Cats Laughing, a Real Thing?

It seems plans are in progress for a Minicon 50  reunion show. Just how this will be organized has yet to be determined but all the original members are up for it. Meanwhile, here's another blast from the past.

This was a fun gig. We got to watch some of the Twin Cities "names" do their thing with the Cats sandwiched in between. As you can see from the date on the set list we'd just released the "basement tape" a few weeks earlier. For some reason we decided to do all original material (I think - you'll have to ask Adam about Cream Pie Blues).

Some of that material didn't last, but my recollection is that we performed well. Fran Courteau, Beth's dad, was there and took some pictures.

Cats Laughing - We Were Freakin' Young...

Since Emma's a bit under the weather today I thought I'd do another Cats post. This time I've got a few miscellaneous pictures along with a couple from the infamous Riv gig where we performed (for the first and only time) the kazoo version of One More Saturday Night...

Testify!

My Copy of the Set List

That was a fun gig. We were, of course, way too loud for the Riv, even playing "acoustic". My boss at the time, Steve Sandness, and a bunch of co-workers showed up. I didn't get fired.

A couple more oldies:

That's Emma in full Prince mode at our first gig - some small con in the Twin Cities. I do recall Neil Rest showed up with nitrous...

And speaking of Prince... our one and only gig at 7th Street Entry. It was about a billion degrees below zero and the green room was about 5 degrees warmer. So when we went on it was impossible to tune...

Be well!

Cats Laughing - Blast From the Past II

I remember this as a pretty decent performance, but the Cabooze was never going to be the kind of place Cats Laughing would be comfortable playing. In any case, since we went on first we had the opportunity to grab some beer and barbecue while the other bands played. I think we might have gotten comp'd barbecue or a couple beers.

As to the set list... we were hitting the originals pretty hard at this point. Steve Goodman's "I Ain't Never Heard You Play No Blues" is sort of an oddball. I have a feeling it was intended as a little joke after Gloomy Sunday and perhaps to break up what would have been 5 straight songs sung by Emma and LoJo.

A Cats Laughing Blast From the Past

Designed by Emma Bull, stapled to telephone poles by all of us, and preserved for your pleasure:

That's February 5, 1989

 It's recently occurred to me that I have a bunch of ephemera from Cats Laughing that nobody's seen in a couple decades. So here's a more or less random sample - the flyer from a gig at the Seward Cafe.

Unfortunately, I don't have a set list from this gig. There's another dozen or so, some with set lists, pictures and more.