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Post by detroitguy on May 3, 2015 22:35:23 GMT -5
The first reunion show in Toronto in 2013 created unreasonably high expectations.
Apologies to those who were offended by my initial, emotional reaction to this one.
I certainly hope the band succeeds wildly for many years to come.
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Post by Otto Jr. on May 3, 2015 22:54:43 GMT -5
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davpel1
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Post by davpel1 on May 3, 2015 23:17:53 GMT -5
Oh please, give me a fucking break. I've seen the Replacements (and Paul solo) way worse. This is a band that made its reputation as a sloppy mess onstage for Christ sake. Anyway, Paul has a horrible cold and clearly felt like crap. I was in he front row and it was obvious it hurt like hell to sing.
Maybe you should go to a Rhianna show or something if "professionalism" is your thing. Clearly, the Replacements aren't you're cup of tea.
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Post by joelthecomic on May 3, 2015 23:21:37 GMT -5
I wuz there. Seemed like 3,999 and four guys on stage had good time tonight.
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Jer
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Post by Jer on May 4, 2015 6:53:18 GMT -5
It was a weird show. Paul's voice was shot. Between songs he was really hoarse, but I thought he did really well singing. I didn't pick up on any of the Minehan dissing you're talking about. The tent part in the middle was really the only debacle part. It went on too long, nothing came of it, and it brought the show to a sorta halt for a few minutes.
It seemed a little short, but that's always hard to gauge at the time. I felt like it was on the edge of falling apart at any minute - like one technical issue away from a show-stopping tantrum, but that never really happened. Clearly Paul is road worn and having trouble singing, but I felt like he gave everything he had, and no one I know left feeling cheated, mystified or angry. You never know exactly what you're gonna get with a mats show, and I think either do they, so that's a bit of a known risk, but the payoff is great when it's clicking. I thought they were really good, by no means an embarrassment, but certainly not 100% healthy. I talked to people who've seen the last 4 shows and the consensus was that Milwaukee was the best and Chicago were the weaker shows, but on the way out a friend said Chicago was way better, so it's pretty subjective.
They came out to Surfin' Bird and did Takin, Fav, Impressed. Valentine started really slow and lazy and Josh had to try to bring it back to tempo. Nothing off DTAS, no Whole Food Blues or Jackson 5, Trouble, Nevermind, but they did Be My Lover (Alice Cooper) with Dave singing and it was pretty great. Merry Go Round was a good bathroom break for me (I would have held it for Nobody). They asked the crowd and chose I Don't Know/Buck Hill over The Ledge. 1 encore of LOTD and Alex, then Paul came back out, said something about "this is what I do at home", and walked off. Also (going off memory) 20 Century Boy, KMOTB, Bastards, I WIll Dare, Tommy Gets, All Shook Down, Lollopop, Another Girl, Another Planet. At one point Paul muttered something about Joe's Star Lounge, which was cool.
So I think you can poke some holes in the show, but it was far from awful.
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Post by Kathy on May 4, 2015 7:28:02 GMT -5
I regret that I have been hanging on every piece of news since '91. I've been going to 'Mats shows since '86. Whether it was the skyway early email group or otherwise, I hung on every media report and sought every bit of news associated with the band. I saw so many solo shows for Paul and Tommy, too.
I've seen many awesome shows and a few poor shows, but tonight was a total debacle. Paul and Tommy essential shit on a city that has been in the band's wheelhouse since day one. It was a drunken nightmare. Everyone can laugh about the lovable Mats, but 4,000 people paid $63.00 for a shit show.
I met couples who traveled from Minny, Cleveland, Toronto and elsewhere. They were so mystified and angry.
The first show in Detroit in about 24 years will be my last. I'm so done chasing a ghost and I'm pissed.
Screw you, Paul and Tommy. Quit being dicks onstage to Dave Minehan, too. He desperately tried to save your asses tonight , and you heckled him shamelessly
Josh Freese seemed so embarrassed, too.
Everyone can have fun with this spectacle. The joke is now on us. Thanks for everything, Kathy.
Listen, I value your opinion - I'm not going to automatically dismiss what you say when you were there and I wasn't. What I will say is that you can't know their motivation. You can know your experience of the show (that it wasn't good) but you can't know that it was because they don't give a shit. It could be because they are tired or sick or because Paul hasn't toured like this in a decade and it's HARD. It would suck to have one show that didn't work for you turn you sour on a band you love. I can't know for sure but it seems unlikely to me that Paul and Tommy would deliberately screw over thousands of fans by tanking a show.
Something that mystifies me (not directed at you, just in general) is that Paul talks openly and frequently in interviews about how much he hates touring, and he has been saying that for at this point like 20 years?
When he did Bumbershoot last year, he said something in an interview about being there for 3-4 days and how that seemed like being away for too long. When I saw that the 2nd leg of the tour schedule had them doing 9 shows in 13 days, I thought that seemed insane. I couldn't ATTEND 9 shows in 13 days!
