Little Man at the Minnesota State Fair

The Minnesota State Fair (also known as the "Great Minnesota Get Together") is one of the biggest events in the country and puts a big stamp on all things local. Scott Herold a huge local music touter and head of Rock The Cause asked me if Little Man could be a part of their state fair line up that would be hosted by Rock the Cause and the Cities 97 radio station. I told him absolutely and that it would be an honor to play.

Scott said the stage was small, outside and that they wanted a sort of stripped down, more personal vibe so we decided to play an acoustic set as a band. We've only really done that sort of thing a couple of times. Usually I prefer to do a solo acoustic performance with that sort of request. It's great to have the band with me.

Sean Gilchrist (left) was on drums and for this show we asked Benji Conklin to come along to fill in for Brian. Benji helped us out on a two-setter a couple months back so he knows alot of songs and adds a nice touch to these acoustic numbers. Alot of these songs we don't normaly get to play in the full rock show. Our albums Soulful Automatic and Of Mind And Matter have lots of acoustic songs on them, so it was great to bring these into a set. If you haven't heard them, please check them out.

The fair is just a blast. Every food you can think of on a stick, the smell of fried food, rides, booths and a lot of color and sounds and things and people to see and watch. My wife printed us out "Fair Bingo" cards to play as we walked the fair, checking off boxes when we saw "adult with fair hair," "teenage make out," "child on a leash" etc. Pretty funny.

We played a really great set. Very cool to play outside at the fair next to these big orange tractors. We rocked out as much as humanly possible. We even got an on- air interview with the radio station. People were very attentive and loved the show.

Afterward we headed over to the Luminarium. This space-age blow up oasis of sound and color that was really quite interesting. All together a super fun time. You betcha.