The Lemonheads at First Avenue, Minneapolis (11 May 2019)
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The Lemonheads at First Ave Lemonheads Setlist
05/14: Denver, CO Bluebird Theatre
05/17: Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern 05/18: Vancouver, B.C. Rickshaw Theatre 05/19: Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge 05/21: San Francisco, CA Slim’s 05/22: Petaluma, CA Mystic Theatre 05/24: Los Angeles, CA Teragram Ballroom 05/25: San Diego, CA Casbah 05/26: Tempe, AZ Marquee Theatre 05/27: Albuquerque, NM Launchpad 05/29: Oklahoma City, OK Tower Theatre 05/30: Dallas, TX Granada Theatre 05/31: Austin, TX Barracuda 06/01: Houston ,TX White Oak Music Hall 06/03: New Orleans, LA House Of Blues 06/04: Atlanta, GA Terminal West 06/06: Nashville, TN Exit/In 06/07: Charlotte, NC The Underground 06/08: Charleston, SC Music Farm 06/09: Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle 06/11: Lancaster, PA Chameleon Club 06/12: Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Smalls Theatre 06/13: Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club 06/14: Philadelphia, PA The Foundry At The Fillmore 06/15: Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club Read More
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90s alternative rock The Lemonheads headlined First Avenue’s mainroom on Saturday, May 11th, in support of his all-covers album Varshons 2.
In typical rock star schedule, Tommy Stinson was fashionably late to open the show. Not a surprise, and to be honest, it’s to be expected. If you don’t know who Stinson is, he’s probably best known for being the bass player for The Replacements (and later joined Guns & Roses in the late 90s and Soul Asylum in the mid ‘00!) … so he’s a bit of a legend in most music circle.
Stinson also known for creating Bash & Pop shortly after the ‘Mats broke up in 1991, and based on songs on his setlist, that band’s music is still reflective of Stinson’s love for those songs. In fact, after breaking up the band in 1994, Stinson resurrected the band in 2015, with a proper tour (we caught Bash & Pop in Sep 2015).
With most, if not all, of Stinson’s previous appearance, he never had a written setlist, he explained that the reason why he doesn’t have a setlist anymore is because he’s wearing glasses now and simply cannot read the setlist. As a result, he just plays random songs. Sure, he does have some idea (for example, he always end with Bash & Pop’s “Friday Night (Is Killing Me)”), but he tends to just play songs off the cuff. Sometime it’s amazing, hearing rarely heard songs, but sometime it’s a bit of an annoyance as Stinson is taking up to three minutes to tune his guitar (this could’ve been planned better).
Since this was Stinson’s somewhat “home show”, there were definitely some huge Replacements fans in the audience… Some of them screaming out various ‘Mats songs when Stinson announced that it would be “All request Saturday!”. He did take some request, playing “Zero To Stupid” and “Nothing”.
Near the end of his set, Stinson took off his coat and was a little confused about the guitar plug. After hearing some fans give him a hard time, Stinson jokingly fired back, “I’m f****ing 52, and I don’t give a sh**!”
He pretty much summed it up, but I don’t honestly think he would give a f**** when he was in his 20s either.
Since Stinson was late, it pushed The Lemonheads start time about 15 later than advertised.
As you know, I first came to being The Lemonheads fan around the time they were promoting It’s a Shame About Ray with its title track as single in 1992. They were featured on MTV’s 120 Minutes, but frontsman Evan Dando seemed more popular in the UK (I hate to say it, but for a time, it just felt like the Lemonheads were ignoring the USA).
We finally got to see Evan Dando in Feb 2010 and described it as, “Conversely, watching Evan Dando perform in 2010 hardly differed from watching him with the Lemonheads in 1992. I came to this conclusion when I literally felt bummed out. Few things prompt soul pain like a forty-two-year-old “slacker sex kitten” whose unassuming stage presence suggests a lifetime of discomfort. Dando arrived late to the venue, cruised through his set on autopilot, barely spoke a coherent word to his fans, and exited amidst a POOF of rose-colored fog.”
We saw Dando again at NXNE 2011 in Canada, and this time he was with his old friend Juliana Hatfield. It wasn’t a full Lemonheads setlist, but there was enough there that left us satisfied, “I was also happy with their setlist, I was worried that they would be doing new songs, but they did a bunch of old Lemonheads song (including “Into Your Arms”, “Bit Part” and “Drug Buddy”) and two Juliana numbers (“Choose Drugs” and “Dear Anonymous”). None of the three big hits were played, but I suspect that has more to do with the two of them playing acoustics vs a full band.”
My suspicion was right, as The Lemonheads, with a full band, came to Minneapolis in October 2011 and basically played the entire It’s a Shame About Ray album.
With this new 2019 tour, it’s in support of The Lemonheads’ Varshons 2, which is an all-covers album (the follow-up to the original all-cover album ten years prior called Varshons). So as expected, a bunch over cover songs were played, but oddly songs that would make sense for Minneapolis, such as The Jayhawks’ “Settled Down Like Rain” or Paul Westerberg’s “Things”, were not played.
