The surprising and wonderful reunion of The Replacements came to Philly this past Saturday Night. The location was the outdoor venue of Festival Pier at Penn's Landing right off of the Delaware River. The weather was humid, but certainly more than bearable given the occasion. The band took the stage with authority and purpose and blasted through "Takin' A Ride", "Favorite Thing" a medley of "I Don't Know/Buck Hill" and "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" before catching their breath with the latter-day B-Side "Kissin' In Action". Original members, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson were in excellent form as were new members lead guitarist Dave Minehan (ex-Neighborhoods) and drummer Josh Freese (ex-Vandals, currently in Devo).
(Objects in photo are closer than they appear)
I'd seen the band four times from 1989-1991, all before the age of 15. Since then I have a new-found respect for the band and their legacy. From the bands' performance, it seems that they too have learned to respect their own legacy and they delivered a seriously great performance with very little shtick from Westerberg (he's finally learned to hide behind his songs and nothing more).
The twenty-five song set contained a few fan-favorite surprises ("Hold My Life", "Little Mascara", "Never Mind" and "Valentine"), and a lone random cover (Sham 69's "Borstal Breakout") in favor of originals the band had been performing regularly on their Back By Unpopular Demand Tour (their nearly mainstream hit "I'll Be You", "Color Me Impressed", "Skyway", "Waitress In The Sky" and "Merry Go Round"). Plus songs that were singles and should have been massively big songs (i.e."I Will Dare", "Can't Hardly Wait", "I'm In Trouble", "Alex Chilton" and "Bastards Of Young"). I was happy to hear them perform "Within Your Reach", "Nobody"and "Seen Your Video" (which they hadn't performed when I saw them last September at their amazing Forest Hills Tennis Stadium performance).
I sincerely hope they continue playing thus making this a regular once-in-a-lifetime event for their fans.
Special Thanks: Scott Scherquist.
Embarrassingly distant photo by the author.
No comments:
Post a Comment