A Tribute to the Replacements

In 1984, three albums came out of Minnesota that signaled a profound change in music. And while Purple Rain melded flamboyant pop-star spectacle with masterful songwriting in a way nobody'd approached since Sly Stone and Zen Arcade reworked hardcore until it became something approaching a new mutation of heavy psych, the Replacements' Let It Be was just a straight-up great rock record, period. For a band that was prone to smart-assed juvenilia ("Gary's Got a Boner") and ironic-but-not-really cover songs meant to tweak punk orthodoxy (KISS' "Black Diamond"), the 'Mats hit a certain finely-struck nerve on their greatest album, nailing teenage frustration ("Sixteen Blue"), loneliness ("Answering Machine") and ennui ("Unsatisfied") in a way that was hyperactive, perceptive, anxious and bitter all at once. Tonight's celebration of the album's 25th anniversary, as well as the paperback release of Jim Walsh's bio The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting, spans both the mainroom of First Avenue and the 7th St. Entry, and features not just a list of local institutions (Jeremy Messersmith, Jennifer Markey, Lookbook and a dozen-plus more) but a specially-assembled "Let It Be House Band" consisting of members of Heiruspecs and the Melismatics backing up vocalists Adam Levy, Curtiss A, The Evening Rig's Jason Miller, Gospel Gossip's Sara Nienaber and some surprise "special guests". Proceeds benefit the Twin Cities Music Community Trust. 18+
Fri., Nov. 27, 7 p.m., 2009