The Replacements Riot Fest Toronto 8 25 13
The fact that the very first concert I attended happened to be The Replacements (Albany, NY, Palace Theater 2/24/91) has made me the envy of a lot of people I know. Thing is, I waited until I was 17 to have my first live experience, but this wasnt by design so much as happenstance due to the small cut-off town I lived in at the time. I could have been the witness to some serious magic had I made a point of going to shows before that (Husker Du and the Smiths were also options in Albany during the mid/late 80s). Regardless, the Mats blew the doors off the joint, and the visceral thrill of that performance left me thoroughly gobsmacked. Subsequent concerts (perhaps over a thousand at this point) have often kept me in rapt attention, but that chilly winter night, Westerberg, Stinson, Dunlap and the late Steve Foley on drums, fundamentally changed how I experienced music forever. To this day, nothing has ever topped the excitement of that concert - not even a Replacements reunion shows 22 years later......but at times, it came close. The Mats performance at Fort York in Toronto, ON on a late summer evening in 2013 was their first since a somewhat disastrous, albeit legendary gig in Chicagos Grant Park on July 4, 1991. Given Torontos close proximity across the boarder, attending Riot Fest that year was a no-brainer. In fact, two more Replacements Riot Fest shows were slated in just a few weeks in Chicago and Denver. I present to you the contents of that TO show, in the guise of an above average audience tape I procured mere days after the performance. As many of you are aware there was a significant alteration to bands lineup since the All Shook Down tour. An ailing Slip Dunlap, sidelined by a serious stroke in 2012 was *ahem* replaced by Dave Mineham, formally of primo Boston riff-brokers The Neighborhoods. Chris Mars 90s fill-in, Steve Foley was also out of the picture, and charmed drummer Josh Freese (Vandals, Devo, Guns n Roses, etc) capably filled his stead.
For the Toronto performance, the band didnt pick up so much where they left off in 91, rather 1981, barnstorming through no less than three songs from their hardcore-tinged debut, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Several more Twin/Tone era songs were revisited in the setlist, and remarkably, Paul Westerberg and Co. touched on virtually every piece in the Replacements catalog without being the least bit pandering about it. A cover of Sham 69s "Borstal Breakout" was a startling surprise, and a loungy spin through "Everythings Coming Up Roses" for their encore was pure Mats-ian shtick Fittingly, there were a handful of flubs (just like the old days), and the group was limited to a slightly abbreviated set (it was part of a festival, after all) but their attack was precise and ferocious, and they really hadnt diminished since my seismic encounter with them in 1991. Hope you dont mind the audience singing along on a song or two. Your choice of lossless FLAC or MP3 below.
00 Hello
01 Takin a Ride
02 Im In Trouble
03 Favourite Thing
04 Hangin Downtown
05 Color Me Impressed
06 Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out / Third Stone From The Sun
07 Kiss Me on the Bus
08 Androgynous
09 Achin to Be
10 I Will Dare
11 Love You Till Friday / Maybellene
12 Merry-Go-Round
13 Wake Up
14 Borstal Breakout
15 Little Mascara
16 Left of the Dial
17 Alex Chilton
18 Swingin Party
19 Cant Hardly Wait
20 Bastards of Young
21 Encore return
22 Everythings Coming Up Roses
23 I.O.U.
MP3 (320 kbps) or FLAC
