Sound Unseen : 7 Nights at the Entry

Last night Brianna and I attended what was my first ever Sound Unseen Film Festival event. The kickoff to the local music and film festival, which is taking place at several theatres all over town, was at the incredibly cool Riverview Theatre in *sexy* South Minneapolis. We saw a film called "7 Nights at the Entry", and it fucking rocked. Shot over seven nights (August 2nd-8th, 1981) at the 7th St. Entry of First Avenue, the film chronicled a dozen bands signed to Minneapolis' Twin Tone records, and it was a brilliantly put together documentary. Each band performed one song at a time in radical 80's fashion. Brightly colored shirts and ties were everywhere. Torn off sleeves, Elvis Costello eyewear, outrageous patterns, and classic 80's hairsyles were all in full effect.

My favorite of the bunch by far was The Replacements. It was the first time I had seen any footage of that quintesential Minneapolis band live, and they blew me away. Their energy was incredible. Their intesity was stupifying. I had heard tales of their reckless and sometimes train-wreck style live shows, as in here, where Brianna and Jim Walsh are quoted in a New York Times article:

http://paulwesterberg.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=generalpw&action=display&thread=1150781309

It's hard to imagine what the music scene was like here in Minneapolis when I was but a toddler, but this was a fantastic snapshot. For the first time, I was able to grasp, to hear and see even, what that "Minneapolis Sound" was. The Mats embodied it, and perhaps perfected it. Maybe they imperfected it, who knows. In any case, they are generally regarded as an important influence on just about every punk band that came along after them, from Minneapolis or not. Kurt Cobain, for example, was a big fan of The Replacements. The Mats were known to frequent the CC Club, and this album cover was shot at a house no more than a few blocks from where we live.



The other bands represented in the film were Husker Du, Fine Art, The Dads, Things That Fall Down, Hypstrz, The Neglectors, Rusty Jones & The Generals, The Situation, Wilma and The Wilburs, Stagger Lee, and Peer Group.

Several of them were absolutely great, others not so much. Stagger Lee, a trio of high energy rockabilly punk, was amazing. Wilma and The Wilburs were clearly big fans of Blondie, and they were great as well. Fine Art gets the award for most awesome 80's outfits and dancing. The Dads performed an outstanding super fast punk rock version of "Funkytown", and there seemed to be an underlying Talking Heads art school vibe to a lot of the music, which was pretty fucking sweet. It was a really cool film, and there are lots more intruiging things taking place as part of this festival that goes through Aug 28. check it out at soundunseen.com.