Another day to punish our feet has begun, and we all still seem relatively fresh and eager to get out there and see some great music. Our day started off at Filter's Showdown at Cedar Street, where we knew we could get free BBQ. I'm vegetarian, so for me that meant a plate of cole slaw and potato salad. The cookies were delicious though.

After that we scooted up a couple blocks to The Fader Lounge again, where we grabbed a free Sparks to jump start the day. We finally realized where all the gum laying around on every table came from. It was compliments of the first band of the day: Ben's Brother. Their label apparently wanted us all to have fresh, minty breath, and we were more than happy to oblige. I think each of us now has several months worth of gum in our bags. The band, unfortunately, was a little too CW-drama for me, but hey, free drinks and free gum... we just needed to keep our eyes on the prize.

The next band, The Ting Tings, was pretty decent. It was a guy and girl duo on drums and guitar. Our only complaint was the amount of pre-programming they were using to add keys and other sounds. Perhaps they have more members they couldn't have at the show, but if not, it was a little odd to hear so much instrumentation coming out of two people.

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From there we headed up 6th Street to Emo's to catch another band we'll be promoting, Neva Dinova. We got a chance to chat with the label folks from Saddle Creek as well. Up next was a walk back down the way we had come to the re-enter the Filter Party. Our crew now numbers six, with a former music director from Wisconsin and her friend joining Jesse, Christian, Bryan, and myself.

Christian really wanted to see the 4pm band there, Be Your Own Pet. They are a super young, super high energy punk band with a fiery, platinum blonde lead singer that, at times, looks possessed while she is singing. I was told the drummer is only 14, but I'm not sure that's true. He did look young, as did all the members. The headliner of the afternoon was my aforementioned crush from Sweden, pop singer Robyn. Jodi, the former MD, and I wormed our way up right behind the photographers and were within spitting distance of our impishly cute pop idol. We gushed and smiled and enjoyed her set. Even with a desperate need to pee, we sang along to each song, snapped pictures, and were grateful to have gotten the chance to be silly fans who swear she made eye contact with us as she sang.

It was now dinner time, so we hooked up with a couple other music directors from Tennessee and ate at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Bryan's food didn't come until the rest of us were almost finished eating. He was none-to-pleased. Jesse and I, along with the MDs we just ate with, stopped briefly by a party another promoter was throwing and saw a few more familiar faces before getting back on 6th and stopping in to see Let's Go To War play. They are a hybrid hip-hop electronic act on a label out of Canada for whom we have helped promote records. We got a chance to say hi to the label folks there, as well as Joseph Arthur's manager, whom I hadn't had the opportunity to meet the day before.

We got a dose of Minneapolis next at the Doomtree Showcase. Dessa and Sims were playing sets while we were there, and members of The Plastic Constellations and Romantica were in attendance, as well as Steve from Reveille.

It's the time in the trip where inside jokes and general silliness start to run rampant. We're certainly entertaining ourselves more than anyone around us, but I guess that is the point of an inside joke. :-) Steve, upon seeing me, immediately asked me to recreate one of those inside joke phrases from last year's trip, when we hung with him. Good times. We now met back up with the rest of our crew and headed down the street to catch the end of a band called Le Loup... fun, high energy stuff.

The rest of the night consisted of failed attempts to see bands we knew we wouldn't be able to get into but tried anyway (MGMT) and bands we arrived for just in time to hear them say, "goodnight everyone, thanks for coming." (Anathallo). Jesse and I had an invite for the Playboy party. We stood in line for a solid hour for what ended up to be little payoff, but we had to see what all the buzz was about. The usual suspects were in attendance — free booze, free BBQ, Moby — but this time there were also Playboy bunnies, someone dressed up like a raccoon and Carson Daly.

With feet ready to fall off, we met back up with Bryan and Christian and headed back to the hotel