That sent me to listen again, and how right you are! I saw them only once, when they had released Pleased To Meet Me and toured with Slim Dunlap on guitar, I think it was 1987. All I knew about them was they had written a song called "Alex Chilton". It was a small night-club in Paris, France, and an audience of about 30 people, maybe even less. They were fantastic, totally awesome - after the gig I sat at a booth and Tommy Stinson came over to say hello, and shared some of a bottle of cheap brandy I'd smuggled in; we were joined by a young American fan from Minneapolis who was thrilled to sit with us as she'd expected the place to be so packed she wouldn't be able to get in, and the rest of the band joined us. We were all quickly cleared out so the club could revert to being a disco, as the band had played at 7:30pm. The American woman and I went to a bar for a drink, and she gave me her phone number, writing it on a piece of paper - on the other side it said "Please play Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out."
Might it have been 1986? If so, I was one of the 30 people at that show! I went with my cousin Jeff and Jennifer, who were living in Paris - Jenn was pregnant with the person now known as Hannah, so we wrapped a coat around her belly in case it was too loud. After the show Bob came up to me and asked if, being locals, they knew anyone he could buy drugs from. I bet if we wanted we could find all 30 people who were in the audience that night, n'est pas?
No, I must have seen them in 1987 because Slim Dunlap replaced Bob Stinson then and that's who I saw. Prince was playing in Paris a few days later and the girl from Minneapolis and I tried to find tickets but couldn't get any - it was like her home town had conquered Paris. I went back to England, bought all the Replacements records, and got all the musicians I knew hooked on them too. When I offered Tommy my flask of brandy he said "no thanks, that's where we went wrong last time." Knowing nothing about the band or the concept of sobriety at that time, I cajoled him into a drink I'm ashamed to say... by saying it was nothing fancy, just "Cooking Brandy".
That sent me to listen again, and how right you are! I saw them only once, when they had released Pleased To Meet Me and toured with Slim Dunlap on guitar, I think it was 1987. All I knew about them was they had written a song called "Alex Chilton". It was a small night-club in Paris, France, and an audience of about 30 people, maybe even less. They were fantastic, totally awesome - after the gig I sat at a booth and Tommy Stinson came over to say hello, and shared some of a bottle of cheap brandy I'd smuggled in; we were joined by a young American fan from Minneapolis who was thrilled to sit with us as she'd expected the place to be so packed she wouldn't be able to get in, and the rest of the band joined us. We were all quickly cleared out so the club could revert to being a disco, as the band had played at 7:30pm. The American woman and I went to a bar for a drink, and she gave me her phone number, writing it on a piece of paper - on the other side it said "Please play Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out."
Might it have been 1986? If so, I was one of the 30 people at that show! I went with my cousin Jeff and Jennifer, who were living in Paris - Jenn was pregnant with the person now known as Hannah, so we wrapped a coat around her belly in case it was too loud. After the show Bob came up to me and asked if, being locals, they knew anyone he could buy drugs from. I bet if we wanted we could find all 30 people who were in the audience that night, n'est pas?
No, I must have seen them in 1987 because Slim Dunlap replaced Bob Stinson then and that's who I saw. Prince was playing in Paris a few days later and the girl from Minneapolis and I tried to find tickets but couldn't get any - it was like her home town had conquered Paris. I went back to England, bought all the Replacements records, and got all the musicians I knew hooked on them too. When I offered Tommy my flask of brandy he said "no thanks, that's where we went wrong last time." Knowing nothing about the band or the concept of sobriety at that time, I cajoled him into a drink I'm ashamed to say... by saying it was nothing fancy, just "Cooking Brandy".
Gina, This is beautiful. Thanks for writing it. Now I am going to binge The Replacements and Westerberg.
Thank you Dawn! I am so sad I can't go to Hardly this weekend, because of my foot.
Enjoyed this piece and remembering how the Mats made the mid-80’s through early 90’s more tolerable.
"But I am only a professor of critical race studies." Sanitation expert and a maintenance engineer, Garbage man, a janitor and you my dear.