Well, I was thinking the other day about all the wacky stuff I've experienced in playing with bands so I thought I would start writing them down. And what better place than right here under the banner of SOul Amp...
..fade to black...
Crossing Paths with Soul Asylum
In the Late 80's Minneapolis, Minnesota the Landslider's the band, I playing in was booked at 7th Street Entry. THe Entry was a small club attached to the famous First Avenue. The premier music and dance venue in Minneapolis. The Entry was more or less a closet attached to First Avenue. The trapezoidal shaped room had maybe five tables and a few stools. Bleacher like carpeted platforms rose up tow levels along the back wall and afforded fans a way seeing over the near floor level stage over the crow on the back level.The entry also known as Minneapolis's largest ashtray was grey and black inside indoor outdoor covers the interior.
Photos are linked from First Avenue and are credited to Dan Corrigan.
Here are the steps leading to basement or the "dressing room".
The lansliders recently off a fresh name change and sporting a new demo tape landed a series of gigs in spring of 87 we were playing out pretty regular doing front gigs mostly. One night as we were setting up for a show at the entry Jay the drummer asked, "Who the fuck is Sunshine on My Shoulder?". I said "I never heard of them." He was pissed because we got the opening slot for this Thursday night and we were a bit bummed at getting bumped by a unknown band. As jay was setting up the kit he stopped and this tall lanky dirty blond guy stroad in with a similar curly haired mutton chop guy Dan Murphy...they passed Jay. I took no notice. Jay said "Isn't that Pirner...?". Asking if it was Dave Pirner of SOul Asylum. I said, "yeah I think so." We continued setting up our gear and the activity was increasing as we started to do our sound check. I seemed as if a who's who of the Minneapolis music scenes was slowly filtering through the place. I though cool we get some discerning ears for tonight's show. Well it ended up being quite a awesome night for sure. Within minutes we realized that indeed SOul Asylum was playing under the alias of Sunshine On My Shoulder. They were kicking off their tour for "While you Were Out". We had heard that they had Twin Tone had just inked a deal with A&M and the independent label was going big time and taking the bands with them.
Pirner and Murphy sat against the back wall of the entry while we did our sound check. We peeled our gear off the stage and headed down to the basement to eat pizza and drink some snowshoe grog...or favorite pre-show snort. Well as we were down hanging out chatting with SOul Aslyms Drummer at the time. Who walks into the dressing room but Grant Hart from Husker Du. Grant and his buddy sit down and light a joint and proceed to pass it around. So here we are in 1987 goofing in the Entry with Grant Hart in the Entry.
After splitting a pizza with everyone we got ready for our show and headed up and launched into a high energy set. The place filled up quick as we went through the set and we got a good response from the crowd. Certainly I was now glad we were playing first as Soul Aslyum would pretty much blow away everybody who cam after them.
They took the stage and played a set that was so tight and powerful it ripped your head right off...no kidding.
It was a memorable night and a good gig for us even though I think we were pained like $75 bucks. I always was disappointed in the pay in Minneapolis at the time but it sure beats what new bands have to go through today. Hey wait I'm a new band again...
The Masterbeats only legacy...wow I can't believe I found this pic...(Dan Corrigan)
Look close above the head of the guitarist looking at Peter Buck from REM. You will See scrawled in black marker "The Master Beats", I wrote that on the wall after I played at the a show at the Entry. I think we fronted the Gear Daddies or the Gyrones or something. I believe Peter Buck was in town and sat in with the Gear Daddies.
It must have been around spring early spring 1986 or so. I found this pic at First Avenue's web site. Funny I thought I wrote that in the basement of the Uptown Bar and Grill...well....stuff is pretty blurry from those days...but stuff is coming back to me...I'll toss out some other stories from the past, I 've got a ton of them...like the backwoods ski trolling, and playing after demolition derby, spinning vans on ice, rehearsal in jail....oh my...yeah.
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