Track Premiere: The Replacements “Unsatisfied” Live At Maxwell’s

“Unsatisfied” is to teenage angst what “Strangers In the Night” is to adult romance. Sure, The Replacements had other disaffected youth anthems like “Bastards of Young” & “Sixteen Blue”, but nothing else quite encapsulated the festering sense of dread and distress of your teenage years like “Unsatisfied.” Maybe it’s because they WERE teenagers… bassist Tommy Stinson was a mere 17 years old when the song was released in 1984.

I grew up less than an hour and a half away from The Replacements’ hometown of Minneapolis. To us, they were gods. One of my biggest regrets is never seeing the band live in their heyday, as I was not prone to ask Mom for a 90 mile ride to the Twin Cities. I would only hear secondhand stories, as their shows were known for being one legendary extreme or the other… the worst, most sloppiest drunken display of talent OR the BEST most sloppiest drunken display of talent.

Until now, the only live release from the band represented the former, in the 1986 cassette-only release The Shit Hits The Fans. But Rhino has finally given us the latter: For Sale: Live at Maxwell’s 1986 captures a glorious live performance from The ‘Mats in their absolute prime, featuring 29 tracks ranging from your favs (“I Will Dare,” “Kiss Me On the Bus,” and an early version of “Can’t Hardly Wait”) to their fabled cover songs (Sweet “Fox On the Run”, T.Rex “Baby Strange” & The Beatles “Nowhere Man”).

‘For Sale‘ also includes a marvelous, moving version of “Unsatisfied” (LISTEN BELOW) which is instantly time-traveling me back to when I was fourteen. I think I’ll just avoid my homework, put on a pair of headphones and mope around my bedroom.

(Photo by: Caryn Rose)