[rating=9.00]
Having languished in the vault for some three decades is a sonic picture of consistency the group rarely conjured up. Past a certain point in their career, concerts by the Replacements became a crap-shoot as much for the band as its audience, the stage show equally likely to feature Paul Westerberg lying on his back singing some tripe like “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” as leading the band through a driving rendition of “Alex Chilton” from Please To Meet Me.
With the latter album having come out the year prior to the recording of For Sale: Live at Maxwell’s 1986 (which languished in the vaults for upwards of three decades), ‘Mats had made the jump from independent recording to a major label, in this case Sire Records, home of such vaunted artistes as Talking Heads and the Ramones. In fact, Tommy Erdelyi, drummer of the latter group, produced the fourth studio outing of the band, a record so markedly more polished—and in some cases more subdued—than the likes of Let It Be, a show like this one, here in its entirety on two CD’s, sounds as if the group wanted to give the lie to their maturation.
And it isn’t just the sound of lead vocalist/guitarist Paul Westerberg seeming to strain for effect on “Color Me Impressed.” It’s the offhanded way he tosses off the lyric of the very first number here, “Hayday,” with its observation “it ain’t gonna last;” it’s as if he won’t believe the band can succeed in the long term, despite his own growth as the group’s chief composer with songs like “Hold My Life.” “Bastards of Young” is even more eloquent in its expression of self-doubt and the group plays with a comparably pointed precision.
There’s no comparable ambivalence in the playing of bassist Tommy Stinson or drummer Chris Mars, but lead guitarist Bob Stinson’s ever-so-slightly off-kilter solos and fills capture that sensation in microcosm. Under somewhat nebulous circumstances, the latter would leave the Replacements later in the year of this recording at the New Jersey club, so in hindsight, it’s easy to hear For Sale: Live @ Maxwell’s 1986 as the coup-de-grace of the original lineup. Certainly, the ebullient, expectant air of “Kiss Me On the Bus” is bereft of any bitterness.
In fact, hearing early gems like “I Will Dare” alongside that very number or “Waitress in the Sky” only offers tangible evidence of the natural evolution of a great rock and roll band. Westerberg may not have wanted to give himself full credit for his own intelligence any more than the band as a whole wanted to wholly assume the slightly more professional approach that threatened to undermine their credibility, but even a song like “Unsatisfied,” from the aforementioned third Twin-Tone Records album, merited some measure of clarity. Even more deserved is the incrementally more self-aware likes of “Can’t Hardly Wait” which would appear no the album to come in 1987.
One of twenty-nine tracks here, it was professionally recorded the night of the show and mixed a decade ago, but has only been available as bootleg prior to this release. Annotated and produced by Bob Mehr, who authored the splendid (and aptly-titled) band bio Trouble Boys The True Story of the Replacements, the album comes complete with a range of cover material documenting the ‘Mats love for the music they thrived on playing: hard rock in the form of Kiss’ “Black Diamond,” Vanity Fare’s one-hit pop wonder “Hitchin’ A Ride” and, appropriately enough given the estrangement growing within this quartet at the time, the Beatles’ ode to dislocation, “Nowhere Man.”
Swathed in layers of electric guitars and billowing vocal harmonies by the Fab Four, Westerberg and company pound it out in decidedly less dignified fashion, but that’s only in keeping with how the foursome thrashes their way through “Fuck School,” the nasty drunkenness of which presages darker days to come. For Sale: Live @ Maxwell’s 1986 is shadows and light though and, as such, it’s an essential entry into the group’s official discography for fans and the absolute maximum of accuracy as an intro for those who, either for reasons of timing or personal taste, never got the Replacements before now.
