Posts by Peter S. Scholtes

Radical punk band Anti-Flag headlined the Ripple Effect Tuesday at the St. Paul Capitol Grounds, where Rage Against the Machine were physically barred by police from taking the stage to perform a surprise set. Rage performed two songs on a megaphone out in the audience, and much of the crowd turned around to march on [...]

“We want tits! We want tits!” came the chant from the floor before last night’s Rage Against the Machine concert at the Target Center. While Funk the War and other groups gave out radical literature from tables in the halls, young men voiced their simpler demand inside, and a young woman in the stands obliged them, as well as the rows behind her and to her right. Like any rock crowd, the Rage audience can quickly become the Jerry Springer audience. Yet some of the band’s appeal lies in the promise that this equation works in reverse.

It wasn’t long before the nearly sold-out crowd was cheering those about to hop the barrier to the floor, a bit of authority-bucking that swelled the mosh pits. And when a female fan flashed openers Anti-Flag, bassist Chris #2 stopped the music to quip that there was probably a Blink-182 show down the street for that kind of thing.

“Do we have any Republicans in the audience?” asked Trouble the Water co-director Carl Deal at a screening this morning in the Landmark Center of St. Paul, across the street from the RNC. There was hardly a dry eye in the house for his Sundance-feted Katrina documentary, but only about a dozen sets of eyes [...]

Mos Def at Take Back Labor Day (photo: Tony Nelson)

“They look like Ninja Turtles,” said one bystander as St. Paul police in full riot gear advanced toward protesters Monday in the early afternoon. But as conflict ensued on 7th Street, the novelty wore off, and rumors of tear gas and violence spread across the river [...]

A cloud hung over Sammy Hagar’s concert at First Avenue last night for the RNC’s Southern Delegation, though not for lack of wishful partying onstage or off. The cloud’s name was Gustav, headed straight for New Orleans, three years to-the-Monday after Katrina, and while the bleached Californian seemed blissfully at ease being the longest-haired guy [...]

Polar bear puppets, zombies and Ron Paul supporters carrying a giant copy of the Constitution were among the marchers down Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis today as part of the nonpartisan Liberty Parade, a demonstration “for freedom of expression” that nonetheless received heckles as it passed RNC-packed hotels. “Assholes,” shouted one serious-faced onlooker while puppets of [...]