The Shit Hits the Fans (thing)

Live at the Bowery, Oklahoma City 11-11-84.

The only official (and very hard to find, tape-only) live album ever put out by The Replacements--those heroes of the tragicomic fuckups of the world. It is a typically ramshackle affair--a handful of great songs by the band, followed by thirty-second covers just for the hell of it.

It was the last night of the tour, and on seeing the empty parkinglot of the club--which was a converted church--the band was ready to cancel the show, figuring that the scheduled show must be some sort of joke. However, the owner of the place comes out, saying, "The Replacements! My favorite band ever! Come in, have a beer!" Nothing else needed to be said--they played. According to Bill MacLeslie, the band's road manager at the time, the actual recording goes like this:

At the Bowery, there were about 25-35 people at the end of the night. It was a COLD November evening (for Oklahoma) and most of the students who usually hung out at the Bowery were home for Thanksgiving. There was a balcony and directly above my mixing position was where the famous tape deck was.

As usual, I wandered during the show to hear how the system sounded around the club and staggered upstairs to hear how bad it sounded up there. Up to this moment, the band had been imbibing more and more and was getting louder and louder. Being curious as to how the sound was up on the balcony, I walked over to the front edge and saw this tape deck and a man standing nearby gives me a smile and nod. I walk up and listen at the spot he was recording from.

It sounded absolutely fucking GREAT! I walked over to the deck and opened it. I took the tape out. The way you hear it end on the distributed release (and many bootlegs), is how it ended in real life. I cut the taping during "Let it Be." Synchronicity had struck. I put the tape in my pocket and walked away. The guy was flabbergasted. I knew he had no permission to tape the show. He may have known who I was, he may not have. I told him bluntly that the taping of Replacements shows was not permitted and I was confiscating the tape. Period. I had confiscated many tapes during that tour. None had come close to this tape.

You can hear audience members shouting "The Who! Play the Who!" and "Skynnard!" while the band drunkenly goes through an impromtu set:

1. Lawdy Miss Clawdy
2. Sleeping Nights of Jesus
3. Lovelines
4. I'll Be There
5. Sixteen Blue
6. Can't Hardly Wait (fantastic version of this, BTW)
7. I Will Dare
8. Hear You Been to College
9. Saturday Night Special
10. Iron Man
11. Misty Mountain Hop
12. Heartbreaker
13. Can't Get Enough of Your Love
14. Jailbreak
15. Breakdown
16. No More the Moon Shines on Loreena
17. Mirror Go Round
18. Left Here in the Dark
19. Takin' Care of Business
20. I Will Follow
21. Jumpin Jack Flask
22. Radio Free Europe
23. More Fun in the New World
24. Let It Be

It's worth finding, though now only available as a bootleg cd.