Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Shiftless When Idle: Notes on Sunday's Tribute to the Replacements























Take it from a guy who was there- The Replacements weren't a good live band. Sunday's tribute show at the Record Bar, consequently, was an attractive proposition. And coming as it did on Easter, I was able to celebrate in a fashion appropriate to the occasion.

Dead Girls opened the show with "Little Mascara." They went on to play Big Star's "September Gurls," The Beatles' "Nowhere Man" (a learned friend informed me that Westerberg covered it for the I Am Sam soundtrack) and Kiss' "Black Diamond." Another friend amusingly characterized the set as a "tribute to a Replacements tribute."

Although the quality of the subsequent performers didn't dissipate, the remainder of the night represented a case of diminishing returns. I just wasn't feeling it. Only when Steve Tulipana's band was joined by a three-piece horn section that included excellent jazz saxophonist Rich Wheeler for a crackling rendition of "Can't Hardly Wait" did I get chills.

You guessed it- I left "Unsatisfied".

(The Pitch provides proper pictures.)

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Today's new releases, in order of personal preference: James Farm, Bill Frisell, Of Montreal, Emmylou Harris, Eric Alexander, Prefuse 73, MF Doom, Otep, Julian Lage, Tindersticks, Cachao, Explosions In the Sky, Various- The Sue Story, Bootsy Collins, Ricky Dillard, Irvin Mayfield, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Juvenile, NightShade, Steve Earle, Todd Rundgren, Etta Jones & Houston Person, Lightnin' Malcolm, Bowling For Soup and Thao & Mirah.

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I reviewed reviewed last night's concert by Deftones and Dillinger Escape Plan. I reviewed Aaron Lewis' performance in the same venue last week.

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Huey Meaux has died. I only spoke to him a couple times, but I represented Meaux's incredible catalog for years.

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That voice! Phoebe Snow has died.

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Hazel Dickens died last week. Not every folk artist can be Joan Baez, you know.

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Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex has died.

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I interviewed Clayton McDonnell of MaxJazz at Plastic Sax.

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Kanrocksas.

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Kansas City Click: The Beaumont seems like an awfully big venue for The Black Lips, but the band is headlining at the Westport venue Tuesday.

Kinky Friedman does his thing at Knuckleheads on Wednesday.

The Photo Atlas perform at Crosstown Station on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

2 comments:

bigsteveno said...

Wow the Crazy Cajun died. I haven't read that anywhere else.

I agree about Sunday night. I didn't stay for the last band, but the Dead Girls were the tightest band I heard that night. And Can't Hardly Wait was totally cool.

Happy In Bag said...

I suspect that the real problem, Steve, lies with PW's imperfect songwriting. I loved those first five albums, but time hasn't been kind to lines like "If you were a pill I'd take a handful at my will."