Sin City meets the Twin Cities
December 28th, 2006
The alternative music of the 1990s has been very good to Vegas-based rock band The Day After…. Moody groups like Catherine Wheel helped shape the sound of the trio’s Gotham Records debut album, A Different Way To Get By, and now the long-time local band is sharing a bill with Minneapolis alt-rock icon Soul Asylum at the House of Blues Friday night.
“We’ve always been fans of Soul Asylum,” says The Day After… bassist KC Wells. “Jenine and I grew up with all those late ‘80s and early ‘90s punk/alternative bands. My absolute favorite song from them is ‘Just Like Anyone’—I love that song, and Jenine [Cali, vocalist and guitarist] has always thought we should cover ‘Somebody To Shove.’”
Known mainly for its mid-‘90s albums Grave Dancers Union and Let Your Dim Light Shine, Soul Asylum actually formed in the early ‘80s and was a pivotal part of the Minneapolis indie rock scene, coming up with such contemporaries as The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. After an eight-year hiatus from recording, the band re-emerged in 2006 with a brand-new album, The Silver Lining, as well as a new lineup featuring former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and Prince drummer Michael Bland.
“I can’t tell you how much of an honor it will be to support not only Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy [Soul Asylum’s singer and guitarist, respectively], but those two as well,” Wells says of Stinson and Bland. “It’s crazy to think of the rock heroes that have come from that Minneapolis/St. Paul scene.”
The Day After… has kept a low touring profile since the Oct. 17 release of A Different Way To Get By, but the album and its lead single, “Car Crash,” have been well-received by music fans and the media. “Car Crash” went undefeated in Xtreme Radio 107.5-FM’s nightly new music face-off, “It Came From The Mailroom,” and was promptly added to that station’s rotation.
“Regionally it’s done very well, throughout Southern California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada,” says Wells. “However, it’s also been selling sporadically throughout the country. We’ve been established on nationwide college radio though, so we are expecting more people outside the Southwest to catch on here pretty quick.”
Wells says the band has touring plans for 2007 and intends to build a support team to keep the band “moving in the right direction.” Right now, though, they are simply excited to open for some of their musical heroes.
“I implore kids who haven’t heard of them [Soul Asylum] to come see the show and to go back through their history and see exactly what they’ve meant to alternative/punk music, from when they started as Loud Fast Rules to their ties to punk legends Hüsker Dü,” Wells says.