concert memoirs pt. 39 - the mighty mofos & breaking circus

Now that I have run out of ticket stubs, I'll turn my memory machine to the shows for which I have no ticket stub and, therefore, I do not know the dates. It's most likely that I never received a ticket stub for these shows, because I was pretty good about hanging onto them. Several of these shows were at the Cabooze, a Minneapolis club that didn't hand back ticket stubs for their shows.

I'll relate stories about acts such as The Mighty Mofos, Big Black, The Three Johns and others. One band, the Urban Guerrillas will have several shows to talk about because I had see them the most of any band I've seen play. I will even tell you about the show at which I most embarrassed myself. It was The Guess Who at the Cabooze. I know, The Guess Who, pretty sad, huh?

This section won't be nearly as long as the ticket memories. So, let's get started...


The Mighty Mofos (Minneapolis band)

John and I had seen this band a few times. It seems as though they opened for every band we saw at the Cabooze. Of course, they didn't. It just seems that way.

Formerly know as The Hypstrz, The Mighty Mofos were a pretty straight forward rock 'n' roll bar band. Very high energy with some excellent guitar work by Ernie Batson. Ernie's brother, Bill, handled the lead vocals and had that commanding stage presence that most bands would want in their lead singers.

Bill also worked at First Avenue setting up the stage in the 7th St. Entry and running sound. Because of Bill's working there and John and I frequently hanging out at the disco, we got to the point where we would be recognized by Bill. He'd see us and give us the up nod. Pretty cool.

So, there was one show at the Cabooze with The Mofos playing and John and I were right up front. Kind of leaning against the stage, trying to look hip. Bill was rockin' and he was trying to get a little audience participation going. He was trying to get the crowd to clap along with the beat. (The Mofos must have been opening, because most people don't do much for the opening act. They tend to stand back and wait for the headliner.) Bill wasn't having much luck and it didn't improve when he approached us.

He saw us and gave us the up nod, but then he came over doing some rhythmic hand clapping. He was giving us a little "come on, fellas!" look, but we just stood there. Sorry, Bill. We don't do audience participation.

We were just too cool.

Breaking Circus (Minneapolis band via Chicago)

Breaking Circus started out in Chicago, but Steve Bjorklund, the guitarist and singer, moved to Minneapolis in 1986. As best I can remember, the first time John and I saw them they were using a drum machine, but later the bassist and drummer from another local band, Rifle Sport, were added to the line-up. I believe those two pulled double duty and continued playing in Rifle Sport.

Breaking Circus was a very cool, very angry band. Their sound was very aggressive and Bjorklund was a great front man. Not only that, the band produced one of the all-time coolest songs, 'Driving The Dynamite Truck'. I love that song!

My favorite Breaking Circus moment occurred in the 7th St. Entry on New Year's Eve 1986. (I'm fairly certain it was 1986.) It was the custom at First Avenue that every New Year's Eve they would feature the best of the bands from the new band nights of that year. They would have the bands play in the Entry while the revelers whooped it up in the main room.

John and I were pretty impressed with the band when we saw them earlier in the year on a new band night in the Entry, so we ditched the main room scene to watch Breaking Circus rock in the New Year. And they were great.

The high point came just after midnight. The New Year had arrived while the band was still playing, but, once the song was finished, Bjorklund had a treat for us. He threw out to the crowd several small vials of some white, powdery substance. He said, "Here's your New Year's cocaine! Come and get your cocaine!"

John actually nabbed one. It was powdered sugar.

concert memoirs pt. 35 - soft boys, frank black and the catholics & iggy pop

Soft Boys

3/31/01 First Avenue w/Amy & John Ticket Price: Comp. Tickets

This was cool.

The Soft Boys reunited and re-issued ‘Underwater Moonlight’, the first album of theirs I had ever heard. Somewhere around 1985 or so, John and I drove down to Beloit, WI to visit a friend of ours who was going to college there. Because it was before term was to start, there weren’t many students around, so John and I were able to crash in one of the dorms. Our friend, Kelly, took us over to the college radio station.

