Monday, April 25, 2005

First Test

First show I see after No Means No is the Magnolias at the 7th St Entry on Friday. Magnolias are a fine band from around the time of the Replacements in Minneapolis. Here is the write up about them First Ave put on their site:

"by John Bush
A scruffy Minneapolis punk-pop band with all the melodies of their Twin Cities forebears (Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, Soul Asylum), the Magnolias formed around vocalist and guitarist John Freeman, who proved to be the only constant in the band's career. Recording for Twin/Tone, the group worked with Hüsker Dü's Grant Hart for their noisy 1986 debut, Concrete Pillbox. Later albums For Rent and Dime Store Dream showed the Magnolias toning down the chaos and leaning closer to the pop side of punk, resulting in 1992's Off the Hook, their first album for Alias. After the release of an EP that same year, the Magnolias were silent until 1996, when Freeman and another batch of backers returned with Street Date Tuesday. "

Nothing close to the original line up but still a stellar band. I think that this was a fine show and would have been a lot better had I not experienced what I did at the Triple Rock on Monday. Honestly every band should live up to the standards of No Means No. Still thinking of that show daily. A friend of mine that was at No Means No on monday was pretty much saying the same thing. But after a while we were standing in the crowd at the Magnolias show a little bored, so we decided to make the night more exciting and became the people dancing in the crowd. We actually got others to join in a bit which was cool. Then one guy asked my friend "Do you even know who the bnad the Magnolis are?" My friend being older than this guy just started at him and said "Do you know how your daddy is?" I just about pissed my pants laughing. It was so damn funny. Then she threw back some more PBR and continued to shake her ass with me.

There was quite a few people that were interesting there. Someone intruduced herself to me, cheersed me and said I noticed we're both wearing tshirts with long sleeve shirts underneath. What the fuck? Really now, do you want to talk to someone that bad that you'll use that as your conversational peice? I felt like I was in Beavis and Butthead Do America. You know the part where Butthead meets Chelsea Clinton "I noticed you have braces, I have braces too." So I'm thinking if there was a window, I should have thrown this girl out of it.

Some people got some great pics of the Mags and there's rumors that there may be another show in the next couple of months.

Can't Stop Now

So I took Sunday off for a bit. Went to the Alamo house to check out Groovie Ghoulies and Toys That Kill but couldn't even make it all the way through the Ghoulies set cause I was pretty exhausted. So I slept a little bit Sunday night. But Monday, monday was a ROCK night. I'm talking NoMeansNo at the Triple Rock with Brucial and Falcon Crest.



Let me start with saying I only saw abou 2 songs by Brucial and they were definitely on. They sounded great and I will be checking them out again as soon as I can. Falcon Crest is a band I've seen quite a few times and they were rockin as usual, but nothing compared to the presence that was NoMeansNo on Monday night. I could not stop grinning the whole time while more than rocking out with some really cool people. NoMeansNo maybe getting up there but they can out play so many bands half their age. This honestly was one of the best shows I've been to, ever. Definitely in the top 10, and even though I'm young, I go to a lot of shows. How hard is it to see another show after this one? I don't know, but I'll find out. The band stayed at a friends house less than a block away. It was a monday night so there wasn't a party but how fucking lucky were they? NoMeansNo rocks your pants off and now they're staying in your house? Damn.

Get My Kicks In Bars, Soft Lights Loud Guitars

Ok still working on catching up my latest show lists. Where I last left off I had gone to Paul Westerberg in Milwaukee and Chicago. These were Thursday and Friday night show.

Que Saturday, have an interesting long drive home from Chicago with a visit to Denny's that was so funny, but was something you had to be at to truely appreciate. So I'm home for all of 25 minutes before I get picked up to go to yes, another show. This nights show is The Squabs, Bible of the Devil, The Last Vegas and Six Six Crush at Big V's in St. Paul.



