Official 930 Club Replacements Echostage May 8 Show

[Space Freely]

Here's my crowd story.

Standing in front of me were the prototypical DC couple....30something guy with glasses and nerd haircut, with younger (?), hotter, blonder girlfriend (wife?). Guy is sort of laid back and bobbing his head, girl is flailing wildly...screaming all the lyrics dance/acting all the songs with her hand, arm, and facial gestures, often with hands flailing wildly. You know the type. Heck, maybe it was even someone reading this.

Next thing I know, the guy is down on the ground looking for his glasses. I can't say that I saw how they departed his face, but I have a pretty good guess. Within a few seconds, a half dozen plus of us are trying to help the poor guy find his glasses before they get trampled. And voila, in a stroke of good fortune, a short white guy in a white shirt (I know this describes most DC men but that's the best description I have, and no it wasn't me, I swear) comes up with the glasses for the buzzer beater win.

My immediate thought was if I were the nerd who lost his glasses, I'd immediately head to the bar and buy the white guy a crappy thank you beer. And much to my relief, within a couple of minutes, the nerd made a run for the bar. He came back with three plastic bottles of (ICE COLD!) Miller Lite (or whatever it was). He handed one to his hot girlfriend to use as a dance prop, one to another friend, and the third...well he kept that one for himself. Then he plopped himself about a foot in front of the short, white shirt guy who found his glasses. I tell ya, it doesn't get much more DC concert crowd than that.

[bearman🐻]

Space Freely needs to post more often. That's a fun story.

[bearman🐻]

As an aside, there was nothing wrong with the 'Mats performance on Friday. In fact, it was really really good. That being said, I think an EDM show there would be a lot of fun (if you're into that sort of thing) but the sight lines do suck. Sound was very good to great, way better than Nation ever was. It's one of those venues where I'd weigh a bunch of factors before going back. I may be selling my Belle and Sebastian ticket. But I agree that the Philly show was easier to settle into. Overall I'm glad that I went...don't mean to sound ungrateful to finally see the 'Mats. And I'm definitely more of a "Sorry Ma..." and "Stink" fan. And "Let It Be" of course. The later stuff, while being good, lacks some of the punch of earlier songs. But "Can't Hardly Wait" truly is a great song, as is "Alex Chilton". I love the variety that they picked and over the course of 2 nights I saw a ton of great music.

[Julian, Bespoke SEXPERT]

Space Freely needs to post more often.

[notme]

never seen so many urinals in a men's room. echo staff was really friendly. they gave out free bottled water to the crowd at the front of the stage during the set change. took 10 minutes to get outside after the show was over.

[challenged]

LOVED the Philly show. I knew it was good when my sister's boyfriend saw Westerberg in our hotel bar ordering a dirty martini at 5:30pm and taking it up to his room. There was definitely a sloppier element to the Saturday show but in the 'Mats world, that can either be a good thing or a going-off-the-rails thing. It was definitely a good thing. I'm so incredibly glad I got to see two totally different shows. The one that I pick as superior was Philly, hands down. Plus we got to hear "Unsatisfied" and a totally spontaneous, unrehearsed version of "Hold My Life" that was brilliant. I wish I could say I had a better experience at Echostage, but I suspect that I may avoid it for some shows.

Philly was more awesome than ExhoStage.

Set list spontaneity, sound quality, and Superchunk all contributed to that assessment.

Ended up unexpectedly solo in Philly, but met up with a guy I had chatted with at the Forest Hills show last year, and, without me even asking, he saved me a spot at the barrier at stage left, and we could trade off for trips to the bathroom or beverages, etc., without losing the spot.

Philly is indeed full of friendly friends who will love you like a brother, or something like that.

So, Baseball Project at Jammin' Java tonight?

[Dejecty-hatch lııllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

man...hold my life,  Androgynous and unsatisfied
sounds like good fun

[challenged]

man...hold my life,  Androgynous and unsatisfied
sounds like good fun

Androgynous and Seen your video were played simultaneously. Paul and Dave playing Andro, and Tommy and Josh playing Video. We got around 1.5 minutes of that, and then they launched into Video for real.

Hold My Life as a crowd request was definitely the highlight for me.

[Dejecty-hatch lııllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

....21 pages and 7500 views
impressive

[hutch]

I am wary of writing much of anything given the likely backlash/criticism that could ensue (although maybe i'll just kill the thread off which is probably about time) but I wanted to share the show I recorded with the boardies so I can't help but say something about the show..a lot of people have covered it pretty well I think....there's a fanboy or two but what people commented in general is in accord with my thoughts....but here goes:

I got there late due to unfortunate circumstances so I was in the back and could not improve much (I tried the upstairs but it was ridiculous...such a small amount of people could see from up there)... I slowly worked my way to stand next to the soundbooth or whatever where the sound guy was but that was also in the back and that was as far as I was going to get..just a few feet from the back wall and overhang right next to the sound mixing dude...... there was this phone that would ring with flashing yellow lights so he could tell it was ringing..it rang three times.. my theory is the people up front or on the stage where telling him what to do with the sound...the sound guy had what looked like a setlist but truth be told the songs on it varied from what they played so he may have been telling the truth when he said it was his cue/guide/. he kept it hid in a drawer and would regularly consult it with a pen flashlight..it looked like maybe next to the songs where the keys they were in..... i'm not sure if he was teir regular soundguy or not... i think he may have been...he said they don't use setlists....i kinda tend to believe him...still wished he'd given me the list.. the fact he kept it hid and would ocassionaly peek at it was weird.. never seen that

the sound in the back , even by the sound guy, was in my opinion awful as were the sight lines.. yes yes I lied to the soundguy in a vain attempt to get the list..my guess is the drums (principal culprit) and bass (accomplice) where just booming around hitting the wall in the back ..it just sounded bad..my guess is not too much could have been done to improve it..other than turn the drums down and not listen to tommy when he seemed to motion early on to turn up the bass.

