Portland - 2008 Remaster

"Portland" is the Replacements' apology for the worst show they ever played - quite a statement for a band that built its reputation on performances of disastrous debauchery. It happened on December 7, 1987, at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Young Fresh Fellows were the opening act. Accounts are hazy and shifting depending on who tells them, but the calamitous overall effect of the event remains legendary, so much so that it's still written about over 30 years later. A few common details emerge from various accounts. The Replacements got uproariously drunk (a given for them, but this time it was excessive). They took the stage in absurd getups such as green spray-painted shoes with dollar signs on them and a homemade necklace with a CD on a string. They started into songs they didn't actually know how to play, then just dropped them and moved on. Eventually they began tossing their clothes into the audience, with bassist Tommy Stinson winding up in his underwear after throwing out his pants with his money still in the pockets. Things got worse when the theatre ownership refused to pay the band. At that point the Replacements trashed everything from a chandelier to a full-sized couch that was sent airborne out a window. While it's impossible to quantify, Replacements message boards and writeups across the internet memorialize this show as the band's "worst ever" (a high compliment among Replacements fans).

The Pine Street Theatre ran from 1986 to 2001. Because it was relatively close to the Seattle nucleus of the grunge scene, it hosted some of the '90s biggest acts, including Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, and Sonic Youth. It was a funky little venue with an odd character and is still remembered as an icon of Portland quirkiness to this day.

The Replacements recorded the song in 1988 at Bearsville Sound Studio, two miles west of Woodstock (the town, not the concert location), New York. Albert Grossman (1926-1986), onetime manager to Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Gordon Lightfoot, and other notable acts, built the studio in 1969. The song was shelved until the All for Nothing/Nothing for All 1997 compilation album.