The Replacements, April 16, 2015 at the Palladium

I don’t know why I didn’t just jump into buying a ticket for the second night of the Replacements’ stand at the Palladium.  The $70 each for two tickets the night before might have made me hesitant at the least, or maybe the concern of getting burned by seeing the same set two nights in a row, to say nothing of it potentially being the third time, after Coachella).  I knew in my mind, somewhere closer than the back, that I would wind up at both nights, and if it was all the same songs anyway, that probably would have been fine anyway.  And I would have been there for at least one of those shows anyway, even if this hadn’t been the fourth night of four consecutive nights of shows.  (Then Coachella that weekend, so that would have been seven nights straight of shows, surely a record, but we weren’t going to the fest anyway, with or without my week of concerts.  We went to Vegas instead.)  It didn’t take too long before I just went in for it, and found a second-hand ticket for $35, an easy sell at less than face value, but considerably more than I would have paid if I’d waited until the night of the show when people were just throwing away tickets.  Andrew and his people hadn’t shown for a second night so I was there on my own, just as well to absorb the music.  And much the same show as the night before, with about half the set-list switched out, so this was the other side to what they’d been playing (though neither night had "Another Girl, Another Planet," which gave the Coachella set a great advantage).  I wouldn’t hold one night over the other based on what they played, but it would have been a bummer to be somewhere else where they played just one night and one set, and missed what they were playing elsewhere.  As it turns out, even with longer sets, based only on what they played, Coachella still ruled over all that I saw (to say nothing of it just being a more noteworthy event and their being much looser, funner, and more rambunctiously the Replacements).  Then it ended and they moved on.  The tour was billed as “Back By Unpopular Demand,” which is endearingly self-effacing but maybe not far from the truth, as evidenced by not only selling out the venue over two nights but also leaving it empty enough that people were throwing away tickets.  They might have done better at just one night or a smaller venue, but that just doesn’t seem worthy of their playing the L.A. market.  Maybe the demand for the reunion was fueled by a contingent not as big as they were excited and loud (also since even if their legendary status has gotten some kids to check them out, they could still be considered old guys, and those hard-living years has made it hard for them to age well, at the same time that rock n’ roll, and especially what they’re playing, is only barely holding on).  But whatever it was and however it happened, they came back together and made a pass at a run-through and lasted longer than some thought they would, maybe putting the legend to rest while they're somehow still living (at least most of them), and leaving the fans, especially those who didn’t have them the first time around, as satisfied as they could be, and the members could go on to do whatever they were going to do next (even if that wasn’t much, but also not Guns N’ Roses) without having to think about having to do it again (unless they need that money more than they thought.  But even if they come back and don’t leave again, they have more songs than the Pixies). Opening was Together Pangea, but even if I knew anything about them, I was coming from work.

The Replacements' set-list:
"I'm in Trouble"
"Kissin' in Action" (Snippet of "Iron Man" (Black Sabbath))
"Little Mascara"
"Color Me Impressed"
"Love You Till Friday"
"Maybellene" (Chuck Berry cover)
"Treatment Bound"
"Take Me Down to the Hospital"
"Waitress in the Sky"
"Valentine"
"Achin' to Be"
"Kiss Me on the Bus"
"Nobody"
"I Will Dare"
"Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" (snippet of "3rd Stone from the Sun" (Hendrix))
"Sixteen Blue"
"The Ledge"
"I'll Be You"
"Whole Foods Blues"
"Can't Hardly Wait"
"Bastards of Young"
"My Boy Lollipop" (Barbie Gaye cover)
"Never Mind"

"Ghost on the Canvas" (Paul Westerberg song)
"Skyway"

"Left of the Dial"
"Alex Chilton"

"I Want You Back" (The Jackson 5 cover)
"I.O.U."

