The Replacements at The Pastime Lounge

The show was December 4th 1984. That would be 36 years ago today. I had been working at the Pastime Lounge spinning records as a DJ for a couple of years and we had been booking local bands to play on some Saturday nights which I was arranging. I was approached by a couple of guys who worked at the Buff State college radio station WBNY. They had been in the bar a few times and I'd talk with them about music and bands. They proposed having the Replacements play at the Pastime.

Apparently they had been having a hard time finding a place for them to play because of their rowdy reputation. I knew they were a wild band but wasn't aware how bad they could be. I had also recently been in the back room of the bar behind the false wall and had seen the unused space that could potentially be used to showcase bands. The Pastime Lounge had previously a movie theater with a large stage but now only the old lobby was used to house the bar. The other space was walled off. It was huge and could probably hold another hundred or so people. 

So I talked the owner into having the Replacements play in his bar.

We had the show and the band members were complete childish jerks, assholes and drunk buffoons. I was embarrassed to be associated with them and they certainly embarrassed themselves and that radio station but I doubt they cared. They trashed the backroom where they had been waiting for the show to start and they also trashed the owner's office. Later in their drunken stupor they tried to argue for more money than had been agreed upon. A very unpleasant experience and they really killed it for any other touring band to ever play the Pastime. The owner was just never interested in any other acts unless they were local. He also never spoke again about expanding into the way back theater area of the building.

That all being said... The Replacements put on a great show.

Here is a link to the setlist that night at Color Me Impressed: The Replacements Live Archive Project.