Remember, in those days, college radio was way into the Indie music. We met a young woman who was on the air and we sat in the studio with her for a few minutes. It was then that she introduced us to ‘Underwater Moonlight’. She told us how great the album was and how great Robyn Hitchcock was and how we should check it out.

John soon picked up a copy of ‘Underwater Moonlight’ and we thought it was brilliant. We then discovered Robyn’s other equally brilliant material. I always thought it a shame the Robyn never quite made it to rock stardom. Perhaps it is better that he didn’t. This way we who know and appreciate his genius have him to ourselves.

That’s a long way round to get to talking about this show.

It was a fun show with great songs. Robyn is always entertaining. He’s one of the few artists that I have seen multiple times and has never delivered a bad show. He and Kimberly Rew play very well together.

Rew was quite a character as well. Looking like a cross between Bjorn Ulvaeus (of ABBA) and Dana Carvey with a little Felicity Kendal thrown in, we could easily tell he was having a wonderful time. He was so happy to be playing. His expressions were terrific. He looked as though he surprised himself at being able to play guitar. Amy and I were very entertained by him.

I’m going to get a little political now…

There was an exceedingly rare low moment in the show, however. In fact it was the only low point of any of the times I’d seen Robyn Hitchcock. Robyn thought it would be a real crowd-pleaser and a deep statement to take a little poke at our new president. He said, “This next song is for President Bush.” And then they played ‘I Wanna Destroy You’, which was probably written as an angry reaction to Prime Minister Thatcher and President Reagan.

Gee whiz! Give the man a chance. He was just elected (yes, elected). And he’s our president, you limey bastard! John expressed as much to Amy and me as we left. In fact, I think those were his very words.

I’m sure most of the folks present thought the Robyn was so right and insightful about our president. I’m telling you, the Left hate so easily for being such a tolerant group of human beings. At least, that’s how I see it.

Frank Black & the Catholics w/House of Large Sizes
4/27/01 First Avenue w/Amy & Mark Ticket Price: Comp. Tickets

I had seen House of Large Sizes once before. It was in the 7th St. Entry and I was with Amy. Amy really liked this band and had seen them several times. I thought they were pretty good and I liked the bass player gal’s gimmick of getting her extremely long braids to twirl about. It looked as though she might take off like a helicopter.

What I remember mostly about Frank’s show is how loud it was. There was one song in particular that had the band playing some nasty notes. They would hold on a note that seemed to drill right into my ear and violently vibrate my ear drum. I know ear drums are supposed to vibrate, but this was doing something weird to me.

The vibration was making me fell ill. I felt as though I might pass out. I’m not kidding! It was so loud and discordant, I had to (gasp!) put my fingers in my ears to keep from collapsing.

But I survived.

Iggy Pop w/The Mighty Mofos
5/16/01 First Avenue w/Amy Ticket Price: Unknown

“Hey! It’s the Mofos!” That was my reaction when the opening band took the stage. I hadn’t seen The Mighty Mofos in years and I was really surprised to see them that night. The Mighty Mofos are a local bar band that kicks out some really rockin’ tunes. They were a good compliment to the headliner.

At one point, Bill Batson the lead singer announced the band would play a cover song next and he wanted the audience to decide which band they should cover: Ramones or The Who. My vote, of course, was for a Who cover. The audience won, the Mofos played a Ramones cover. Which was ok, I like the Ramones, too.

Iggy came out all fired up and half undressed. Not an ounce of body fat, veins bursting out all over, and just a fireball of energy, it was hard to believe Iggy was 54 years-old. He jumped, ran and otherwise hurled himself around the stage, belting out all his classics. His energy level was amazing.

His backing band members were all much younger than the rock icon. I would think they had to be to keep up with Iggy. Hell, I got tired just watching him.