Six Six Crush, whom I always adore seeing live really brought the rock that night. It was an extremely tight set and the guitar sound was moving. Sadly though my friend and I were the only ones close to rockin out. I guess it was still early, they were the opening band. Next up was the Last Vegas. They were a pretty good band, from Chicago. To me they have an obvious Stones influence. They put on a high energy show though and I would recommend checking them out. Next was another Chicago band called Bible Of The Devil. I was extremely impressed by this band. They have a punk/metal sound to their guitars with some great vocals. I rocked hard to these guys. Next up were the Squabs. As far as I'm concerned, they don't play enough. The sound is great and Rich's vocals fit so well.

Bible of the Devil was staying at Rich's place so that was the post show party. On the way a friend and I decided to make a white castle run. We try one by the bar and it was packed. We moved on to one by our place and the party. Packed as well. Plus we go into order and both of our debit cards are declined, and we both have more than enough money to cover the $6.74 bill. How sad is it getting declined at a White Castle? Both of us? We then hit 3 different atms only to find that our bank is having some problems and we can't get money. This is at bar close time. Think of how many people are trying to pay their tabs in Mpls and are getting turned down. Stupid TCF. So we proceed to count the few dollars we have in change, go back to White Castle and pay for $5.23 in two one dollar bills and the rest quarters and dimes. We were all about high class that night. Plus my friends drunk and yelling out of the car at people that decided to take 10 minutes to contemplate sauces in the drive thru. Move the fuck on.

Ok proceed to party. Complete with Black Label beer and something that supposedly had Absinthe in it. Friends already trashed falling over stuff, someone broke the toilet and started hanging from the exposed pipes in the living room. That same person, from a band I will leave unnamed, was drunk, on the floor and subliminal messaging got him to unbuckle his pants and expose his manliness to everyone. It was hilarious, and supposedly someone got pictures. This is definitely backmail evidence for the future. I'll I could think of was the lines from the Beastie Boys song If Its That Kind Of Party I'm Gonna Stick My Dick In The Mashed Potatoes. Drunken stumble home at 5am after being up til 7am the night before. I was ready to crash.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Down The Road Again

The last post brings us to Thursday, that would be the 14th. And I'm hoping in a van and heading on another Westerberg adventure. This time it was not a solo trip. Nope I was going all out and heading out with some fellow Westerberg fans, whom I had never met. And we were meeting up with a whole crew of fans in both cities.

First stop, Milwaukee and the show was at the Rave. Ok well not actually the first stop, we hit the Culver's in Tomah on the way from Mpls. I can't tell you how many eastbound road trips I've been on that we've stopped in Tomah. It seems to be the thing to do. Ok back to story at hand. We arrive at the Executive Inn which is a block away from the venue. The selling point on this hotel was the winding stair case. Yeah thats about it. There was an elevator that said it had an 8 person capacity, we could only fit three. I have a closet bigger than the elevator. Our room was a flowerbedroom. Beautiful hotel artwork everywhere, ha! And it was complete with track lighting and fake wood paneling. Classy to the max!

There was pre show dinner and drinks at the Water Street Brewery consisting of 13 Westerberg fans. Good food and 8% doppelboch. From there we went to the Rave, a place with a hack bar that charges $6 for Miller Light and MGD and $6.50 for mix drinks. I ordered one and that was it. Fucking rip off. This show was so fantastic. He opened with Stain Yer Blood and I almost pee'd my pants. Poor people hanging out with me had to put up with that. But he also played Gunshy which I yelled for at every west coast show I attended. It was pure bliss. The show was tight, rockin and kicked everyone's ass. During an emotional Here Comes A Regular Paul injected, "Two days ago, my uncle died. My uncle Paul-my namesake. He was a musician,
but never made it. His son came up to me and said that he(the uncle) had
video, records, and newspaper clippings of me pinned on his wall. I never
even talked to the guy". He was choked up through the rest of the song and screamed out "All I know is that I'm sick of everything that my money can buy." And he was whiping his eyes when he finished the song. It was really a quite moving moment. And they ended their set with IOU, that song is so god damn amazing live, I can't even begin to tell you. So much energy in it.

