I have always loved living near the water. That is funny to say because I am not a mariner, nor do I like most seafood and I have never learned how to swim. And yet, there is just something about being by water that soothes my soul. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. My entire childhood was framed by the sea, the smell of fish, the taste and feel of the salt air, the sound of the foghorn and the various shades of blue that the ocean liked to drape itself in depending on its mood.
As I matured, I moved inland to Ontario. I now live on the shores of Lake Ontario. While not as vast a body of water as the one I grew up beside, Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes and is still of a size suitable for influencing the type of weather we receive. In my town of Cobourg, Ontario, we have a beautiful beach. I have often found myself at this beach. On such occasions I have been prone to gazing out across the water. On a clear day you can see the smoke from the factories that line the American side of the Lake in Rochester, New York. A few years ago, for a mini family vacation, we decided to circumnavigate Lake Ontario to, quite literally, see what was on the other side. Rochester turned out to be the American version of my neighbouring Ontario city, Oshawa; big enough to have some interesting spots but small enough to see most of what merits seeing in a day or two. Just before leaving Rochester, we stopped at their version of a beautiful beach so that I could gaze across Lake Ontario to see if I could see our home. I could not. But I waved anyway and off we drove to Niagara Falls and back into Ontario.
The next obvious iteration of that trip would be to circumnavigate all five Great Lakes. That would take us to such well known cities as Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Minneapolis and then off to Duluth on the western tip of Lake Superior, before heading back across the border into Canada at Thunder Bay. In order to do that trip properly, we would need approximately two weeks, which is a lot of time to spend driving in a car beside the water. But I would happily do it because of the siren song of the Lakes and of how familiar and comfortable life would seem in towns and cities whose citizens are lucky enough to be lulled to sleep each night by the sound of waves lapping onto their shores. As a family, our journey would undoubtedly be filled with eating at Lakeside patios, hiking on trails that border the water and staying at accommodations that had a “water view”. Many of those cities mentioned earlier have lots to offer in the way of museums, sporting teams, world class restaurants and excellent shopping. But for me, if I was making this trip purely based upon my own selfish desires, the trip would be one built completely around music. I would visit the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. From there, it would be Motown in Detroit and the Blues filled venues of Chicago. And as I left Chicago and began heading north, up the western coast of Lake Michigan, I would veer slightly west and make sure that I hit the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul in which there exists, as many of you may know, a rich musical history that features many noteworthy local artists and bands such as The Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum, Semisonic, Babes in Toyland, Sugar, Morris Day and the Time and, of course, a certain someone you may have heard of called Prince
The music scene in Minneapolis is strong and varied, featuring acts that gained fame, most notably, in the genres of rock, punk/hardcore, pop and funk. Despite the diversity in musical interests held by musicians in the Twin Cities, one of the things that they all had in common was that they inevitably ended up playing at a musical venue known (by various names throughout its history) as The First Avenue Nightclub. If you have watched the movie Purple Rain featuring Prince and Morris Day and the Time then you have seen the inside of The First Avenue Nightclub because that was where all of the battle of the bands scenes were filmed. More recently, if you happened to watch a video of Bruce Springsteen debuting a song “The Streets of MInneapolis” that he had written about the government-initiated violence that is currently plaguing the city then, you have seen the inside of The First Avenue Nightclub because that was where the Boss played that night. Just about every artist and band of note that have toured through the Twin Cities played on the stage at First Avenue. From a historical and cultural perspective, it is fair to say that The First Avenue Nightclub holds the same level of significance as other nightclubs such as The Whiskey a go-go in Los Angeles and CBGBs in New York, just to mention two other iconic venues.
The First Avenue Nightclub was originally built to serve as a Greyhound bus terminal. When it turned into a music venue, the bus terminal’s large waiting room transformed into the dance floor and stage area. The former bus terminal restaurant was made into a second, smaller club called 7th Street Entry. It was in this smaller venue that newer, local bands cut their teeth and honed their skills before graduating to the main room in the First Avenue side of the club. As mentioned earlier, as the bus terminal became a music venue, there were several periods of transition that saw name changes, ownership changes, as well as stylistic changes when it came to the music played there. In the 1970s, the club was most initially successful as a discotheque. As the 1970s ended and the national music scene began to change with it, Minneapolis became known as the new home of funk, featuring acts such as Morris Day and the Time, producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and a diminutive young man named Prince Rogers Nelson, who exploded onto the world’s stage simply as Prince. Prince had a recording studio in Minneapolis known as Paisley Park where he would create all manner of songs with his band The Revolution. Whenever Prince wanted to give his new music a test run in front of a live audience, he would call up the folks who ran The First Avenue Nightclub and request the use of their stage. Thus, for a while, it was quite common for patrons to arrive for a regular evening of dancing and fun, only to have Prince and the Revolution suddenly appear on stage as a surprise act. It was also quite common for Prince to come to the club incognito to watch other bands, especially the emerging harcore/punk bands such as Husker Du and The Replacements. Thus, it was during the time when Prince began to gain fame on a national level that some would compare to Michael Jackson himself that he pitched a movie based loosely on his life called Purple Rain. Once given the go ahead for filming, it was a no brainer to have the live musical scenes filmed at The First Avenue Nightclub. Among the videos that I will soon post below, I will include a couple from the movie. The success of Purple Rain proved to be both a blessing and a curse for those who lived in Minneapolis and viewed First Avenue as their own private musical oasis. The blessing was that it brought fans of the movie from all over the world to Minneapolis so that they could visit the club, take photos and souvenirs from it and hopefully meet the increasingly reclusive Prince. The curse was that fans of the movie from all over the world came to Minneapolis to go to the club simply because of what they saw on film. They often had no interest in the local bands who might be playing on any given night, nor did they care about the history of the building or its cultural place in the heart of the community. In fact, First Avenue became such a tourist destination that local patrons began staying away in disgust. Luckily/sadly, as curses and blessings tend to go, the situation at The First Avenue Nightclub began to stabilize after Prince became more reclusive and his career entered a period of commercial decline prior to his death. In reality, Prince had simply recoiled away from the enormous attention he was receiving and shifted his focus to his home life and his studio work. There is indeed a price to be paid for fame. Like most people and/or trends that explode onto the national scene, the Minnesota scene in general, and Prince specifically, both ebbed into the background of the world’s consciousness. After the dizzying heights of Prince and The Revolution, Minneapolis became known for its punk/hardcore scene with The Replacements and Husker Du. From there, some rock-oriented bands like Semisonic and Soul Asylum became the standard bearers for the city’s musical scene.
