Wow, this show 10-15 years ago would have been my ultimate, just about. I LOVED the Gear Daddies. {Rhett, they're on for you -- cowpunk or some such thing.) And I'll bet that Chris Mars would have nothing to do with the 'Mats reunion.....
Westerberg, Mould, But No 'Mats At Mueller Benefit
Paul Westerberg, Bob Mould, the Gear Daddies are confirmed for an Oct. 23 benefit concert in Minneapolis for Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, who was recently diagnosed with throat cancer. According to Westerberg's official Web site, the show, to be held at the Quest, will also feature members of Soul Asylum as well as the super group Golden Smog, staffed by members of Wilco and the Jayhawks. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
Westerberg recently told Billboard.com that for one of the first times since the demise of the Replacements, he considered reuniting the band for the benefit. "I didn't call the guys myself," he admitted. "One of our old roadie pals came over who owns a bar now and runs a club and was asking if I would do a benefit for Karl and I said, 'See if the boys want to play.' And he kind of went around and got various answers and it didn't come back real strong like, 'Hey let's do it.' And I felt like that was the opportunity, that was the chance and we just missed it.
"Now I say, there's probably no chance we'll get back together again," he said, without pinpointing which former band mates were not interested. "It bothered me for like an afternoon," he laughed. "But, it did bother me for that long because I was secretly excited and some of them weren't."
As previously reported, Columbia/Legacy will on Oct. 12 release the Soul Asylum concert set "After the Flood: Live From the Grand Forks Prom." The album was taped June 28, 1997, at the Grand Forks Airbase in North Dakota. The veteran rock act accepted an offer from two area high schools to perform, after the town was decimated by heavy flooding.
-- Jason MacNeil, Toronto; Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.
