“We’re going to rip this place!” announced a smiling Dave Pirner and he wasn’t kidding. The Minneapolis quintet kicked off their show in a rainy Biloxi with an energetic “Somebody To Shove” and never thought about letting up. Fans braving the nasty weather were treated to a band not exactly on the Billboard radar anymore, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell as Soul Asylum were, as lead vocalist Dave Pirner said, still ripping it up.
Cramming their hour and a half set with hits, fan favorites and a few newbies, Soul Asylum let it be known they are still around and still know how to do some rocking. Like a garage band with a spitfire attitude of youth, they connected with the fans as only a band that has been around the block a time or two can. Amidst shouts of “I love you” from admirers between songs, original members Dave Pirner and guitarist Daniel Murphy, along with drummer Michael Bland and Figgs bassist Pete Donnelly (substituting in while Tommy Stinson tours with GNR), acted as if this was an intimate jam party going on in someone’s living room. Songs blended into other songs, jokes were thrown back and forth between band mates, and the encore burned the house down and left the crowd wanting more.
Soul Asylum is so much more than “Runaway Train”, their Grammy winning song from the early nineties. If you have ever taken the time to actually listen to their lyrics, you will find an intelligence mixed with a dry sense of humor permeating through songs about love, loss and life. This was also noticeable in their quips and asides between, and sometimes during, their songs. “Whatcha Need” brought about bantering between Dave and Michael about what they thought the fans tonight needed: “cold beer? Oyster poboys? Legal and illegal substances?” before deciding they just needed to rock, propelling Dave into a solo that ended with him laying his guitar down and finger shooting it in triumph.
Not to be outdone, Dan also cranked out some effortlessly sublime solos, as on “Closer To The Stars”, “Cartoon” and “Just Like Anyone”. He also made mention of former bassist Karl Mueller, who bravely lost his battle to cancer in 2005, by dedicating “Without A Trace” to him and remarking that if Karl was here tonight he’d be “winning in the casino”.
Definite highlights were “Misery”; “Black Gold”, dedicated to “all the sea creatures in the Gulf Of Mexico”, where Dave and Dan slowly slid to the floor, their guitars whispering in hushed harmony; Dave swiveling his hips like a hip Elvis on an electrifying “Bittersweetheart”; and “a little number” called “Lately”. “Stand Up and Be Strong”, with guest vocals by mini-Dave, aka his son Eli, was fun. Adding to the chorus was friends of Eli’s from New Orleans, where Dave has a home. “That’s a hard act to follow”, exclaimed the proud father. Wherein Dan jokingly tried to bet any of the kids to come up and say that the Vikings would beat the Saints in their next meeting.
Ending with a blistering encore of Pere Ubu’s “Final Solution”, this really brought home why this band is still around and still a productive entity today, and not just a stagnant bunch of has-beens. Premiering new songs “Gravity” and “Into The Light” from a still-being-recorded CD, was an especially sweet treat. And that “Runaway Train” song? Yea, it was pretty cool too.
Setlist
Somebody To Shove, All Is Well, Misery, Cartoon, Gone Till November, Whatcha Need, Black Gold, Without A Trace, When I Ran Off & Left Her, Gravity, Just Like Anyone, Into The Light, Never Really Been, Runaway Train, Closer To The Stars, Bittersweetheart, Lately, Stand Up & Be Strong.
ENCORE: Final Solution
Photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough
