English Beat + Soul Asylum

Apparently this is really a thing. Anyone see either band lately and if so, worth the $$$ for the night out?

[diffuser.fm]



Post Edited (05-09-16 16:53)

The English Beat always put on a good show.

No surprises really with the Beat, and it's basically just Wakeling with pick up guys, but he is there to entertain. My review:

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That is somewhat of an odd double bill tho.

Last (and only) time I saw Soul Asylum was in 1999. I had long heard that, after Grave Dancer's Union, their live show really became a shadow of what it once had been. But hey, I was in a small town in South Dakota, with nothing better to do, so I bought a ticket. Well, if what I'd heard was true, then the band's '80s shows must have been just short of apocalyptic, because Pirner and the guys sure tore it up that night.

And yeah, the Beat (or Wakeling and his selection of ringers, if you insist) always puts on a fun show. Wakeling is happy & grateful to have an audience, and he always picks good musicians. And those songs are timeless.

Delvin: Soul Asylum - and you - were in a small town in South Dakota? There's gotta be a story there.

[post redacted for being cranky old fart bullshit]



Post Edited (05-05-16 15:12)

> Soul Asylum - and you - were in a small town in South Dakota? There's gotta be a story there.

Not much of a story. My mom's parents lived in South Dakota all their lives, along with some of my cousins and other relatives. In 1999, I had gone with my parents and my siblings to South Dakota for my grandmother's funeral. We were touring around the town of Mitchell (both my parents having grown up in a small town just south of there), and I saw that Soul Asylum was booked at the Corn Palace that weekend. So my sister asked Mom & Dad to look after her kids that evening, and she & I got tickets. It turned out to be an awesome show.

The Corn Palace is a music venue? I had no idea! I thought it was merely some weird building built by corn obsessives and was just one of those places like Wall Drugs that people stop at on their way to Mt. Rushmore.

I have a miniature porcelain replica of the Corn Palace hiding away somewhere in my house. I haven't seen it for years, but I know it's lurking here somewhere.

So my story about Soul Asylum- I went to college in Minnesota in the early-mid 1990s. They had a massive hit record with "Runaway Train" and were near-superstars at that point, but were still a Minnesota band, so they got a lot of play from not only GRAVE DANCERS UNION but their previous stuff too, on the radio station I managed. But I wasn't ever a fan, except for a few songs ("Black Gold", a couple from THE HORSE THEY RODE IN ON, etc.) But they were kinda ubiquitous anyway, and I worked at a record store at a time when you couldn't get away from their singles. Years later, the band has dramatically diminished in profile, and I'm living in Portland. At a Chris Whitley show, Whitley - who is acting strangely and behaving erratically, but not much more so than usual - starts making random jokes about Dave Pirner and Soul Asylum. All odd, until he starts into Towns Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty" and Pirner appears and half-heartedly sings a few lines. Later, I'm in the dingy restroom at the club - Dante's - and Pirner is in the stall next to him. (After washing our hands!) I briefly noted that I'd been at Carleton and used to play some of his early stuff on the radio. I think he was relieved I didn't start singing "Runaway Train."

Until I saw Soul Asylum that weekend, I always had thought of the Corn Palace that way, too. I'd seen the building many, many times, during my family's regular visits to SD, but never had actually set foot in the place. To me, it was just some quirky tourist attraction. The locals sure took pride in it (and still do, I imagine), but never offered a clue that it served any kind of purpose, or even had been designed for one. It wasn't until that trip, well into my thirties, that I learned it's actually booked for high school basketball games, music, theater performances and so forth.