As far as how Josh and Dave are being treated, they have been working with Paul since 1993 -- 22 years. I think that says everything. And Paul and Dave were hugging on stage a few nights ago.
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Post by Kathy on May 4, 2015 7:39:34 GMT -5
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Post by twicks1 on May 4, 2015 8:36:31 GMT -5
This is the double-edged sword of reunion touring at steep prices: people feel ripped off when a show is less than transcendent. It never devolved into a poop show, and Paul soldiered on about as well as could be expected, but the whole thing felt labored.
On the "plus" side, as a fan who only saw them in '91, I finally got to experience the mild embarrassment of hyping these guys for years to friends, then having to watch them deliver a pretty flat performance...what can you do but shrug, smile and explain that "these guys don't fake it when they're not feeling it"?
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davpel1
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Post by davpel1 on May 4, 2015 8:44:12 GMT -5
On the "plus" side, as a fan who only saw them in '91, I finally got to experience the mild embarrassment of hyping these guys for years to friends, then having to watch them deliver a pretty flat performance...what can you do but shrug, smile and explain that "these guys don't fake it when they're not feeling it"? I agree. Because they don't fake it, this was as "real" a Replacements show as any on the reunion tour. In any event, much better than the last time they played the State Theater in 1991 because by that point, they were faking it. They were uninterested and completely going through the motions. Last night had its disasterous qualities, but the emotions were at least genuine. |
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davpel1
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Post by davpel1 on May 4, 2015 8:50:21 GMT -5
I regret that I have been hanging on every piece of news since '91. I've been going to 'Mats shows since '86. Whether it was the skyway early email group or otherwise, I hung on every media report and sought every bit of news associated with the band. I saw so many solo shows for Paul and Tommy, too.
I've seen many awesome shows and a few poor shows, but tonight was a total debacle. Paul and Tommy essential shit on a city that has been in the band's wheelhouse since day one. It was a drunken nightmare. Everyone can laugh about the lovable Mats, but 4,000 people paid $63.00 for a shit show.
I met couples who traveled from Minny, Cleveland, Toronto and elsewhere. They were so mystified and angry.
The first show in Detroit in about 24 years will be my last. I'm so done chasing a ghost and I'm pissed.
Screw you, Paul and Tommy. Quit being dicks onstage to Dave Minehan, too. He desperately tried to save your asses tonight , and you heckled him shamelessly
Josh Freese seemed so embarrassed, too.
Everyone can have fun with this spectacle. The joke is now on us. Thanks for everything, Kathy.
Listen, I value your opinion - I'm not going to automatically dismiss what you say when you were there and I wasn't. What I will say is that you can't know their motivation. You can know your experience of the show (that it wasn't good) but you can't know that it was because they don't give a shit. It could be because they are tired or sick or because Paul hasn't toured like this in a decade and it's HARD. It would suck to have one show that didn't work for you turn you sour on a band you love. I can't know for sure but it seems unlikely to me that Paul and Tommy would deliberately screw over thousands of fans by tanking a show.
Something that mystifies me (not directed at you, just in general) is that Paul talks openly and frequently in interviews about how much he hates touring, and he has been saying that for at this point like 20 years?
When he did Bumbershoot last year, he said something in an interview about being there for 3-4 days and how that seemed like being away for too long. When I saw that the 2nd leg of the tour schedule had them doing 9 shows in 13 days, I thought that seemed insane. I couldn't ATTEND 9 shows in 13 days!
As far as how Josh and Dave are being treated, they have been working with Paul since 1993 -- 22 years. I think that says everything. And Paul and Dave were hugging on stage a few nights ago.
Kathy: I felt the same way as you when I saw the schedule. And when I heard the reports and saw the setlist from Milwaukee the night before, I kind of knew we were in a bit of trouble. Stringing great shows back to back has never been Paul's strong suit. Then when I saw the roadie bring out hot tea before the show and put in on the drum riser, I said to my buddy Monkeytot, "Uh oh, I bet Paulie is sick." When he confirmed it after two songs, the writing was on the wall. The suggestion that Paul is mistreating Dave is pure folly. Dave has been the butt of Paul and Tommy's jokes since Riot Fest and he clearly is loving every minute of it. Last night, Dave had his back to the audience and Paul told him to "turn the fuck around" and then made fun of his striped shirt. Dave mocked a look of shock and then had the biggest grin on his face you could imagine. Plus he got to take lead on not one, but two entire songs. As for Josh, I will admit that he did not seem his usual chipper self. But hey, as you said, touring is grind. Would I have liked to have seem a barn burner like Milwaukee? Sure, and I'm very jealous of the setlist they got (some of the skipped songs I saw in Minny, but I really wanted to hear Nobody). But in the end it was a Replacements show in every way imaginable. |
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Post by twicks1 on May 4, 2015 8:56:19 GMT -5
Yeah, looking at the Milwaukee setlist when I got home last night just rubbed salt in the wound...
