We Jam Econo

Something for the weekend: the story of legendary California band The Minutemen. I never saw them live, but I did manage to catch the successor band Firehose once or twice. If only scientists had worked out how to harness their energy...

Lost

I never got a chance to see The Minutemen, but I did see Firehose at the legendary Antenna Club, in 1987. It's nice to revisit, through this video, the shambolic spontaneous musicality and mutual respect which seems to have characterized the whole SST band phenomenon. The Minutemen herein succeed in performing Meat Puppets material at an even lower standard than the originators, which in itself must have been a conscious affectionate tribute, perverse as that may sound in this era of over-polished, over-sentimentalized shit-schlock. I love how D. Boon remonstrates with the bouncer for manhandling an enthusiastic stage invader, having just crushed a large proportion of the audience with his not inconsiderable mass.