Apr 242014
Hope they sell t-shirts of this one!
I used to have a lot of concert posters, but they’ve all been trashed. Some of my favorites were ones I would rip off the walls of the 9:30 Club in DC or at First Ave in Minneapolis. I remember a Jason & Scorchers poster that was particularly cool back when they were a hot new band. I think the only one I still have is a signed Amy Rigby poster from her Diary of a Mod Housewife anniversary tour of a few years back.
This Replacements poster is one I will have to track down. Unless life gets in the way, I plan to head back to the Twin Cities for this show.
Does anyone collect concert posters? What are your favorites?
I used to have a bunch or flyers/posters but they were too ragged to move into my actual house when we bought it 15 or so years ago. I still have ticket stubs from things in the early 80’s (LiveAid – $35, Black Flag at my college union).
Let me guess, this poster references the old story that the Mats dumped all of their unreleased masters upriver from Paisley Park studios in hopes that Prince might fish ’em out.
It’s a clever touch on the poster. The legend is that the Mats didn’t like the sound of their early Twin Tone albums and dumped the masters into the Mississippi when they were hammered one night. The label owner later said that the Mats only trashed the safety copies.
One of the bonus tracks on the Let It Be reissue, which was originally on Twin Tone, is this charming version of “Temptation Eyes”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlHWUdtWz48
I have one concert poster proudly framed in my office at home: an oversized Upper Crust poster featuring the bewigged band lounging decadently in a parlor somewhere under the headline: “In an age of unreason, there is now a reason to rocque.”
I am among rock’s worst collectors. Sometimes I wish I had the gumption to rip down a cool poster, but I never do it. Similarly, I’ve never collected a setlist or drum sticks. I do (or at least did) have what the members of my band refer to as “The Muffin Pick,” a pick used by a member of our old Philly music comrades The Electric Love Muffin. I still carry what may be the original Muffin Pick (which I may have acquired from a show we did together in the ’80s or, more likely, a show we did in 2004, to celebrate the life of Dead Milkmen bassist Dave Blood – maybe chickenfrank will recall the acquisition date of this important artifact). Anyhow, it’s possible that I lost the original Muffin Pick and now only pull out a fascimile. Either way, I most recently pulled it out of my wallet for our record release show in March, and it was as powerful as ever.
I’m bad at collecting memorabilia too. Someone gave me a GBV poster that was autographed by the “classic line-up” but unfortunately, the poster does not appear to be designed by GBV (whose aesthetic I really like), but rather by someone wholly lacking any sort of artistic impulse, so I have yet to hang it up.
I used to have a Rick Nielsen guitar pic taped to my monitor but it got lost when I changed jobs.
I think I still have a small collection of 80s First Avenue concert flyers stored away somewhere, including at least one for the Replacements. They used to be on my walls until I decided that my house should look less like a dorm room.
I have 2 framed Ray Davies posters from his 1996 solo tour, a signed Barrence Whitfield poster and the following poster, which I still have rolled up:
http://doitagainthemovie.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/doitagainposter1.jpg
I dg that ‘Mats poster a lot.
Oops, I should have said “I dig that ‘Mats poster a lot”
There are posters and there are posters. I wish I still had some of those fliers that were stapled to telephone poles for shows I’d gone to. Alas. (But I do have a decent collection of set lists.)
We do have some of those free posters they give you at the Fillmore (West) when the show is sold out. We also have some that we’ve bought from the bands at the shows. So in our house right now we have up: Daniel Lanois/Tortoise, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Yo La Tengo. Mr. Royale also bought a book of “rock posters as they should have looked” sort of thing that had cool designs for bands. Up in his studio he has these for The Jesus and Mary Chain and Velvet Underground.