Ragged Glory

Saint Paul has a terriffic post on a gig we both would love to have seen - and a scene we'd have loved to have parodied.

Saint says:

At this stage in my life I have no interest in going to a crowded bar and enduring a screeching drummer from a horrible (yet critically legendary) local band from the 90's [Ed: - that would be Lori Barbero, former drummer for "Babes In Toyland, a thrash band that was unaccountably huge in the eighties and nineties and who used to date the drummer from my old band] taking her falling star turn as a back up singer on a Bowie song, just so everyone in the crowd can laugh and cheer and congratulate themselves for being hip to Babes in Toyland back in the day.

But, even so, this show might have been worth it. I think Westerberg is one of the best song writers of the rock era and his albums are responsible for more smiles, poignancy, moments of clarity, and inspiration in my life than the rest of my CD collection combined. HIs shows at the Guthrie last year were ragged and amazing and beautiful and even with him playing covers at the 400 Bar, there's a good chance it was a joy to behold.

Westerberg and the 'mats are also on my top ten list - they are the basement band in the masthead of this blog, for the very reason that that band, and that photo, not only sum up most of what's good about popular mucic, but in fact are a wonderful metaphor for the Northern Alliance Radio Network. But I digress.

There are a few singers and musicians out there that, no matter what they do and where they do it, are riveting performers. I'm not talking about extreme cases - yes, Springsteen would turn in an enthralling performance if he were sitting on a heater in the Saint Paul skyway.

But artists like Paul Westerberg, or Chris Osgood (of the seminal Minneapolis punk band Suicide Commandos) or, if my hunch is correct, Cyndi Lawson, former doyenne of The Clams, a group that did everything The Donnas do today, twenty years ago (And just whatever happened to Karen Kusak, anyway?) - they'd be worth listening to, playing anything, just about anywhere.

So - who else?

Posted by Mitch at June 1, 2004 05:20 AM