The people I road down with and I decided to do the meet and greet after the show. Waiting by the bus for -ever and Michael Bland came out, who had been exchanging emails with a chick in my group. After leaving and coming back she finally talked to him only to find he had left her backstage passes at the door. But he promised to leave some for the next night in Chicago for all four of us. RIGHT ON! Michael Bland was really cool and we chatted him up while waiting for the line around Paul to go down. Bland finally made sure we went over to say hit to PW and just as we were getting to that part some blonde hooker (well not really) came up "Paul I'm Tiiired, Pauuulll I'm tirrrred" and pulled him away. We were the last people in line she could have waited for a minute. Oh well. Needless to say we were all giddy with the thoughts of backstage passes for the next night. We went back to the lovely Exec Inn and Wolfdog played his guitar for quite a while. The fack wood paneling and track lighting made me feel like we were in a basement somewhere. It was a lot of fun.

On the way to Chicago we saw a motel on 94 called Paul's Motel, and the great thing about it, it had a skyway. Just thought that was fitting. Got to the lovely Chicago Lodge and boy was that a site. Pink toilets various stains and chips in the furniture. Since I of course was packing the Jim Beam I commenced the drinking right away. Our other we had 4 other westerberg fans staying at the same hotel with us. By the time they all arrived we hit the El and went to meet more fans at the Goose Island Brewery. Many more drinks and some good food and we were already to hop the train to the show. We get there and I'm freaking out as Jodi's hitting the will call to get our passes. This show again, had the same damn drink prices. I was pissed. But I got to rock out up front with two of the fans from dinner. I also met a guy named Bill who lives in Chicago but he went to school in MN because of the Replacements. Wow, that was a trip, the guy was really into the show though and that was cool to me. The show was crazy and amazing. I finally got to hear 23 Years Ago, so damn good. There was some smashing, a TV that was smashed in with a guitar and a phone also got the shit kicked out of it. During Can't Hardly Wait Paul threw out the microphone to the crowd. Well he then decided to join it. Guitar in hand he literally dropped into my arms. It was so weird. There was some older hippy like lady giving him a full on head massage. He kept playing, it was great.

The show spiraled off into some really great covers and a lot of people refer to it as a "train wreck" but the rock was brought and the band was having fun. I loved every minute of it. After the show we waited around for what seemed like forever for a guy to come take us "backstage" which was actually downstairs. He was taking us to meet up with Michael. Well Michael was obviously not down there and the guy just left us. So we went outside and I guess he and PW had already gone to the bus. The line was long and we had people to party with so we just went back to the hotel.

The after party was a group of people, lots of liquor and one guitar. We were singing til 6:30 in the morning. Outside the hotel a group of asian fraternity pimps and their hookers were having a dance party in the parking lot. I'm not kidding you there was 50 of them if there was 5. They paid for their rooms in cash over $1200. But that wasn't the excitement for the night. The majority of that came from a 59 year old woman who knocked on our door requesting Greensleeves and Kumbaya. After someone was able to supply Kumbaya she went and got her beer and joined our "club" as she refered to it. She was quite the trip telling some crazy stories and requesting Dylan Thomas music. You know Tamborine Man, yeah she was a bit off. But all in all it was a great trip. I met so many cool people and rocked out to two amazing shows. There's so much more I could say about the weekend but this is starting to be enough.

Monday, April 18, 2005

23 Days Ago

Ok well maybe more like 26 or so since I last posted. And boy has it been busy. I think I should change the title of this to what band did I see last night because really thats just about the only thing I talk about.

