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."