Soul Asylum

  Soul Asylum

Date:

Friday, April 28, 1995

Venue:

Toad's Place

Location:

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Notes:

pontaneity doesn’t always come easily. Often it requires several takes.

Such was the case Friday when Soul Asylum rented Toad’s Place in New Haven to film a video for “Misery,” the first single from its coming record, “Let Your Dim Light Shine.”Despite the chance to star in a video that will certainly become ubiquitous on MTV, the sold-out crowd mostly stood around politely to listen to a new song while directors tried to liven them up.

Even singer Dave Pirner didn’t do much as film crews rushed around him. He did seem to play with his dreadlocked hair a lot, though.“Now that the video part’s over, we can have fun,” Pirner said after the song, launching into “Somebody To Shove,” a hit from the last record.’

But the video part wasn’t over. Crews kept filming as the crowd merrily moshed to the aptly named hit. The film lights came on again to capture the body surfing during “Black Gold,” another “Grave Dancers Union” hit. It was the first time in memory that Toad’s beefy bouncers didn’t eject crowd surfers.

The audience was a little livelier when the band played “Misery” again later. But when the video comes on MTV, it’s a pretty fair guess that the wild crowd reactions will appear to be from “Misery,” but were actually in response to older songs.

The 80-minute, $5 show was designed not only to film the video, but also to give the band a chance to rehearse the new material before a real audience. Other than the two “Grave Dancer’s Union” hits, the rest of the show came almost entirely from the soon-to-be released record.

Alternative Rock, Grunge, Jangle Pop, Pop Punk, Pop Rock, Post-Grunge, Power Pop, Punk Rock, Rock, Alternative, and Permanent Wave.

Seen By:

Lori K