Post by Kathy on Sept 25, 2013 15:27:34 GMT -5
The Replacements Reunion Tour (Sort Of)
By ERIC R. DANTON
Fans Want the Replacements' Reunion To Be Long-Term - WSJ.com
Sonia Grover has a response ready when people ask if the Replacements are going to play a hometown show at First Avenue, the Minneapolis rock club she books.
"I tell them, 'Your guess is as good as mine,'" Ms. Grover said.
The pioneering 1980s alternative rock band recently reunited when two members, singer Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson, joined with a pair of backing musicians to perform together in public for the first time in 22 years, playing headline sets at festivals in Toronto, Chicago and Denver. Fans flocked to the shows from far and wide, celebrating the return of a band whose subsequent influence has far outpaced the Replacements' reach during their original run.
The group was a catalyst for the alt-rock movement that surged into the mainstream through bands like Nirvana in the early '90s—just as the Replacements were falling apart. (Mr. Westerberg joked that their name was "the Placemats"; from then on, fans affectionately called the band the Mats.) After 12 years together and a change of guitarists, the Replacements' initial run ended with a concert in Chicago on July 4, 1991. Acts including Green Day, Wilco and the Decemberists have cited the band as an influence.
Mr. Westerberg has released occasional solo records, contributed to film soundtracks and toured sporadically since then, though his output tapered off considerably after he injured his left hand in 2006 while using a screwdriver to scrape wax out of a candlestick holder. The incident left his ring finger without feeling and temporarily curtailed his guitar playing. Mr. Stinson has kept busy, too, with solo releases and stints playing with Guns N' Roses and fellow Minneapolis band Soul Asylum. Given the circumstances, many fans felt that a Replacements reunion was too much to hope for.
"I never thought I'd see it," said Jim Walsh, a Minneapolis writer who in 2007 published an oral history, "The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting," and wrote text for a forthcoming photo book, "The Replacements: Waxed-Up Hair and Painted Shoes."
So far, though, those three festival shows are the only ones the Replacements have agreed to play, leaving fans wondering what, if anything, will be next. The musicians aren't talking to the news media, and Mr. Westerberg's manager, Darren Hill, couldn't be reached to comment. (Original drummer Chris Mars didn't participate in the reunion.) Others who know the Replacements, though, suspect there will be more gigs to come.
"I feel like, yeah, there's going to be more shows," said Peter Jesperson, who managed the Replacements in the '80s and co-owned Twin/Tone, the Minneapolis record label that released the band's first three full-length albums. "I think they're going to do more, but it's hard to say exactly what's going to happen."
Mr. Jesperson, now a vice president at New West Records in Los Angeles, helped spur on the Westerberg-Stinson reunion when he asked them last year to record a song to help raise money for Slim Dunlap. The former Replacements guitarist faced mounting medical bills after he had a stroke in February 2012 and lacked sufficient health insurance for long-term rehabilitation. Mr. Westerberg and Mr. Stinson came back with four covers, which cemented the inaugural "Songs for Slim" series of fundraiser releases.
But, according to Mr. Jesperson, those weren't the only tunes the pair worked on. "After the 'Songs for Slim' recordings, they went back in the studio and recorded some new original songs," Mr. Jesperson said, citing conversations with both musicians. "There's some new songs of Paul's and some new songs of Tommy's. And whether it becomes Paul playing on Tommy's next solo album, and vice versa, who knows—maybe it becomes something they call the Replacements and they go out and do live shows to support that."
That is a tantalizing prospect for fans like Eric Bradford, who flew with his wife from Burlington, Vt., to Chicago to see the band perform at Riot Fest there on Sept. 15. Mr. Bradford, who saw the Replacements twice in the late '80s when he was an undergraduate at the University of Vermont, said the show was well worth the trip.
"I was getting pretty emotional during the first half-hour," Mr. Bradford said. "I didn't realize how much these songs meant to me until you see them played well, and you see the guy out there who wrote them, and Stinson, too."
Jacqui Burger never saw the Replacements the first time around: She was 14 when they broke up in 1991. But, "there was nothing that was going to keep me from seeing" the band, the Washington, D.C., resident said. "As soon as it was announced, I bought a ticket for the day they were playing and a plane ticket" to catch the group in Chicago.
"To use an overused word, it would be epic if they played" in Minneapolis," Mr. Walsh said. The pressure of playing a hometown concert may have dissuaded the band from booking a Minneapolis gig as part their recent brief run of shows, Mr. Jesperson speculated, but Ms. Grover, the club booker, hasn't given up hope.
"I'm never not trying to book a Replacements show," Ms. Grover said. "I've been here for 15 years and that's all I'm trying to do."
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article said a detractor called The Replacements "The Placemats." Band singer Paul Westerberg once jokingly used that name. Also, the earlier version said Slim Dunlap was hospitalized without health insurance. He lacked sufficient health insurance for his long-term rehabilitation.
