Dear Juno,

This past Monday night, you gave me goosebumps. We were both at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard—I in the crowd, you on the stage—and the “secret” show you performed, (as a warm-up to this weekend’s highly anticipated reunion shows at Neumo’s), was one of the very best things I’ve seen all year. Nay, all decade. Nay, in my entire life.

While the evening’s set started slightly shaky with the familiar fast-paced tempos slowed down just a bit, and nerves maybe winning out over your total rock potential (though only slightly), you undeniably hit your stride once you broke into “You Are the Beautiful Conductor of This Orchestra.” The song reached that 45-second mark of the intro, where the guitar distorts and the drums explode, and you could practically hear the shivers being sent down every spine in the room. I mean, you were there. You probably felt it too.

Thank you for playing “Covered With Hair,” “Help is on the Way,” “Venus on Ninth,” and “All Your Friends are Comedians” (one of my personal favorites). Thank you for playing “A Thousand Motors Pressed Upon the Heart,” the heart-tugging “January Arms” (which was so amazing),” and “Rodeo Programmers” as well. I couldn’t have dreamt up a better setlist myself (although, the cover of DJ Shadow’s “High Noon” would’ve totally slayed).

Most of all, though, thank you for closing the show with “Killing it in a Quiet Way” followed by the nearly ten-minute epic “Leave a Clean Camp and a Dead Fire.” There are no two songs more worthy of closing a show than those two songs.

So thank you. Thank you for reuniting after three long years, even if only temporarily. Thank you for brutalizing your ears during hours upon hours of rehearsals only so I could have my ears also brutalized by your three-guitar attack of bombastic proportion in a space as intimate as the Sunset. And thank you for agreeing to play two more shows this weekend at Neumo’s, so I can do it over and over again.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Megan

(Confidential to Botch: Your turn, duders.)