The Replacements – The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA 4/27/15 (SHOW REVIEW)

In celebration of the Boston opening of Converse’s World Headquarters, the shoe company sponsored five nights of live music at the Cambridge club The Sinclair.  Dubbed the “Converse Rubber Tracks Series ” tickets were only available through internet lottery. Given the opportunity to see the legendary Replacements in a five hundred-seat venue the line was around the block an hour before the 8 PM opening.

Before a backdrop of scrolling, black and white, caricatures, The Replacements, true to form, took the stage twenty minutes late and after 11:00 PM. The only guarantee with the Replacements is they will “show up, plug in and play” but for all of their sophomoric hi-jinx, the band initially were all wearing Lone Ranger masks, the campy vaudevillian stunts, at one point singer Paul Westerberg lit a cigarette in protest or their overall performance ineptitude (and that’s without chemicals); musically the band has no equal.

The set opened with a rollicking “Seen Your Video” and “Taking A Ride.”  Westerberg looking thin conveys a sort of neurosis before his lyrics confirm it while the only other original member Tommy Stinson looks like he was sitting on a pub stool in London five minutes ago.  The more popular numbers like “Left of the Dial” and “Kiss Me on the Bus” saw the packed crowd roaring in approval. The club was so crowded the slightest movement resulted in being physically pat-frisked by the persons next to you.

Drummer Josh Freese and former Boston based Neighborhood’s guitarist Dave Minehan round out the quartet and despite being musically tight, Stinson and Westerberg couldn’t help but chide the new members on occasion. Minehan has been quoted as saying after the first couple of songs he has no idea what’s going to happen and based on their performance its fair to say that neither does anyone else.  The band’s personality is so spontaneous (no setlist for starters) the sound is seemingly always verging on implosion; this playing on the edge all the time is part of the reason they sound so good.  But midway through the set the medley, “20^th Century Boy/Bang a Gong (Get it On)/All Shook Down by the end found Westerberg freelancing lyrics and the players headed in four different directions.

This only enhanced “Anywhere’s Better Than Here”, “Whole Food Blues” and “Skinny Black Jeans” that followed.  Despite the free ticket and it being well after midnight on a Monday no one in the audience left; there patience was rewarded as the set ending which included “Can’t Hardly Wait”, “Bastard’s of the Young” and “Alex Chilton.”  Although The Replacements ended their recording career in 1990 with the poorly received All Shook Down, the magic has returned to their live shows, so perhaps may get our wish soon of just one more classic ‘Mats album.

Photos by Marc Lacatell