"Checkin' His Stash by the Trash at St. Mark's Place."

A week ago I hopped a plane with another Westerberg fan to NYC for two shows. We left Tuesday morning and came back Thursday morning. It was a quick jaunt to a city I hadn't been to in about 10 years. And what a Westerberg filled two days it was.

After getting to the city and getting settled in our hostel we made our way to the Tribeca Film Festival for Aurora Borealis. This film is based in Minneapolis and has a character (juliette lewis) who moved to Mpls because of the Replacements and in search of Paul Westerberg. This was a very small part of the movie. The rest of the movie was based on Joshua Jackson's character getting his act together, helping take care of his dying grandfather (Donald Sutherland) and dating a new woman (Lewis). Other than Donald Sutherland's acting I didn't really care for this movie. The love relationship between Jackson and Lewis' characters is way too much like Good Will Hunting. Also being that I have a deep love for the city I live in, I was appaled by their portrayal of Mpls. Ok we're really not stuck in the 50's and its not snowing all the time. Plus they make us look like we're all white trash Vikings worshippers, and trust me we aren't. Even the characters talk about hating Mpls and how there's nothing to do here. Which is sad because I find a lot of people have a loyalty to the city. Also hang with me for even two nights and I'll show you that mpls has a fuckin lot to offer. Bullshit. Ok back on focus. At the end of the movie there is someone that plays Westerberg per his refusal to be in the movie. They do have his clothes on and the hair is kind of similar but they were really off. First he's driving, PW does not drive, doesn't have a license. So now they have him driving this douchebag el camino muscle type car thats loud and obnoxious. And of course he's honking at Lewis and she calls him a prick. The credits hadn't rolled yet but we still left after laughing at that horrible depiction.

That night we met up with some fellow fans from MWT at the Collins Bar which is right by the venue and also by our hostel. We got some pre show whiskey a hot dog at the stand out front and then proceeded to the show. The show was a rather loose show but ripping through such greats as Stain Yer Blood, Skyway, Making Me Go, Knockin On Mine, Alex Chilton, Left of the Dial, Merry Go Round, Someone Take The Wheel, with covers of Live Forever, Whipping Post, Different Drum and the ever amazing cover BORSTAL BREAKOUT (obviously not in this order). I love that they played a Sham 69 song and man did they rock doing it. I also love when they cover I Got A Mind To Give Up Living by BB King which I did get in that first show. And man was Kevin Bowe smoking on the guitar during that song. We even got about 3 seconds of Customer. Very interesting, I think I'll leave that one to the Mats. Everything was far from the normal order at the shows I've been to and I really really really enjoyed that.

One of the people we were hanging out with pre show had gotten kicked out of the show due to a brawl with the bouncers that was taken to the streets. It also had a cameo by Christian Slater, but it's not my story to tell so we're going to leave it at that. So we met up with this friend back at the Collins Bar for some more post show Whiskey. This would be the bar of the trip.

Day two was spent wandering in the East Village. Walked over to CBGBs and stood on Joey Ramone place, of course while wearing my Ramones shirt cause thats how much of a geek I am. From there we stopped by Generation Records which I thoroughly enjoyed. I could have spent the whole day there. Picked up a Zeke CD and when thumbing through some of the punk section I found a Midnight Evils cd (local Mpls band, see many previous posts). From there our wandering lead us to St. Mark's place. This is a very cool street filled with punk shops and jewelry, misc stands galore. It was very cool to check the stash at St. Mark's. Trash and Vaudeville, Search and Destroy and countless other t shirt shops. If I had more money I would have bought so much. I spent my money at a thrift shop where I found a dickies shirt that was $40 in a trendy shop, for only $8. Quite the deal if you ask me.

Now to show. Again pre show drinks at Collins Bar. Get to the show and worm our way as close as we can. And can I say that this show was so damn amazing. The band was tight the set was great and the crowd finally got into it. Now I can't go to one of these shows without rocking out because its just that great. And its hard for me to see people standing around with such greatness in front of them. Well finally somone understood. While waiting in line a big black security who couldn't even remember PW's name was saying how loud the music was and that he didn't understand how people could just stand there and watch it. AMEN! I wanted to hug the guy. Me and my traveling buddy wanted tshirts made with his face on it. Well the crowd reacted better this night. Even though someone tried to get me to stop rockin out. But he ripped through an amazing set, again playing Borstal Breakout. When he had his acoustic out he asked if there were any requests before he put it away and I yelled Things. He got in my face (because there was no gap or barrier between stage and audience) and made sure to hear what I requested. He played it, of course having to come down to ask us how to start the next verse. But I was shaking it was so cool. So fast forward to the encore. I told my friend that I would give up Alex Chilton to hear IOU because the song is so amazing live. Well I was blessed further when he came out and played Nevermind. I hadn't heard that since the Pantages shows I was jumping for joy. And what do you know after Nevermind came IOU. Those songs are so fucking wonderful live. After a ripping Left of the Dial, the mics are taken down and the amps were off but the crowd would have none of that. We yelled, we cheered whistled clapped and even though the band had already been up upstairs ready to start their aftershow business, they came back and rocked us completey with Alex Chilton and I'm telling you I have not rocked out that hard to Alex Chilton since I first heard it. It was rock n roll bliss. The crowd was so into it, I was so proud. Afterwards me and a few others hung out to try and do a meet and greet. Two girls came out from backstage and gave my traveling buddy and I their passes because they said we were awesome how into it we were and deserved to be backstage. Well the security guy didn't think so as he was trying to get everyone to leave. So no dice there. Paul came out but since it was on the street he just hopped into the cab and we didn't get to say anything. I was bumbed but was still on such a high from the show I couldn't sit still. To the bar gentlemen....

Back to Collins Bar. Its me, traveling buddy Loni, Enrique and Steve. We decide we want shots for waiting for so long for nothing to happen. Well after about 3 or 4 shots of Jack and some whiskey 7s Loni heads back to the hostel. Enrique walked her there but came back to keep partying. By the end of the night I think we had done 6 or 7 shots of Jack easily if not more. Enrique even got them to serve us after the 4 am close. Now its 4 am, and I should have been heading to the airport. But instead I along with Enrique and Steve enter a convenience store where I proceed to get the clerks opinion on the best 40 they have to offer. Out of that came two 40s of Old English, drank in the phone booth, with a homeless man trying his best to join in. Somehow we stumbled to my hostel, woke up Loni and got to the airport just in time to miss our flight. And lets just say I shouldn't have even been walking. We had to wait about 2 hours for another flight, the whole time was spent by me passed out on the floor of JFK. Not my most shining moment. But a great time overall.

Next stop...... Orlando.