SPEAKER_01 54:52

It's We got him here at 7 a.m.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

Well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

I thought he was joking when he said 7 a.m. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_04 55:00

I asked if he wanted me to be here earlier. He's like, no, you got the day off. I'm not gonna make you come in. Like, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

Well, Javnik and I are off. You know, as teachers, it'll be a good one. Let's just go.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

Isn't it fun when they talk about their days off and like their summer is just all clear and they can do whatever all day long?

SPEAKER_04 55:17

It's not fun at all. I don't know how many people would ever want to switch spots with the seventh grade English teacher for a week and see how the like in February?

SPEAKER_02 55:26

That'd be horrible. Yeah, you get the summer off, but you can still keep that job. I do not want it.

SPEAKER_04 55:31

Yeah, nobody ever wants to trade with me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

So you guys have L T D on June 12th, then hitting Iowa for the 17th through the 20th, and then you're back here. Is it I always say the name wrong. Ayer or A ER?

SPEAKER_03 55:44

Ayer.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

IR. You're shrugging that. I don't know either.

SPEAKER_03 55:47

They have a f they have a picture on their website and like a sign in there, I feel like, that says like how to say it when you go there. A Y-E E. A-E-G-I-R, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 55:58

Well, that's how you spell the name. I think it's I- E Rhonetically. I say I ER. I give. I don't know.

unknown 56:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

You're back there on the the 20th the 23rd, and then you've got a whole is it really?

SPEAKER_02 56:10

Yeah. Yeah. Well, they I think they contacted us, contacted us and said, when can you play? And we're like, about eight, nine months old.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

Yeah. It's supposed to be that one's supposed to be outside. I think they have a like a stage, like a like a flatbed that they put out in their parking lot. Oh. And then like picnic tables and whatnot.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

And you're on the flatbed?

SPEAKER_03 56:30

I believe so. And I think that's what's going on at LTD next week. It's out in their parking lot. I think we'll be up on the Is that for their anniversary party? No. Okay. We didn't get invited. Uh no, no, I was kidding. They probably did invite us, but we're not here. Uh but sorry. Uh no, they're their anniversary party is this Friday, Saturday, I think. Okay, that's okay. That's what I thought. It's probably like whatever's left over. They scrape aside all the crushed beer cans, and then they say, here's grunge block.

SPEAKER_04 57:08

Leap for your carpet and your drums. Yeah, you're great. What?

SPEAKER_03 57:15

But that yeah, that's outside, and that's they I just was uh emailing uh with Blake, uh the owner, and he said they they are gonna have tables and chairs and stuff out in the parking lot. So people won't have to dance, which is great, and they can sit stoically and listen to There's always people dancing.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

I know.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

They always it's fine, it's fine. People can dance, people can dance. It's just you can dance, but don't expect the next song to be a dance song after that. It'll probably be real slow and depressing.

SPEAKER_04 57:48

In the next calendar year, how many shows do you have just in Minnesota scheduled? Like how many do you do like a week?

SPEAKER_02 57:56

Well, we do 50 a year, is what it comes out to be.

SPEAKER_06 58:00

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_02 58:01

I just looked that up. The last like three years. Yeah, the last like three years, we average right around 50 a year. Okay, okay. And that's usually like two in one weekend, then a weekend off, or something like that. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 58:13

That's a lot. Wow. And we do it thir the Thursdays at Kowalloon. Okay, yeah. Apparently Tuesdays at Ayer.

SPEAKER_04 58:21

Uh well I hear also every they like to pull a special license and make like mixed drinks and stuff from there. They're uh they're party animals up there.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

I've had one of those mixed drinks and it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 58:34

Yeah, okay. Interesting. Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 58:39

I think uh Jamnik and I always say, you know, every every gig we play, that's uh that's another uh month early we can retire.

SPEAKER_04 58:48

That's the perfect way to think about it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 58:50

Your summer's off, your retirement plans. I hate it here.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Did we get skunked on the meat raffle?

SPEAKER_01 58:58

We're not getting any meat.

SPEAKER_03 59:00

Our favorite beer to have while we're playing is whatever the lightest beer at a brewery is. That makes sense. That's our usually our go-to. But if we're not concerned about that, Jamnik, what's your favorite style?

SPEAKER_05 59:13

Um, either a Pale A L or uh or an IPA.

SPEAKER_03 59:16

And I know I know Lee's, but I'm gonna let him say. No, it's Hazy's. Yeah, definitely Hazy's.

SPEAKER_01 59:21

And I learned before we started recording about your preferences.

SPEAKER_03 59:25

Yes. I I enjoy hazy's, but they make my allergies go crazy. That's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

Have you heard of this before?

SPEAKER_04 59:32

Maybe it's psychosomatic. I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. You're not allergic to lactose, are you? Yes. That's why.

SPEAKER_06 59:39

Because you are?

SPEAKER_04 59:41

Hazy IPAs have a butt ton of lactose.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

Well, there you go. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Okay, that makes sense. Yep. All right.

SPEAKER_06 59:47

We all agree.

SPEAKER_03 59:48

Well, now that we figured it out, I'll just crush up a bunch of lactades. Yeah. Top them in there. Snort them, get ready. Woo! Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 59:56

I didn't know that either.