By ERIC R. DANTON
Fans Want the Replacements' Reunion To Be Long-Term - WSJ.com
Sonia Grover has a response ready when people ask if the Replacements are going to play a hometown show at First Avenue, the Minneapolis rock club she books.
"I tell them, 'Your guess is as good as mine,'" Ms. Grover said.
The pioneering 1980s alternative rock band recently reunited when two members, singer Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson, joined with a pair of backing musicians to perform together in public for the first time in 22 years, playing headline sets at festivals in Toronto, Chicago and Denver. Fans flocked to the shows from far and wide, celebrating the return of a band whose subsequent influence has far outpaced the Replacements' reach during their original run.
The group was a catalyst for the alt-rock movement that surged into the mainstream through bands like Nirvana in the early '90s—just as the Replacements were falling apart. (Mr. Westerberg joked that their name was "the Placemats"; from then on, fans affectionately called the band the Mats.) After 12 years together and a change of guitarists, the Replacements' initial run ended with a concert in Chicago on July 4, 1991. Acts including Green Day, Wilco and the Decemberists have cited the band as an influence.
Mr. Westerberg has released occasional solo records, contributed to film soundtracks and toured sporadically since then, though his output tapered off considerably after he injured his left hand in 2006 while using a screwdriver to scrape wax out of a candlestick holder. The incident left his ring finger without feeling and temporarily curtailed his guitar playing. Mr. Stinson has kept busy, too, with solo releases and stints playing with Guns N' Roses and fellow Minneapolis band Soul Asylum. Given the circumstances, many fans felt that a Replacements reunion was too much to hope for.
"I never thought I'd see it," said Jim Walsh, a Minneapolis writer who in 2007 published an oral history, "The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting," and wrote text for a forthcoming photo book, "The Replacements: Waxed-Up Hair and Painted Shoes."
So far, though, those three festival shows are the only ones the Replacements have agreed to play, leaving fans wondering what, if anything, will be next. The musicians aren't talking to the news media, and Mr. Westerberg's manager, Darren Hill, couldn't be reached to comment. (Original drummer Chris Mars didn't participate in the reunion.) Others who know the Replacements, though, suspect there will be more gigs to come.
"I feel like, yeah, there's going to be more shows," said Peter Jesperson, who managed the Replacements in the '80s and co-owned Twin/Tone, the Minneapolis record label that released the band's first three full-length albums. "I think they're going to do more, but it's hard to say exactly what's going to happen."
Mr. Jesperson, now a vice president at New West Records in Los Angeles, helped spur on the Westerberg-Stinson reunion when he asked them last year to record a song to help raise money for Slim Dunlap. The former Replacements guitarist faced mounting medical bills after he had a stroke in February 2012 and lacked sufficient health insurance for long-term rehabilitation. Mr. Westerberg and Mr. Stinson came back with four covers, which cemented the inaugural "Songs for Slim" series of fundraiser releases.
But, according to Mr. Jesperson, those weren't the only tunes the pair worked on. "After the 'Songs for Slim' recordings, they went back in the studio and recorded some new original songs," Mr. Jesperson said, citing conversations with both musicians. "There's some new songs of Paul's and some new songs of Tommy's. And whether it becomes Paul playing on Tommy's next solo album, and vice versa, who knows—maybe it becomes something they call the Replacements and they go out and do live shows to support that."
That is a tantalizing prospect for fans like Eric Bradford, who flew with his wife from Burlington, Vt., to Chicago to see the band perform at Riot Fest there on Sept. 15. Mr. Bradford, who saw the Replacements twice in the late '80s when he was an undergraduate at the University of Vermont, said the show was well worth the trip.
"I was getting pretty emotional during the first half-hour," Mr. Bradford said. "I didn't realize how much these songs meant to me until you see them played well, and you see the guy out there who wrote them, and Stinson, too."
Jacqui Burger never saw the Replacements the first time around: She was 14 when they broke up in 1991. But, "there was nothing that was going to keep me from seeing" the band, the Washington, D.C., resident said. "As soon as it was announced, I bought a ticket for the day they were playing and a plane ticket" to catch the group in Chicago.
"To use an overused word, it would be epic if they played" in Minneapolis," Mr. Walsh said. The pressure of playing a hometown concert may have dissuaded the band from booking a Minneapolis gig as part their recent brief run of shows, Mr. Jesperson speculated, but Ms. Grover, the club booker, hasn't given up hope.
"I'm never not trying to book a Replacements show," Ms. Grover said. "I've been here for 15 years and that's all I'm trying to do."
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article said a detractor called The Replacements "The Placemats." Band singer Paul Westerberg once jokingly used that name. Also, the earlier version said Slim Dunlap was hospitalized without health insurance. He lacked sufficient health insurance for his long-term rehabilitation.