Today, Minneapolis is known for the violence that is plaguing the city under the bootheels of an organization known as I.C.E. Not surprisingly, while neighbours were helping neighbours and entire communities were rallying to defend each other and stand up to the scourge of I.C.E., it was a music concert that helped buoy the spirits of a citizenry under siege. Tom Morello, one of the founders of legendary rock band Rage Against the Machine, stepped up and helped to organize a fundraiser for the city. This concert took place at the only place it could have, really and that was The First Avenue Nightclub, the home of Minneapolis’ musical heart. Morello played, as did members of punk band Rise Against, as did, of course, the man himself, Bruce Springsteen. His song, “The Streets of Minneapolis” has instantly risen to the top of the music charts and is helping to give hope to a downtrodden nation that perhaps, just perhaps, the people do have some semblance of power and that the rise of authoritarianism may be halted yet. Time will tell. But if that proves to be the case then a lot of credit must go to those who took to the stage of The First Avenue Nightclub in support of those standing tall in the streets of Minneapolis.
Sometimes a song is just a song and music is simply the background soundtrack to the kindling of new romance or the drowning of old sorrows. But much like the sound of the sea is for me, music is something that is generally woven in the fabric of our beings and into the culture of the places in which it is played. Venues like The First Avenue Nightclub tend to be far more than bricks and mortar and, instead, serve as town squares, of a sort, where people who care about that place come to gather and talk and celebrate and share in what it means to live where they do. Venues such as First Avenue and 7th Street Entry are often the heartbeats of their communities. It is in that light that I would like to travel around the Great Lakes, all the way to Minneapolis and St. Paul. I would not go there as a Prince-crazed tourist but instead, to soak in a tiny bit of the atmosphere of a place that has borne witness to so many truly extraordinary events. I hold a lot of respect for the sea and I do so as well for those places where history has unfolded in ways that time will never forget. For that reason, my Great Lakes odyssey will be one marked by music and, in doing so, I will find myself where I want to be….not far from the water, surrounded by music. Sounds like paradise to me.
Below, I am going to provide links to several notable live performances held at The First Avenue Nightclub. In many cases, these videos are parts of larger sets or, in some cases, an entire concert. As always, you can choose to watch as much or as little as you like. By searching on YouTube, you can easily find all sorts of additional material, including many full length concerts, documentaries and so on. I will start you off as follows and you can go from there as you see fit.
-The link to the video that shows Tom Morello and band playing “Killing In The Name” at the beginning of the recent Minneapolis anti-I.C.E. benefit concert can be found here. Morello gives an excellent rally-the-troops speech off of the top. The audience participation is excellent. This is definitely a meaningful moment for all involved. It is much more than a simple rock concert song being played. ***Highly recommended viewing!!!
-The link to a video that shows Prince in 1983 in his prime performing the song “Little Red Corvette” can be found here. The video quality isn’t the best because of poor lighting for most of the song but the sound quality is fine. Enjoy a superstar going full throttle in his local club.
-The link to a video showing The Replacements performing “Takin’ a Ride” on the 7th Street Entry stage can be found here. Excellent video quality for fans of a punk band just hitting its stride. This video is one of six in a complete musical set that was performed that night.
-The link to a video that shows Husker Du performing “Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill” on the same 7th Street Entry stage as The Replacements, who they followed that same night, can be found here. Excellent historical moment in the story of punk and hardcore.
-The link to a video by Echo and the Bunnymen performing “Killing Moon” can be found here. Terrific sound quality on this one! They may not be a Minnesota band but, what the heck, it’s “Killing Moon” so, there you go.
-The link to a video by Trampled By Turtles performing “Midnight On The Interstate” can be found here. This is a lovely, sweet song which stands in contrast to much of what I have posted so far. This video was part of a live album the band recorded that night from the stage of First Avenue. If you don’t know the band, this video is an excellent entry point.
-The link to the video by Morris Day and the Time called “Jungle Love” can be found here. This clip is from the movie Purple Rain and shows the band performing on the stage at First Avenue.
-The link to the video by Prince of the song “Purple Rain” can be found here. This, too, is taken from the movie Purple Rain and shows the inside of the First Avenue Nightclub.
-And finally, while there are thousands of videos that you can watch by searching on YouTube for “Live from First Avenue”, I will close with a final one that is the current, most popular performance from the iconic stage of The First Avenue Nightclub and that is the one by Bruce Springsteen of his new song “The Streets of Minneapolis” which can be found here. If there was ever a case of a song being more than a song and a moment being more than a regular moment then this performance is it. Well done Bruce! Well done people of Minneapolis!
-If you want to learn more about the First Avenue Nightclub or if you may even want to visit it one day, the link to its official website can be found here.
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