Forced Attitude - When I

Forced Attitude - When I moved to the Twin Cities, it was partly to find a job that didn't involve teaching small-town high school English or working at 500-watt Country/Western stations.

But my unstated, ulterior motive; get into the Minneapolis Music scene.

The visions danced in my head as I went to sleep before my big move: the Replacements. Hüsker Dü. The 'Burbs. The other North Dakota guys who'd gone there before me and found (at the time) success, the Metros and the Phones (formerly The Newz) and a few others.

And those dreams all took place in a place I'd only seen in the movies - or to be accurate, Purple Rain, largely set at the First Avenue and Seventh Street Entry bar.

Of course, when I moved here and finally went to the First Avenue and wandered around the club's smoky periphery, it was a little nonplussing to notice...it's just a bar, not much different than any other.

But of course it was different; I saw the Replacements and the Clams (and Karen Kusak broke my heart...) and the Hüskers and the Butthole Surfers and Los Lobos and Richard Thompson (three times). I saw the lead singer of the F****ng S**t Biscuits rolling on a floor covered with broken glass. I saw people stabbed, people puking up their skulls, people boinking in the dressing rooms...

...and best of all, I saw the audience from the front. My various bands played the Entry several times, and the mainroom once. The best gig of all? Certainly - Saint Patrick's Day, 1987. My band, "Tenant's Union", played the Entry and caught the slopover from the traditional, ultra- packed Boiled In Lead gig in the mainroom. They were some of the best times of my life.

Peter Scholtes says the bar may be on its last legs.

Not sure how to react to this. On the one hand, times do change, and clubs will come and go. The notion that a bar that was a cradle for the local punk boom could become an institution is itself comical.

On the other hand, the club that'd replace the old Forced Attitude would likely mean nothing to me. Quest means nothing to me - and believe me, I've tried. Oh, they can book good bands, but it's just not the same.

So I may have to check the place out a few more times.

(Via Fraters Libertas - who just got on Instapundit's blogroll! Congrats, guys! You may now come into the secret Instaroll washroom, and dine at the Reynolds Club with the rest of us!)