Maybe they’ve gotten all the 90s songs out of their system with their 2011 tour, but very few old songs were played. They did do their signature hit single, “It’s a Shame About Ray” and “Rudderless” a few songs after, but it’s mostly songs I didn’t recognized or non-Lemonheads songs.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that Evan Dando was extremely laid back, like all his previous appearances, he rarely spoke between songs and barely moved. It’s not the most exciting show to see, but if you’re a Lemonheads fan, you probably used to this or it didn’t really matter.
In typical rock star schedule, Tommy Stinson was fashionably late to open the show. Not a surprise, and to be honest, it’s to be expected. If you don’t know who Stinson is, he’s probably best known for being the bass player for The Replacements (and later joined Guns & Roses in the late 90s and Soul Asylum in the mid ‘00!) … so he’s a bit of a legend in most music circle.
Stinson also known for creating Bash & Pop shortly after the ‘Mats broke up in 1991, and based on songs on his setlist, that band’s music is still reflective of Stinson’s love for those songs. In fact, after breaking up the band in 1994, Stinson resurrected the band in 2015, with a proper tour (we caught Bash & Pop in Sep 2015).
With most, if not all, of Stinson’s previous appearance, he never had a written setlist, he explained that the reason why he doesn’t have a setlist anymore is because he’s wearing glasses now and simply cannot read the setlist. As a result, he just plays random songs. Sure, he does have some idea (for example, he always end with Bash & Pop’s “Friday Night (Is Killing Me)”), but he tends to just play songs off the cuff. Sometime it’s amazing, hearing rarely heard songs, but sometime it’s a bit of an annoyance as Stinson is taking up to three minutes to tune his guitar (this could’ve been planned better).
Since this was Stinson’s somewhat “home show”, there were definitely some huge Replacements fans in the audience… Some of them screaming out various ‘Mats songs when Stinson announced that it would be “All request Saturday!”. He did take some request, playing “Zero To Stupid” and “Nothing”.
Near the end of his set, Stinson took off his coat and was a little confused about the guitar plug. After hearing some fans give him a hard time, Stinson jokingly fired back, “I’m f****ing 52, and I don’t give a sh**!”
He pretty much summed it up, but I don’t honestly think he would give a f**** when he was in his 20s either.
Since Stinson was late, it pushed The Lemonheads start time about 15 later than advertised.
As you know, I first came to being The Lemonheads fan around the time they were promoting It’s a Shame About Ray with its title track as single in 1992. They were featured on MTV’s 120 Minutes, but frontsman Evan Dando seemed more popular in the UK (I hate to say it, but for a time, it just felt like the Lemonheads were ignoring the USA).
We finally got to see Evan Dando in Feb 2010 and described it as, “Conversely, watching Evan Dando perform in 2010 hardly differed from watching him with the Lemonheads in 1992. I came to this conclusion when I literally felt bummed out. Few things prompt soul pain like a forty-two-year-old “slacker sex kitten” whose unassuming stage presence suggests a lifetime of discomfort. Dando arrived late to the venue, cruised through his set on autopilot, barely spoke a coherent word to his fans, and exited amidst a POOF of rose-colored fog.”
We saw Dando again at NXNE 2011 in Canada, and this time he was with his old friend Juliana Hatfield. It wasn’t a full Lemonheads setlist, but there was enough there that left us satisfied, “I was also happy with their setlist, I was worried that they would be doing new songs, but they did a bunch of old Lemonheads song (including “Into Your Arms”, “Bit Part” and “Drug Buddy”) and two Juliana numbers (“Choose Drugs” and “Dear Anonymous”). None of the three big hits were played, but I suspect that has more to do with the two of them playing acoustics vs a full band.”
My suspicion was right, as The Lemonheads, with a full band, came to Minneapolis in October 2011 and basically played the entire It’s a Shame About Ray album.
With this new 2019 tour, it’s in support of The Lemonheads’ Varshons 2, which is an all-covers album (the follow-up to the original all-cover album ten years prior called Varshons). So as expected, a bunch over cover songs were played, but oddly songs that would make sense for Minneapolis, such as The Jayhawks’ “Settled Down Like Rain” or Paul Westerberg’s “Things”, were not played.
Maybe they’ve gotten all the 90s songs out of their system with their 2011 tour, but very few old songs were played. They did do their signature hit single, “It’s a Shame About Ray” and “Rudderless” a few songs after, but it’s mostly songs I didn’t recognized or non-Lemonheads songs.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that Evan Dando was extremely laid back, like all his previous appearances, he rarely spoke between songs and barely moved. It’s not the most exciting show to see, but if you’re a Lemonheads fan, you probably used to this or it didn’t really matter.
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Tommy Stinson |
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The Lemonheads at First Avenue, Minneapolis (11 May 2019) |