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Post by Kathy on May 4, 2015 9:15:32 GMT -5
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Post by joelthecomic on May 4, 2015 9:25:56 GMT -5
Yeah, looking at the Milwaukee setlist when I got home last night just rubbed salt in the wound... If you looked at the tour dates, you could see where Milwaukee was going to be a big show - Saturday Night, after a day of rest, giant venue, proximity to the Twin Cities. I'm sure that was great. The Detroit had Paul missing some of the lyrics due to his bad voice (maybe up to a third on some songs), the tent nonsense (which was only 3 minutes or so, I put a video of the whole thing in the other Detroit thread), and it ended a few songs earlier (no 2nd encore). The band seemed in good spirits, they were very funny throughout, the Alice Cooper cover (Be My Lover) went down great and every person I talked to after the show, friends and strangers alike seemed to have a great time. I am attending the next two nights (Pittsburgh and Columbus) and I hope it's better, but last night was fine. It was much, much better than the 1991 show in the same venue and compared to the reunion shows I've been to, I enjoyed it much more than Riot Fest in Chicago (due to the venue and weather being atrocious that night), but less than The Toronto Riot Fest which was an incredible night by any measure. As for the couples who were "mystified and angry" afterwards after travelling to Detroit - you could have went to any town and seen god knows what . People were scoring tickets for less than $10 at this show (and probably will at the next two mid-week shows as well) and even for my $60 I felt like I got my money's worth. |
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davpel1
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Post by davpel1 on May 4, 2015 9:45:29 GMT -5
And no more selfies with fans! So who is the fan who met him in Chicago or Milwaukee and gave him this cold? |
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Post by monkeytot on May 4, 2015 10:34:41 GMT -5
Totally agree with detroitguy. That never would have happened at a John Mayer concert. He really knows how to put on a good show. And please, davpel1, can you stop the constant Rihanna bashing already? I'm sorry about the restraining order, but, dude, just let it go already!
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daveb
First Class Scout
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Post by daveb on May 4, 2015 11:45:55 GMT -5
On the "plus" side, as a fan who only saw them in '91, I finally got to experience the mild embarrassment of hyping these guys for years to friends, then having to watch them deliver a pretty flat performance...what can you do but shrug, smile and explain that "these guys don't fake it when they're not feeling it"? We call that "Portland." |
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Post by ClamsCasino on May 4, 2015 14:56:10 GMT -5
Not only does this seem like a really grueling tour schedule, but they really came out of the gate roaring and at full throttle, so it's not too surprising that it's starting to take a toll. I only saw the third show (SF), but I had the same thought as others did when I was looking at the rest of their schedule. I'm a good bit younger than Paul and I was amazed he kept up that level of energy for the 2 hours that I saw him play, let alone sustain it for a whole string of back to back dates.
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Post by John in Buffalo on May 4, 2015 16:11:00 GMT -5
I drove in to Detroit from Buffalo for last nights show. I had been to Riot Fest Toronto and Forest Hills and, yeah, this was a rough show compared to both of those but so the fuck what? One takes his chances with any performer and part of being a Mats fan is knowing that you take your chances even more than usual. I was standing right behind Joel and I'm glad he got that video, I got to touch the tent and laugh and jump around and have been spilled all over me so there you go. Yeah, I admit to being disappointed that the show was somewhat short and Paul didn't do Skyway but that was nowhere nearly enough to make me sorry I went. It woulda been worth $60 although I paid $25.25 on Stub Hub a few days ago. Plus it was my first trip to Detroit and the city did not disappoint, I will be back!
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davpel1
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Post by davpel1 on May 4, 2015 16:38:50 GMT -5
I drove in to Detroit from Buffalo for last nights show. I had been to Riot Fest Toronto and Forest Hills and, yeah, this was a rough show compared to both of those but so the fuck what? One takes his chances with any performer and part of being a Mats fan is knowing that you take your chances even more than usual. I was standing right behind Joel and I'm glad he got that video, I got to touch the tent and laugh and jump around and have been spilled all over me so there you go. Yeah, I admit to being disappointed that the show was somewhat short and Paul didn't do Skyway but that was nowhere nearly enough to make me sorry I went. It woulda been worth $60 although I paid $25.25 on Stub Hub a few days ago. Plus it was my first trip to Detroit and the city did not disappoint, I will be back! Glad to hear you had a good time in our fair city, John! |
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Post by reverendbackwash on May 4, 2015 18:45:00 GMT -5
The second half of the tour is booked a little tighter than the first half, but this is the shortest and easiest trek across the states as the Mats and Westerberg have ever done ever. And the break between Denver and Chicago was nice and very long, and by most touring standards unheard of.
Well, they caught a bit of a cold now. but they will be fine. I suggest no kissing each other on the lips, ears should be ok.
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