Sep 26, 2023·edited Sep 26, 2023Liked by Gina Arnold
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."
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."
Gina, This is beautiful. Thanks for writing it. Now I am going to binge The Replacements and Westerberg.
"But I am only a professor of critical race studies." Sanitation expert and a maintenance engineer, Garbage man, a janitor and you my dear.