06/11/11 - Scenes From A Street Dance: Division Nine @ Sugarbeet Days, Renville, MN

(Images and video: NYCDreamin Archives)

Saturday afternoon we were back on the road once again, this time for a 100-mile trip to Renville (including a rather long detour due to road construction.) to rock out with our friends Division Nine. This time the show was outdoors - on a mobile stage on the back of a semi truck in the middle of main street in downtown Renville, MN. The event: a street dance sponsored by local watering hole Shenaniganz, as part of the town's annual "Sugarbeet Days" festival.





We arrived early - not much was happening yet, as you can see in the above photo. We stopped in at a local place and had a quick bite to eat, then went and wandered around town a bit. It's a small place so it was a rather quick walk. By the time we got back the band had arrived and was setting things up on the stage. Things were still pretty quiet at this point though...



A while later one of the local businesses hauled out a few grills and set up shop on the sidewalk and began cooking up a pretty good quantity of hamburgers and hot dogs, filling the air with that familiar summertime aroma that is so hard to resist - so it looked like they were expecting some people to show up - and - lo and behold, slowly but surely began to arrive...





Around 8:30pm, with the crowd still a bit small but growing, the band took to the stage and began playing as people milled about, coming in and out of the bar, having a bite to eat, greeting friends and getting ready for an evening of rock and roll...





Once again, for those of you who don't know who the hell these guys are, these are the members of Division Nine...

Steve...


Chad...


Rob...


...and Mikey.


And as the band played on, and the sun went down, the people continued to come...







20 years from now, the kids will still talk about the night D9 rocked Renville to it's very foundations...



The band pulled out a very cool rendition of Badlands' "High Wire."





And by around 10:00pm, a few hundred people were milling about, enjoying the band and a beautiful but slightly chilly early summer evening. The adults conversed, the kids hung around trying to look cool, the food sizzled, the beer went down as it will on a summer evening, or any evening for that matter. And the band played on...















And before you knew it, it was well after midninght...and it was almost time for the Gorgeous One and I to split - a 100 mile drive at 1:00am is no longer on my list of favorite things to do in life. We decided to hang for one more tune then make a break for it...and I'm glad we stayed to film this one...check out the guy at the 2:00 minute mark trying his best to impress the pretty girls with his "amazing" dance/air-guitar moves...LOL. Like I said, a fun time was had by all and there was no trouble...and that's all it's really all about...





A full set of 77 photos is available for your viewing pleasure HERE.
More disturing video evidence is available for viewing HERE.

Scene On The Street: 06/11/11 - Rail Car Graffiti - Renville, MN

Spotted a batch of rail cars parked near some kind of grain or sugar processing facility while we were in Renville Minnesota yesterday, so we took a walk down the tracks to see what we could see and we found some pretty cool stuff...

Tonight! 06/11/11 - 7th Annual Famous Dave's BBQ & Blues Festival @ Peavy Plaza, Minneapolis, MN

This is always a great time, and best of all, it's free. If you are looking for something to do today and if you read this in time to make it out Peavy Plaza in downtown Minneapolis today or later this evening, you can't go wrong with this annual 1 day only blues event. Even though the event itself is free, the food is not. Bring at least $20.00 so you can get some of that mouth watering Famous Dave's BBQ.

Unfortunately, this will be only the second time in the 7 years they've held this festival that I will not be attending. But we have a good reason for not going. The Gorgeous One and I are, instead, headed out later this afternoon to the small town of Renville Minnesota, about an hour and a half away from here to catch another show by our friends Division Nine, who are playing a street dance later this evening as part of Renville's annual "Sugarbeet Days" festival. More on that tomorrow.

And, you may (or may not) be wondering: "What was the greatest moment EVER at the Famous Dave's BBQ & Blues Festival?" Surely in 7 years there have been some highlights. For my money, Ron Thompson's 2007 set blows 'em all away. Here's how he ended his show on that beautiful June 2007 afternoon...