E-Mail This Article to a Friend
	TOMMY STINSON SUNDAY NIGHT SPECIAL

The last time Tommy Stinson came to town from LA, he joined forces with the like-minded local band the Gentlemen, who backed him at a packed T.T. the Bear’s Place show. Last Sunday night, there wasn’t even an opening band listed in the ads for his appearance downstairs at the Middle East. And just because Stinson grew up playing bass in the much beloved Replacements before landing what turned out to be a pointless (though lucrative) gig as Axl Rose’s bassist in the most recent version of Guns N’ Roses for the better part of the past decade, that doesn’t mean he’s got the cachet to fill a 600-person room. Indeed, the relatively minor sales generated by his debut solo album, Village Gorilla Head (Sanctuary), should have told him as much. But it’s the curse of every blessed Replacement not just to overreach and underachieve but to do so with the wise-ass wink, knowing nod, and self-depreciating smirk that were always at the root of the band’s broken-down charm. As ’Mats singer Paul Westerberg put it in the anti-anthemic "Bastards of Young," "God, what a mess/On the ladder of success/We take one step and miss the whole first rung."

So Tommy wasn’t about to let little things like the absence of a band (he showed up with only one sideman to flesh various songs out with tasteful electric guitar and pedal-steel flourishes) and an extremely modest turnout that wouldn’t have filled even the tiny upstairs room at the Middle East keep him from climbing on stage with confidence. If anything, he seemed happy to be facing the challenge of getting himself out of another mess he’d gotten himself into — much happier than he’d looked on stage in front of a few thousand eager Guns N’ Roses fans at the FleetCenter less than two years ago. He yapped comfortably with the people closest to the stage, joking about coming out into the crowd to "kill" a guy who was obviously taping the show. And after a half-hour of playing a mix of tunes from his post-Replacements recordings with Bash and Pop and Perfect, and as a solo artist, he did indeed come off the stage with his acoustic guitar and had everyone gather round as he ordered a drink and played on at the bar.

It was the kind of intimate, off-the-cuff performance that felt special, not in spite of the less than ideal conditions but because of them. When Stinson got back on stage, he had a little fun covering the Partridge Family themesong and the Pixies’ "This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven" before returning to his own material. That included "Friday Night Is Killing Me," the clever confessional title track from his first album as a frontman (with Bash and Pop in 1993), a song that established him as a singer-songwriter who’d shared more than just a band and a few thousand beers with Paul Westerberg. Unfortunately, even as he’s continued to develop as a singer and a songwriter, something’s always managed to keep Stinson from fulfilling that early promise. But if Tommy’s bitter, he sure didn’t show it Sunday night.