By Steve Rhodes
“Over the past year or so, fans of the Replacements have seen more collaborative activity from the principal members than there has been in quite some time,” Reed Fischer wrote for City Pages, the Minneapolis weekly, last night.
“The Songs for Slim EP project reminded us what it’s like to hear a band powered by Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and a few close friends, and it turned up the amps on the ‘what if’ scenarios that have floated around for the past two decades since the band broke things off in 1991.
“Today, reports coming from folks close to Riot Fest, happening September 13-15 in Chicago, suggest that the 13 question marks on the poster just below Fall Out Boy and Blink-182 stand for ‘Replacements,’ a word that is admittedly is only 12 letters long.”
Perfect. Plus, the reports turned out to be true.
The Replacements final show – until now – was in Grant Park in 1991. It ended with the roadies playing. Here’s the audio of the whole thing followed by some other Chicago highlights of yore.
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WXRT interview 1987.
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Within Your Reach 1991 – London, Paris, Chicago.
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At the Metro 1985.
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At the Cubby Bear 1984.
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“I’ll Be You,” from It’s Not Over ‘Til The Fat Roadies Play.
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From Greg Kot’s review in the Tribune about that last, final show:
“It wasn’t a particularly great performance, but it may prove to be a historic one.
“Certainly, the Replacements have given better shows than the one they played Thursday at Grant Park before a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands, the musical finale of Taste of Chicago.
“But as the concert stumbled to a close, it became apparent that one of the best American bands to emerge in the 1980s was probably playing together for the last time. During the Memphis soul-styled ‘Can’t Hardly Wait,’ guitarist Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson – the two surviving original members of the band – exchanged smiles as they bawled, ‘I can’t wait.’ And they couldn’t wait – to get off the stage, that is – and the two ran off a few seconds later.
“For the encore, Westerberg attempted to play drums, drummer Steve Foley fumbled through a guitar solo, and Stinson handled a rare lead vocal on ‘Hootenanny.’
“‘It’s the fucking last time you’ll ever hear it,’ the spike-haired bassist crowed. Then, as the band members left the stage one by one, they handed their instruments to their road crew, who proceeded to finish the song in at least as professional fashion as the band began it.”
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Comments welcome.
Posted on June 13, 2013