By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
July 15, 1988
Singer-guitarist Dave Pirner admits to playing in some pretty raunchy bands while cutting his punk-music teeth. Today, the 24-year-old musician fronts Soul Asylum, a loud, guitar-heavy group that he claimed is the most “imageless band ever.”
Touring to support its third album, “Hang Time,” the Minneapolis-based band will perform at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Cabaret Metro, 3730 N. Clark. Tickets, $12.50, are available through Ticketmaster (559-1212).
Pirner’s prominent position in one band when he was 16 got him noticed by two other musicians who wanted to form a group. Guitarist Dan Murphy and bassist Karl Mueller needed a drummer, and Pirner volunteered his services in 1981.
One problem – he didn’t know how to play the drums.
“I’m a quick learner,” he said, laughing, during a phone conversation from Providence, R.I. “I’ve always been kind of impulsive. Plus, I needed them. I had told this guy I could put a band together for this big party he was having, and I didn’t have one. This guy was going to kick my (behind) if I didn’t get a band.”
Formerly Loud Fast Rules, Soul Asylum’s lineup was completed when drummer Grant Young joined the group in 1985.
As a child, Pirner got interested in music after watching his sister play the clarinet and saxophone. He took trumpet lessons for six years, eventually getting good enough to play in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony.
During his teen years he switched to sax, thinking it was a “groovier” instrument than the trumpet.
“After that, I started fiddling with the piano and then I began picking out Ramones songs on the guitar,” he recalled. “I thought, `Hey, this whole thing is happening. I don’t have to pay $10 for lessons.’ Then I found out that a Rolling Stones song wasn’t that much more difficult to learn.”
Soul Asylum works hard, going onstage six days a week and traveling between shows by van. But with impending fame, they’re being treated to their first major perk: motel rooms.
“This is the only tour where we didn’t have to fend for ourselves at night,” Pirner said. “Before, we slept in the van. Sometimes after a show, we’d go into the crowd and ask everybody if we could stay at their house for the night.
“Sometimes we’d run into the strangest people. Sometimes they’d take us into their homes and make us sleep on the floor next to their beds. But we met a lot of fantastic people that we never would have had we not forced ourselves on them.”
Having fun on the road can be hard when your major concern is making sure you get into the next city in time for sound check, he said. They don’t venture out into unknown cities too much.
Pirner, who’s known for his all-out singing style, said he must be careful not to lose his voice. He eschews smoking and “tries to be nice to myself. You’re out here and you’re trying to get in a little bit of fun, but singing’s a serious affair when you have to play every night. You can’t abuse the system.”
Living in Minneapolis helps them keep their feet on the ground, Pirner said, explaining that he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to pay high rent to live in more “fashionable” cities such as Los Angeles or New York.
“We just got done playing Florida and we felt like we’d just landed on another planet,” he said. “People would ask us where we were from. When we said Minneapolis, they’d say, `Oh, where the big car races are held.’ And we’d go, `Uh, no. That’s Indianapolis.
“I’m really looking forward to being in Chicago again. I think real life happens in the Midwest.”