SPEAKER_04 59:58

And milk stouts.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

Well, that I wouldn't have to do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:00

Which makes sense. But yeah, a ton of lactose and uh hazy IPAs.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

And beer sales we don't like.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

I don't like sours. Uh I'll taste the sour and like, oh, that's good, but I could never drink a whole or even a half of one. And that's probably it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:14

I'll have I'll have one sour after I've had five or six other ones to kind of cleanse the palate. After five or six IPAs and I can't feel my face. Yeah. I'll have one of them. The only things I don't really like are the super heavy, you know, Imperial Stouts or the barrel-aged bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

Can't fuck your ears. Those kind of things.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

I mean, I enjoy bourbon itself, but yeah, maybe uh a little a little tasting glass or a little snifter of it is is good, but it's not something that I seek out and buy myself.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

What about you? Any beers that you're not?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:49

Um Yeah, I'm a sour's, I'm not. I've only had a few of them, but yeah, yeah, can't get into those too much.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

What's your guys's uh you probably have said this already on all these, you know, hundreds of episodes you've already done. What's your guys' favorite mass-produced macro brewing beer?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:07

Modello. Modello especial. I love it. I just I know it's it's not craft, but it's real good in the summertime.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

The surle count is mass-produced at this point.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

Something they would have at an Iowa gas station.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:23

Blue Moon?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

Oh yeah, that's that's just A B in deb their crafty portfolio.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Otherwise, I'm just not drinking beer.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:32

Yeah. I mean that the thing is, although I I mean, I crush a lot of hams. That's macro.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

Okay, well, I only do that when there's crushing and like disc golf being played with the craft. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:46

Yeah. Yeah, I mean the thing about those macro beers is they're very consistently made and perfect the same every time. Yeah. I just I like to support the smaller, like local. Absolutely, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:58

I feel better drinking the craft beer. Yeah. I'm helping someone. Yeah. I'm doing it for them. It's not for me.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:04

I mean, Modello, that will show up frequently in my fridge in the summertime. We do a teacher outing at the end of the year every year. We go up to a math teacher's cabin, and there's like 15, 20 guys that come up there. We all go on as pontoon and just decompress, fish, play yard games, drink beer. It's very cathartic. So that's when I that's when the modello comes out. It's also low ABV. So for me, I'm in my late and mid-40s. 47 is still I'm still hanging on to the mid-40s, but like I can't drink crazy amounts like I used to. So I like to consistently just like sip on something all day long. And then transition to bourbon in the when the sun goes down. And turn into a gremlin. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

Well, thank you guys so much for being here and sharing your brewery adventure. This, like, really, I Dan got to see me send you the message. We were on beer cation in Milwaukee, and he got to see me send you the message saying, like, hey, do you guys think maybe you would want to do this? And the panic that ensued after.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:07

It was like in those TV shows when they have to call in the bomb squad and they cut the wire and it's the right wire. She like backed away from her phone. I'm like, what are you thinking is gonna happen here? This is wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:20

Thinking they're gonna say, Who the hell are you? No, stop messaging me.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:26

We're we're pretty approachable guys. We're not uh standoff.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

I'll try and be scared of you guys going forward.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:32

I love it when a plan comes together. Courtney was very excited about this. I think the first time we hung out was here for one of your shows. And so, yeah, it's always always good. I've been I've I've I've been to three shows, three unplugs. Yes, you have crunch unplugged last now. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:49

And you'll beat him more.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:50

It's good. And I it's a it's a genre of music I like. Um I'm just not that familiar with every song, but I like it. Also because I like when I like dancing, if I've had like seven beers, and I I have the I've taken the governor off of the the you know Colombian sound machine here. If I'm just had one or two beers, I do not like to be around people dancing. It like gives me hives because it's very awkward. So I appreciate the stoic just kind of be in your seat and kind of just like nod your head in an appropriate manner. I like that. So well, thank you for having us. It's fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:28

Where can everyone find you and see your your show schedule and get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:34

I believe www.grungeunplug.com still works. Otherwise, uh, we're on Facebook and Instagram. It's pretty much the same stuff posted in both places. But Facebook will have as soon as we book a gig, I make a Facebook event for it. So there's events, you know, all the way into January by now, probably. That that's probably the best way, and I know a lot of people aren't big, huge Facebook fans nowadays, but just like clicking interested on each one of those, then you get remind and then you'll get a reminder, and usually I post like the week of inside of it to remind and tell people to get there early to get a seat. Or yeah, Instagram is is cool too.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:16

Dan, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:18

People can find me at a one pintstand on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Blue Sky, and I have a website, a1pintstand.com, if you like to read beer stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

Lots of beer stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:30

Yeah, lots of beer stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

I am Courtney. You can find me at the BreweryAdventure or at thebreweryventure.com, and you can find us podcasting on whatever platform you choose to look for us on. Um that's gonna be it for us here at The Brewery Adventure. We will see you next time. Go visit your local craft brewery and go check out the grunge on plug schedule so you can go out and see them at a brewery near you. Cheers, everybody!

SPEAKER_05 1:05:51

Cheers, cheers, cheers.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:57

Yay!

SPEAKER_05 1:05:59

We did it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:00

We did it.