Hometown 'Mats fans already had plenty to cheer for this year with the overdue release of the band's first proper live album, and now that live album is going to be celebrated even more at the annual Tribute to the Replacements concert, which was put off by a few weeks this year due to scheduling conflicts.
Typically held the night after Thanksgiving, the all-local affair has been moved to Friday, Dec. 9, at the Turf Club, where it relocated last year after a decade at First Avenue. Bands performed upstairs in the Turf as well as downstairs in the Clown Lounge, making for non-stop sing-alongs all night.
St. Paul's own Melismatics -- whose leader Ryan Smith spent the year touring as Soul Asylum's new guitarist -- will once again head up the centerpiece of the show. This year, that will be a live recreation of the same set list gloriously captured on the new double-LP "For Sale: Live at Maxwell's," recorded at a famous New Jersey club in 1986. Singers for that 29-song marathon are still TBA, but some young bands have been confirmed to play their own mini tribute sets that night, including Ahem, Early Eyes and the Bad Man. Also, Jim Walsh will head up another Mad Ripple Hoot for Slim, with songwriters paying homage to latter-day Replacement Slim Dunlap.
Tickets for the show are on sale now for $16 via eTix.com. The Turf Club is playing host to a similar all-local, upstairs/downstairs party tonight (Wednesday), a benefit for cancer-fighting former Cities 97 and KTWIN DJ Jason Nagel, with a lineup including Adam Levy & His Frenemies, Chan Poling and John Munson, Farewell Milwaukee, Eleganza!, Little Man and more (7 p.m., $7-$10.)
By coincidence, the 'Mats tribute falls one night after another popular annual affair, Curtiss A's 38th John Lennon Tribute at First Ave, happening as always on Dec. 8. There are probably going to be a lot of hoarse voices among local musicheads that week.
