Around
1984/1985, I was falling in love with Rick Wagner, who was at the time in the
dB’s, a very cool indie pop-rock group. If he at first thought I was groupie
material, his eyes grew wide with surprise when he realized that I was a
double-threat talent: the rock writer Trixie A. Balm AND “the girl” in the
Washington Squares. Ooh la la!
At any
rate, having temp jobs worked well when I wanted to go out of town, on tour or
on an adventure. Rick and the dB’s played a few shows down in North Carolina in
the late summer, and I went along because I wanted to be where the excitement
was and, I guess, the Squares weren’t doing much that week (incredibly!).
We went
to a cool dive type bar in the same town where REM and the dB’s were playing a
show the next night. Playing live, to a crowd of maybe three dozen fans: The
Replacements. I remember howling with delight at their shenanigans, seeing “big
boy” Bob Stinson in a dress and his little brother, with the long shaggy
rockdude hair, Tommy, on the bass, all in various stages of drunkenness along
with the leader, Paul Westerberg. Already a rock legend, Westerberg sang and
played some of the best darn confessional rock songs with singalong choruses,
reeling off modern anthems as effortlessly as Cheap Trick or maybe even Big
Star. . . his true heroes.
I do
recall that was quite a trip, and I’m sorry I don’t have pics of that night
with The Replacements. . . but I do
have some of somebody from that OTHER famous band. . .
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