My One Replacements Show Ever

• The only time I got to see The Replacements was 9 years ago this past Tuesday night.
• Obviously the only real Replacements were Paul Westerberg & Tommy Stinson, but it was a still a big deal for me (tho seeing Westerberg solo at a Virgin Record Store in 2002 was amazing)
• Had noticed online that most of them had gotten the flu pretty bad
• DC was either the last night of the tour of close enough; you could sense that they were over the whole “reunion” thing & just wanted it done with
• After living in Brooklyn for 15 years like a sewer rat with tons of musician friends, I’d become used to only going to shows of my friends, meaning that if there even was a crowd I’d just be offstage, which I’d probably ignore anyway and wander around looking for kicks instead
• So I was miffed at finding myself basically pinned against the back wall in an audience of 4,000 people
• For some reason one of the friends I was with wanted to see the opening band, so we got there at 8pm, which was also the time The Replacements were listed as starting
• Again, all my years going to shitty rock shows had trained me to (begrudgingly, grrrr) accept that an 8pm start time meant a 9:30 start time at the earliest
• Wandering around for a few minutes, assuming we were at least an hour or so before The Replacements started, I heard Surfin’ Bird by The Trashmen being cranked over the PA
• Dafuck, I thought, The Trashmen were from Minnesota…is it POSSIBLE this is The Replacements walk-on song?
• Sure enough, it was I spent the show bitching about being far in the back, and they did look at little “fuck this shit” in the beginning, but it was probably a better show than I remember it being
• AND, because the Internet is fucking crazy, you & I can now watch the entire show online! 🤗🕺🎸