Sound is a powerful energy. Most everyone who made it through high school is aware that sound has an actual physical property, that it is made up of waves that compress air which bounces off our eardrums, resulting in us hearing noises.
Some noises are preferred over others, and some noises are more powerful than others. Some noises have power that exceeds the force of their physical properties.
Such is the glorious noise produced by a little-known, grossly under-appreciated band hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Replacements.
Just to bring everyone up to speed, a couple of months ago the Replacements announced a reunion (With replacement Replacements for Chris Mars and Slim Dunlap), and that they would be playing three shows at a traveling carnival/music festival known as Riot Fest, first in Toronto, then Chicago, and last but far from least near my home in Denver.
Which, to me, was pretty much like winning the lottery. I love the Replacements. The music this group created in the '80's was and still is a powerful energy to me, it's the music that could kick start my mood when I wasn't feeling up, it's the music that could console me when I was feeling like the world was landing haymakers right on the ol' kisser, it's the music that could inspire me to create, to grab life by the short hairs and punch right back, it's the music that would keep me awake as I sang along at the top of my lungs while driving through vast underpopulated stretches of Utah in the middle of the night.
It's music that was and is a powerful energy to me.
Tonight I watched this band and sang along with every tune as if I might never have the chance to ever sing again. I was at the show with some old friends, Rick Thibs, who I saw the 'mats with 28 years ago, and Ellie, with whom I have seen everyone from the Stray Cats to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and a few new friends, die-hard Replacements fans just like me.
The crowd was amazing. I know it was the largest gathering of 'mats fans I'd ever seen. We stood not like older, wiser, more mature adults appreciating talented musicians, we stood like raving lunatic fanboys and girls feasting on the energy produced by gods wielding microphones and guitars.
It's a hootenanny, baby
From the second the band laid into Takin' A Ride until the hilarious Hootenanny encore, the energy was nuclear. The guys looked and sounded as if they had been playing together for the past 22 years instead of the exact opposite, blasting out song after incredible song with a zeal and vigor that defied time and tide.
After the show, as we made our way back to the north forty where we had parked, I found myself still disbelieving that I had actually witnessed the reunion of the one of the greatest bands that never made it, a band that seemed destined to be remembered as loveable fcuk-ups, masters of shooting themselves in the foot over and over again.
Tonight the 'mats showed a lot of hardcore fans, and probably a whole helluva lot of new fans, what they could do when they wanted to.
It was worth the wait.
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