The Replacements, April 15, 2015 at the Palladium

The Replacements getting back together was one of the great reunions among a lot of good reunions since the Pixies finally gave in and showed how any group could get back together, even after swearing for years they never would, granted most of the recognizable members and the front-person are still alive. The 'Mats never had a never a reason for it not to happen anyway. Westerberg had been crotchety even at their peak and he could keep being ornery but eventually even he would have to give in to everyone asking him, and he probably needed to a turn a buck if his solo stuff wasn’t working out anymore. It was probably just a matter of time for them to get back together, but it sure seemed longer than it needed to be.  Stinson already had his Guns N’ Roses gig and that was just enough to be able to take the name with any credibility.  But whatever had happened to keep them apart, finally events aligned to get them back together, and of course it would have to be at Coachella (surely an event that valued such a reunion, even if the rest of the world didn’t care much more about them than when they were still a working entity). It would be little surprise if that Coachella appearance was the high-point, just like it wouldn’t be a surprise that they extended it into a tour. One of our justifications for not going to Coachella anymore was that we could see most of the bands that were out there at their own separate show, and probably better than at a festival.  Even the most special appearances by bands at the festival usually led to more, largely negating the necessity of needing to see them there in the first place (like how we couldn’t get rid of Pixies after they got back together there). If we’d known that the Replacements would do a full-blown tour after Coachella we might have hesitated to go to the festival that year (or not, since the rest of the line-up was impressive even without them), but there was no question that we would be in for their own show when it came up that they would stop at the Palladium (still a venue I don't mind). This was my third show in four consecutive nights, and the third that Carla couldn’t make. This was before I had tried re-selling tickets online, and it was just a few days before that she said she couldn't do it so I might not have had much opportunity to sell my extra before then anyway, and I might have balked at having to get a fraction of face-value for it so I figured I’d try my luck at selling it the night of the show, knowing I wouldn’t get back my full $70 but maybe half that or so.  After drinks with Andrew, Heather, and their crew, all of which already had tickets, I went to the venue, hoping to find someone still willing to pay to get in, but finding people throwing away tickets, it was clear there was a staunch lack of demand. Since no one else was bothering to try to sell theirs, I had a clear path to those actually wanting to buy, even if there was only one and that only got me $5 (if I’m not maximizing it in my memory). On top of an over-priced ticket, and one I barely would have had to pay for if I'd known, it was an expensive show, but a good one. By this time they had been on the road for a while so they had a groove, which was a good run through the songs but nothing threatening a drunken melt-down like in some of their funnest but most calamitous concert moments. The Coachella show was a mess (at least ours on the second weekend) but also a blast and unforgettable, the best elements of their best shows. It was held together just barely with luck and orneriness (working for us instead of against us), just like the greatest ‘Mats shows; the one at the Palladium was just another show by a band with good songs, with the only threat or danger being that they might leave from boredom. Even though it was a full set, the abbreviated one at Coachella packed more punch. Still all good songs (leaning heavily toward their early stuff, but that's not entirely a bad thing), played as they were meant to be played (though far too sober), but without the possibility of falling apart like the best rock n’ roll so often is. It’s not something you can control or plan for, but neither were the Replacements at their most transcendent moments. The set was also bogged-down with too many unfamiliar songs, not to say there’s anything wrong with playing anything besides the old stuff, but these were novelties, as if Westerberg wasn’t going to give up anything new that was good to the ‘Mats name, assuming he’s even interested in giving effort to something so traditional and even-keeled as a rock song anymore anyway. (And his T-shirt and whatever cryptic message he was spelling out over the nights of the tour.) Still, they had honed a set-list that worked, with a band that worked maybe too well, and maybe L.A. just didn’t need a ramshackle performance by them, especially at their age. They played then they left. Maybe they had better things to do. The John Doe Band opened, which would probably have been great, but I was coming from work and there were drinks elsewhere.

The Replacements'set-list:

"Seen Your Video"

"Takin' a Ride"

"Favorite Thing"

"I'm in Trouble"

"Kissin' in Action" (with "Iron Man" snippet)

"Kiss Me on the Bus"

"Nobody"

"Androgynous"

"I Will Dare"

"I'll Be You"

"20th Century Boy"/"Bang a Gong (Get It On)"/"All Shook Down"

"Anywhere's Better Than Here"

"Waitress in the Sky"

"Valentine"

"White and Lazy"

"Whole Foods Blues"

"Can't Hardly Wait"

"Bastards of Young"

"My Boy Lollipop" (Barbie Gaye cover)

"I Don't Know"

"Buck Hill"

"Within Your Reach"

"Left of the Dial"

"Alex Chilton"

"Never Mind"

