The Replacements - 1989 03 30 Beacon Theatre, New York, New York

Show Notes:
Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites joins *
Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls joins **
Paul’s sister Beth sings ***

Transfer
Tape flip after I Will Dare. Sadly Beautiful cuts in.

1 intro
2 Color Me Impressed
3 I Don’t Know
4 I.O.U.
5 Anywhere Is Better Than Here
6 Back To Back
7 I Wanna Destroy You [Soft Boys]
8 Achin’ To Be
9 Waitress In The Sky *
10 Battleship Chains [Georgia Satellites] *
11 Darlin’ One
12 The Ledge
13 Unsatisfied
14 I Will Dare
15 Asking Me Lies
16 I’ll Be You
17 Nightclub Jitters
18 Cruella DeVille
19 Little Mascara
20 Answering Machine
21 Another Girl, Another Planet [Only Ones]
22 Hear You Been To College **
23 Walk the Dog **
24 We’ll Inherit The Earth
25 I Won’t
26 Valentine
27 Left Of The Dial
28 Whipping Post [Allman Brothers]
29 Alex Chilton
30 Can’t Hardly Wait ***
31 Sadly Beautiful
32 Bastards Of Young
33 Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out

Opener:
Johnny Thunders

Lineage: Audience Master > 1st Gen tape > CDR > EAC (WAVE + FLAC) > Audacity (merges, fades) > CDWAVE (splits) > FLAC

NY Times, April 4th, 1989
The Replacements came to the Beacon Theater on Thursday night with a chip on their shoulders and something to prove. Although their two-night Beacon engagement quickly sold out and their current album, "Don't Tell a Soul," is receiving more radio exposure than any of its predecessors, among longtime fans the reaction to the album has been mixed. It's the Replacements' most toned-down, conventional recording. As if to compensate, the band came out yelling and bashing in a set that included many of its best songs.

In those songs, and on a good night in concert, the Replacements forge defiance, vulnerability, humor, craftsmanship and chaos into incendiary rock. Paul Westerberg, the band's singer and songwriter, draws on punk, country, hard-rock, lounge-jazz and especially the Beatles in songs with full-fledged melodies; his lyrics capture the contrary, contradictory feelings of people who can't bring themselves to be complacent, and who can't help thinking that, as one new song puts it, "Anywhere is better than here."

In hallowed rock-and-roll style, the band treats its songs the way those songs treat other people's smugness - they turn them into a jubilant, trashy racket, rampaging through melodies and toying with lyrics. On Thursday, at the end of "I'll Be You," the band's current single, Mr. Westerberg sang, "You be me for a while, and" - he paused - "let me think about it." The Replacements have a reputation for unpredictable, improvisatory concerts that can be sublime or ridiculously self-indulgent. Thursday's Beacon show was nothing like the anarchy of some previous concerts; songs were played all the way through, for one thing. But the band's volatile chemistry was a little off, tinctured by unexplained hostility. At one point, Tommy Stinson threw his bass at Chris Mars's drum kit, saying something like, "Stay awake"; Mr. Mars, who had been putting real muscle into the music throughout the set, responded by flinging a drumstick at the bassist. And Mr. Westerberg seemed disgruntled. Between songs, he said, "Is it my imagination, or are we flopping?" and, later, "Here's another one that we don't like." And his vocals, often shouted, came across as forced.

Yet it wasn't a bad show. Even in off-peak form, the Replacements are an unstoppable rock band; they go barreling through songs like delinquents on a joyride. And unpredictability reigned; the set included unexpected covers (the Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy"), a throwaway or two and stray guest performers (Johnny Thunders, who had opened the concert; Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites, and an unidentified female guitarist from the audience). Even if "Don't Tell a Soul" is unsettlingly settled, in concert the Replacements are anything but routine.

Lineage: Audience Master > 2nd Gen tape > Tascam 202MKVII > USB > CDWAV > Audacity for fades, normalization, noise reduction > CDWAVE (SPLITS) > FLAC [loughney xfer]