"I know it's only rock 'n' roll but I like it."

What do the Gunshy Ministers, Watershed and Slim Dunlap have in common besides a sonic link to the Replacements?

They love rock 'n' roll. Dunlap dropped by Watershed's concert Saturday night at the Community Festival in Goodale Park and sat in on a Georgia Satellites tune and covered his own rocker The King and Queen. Later, Dunlap slipped down to Ludlow's, in the Brewery District, and performed a concert attended by the members of Watershed. "This is the best part," bassist Joe Oestreich explained. "We're done, and I can go have a beer and listen to these guys."

The Gunshy Ministers opened for Dunlap at Ludlow's. The quartet performed unadorned rock 'n' roll with passion to a largely uninterested crowd. No matter. They played hard and ragged. The drummer ended the set by standing atop his kit as it toppled across the stage. This evidently, didn't please the sound man. "He was ticked off," guitarist Mark Goodell said. "But, hey, it's a rock 'n' roll band." Dunlap performed to even more people - some 500 or 600 before the night was through - who didn't seem to notice he was playing. "Nobody loves rock 'n' roll more than me," Dunlap said emphatically before reviewing the music's history. "Who invented rock 'n' roll? Elvis Presley? Hank Williams Sr.? The early bluesmen? Hell, no, it goes even farther back than that."

Dunlap followed his history lesson with the Screamin' Jay Hawkins-ish First Caveman Ever to Rock 'n' Roll. On 1993's The Old New Me , Dunlap was accused of being retro, of copying Keith Richards. So? On its 1995 album Twister, Watershed was labeled a Cheap Trick/Replacements knockoff. The Gunshy Ministers, too, have been saddled with the 'Replacements wannabes' tag.

So? So?

Folks, it's rock 'n' roll, not rocket science. Or, as Dunlap put it (much more eloquently): "We're on a fast cruise headin' for the bottom / but we're havin' one hell of a time / We're partners in crime."

June 26, 1995