i'm completely new to recording shows but i have a high end recorder (Edirol) and the way it came out is the way it sounded to me...and I am pretty sure I have it set right..

i think where you were probably makes a huge difference in such a big boxy venue in terms of sound not to mention as far as the people you are going to be next to which makes a huge difference ... the back is going to be the less hardcore people etc...where i was people seemed not into it except for a few....it looked like the crowd you'd see at soundgarden or something with mainly guys who'd gotten a pass to go out on a weekday night and drink.. people were drinking and yammering a ton...midsong peopel would leave go to the bar and come back with three crap beers.... some people clearly did not know who the replacements were...one girl was yawning throughout...

i don't know...i don't want to get too into it but for me it was a bit dissapointing to see the show in these circumstances.... lesson learned..i will not be returning to the echostage ..the location blows... the sight lines blow.. the sound at least for half the people blows....its too frickin big..having said that i thought paul sounded fabulous.. the guitars sounded good..it was mainly the drums that were off where i was standing....

i'm clueless about uploading stuff but i made an attempt even going so far to get a dropbox account to share "The piss has hit the floor...."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x0tu3m4pipoywht/Replacements.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l8y5gdzj3f2yw0a/Replacements2.wav?dl=0


parking? ha ha.... first street i pulled into was a dead end...any signs telling you that? no of course not.. then i pulled into a parking lot in front of the venue (covered)...guy wanted FORTY... ha ha...i then found a lot for $20 which was reasonable given how things were looking.. i thought of taking my chances and parking in what looked like a bank lot...

the one plus: I managed to get home in 25 minutes...which was pretty remarkable


i was glad to see paul...his voice sounded just like on the records... but was this show worth $70 plus $20 in parking...plus trekking to the shithole part of DC?..for me? no...was it the Replacements? Of course not but I knew that going in and went into it with the idea I just wanted to see Paul one time and  if he was with Tommy and doing Mats songs so much the better although I so wish I'd seen that 930 Club show....... you win some and lose some and i'm not trying to ruin anybody's buzz (I am glad I recorded the show because it does make me happy to listen to it)...  within your reach would have been better replaced by something else in my opinion but that again...its just opinion...on the other hand the show was far more professional and held together better than anything the Replacements would have done in the 80s...

and why did the crowd only seem really familiar with can't hardly wait? is it cause of that godawful movie? i think so.

oh yeah..noticed posters on sale for $40...man..

[bluflower]

man...hold my life,  Androgynous and unsatisfied
sounds like good fun

Androgynous and Seen your video were played simultaneously. Paul and Dave playing Andro, and Tommy and Josh playing Video. We got around 1.5 minutes of that, and then they launched into Video for real.

Hold My Life as a crowd request was definitely the highlight for me.

my friend is the one who requested Hold My Life. I think he went to every night on this run of shows, except Pittsburgh and Columbus obviously, but he had tickets to those shows too.

really did feel like the Philly crowd was more of the "we're all here to have fun" vibe. even had a couple people tell me to get in front of them so I could see better.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I had a lot of fun. The sound wasn't great, venue was pretty shitty ($12 Makers? A beer list that looked like an Ashburn Chili's?), and really packed . . . but it's the fucking Replacements! I feel like their energy really stepped up around "Seen Your Video" (which killed), and carried right through the epic encore.

The crowd appeared to have been teleported from a Wolf Trap John Fogerty concert. I was surprised at how few people were geeking out, especially up front.

I live 2 miles away, so don't have much to add to this impressively complete and nuanced parking and traffic discussion.

EDIT: like any nostalgia show, it wasn't a perfect setlist for me... would have really liked to have heard Unsatisfied, Androgynous, Talent Show, Sixteen Blue (which gives Big Star's Thirteen a run for its money), Here Comes a Regular, Anywhere's Better Than Here (maybe segued from Bastards of Young?)

I don't have much to add to what's already been said, but I think it's funny how much I fit the stereotypes here.  I'm a doughy government lawyer and the next show I'm going to is indeed Fogerty at Wolf Trap.

[sweetcell]

lesson learned..i will not be returning to the echostage ..the location blows... the sight lines blow.. the sound at least for half the people blows....its too frickin big..

alternate conclusion: if you have to see a show there, arrive early enough to get a decent spot up front so you don't get all the echos, out of sync bass, etc.

[Yada]

I can only imagine the sound quality of a handheld recorder in a show that already sounded shitty??

[bearman🐻]

man...hold my life,  Androgynous and unsatisfied
sounds like good fun

Androgynous and Seen your video were played simultaneously. Paul and Dave playing Andro, and Tommy and Josh playing Video. We got around 1.5 minutes of that, and then they launched into Video for real.

Hold My Life as a crowd request was definitely the highlight for me.

my friend is the one who requested Hold My Life. I think he went to every night on this run of shows, except Pittsburgh and Columbus obviously, but he had tickets to those shows too.

really did feel like the Philly crowd was more of the "we're all here to have fun" vibe. even had a couple people tell me to get in front of them so I could see better.

Totally agreed, glad I'm not the only one. I try to catch myself too much from doing the "Philly was better" routine, but there are some shows where that's just absolutely the case and this was one of them. Given that was only my first Echostage experience, I feel I should try it again at some point (I'm in no rush to go back), but yes the balcony sight lines are crummy and good spots are VERY limited.