This was our first time at the Everett-McClay VFW in Bloomington. It’s been a long time since this Minnesota cover band has played inside any VFW or American Legion type venue, but this one boasted a big music program, great crowd and location. They’d been courting us a while, and after making the stage large enough for our footprint, we agreed to play there.
We got our start at the Minneapolis-Richfield American Legion so many years ago. It’s where we first started building our brand, and our fanbase. It was special to us.
As people started arriving in Bloomington, we noticed right away that many of our earliest supporters from the old Richfield Legion (no longer a music venue) were among them. Many choose to stay local to their area, so they didn’t venture out to other reaches of the metro to see us after the Legion closed. It felt like a reunion – some shared their stories, commenting on the songs they loved or we added since they last saw us, there were even a few tears shed because we brought back memories of their happy past.
Blend those feelings in with an absolutely wall-to wall packed establishment with SB faithful and you’ve got electricity. We felt it in our playing. Every photo was smiles from the band. Dancers were on the floor from Song 1 in set 1, all the way through the end. We played long, we had encores, we took so many pictures.
It was a debut, but it felt like home. We’ll be back.