Cloud Nothings/Mild High Club, April 14, 2015 at the Echo

The second in my week of four consecutive shows was Cloud Nothings. In all honesty, this was the show that I could have most done without, and maybe I got this one just to make it four consecutive shows in as many days, but it was also the club show with a club-appropriate band (as opposed to Luna, who could have played a bigger venue) and it seemed appropriate, and I hadn't seen them on this tour. We’d seen the band before, at FYF and at their own headlining show (in a considerably bigger place) so this one was no great revelation, but they played some of the new stuff (from Here And Nowhere Else) that sounded as good as anything else they had ever screamed out. It was also at the end of a crappy day at work but felt better after hanging out with Andrew & Heather. This was also the second show that Carla had to bail from, though I think I just ate the ticket ($15 or so) after a half-hearted attempt to sell it, deciding it would be a bother to keep trying too hard. Opening were Mild High Club, some psychedelic/drone thing (as if you couldn’t tell from their name). They weren’t as caffeinated as Cloud Nothings, but for a headliner who built their name on the patchwork of festival shows, their support was just fine.

Luna, April 13, 2015 at the Echo

I became a Luna fan in the ‘90s, probably around Pup Tent, mostly because they were well-regarded in the indie-music mags I was obsessed with, rather than having heard them somewhere and going to them. I dutifully bought the albums but generally kept them on in the background, never getting to much out of them, or at least as much as I heard others did, though I got a greater appreciation for them overall when Bewitched really moved me.  Even with a minor interest in them, I had never seen them in concert, though from music that worked so well in the background, there wasn’t much promise that they could bring much in a live setting. They had even played early on at the Hollywood Knitting Factory, at which I had a very short internship at the time, and I still didn’t get out to them. Then they broke up but I didn’t follow them to their prodigious solo projects (even after finding out their bassist was the singing voice of Jem, from Jem & the Holograms). But when they got back together, I figured I could be in for a ticket, if I could get one, and if I couldn’t I probably wouldn’t bring myself to be upset about it. More than anything it was out of a sense of obligation, that if I had enough interest in them to have most of their stuff, that I should at least get out to see them, if it wasn’t a significant effort. By the time the tickets went on sale, they still had only the L.A. show and one in New York, and both in super-tiny places, even for them, so this was suddenly a hot ticket. I had probably greatly lucked into the pair but that was enough for me. This show, on a Monday night, was the first of three (then four) consecutive nights of shows, a coincidence they were happening all at once, but I won’t deny that it could have also been a challenge to myself to hit that many concerts, especially while doing full days at work on the Westside. Though the biggest obstacle for the week was Carla suddenly coming down ill, which meant I had to do something with my extra ticket(s). The biggest frustration with getting rid of this ticket was that while I was able to get face value (about $40) for it after getting there early and hanging out at the front, I probably could have gotten 10 times that if I had put it up in advance. (A guy I asked while going in said he’d paid a steep price for his ticket and had flown in from Chicago for the show.) I don’t know what the logistics are for a band playing such a tiny space -- whether it was because of their schedule (even with months in advance) or keeping modest expectations after being away for so long or rewarding the biggest fans who had waited for so long or just knowing their sound was better in a more intimate setting -- but it's rare that you get a show with a band of their (relative) stature so close-up. They ran a tight set, as if they had never broken up and this was just another show on just another tour, which held with it some detachment but also not too much preciousness that a spell of dreamy rock could be broken. If they had real hits they would have played them, so instead they went through what seemed to be the crowd favorites, such was the reaction from the fans that had waited so long or had to go through so much trouble (and probably money) to be there. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought maybe they would run through a few obscure but familiar covers, at least one by Serge Gainsbourg, or change up some arrangements but they pretty much went through the songs like they’ve ever sounded, which could be frustrating since we’ve already heard them all that way, but it created a base, so that at least we’ve heard main versions before wishing for something off the track. As it was, that show and their reunion wasn't so much a seismic shift in indie-music culture, and maybe it was a cash-grab when every other ‘90s band were getting back together, but they had a good moment, in front of an appreciative group that kept interest alive enough that they would eventually reward by coming back. Alas, no "Mermaid Eyes," but the rest made up for it. They did another show later in the year at a bigger venue presumably as part of a full tour, but I can’t imagine being able to get more out their show than what they did that night in such a tiny space.

Luna's set-list:
"Slide"
"Chinatown"
"Sideshow by the Seashore"
"Malibu Love Nest"
"Going Home"
"Weird & Woozy"
"California (All the Way)"
"Friendly Advice"
"Lost in Space"
"Tracy I Love You"
"Pup Tent"
"Slash Your Tires"
"Bewitched"
"Moon Palace"
"23 Minutes in Brussels"
"Tiger Lily"

"Indian Summer" (Beat Happening cover)