Since Motorhead there has been a hell of a lot of music and a lot going on. Friday after Motorhead was the party to end all parties. If anyone in Minneapolis hasn't seen the show Drinking with Ian, check it out Thursday nights at 12:30. It was the host's party with his roommate. Lots of Whiskey, Jagermeister and some free beer. It ended with some dancing to Parliament Funkadelic and an ironing board in a tree. Yeah thats the way we roll. The party consisted of most of all the First Ave staff so it was reported that the club was functioning at half speed the next day.

And the next day was a great great great fucking rock and roll show. It was the cd release party for the all rockin Midnight Evils. This show also featured the musical stylings of the Fuck Yeahs, The International Playboys (very impressive rock band from MT. Check em out), Gee As In Jesus and the all powerful, all inspiring body of rock the Mighty Mofos. In my opinion the Mofos stole the show from the Evils because Billy Batson rocks that much. But I'm sure the Evils wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's a gig poster for the event:



The partying done these two nights had knocked me out and I actually didn't go to a show on Sunday. But Monday marked the official last night of the Clown Lounge as I know it. There was a jazz band playing that I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to but the place was packed and the vibe was that of a funeral. Everyone knew shit was going down with the new owners of the Turf Club and they were sad to say farewell to the basement stage.

Tuesday was the last night of the SPMC presence at the Turf Club. The Mammy Nuns played who are so so in my mind but the Busiest Bancrupcy Lawyers in MN and Kruddler graced the stage and that made the night for me.

The expenses of that week left me in from shows for the next 5 or 6 days which I'll have to say lead me to quite a nic fit.

The following Sunday was the ever great Plate O Shrimp playing at the Leaning Tower bar by the U. It was for Mick from Scotlands birthday. We drank and drank and had alcohol soaked cake. It was necessary cause the sound guys pissed my friends band off so half of them were not in the best mood. But since it was a Sunday it was pretty much all people there that we knew so it made a pretty fuckin cool night. Plate O Shrimp is a great band ala Ramones style punk. Plus they're just great people so yeah I dig em.

Thursday I didn't make it to the Ed Gein Fan Club show at the turf cause I went to the Drinking With Ian premier party, well a bunch of us at a bar watching the show. But the Mofos were the guests on the show and they of course rocked the pants off everyone there. There was also a clip of Billy Batson's band the Hypsterz from I believe sometime between 79 and 81. It was a First Ave mainroom show and it looked fucking great. Man do I wish I could have been there. But there was a shot of the crowd and I swear a one mr. Paul Westerberg was rockin out but I guess I can't say for sure. Will have to watch it again.

Next night was the Belles of Skin City with Kontrol Panel at the Uptown Bar. I love Kontrol Panel and I met lead singer Jean, who is a fuckin cool chic and guitarist Gerard who was also in Rifle Sport. Really cool guy as well and man can he play guitar. I could listen to him hit those strings all day and night. He's really good at what he does. He's also a cook and I visited his restaurant that Sunday called the Bakery on Grand. French food that was pretty damn good.

Saturday night there were 4 shows I was fighting over going to. Decemberists, Cardinal Sin release party (they do a cover of bastards of young), The Stunning release party and Grand Champeen. But what ended up happening is the Midnight Evils had a show at this house in SE Mpls called the Alamo house. They rocked the basement of this place so hard. The whiskey was a flowing and the rock was on. And it was a basement, how cool is that.

And yes I'm still going. The week slowed down til Wednesday. Shellac and Arcwelder at First Ave. Let me tell you I was in fuckin heaven. Arcwelder are a pillar of rock in the mpls community and any band that Todd Trainer is in is not to be missed (he too is of the Rifle Sport fame). During the show someone asked why Steve wears his guitar like a fanny pack, it was a moment of hilarity for the night. That and the fact that someone asked Todd if he was going to donate his ripped silver shirt to the Hard Rock cafe across the street.

To finish off what has happened since Wednesday is going to have to be a new post entirely. I'll have to do that after the NoMeansNo show tonight or tomorrow depending on how late things go.