The Replacements Reunion of My Dreams

[NashVegas]

So far this year: Camper Van Beethoven, Stray Cats & Pixies have all reunited.

I'd love to see the 'mats reform (in whatever best configuration sans Bob) and go on tour and charge $60 per ticket like the Pixies did.

*Some* people would come out of the theater so pissed off it would be hysterical.

"I paid 60 bucks for this!?!?!"

[Philostopher]

1. I never saw the 'Mats when they were together ...

though I do have a bootleg video from some venue in Massachusetts from early on, where Bob Stinson played wearing a dress and standing in an aluminum garbage can. The show lasted maybe a half-hour, until Stinson fell over in the garbage can and couldn't get back up, at which point they all left the stage and the audience got pissed off and started throwing things.

I understand that was typical, though I have several friends who saw them play in Cincinnati and said the shows they saw weren't half bad and lasted at least an hour and a half.

Have you seen any of Westerberg's solo shows? I guess he was seriously on the wagon when I saw him play Cinci about ten years ago, on '14 Songs.' It was actually a decent show other than when he broke a string halfway through the second song and just undid the strap and let the guitar fall to the stage, while smirking at us all. His tech brought out another guitar, he tuned up and everything was fine, but he did (I guess) feel he had to acknowledge the 'old' attitude.

And the only real train wreck all night was the cover he tried to do of 'John I'm Only Dancing,' where the only lyrics he seemed to know were the ones in the title of the song. The rest of the stuff was pretty good. The best was when they did 'Achin' To Be,' for some reason -- don't know why, but it all seemed to come together on that one.

I think old Mats fans might be even more disappointed if they reunited, came out and played a decent show for two hours and didn't pass out or get in a fight. Interesting thought, though Westerberg has said he wanted a reunion for about five minutes several years ago but got over it.

[NashVegas]

4. Gloriously Bad Live

First time I ever saw them was just catching the tail end of a club show in Albany. It was pretty much all over but the noise and Bob in his Fruit-of-the-Looms.

Two years later at the Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY. They were shitfaced (not as bad in their really early days). Sloppiest show I'd ever seen but there was something wonderful about it: they were so apathetic about it that after 10 minutes I came out of shock and stopped caring, too, and fell in love with the spirit of it.

Saw them twice in 89 - one show headlining (so-so) and opening up for Tom Petty. The Petty fans did not react well. Though that set was mostly mediocre, they pulled out a heartstopping rendition of "Within Your Reach" that later showed up on some compilations.

The most "together" I've ever seen them was on the All Shook Down tour, their last. Sobriety did good things for them, but not enough. There was something about their performance that was just so restrained.

Caught Westerberg's solo show twice. The first time, after 14 Songs came out. Thought it was good, not great. The Eventually tour show was the best I've ever seen him. The audience was giving that man all the love in the world and he was lapping it up and giving some back.

[Philostopher]

5. My husband saw them twice that he's told me about.

once at a club in Cinci, probably Bogart's and once as Petty's opener. His reports were much the same as yours -- they were half-shitfaced at the club show, and so was he, but that they played a whole show and it wasn't bad from the 'club experience' perspective, however half-assed their actual performance may have been. Same report as yours for the Petty show, too, mostly -- Petty's audience didn't really 'get it' and didn't respond very well, though they actually came off as competent.

I haven't seen him since 14 Songs, though if he comes close we probably would go -- I like the direction he's gone with Stereo/Mono and Folker; he sounds both more uneasy and more comfortable at the same time, which was what always struck me as the most interesting thing about the Replacements to begin with.

Any video they ever did for a song succeeded almost solely on that premise -- that they knew they 'had to' do a video but didn't want to, didn't give a fuck, did one anyway, and if you didn't like it tough. The vid for 'Bastards Of Young' put me on the floor -- I couldn't believe anybody would do that, but I loved the idea that someone did.

[NashVegas]

6. Was That The "Amp"?

Only video of theirs I think I saw was the one with the foot & the amplifier getting kicked over.

[Philostopher]

7. Yeah, the whole Bastards video

consisted of a black and white film camera trained on a tabletop stereo and one speaker, you could see the bass cone throbbing while the song played. At the end, the guy who put the record on at the beginning of it got up and kicked the speaker over, grabbed his keys and slammed the door on the way out of the room.

The video for 'The Ledge' is another black and white, with the members of the band sitting on a beat-up velvet sofa smoking cigarettes and looking kind of bored. The camera does tight shots of stuff like somebody's hand holding a fuming cigarette, different band members scratching their noses, and Westerberg's beat-up shoes. It's a hoot, especially contrasted with the song.

[AmandaRuth]

2. please oh please here in seattle

fantasy show

The Replacements, opened by the Young Fresh Fellows and the Fastbacks please please please

[darkstar]

3. A band I was in

used to open for them in Columbia, Missouri at a small club there. I thought they were so stupid and did not get the drunk schtick, launcing into songs they didn't know--"Born to Run," "Paranoid," etc.--hardly making it through their own songs and doing 40 minute sets...

But then, 3-4 years later I saw them on their "New Sobriety" tour, I think they called it, at Memorial Hall, in Kansas City. What ever album "Achin' To Be" was on. One of the best shows I ever saw. Westerberg shredded his voice and sounded better the hoarser he got. Totally exhausted the audience. At what would have otherwise been the climax of any rock show, they began taking requests. Did their own songs and, after huddling, covers. Did this for like 40 minutes. Fucking-A they were good. I really don't think I've seen half so many slack-jawed people in a rock show audience ever.