My trip to see St. Paul (Westerberg)

So I left Thursday evening to go see Paul Westerberg for two nights in Minneapolis....home of Westerberg, Dylan, Prince, Trip Shakespeare.

I have always wanted to go there and actually see him in his hometown and with a band was too much to pass up.

We left Thursday evening and had a relatively uneventful 7 hour drive until I decided it was time to get some sleep. We stopped at a lovely Red Roof Inn and caught some shuteye.

Got up the next morning and headed for Minneapolis. Got into town and went to our this-time-I-mean-it lovely hotel.

 

Strangely enough due to Adrienne's diligence and Priceline we paid less for this 4-star hotel in downtown Minneapolis then we did for the Red Roof Inn the night before.

There was a gathering before hand for "WesterNerds" at Lee's Liquor Lounge. It was a group of people from the Men Without Ties website. I didn't really know anyone but we got to talking to a guy who lived in St Paul and knew all the history of Minneapolis and the scene.

Lee's is a great bar. Wood paneling, red lights, strong drinks. Some guy was passing out  CD's from the recent Westerberg show in London. I've never had the pleasure to be around anyone more worked up about Westerberg than me. Met Kathy the woman who runs the Westerberg site.

Now off to the show. So I have possibly the WORST seats of anyone in the whole place. I'm not exaggerating...back row of the back balcony. The guy we met at Lee's didn't have a ticket and was hanging out front of the Pantages looking for scalpers. I found a guy willing to trade my tickets in the back plus $30 for 6th row seats. Considering I bought the back row tickets for half off face value I got 6th row tickets for less than the price of two regulars.

 

The show was amazing. The band was tight...almost too tight for me. The usual Westerberg sloppiness and danger seemed to be missing a bit. Michael Bland, the ex drummer from Prince was a giant on drums. They sounded great and Westerberg was singing wonderfully.

Paul Westerberg and the Painkillers *
5 November 2004
Pantages Theater - Minneapolis, MN
* = Kevin Bowe (guitars, vocals), Jim Boquist (bass, vocals), Michael Bland (drums)

Waiting For Somebody
Final Hurrah
Kiss Me On The Bus
My Dad
AAA
Achin’ To Be
Mr Rabbit (Kevin Bowe on mandolin)
Making Me Go
Let The Bad Times Roll
As Far As I Know
Little Mascara
Valentine
High Time
new song ?? (solo electric)
Sadly Beautiful (solo acoustic 12 string)
Crackle & Drag (solo acoustic 12 string)
If Only You Were Lonely (solo acoustic 12 string)
Lookin’ Up In Heaven (acoustic w/ band)
What A Day (For A Night) (acoustic w/ band)
Love Untold (PW on electric 12 string)
I Will Dare (PW on electric 12 string)
I Think I Love You (Partridge Family cover)
Alex Chilton
Left Of The Dial

ENCORE
MPLS (PW on blues harp)
I’ll Be You
Folk Star / Jingle
Only A Hobo (Dylan cover)
Can’t Hardly Wait

At one point we got by security and up to the front of the stage...then I got depressed...

Westerberg's songs sound fairly simple at first. But watching him play that close up I realized what an amazing guitar player he is. So much nuance and idiosyncrasies. He also uses lot's of alternate tunings which made it nearly impossible to understand what the hell he was doing. I was humbled.

His solo music which I have always loved held up as well as any of the Replacements stuff. Lot's of people think the solo stuff isn't any good but they aren't listening closely enough or with too much baggage.

I left in a fairly quiet and thoughtful mood. We walked by Minneapolis legendary First Avenue club. It closed recently but hopefully it will reopen and I can visit. Here's how cool Minneapolis is...the Sunday paper on the cover had an article about the club closing as well as a blurb about the Pixies on the cover of the entertainment section. It'd be like the Dispatch having a cover story when Stache's closed. The mayor was even quoted talking about First Avenue. I can;t see Mayor Michael Coleman and I checking out the Silver Jews at Little Brothers but who knows. I did recently see him at a Halloween party.

We walked back to Lee's wanting another drink but it was a $6 cover to go back in. We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

I got up the next AM and headed out to see Minneapolis. Adrienne wasn't feeling so hot so she stayed home. I caught a cab first to the Uptown Bar where Tommy and Bob Stinson's mother tends bar. The Replacements used to play there regularly also. They are known for their Bloody Mary's in the morning and i can safely say that I've never seen so many people drinking in the morning in my life.

 

The bummer is I lost Adrienne's camera in the back of the cab on the way over. So I lost all the pictures from Friday night. We had some great shots from the show as well.

I hit all the local record stores as well as the CC Club a regular Replacements hangout. 

The house where the cover shot of Let It Be was taken:

 

So it was on to the show Saturday night. Adrienne and I made a mad dash an hour before the show to buy her some clothes. I decided she's look good in a short short skirt and some black tights. And she did look great.

 

Tried to get better seats tonight also but the scalper wanted another $100 for front row so we went to our balcony seats. There were nimrod assholes all around talking while they played early on. It's like talking through church. I almost dragged out my asshole side and hit some heads together. Finally I decided it was time to see if we could get upfront again. The security was having none of it though but we ducked into a row with a few empty seats about 10 rows back and watched most of the show from there. The band and Westerberg were even better this night. They were looser and played much more intensely I thought.

Paul Westerberg and the Painkillers *
6 November 2004
Pantages Theater - Minneapolis, MN
* = Kevin Bowe (guitars, vocals), Jim Boquist (bass, vocals), Michael Bland (drums)

Dust My Broom (Elmore James cover)
Waiting For Somebody
Final Hurrah
Kiss Me on the Bus
My Dad
AAA (with bits of Anyway’s All Right)
Mr. Rabbit (up tempo country-rock version) (Bowe on mandolin)
Making Me Go
No Place For You
Now I Wonder
As Far As I Know
Born For Me
High Time
Little Mascara
Sky way (solo acoustic 12 string)
Things (solo acoustic 12 string)
Crackle and Drag (solo acoustic 12 string)
Lookin’ Up in Heaven (acoustic 12 string with band)
What a Day (For a Night) (acoustic 12 string with band)
Waitress in the Sky (acoustic 12 string with band)
First Glimmer (electric 12 string with band)
I Will Dare (electric 12 string with band)
I.O.U.
Never mind

ENCORE 1
MPLS (PW on blues harp) >
It’s All Over Now (Stones cover, actually originally done by Bobby Womack)
Knockin’ On Mine
Can’t Hardly Wait


ENCORE 2
Alex Chilton
Left of the Dial

Alex Chilton, IOU and Nevermind were absolutely over the top and the crowd was going crazy. Skyway acoustic was beautiful. As Far as I Know from Stereo was amazing also. I left the show dazzled and stunned. Confirmation for my contention that Westerberg is the king.

We waited outside a bit to see if he'd come out but after about 10 minutes I got tired of waiting. We stopped by the 400 Bar another former Replacements playing area. This is hanging on the wall:

 

On the way back we stopped to see if there was anyone out back of the Pantages...and sure enough there was Westerberg hanging out talking to a small handful of friends. Got him to sign my ticket and we goofed around a bit.

 

We woke up early the next morning and made the agonizingly long drive home. 13 hours......yikes. Worth every bit of it....

Comments

[Kathy]

nice meeting you at lee's, I posted some MP3s on the site from Saturday and Sunday that sound terrific, the Saturday ones are "Waitress in the Sky", "Knockin' on Mine", "I.O.U." and "Can't Hardly Wait". Full shows coming soon!

Kathy

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