It’s no surprise that I followed Tommy Stinson after the Replacements, through his various post-’Mats bands in whatever form they took. I didn’t find them until well after they’d stopped doing anything, being behind the curve on my Replacements obsession pretty much down the line, but I caught up eventually. His post-'Mats' band Bash & Pop's Friday Night Is Killing Me is a gem that I would have missed if not from the association. No matter who else Stinson had behind him, his groups were the familiar, scrappy bar-bands, though without the achy ballads and poppy tunefulness that Westerberg could bring to their former act, but it was still Stinson getting out and being a presence. I would have seen his solo shows (including the one at Spaceland with Alien Crime Syndicate opening, which still perplexes me why I wasn’t there), but even having been in a legendary band (two, if you count GnR), it still didn’t often get out that he was playing a show. I never would have thought Bash & Pop (or whoever that could be) would have played another show, because they weren’t a musical entity or Stinson had moved on, using a new name if he wanted a new band (though he had also been using his own, solo), but there it was, and the listing for the show actually got to me (from an e-mail mailing list if not the newspaper). I was working the late shift at the time but it was a friendly gig and I took one night off in the six months I was there (finding from that that I had PTO, but too late to do anything with it). And it was outside of the wife’s wheelhouse, as well as being a show during the week, so I went solo, flowing with the ease of the Troubadour. The night was so open I even treated myself to not making a mess of getting to the show, being there early enough to see the openers, the Yawpers, a bar-band in the usual tradition, and solid enough to be a good lead-in to the main act. The 2017 version of B&P might as well have been the same or completely different, with as much as anyone could remember about them from 24 years before (or, for me, no memory at all), and whoever was still a lingering fan enough to bother to show up (and judging from an energetic reaction to a casual mention to his former partner, likely the ‘Mats fans are still hanging on (like me, of course)). Stinson might have had a reason to keep the name even without the line-up, but he was still the draw. He could have played all the B&P stuff in a solo show (and probably had), but it was only half the set anyway, with his solo stuff and covers thrown in. Though it was still scrappy, even for Stinson’s legend, and we were still in a bar. It might have been all that Stinson had left after the lackluster Replacements reunion that was either too late or too ambitious and Duff went back to GnR, but he did it with a grungy panache. As long as he kept making music (especially if Westerberg wasn’t going to) he could call it whatever he wants.
Bash & Pops’ set-list:
“Not This Time“
“Rip This Joint“ (The Rolling Stones cover)
“On the Rocks“
“Bad News“
“The Kids Are Alright“ (The Who cover)
“Breathing Room“
“You're My Favorite Waste of Time“ (Marshall Crenshaw cover)
“Tiny Pieces“
“Anybody Else“
“Zero To Stupid“ (Tommy Stinson song)
“Come To Hide“ (Tommy Stinson song)
“Midnight Rambler“ (The Rolling Stones cover)
“Not A Moment Too Soon“ (Tommy Stinson song)
“He Means It“
“Unfuck You“
“Anything Could Happen“
“Never Aim To Please“
“Friday Night (Is Killing Me)“
“First Steps“
“Fast & Hard“
