HI, WE'RE THE REPLACEMENTS

Went with an old friend and a new friend to see the Replacements at Echostage in DC last week.

The venue more than lived up to its name. There was, um, a stage. And the place was airplane-hangar cavernous enough to accommodate at least several echoes.

We started out upstairs looking for a few spots where we could lean on a railing and do our respective nod-to-the-beat-with-occasional-rhythmic-taps-to-the-chinos dance moves, but we were denied. So we positioned ourselves downstairs at the back of the floor as the opening band plugged away. I think it was Black Oak Arkansas, but I can't say for sure...

There was then a fairly lengthy break as the road crew set up for the Replacements. While we waited, a bank of swirling Close Encounters spotlights revealed what appeared to be a thickish cloud of dry-ice smoke hovering overhead, but more likely it was the vapor of our collective youth rising up to crash in waves against the acoustical tiles.

The vapor heard a decent show from up there. Solidly professional, with very little hint of the Shit Hits the Fans '80s.

The first half seemed kind of tentative, but the tide turned with Kiss Me on the Bus, and the momentum continued through to the end of the set: a nice version of Can't Hardly Wait (minus the obnoxious drum sound that tended to plague the band's major-label releases) that segued into Bastards of Young, the anthem that put the “an' them” in “us an' them” back in the dark days of Reagan.

The six-song encore was hit or miss, starting with a solo Paul not playing Androgynous, and picking up when the full band crashed through Left of the Dial and Alex Chilton.

So, a fun show, but nothing revelatory-- I can see myself reflecting in a couple of years, “Oh yeah, I saw the Replacements. I had almost forgotten about that.”

And if it's any consolation, the vapor had dissipated by the time the house lights came up...