Baseball Project In The Twin Cities

Roadtrip! I'm off to Minneapolis/St. Paul to watch America's past-time, the game of baseball with a Friday night game with the Twins against the A's. A day earlier (Thursday September 10th), I'll be taking in a performance by the Minus 5/Baseball Project/Steve Wynn IV at the Turf Club in St. Paul. This may seem like a 3 band bill, but in actuality it is one band, Scott McCaughey (Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows/REM), Steve Wynn (Miracle 3/Dream Syndicate), Peter Buck (Minus 5/REM) and Linda Pitmon (Miracle 3/Zuzu's Petals) performing material from the M5/BP/Steve Wynn catalog. In previous shows, this unit has played 2 sets, mixing up the material, with excellent results.

This concert is one of those dream shows you never thought would happen and I just happen to love all these bands I've mentioned. I have seen all 4 members at different time throughout the years. I've seen Scott as a member of the Young Fresh Fellows, who I've seen twice, once in Winnipeg in 1990 or so and in 1993 in Vancouver, opening for They Might Be Giants. Also I saw Scott with REM along with Peter Buck when they played the Concert Hall here in the Peg. A couple of years ago during Laurie Lindeen's (lead singer of Minneapolis band Zuzu's Petals) book launch/concert in Minneapolis, Linda Pitmon reunited with the other members of Zuzu's Petals for a one-off and at the same show, Steve Wynn performed with Pitmon on the drums.

This is the first tour when all four of the Baseball Project members has toured together to promote their all-baseball album, Volume One: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails and I hear they did some more recording for Volume 2 when they stopped off in Portland last week.

As I said, this is a highly anticipated show for myself and I hope to come away from the evening with a good recording of the show and some fond memories. This is a small venue which means it will be up close and personal and I would love to have time to chat with the band...we'll see! It'll be well worth the drive!