One spring day, I saw Soul Asylum at the fabled (read: Prince played there in 'Purple Rain', right?) First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis. I went with my friends John and Dave, and Dave's ex-girlfriend Tara.

Dave had broken up with Tara recently, and it was one of those things where Dave never really wanted to see her again, but she heard he was going to be at the show, and showed up and hung out with us all night.

I hadn't driven to the show, so I began to fill up on beer at the small annex to First Avenue, Seventh Street Entry. Between headlining shows at First Avenue, the management frequently hires some small, promising band to play the much smaller Seventh Street Entry. That night, the band was A Single Love.

What I remember about that show is two things - Tara putting her hand far up on my thigh while my pal Dave sat next to me on the other side, and A Single Love playing a song called "Stranded" which leader Caleb Palmitter had written while a member of another Minneapolis combo, the Mighty Mofos.

The Mofos had been around forever, first as the Hypstyrz, playing souped-up sixties garage classic covers during the same much-hyped 'Minneapolis Sound Explosion' which brought artists such as Hüsker Dü, Prince, the Replacements and the Suburbs to the spotlight.

The Hypstyrz put out an LP and EP, both live, both recorded at the legendary Jay's Longhorn, and both excellent. The band rarely played originals, concentrating instead on the numbers from the sixties that had brought them together.

The EP and LP went nowhere, and, as often happens, the group splintered. Guitarist Ernie Batson worked with other Minneapolis bands. His brother, vocalist Billy, worked various odd jobs, including acting as an occasional soundman. Ernie recalls that his time away from the Mofos/Hypstyrz camp was a good example "of me being stupid, really."

After a spell of inactivity, the Batsons reunited and debuted their new band, the Mighty Mofos, in early 1984.

The new band was different. The live shows were the same frenzy of volume, motion and emotion they had always been. The band still turned up after each song, sometimes reaching painful decibel levels, and they still launched into manic covers at the drop of a hat. Now, though, cover songs became the exception rather than the rule as the writing of Batson/Batson/Palmitter/Rey became stronger, combining the hard-edged pop of bands such as the Small Faces with harder-edged Detroit rock of bands like the MC5.

The Mofos put out a five-song EP in 1984 on Midnight Records. "The Mighty EP" was just that - taped live on a four-track recorder, originally as the soundtrack to a cable-access show, the songs on the EP showed off the fluid guitar playing of Ernie Batson, but suffered from the quick production as Billy's vocals were frequently screamed and the songs lacked polish. Even through the roughness, however, the gems shined through - the manic intensity of Billy's shouted "Don't try and fuck with me that way" in the bridge of "I Need You" coupled with Ernie's wah-wah guitar break and the band-at-large's shouted "hey's" combine to make this a hit that should have been. Other standouts on the EP were "Stranded" and "Untouchable".

In a just world, this record would have brought the Mofos at least a certain amount of fame and fortune. Perhaps not the Cadillac-and-mansion cokehound variety, but certainly the variety of fame that enables you to quit your day job and work solely on music. It didn't. Midnight lost all financial records regarding the EP, and never paid the Mofos. Ernie later admitted that it probably would have cost them money anyway if the records were uncovered.

In an unjust world, this disappointing showing of a band's first record would probably lead to a break-up, or a 'rethinking of the band's musical goals' (read s-e-l-l-o-u-t), but the Mofos persevered. Billy and Ernie survived the departure of Caleb, hired a new bassist named Jim Boquist, and put together an album deal with tiny Treehouse Records, a Minneapolis label. In June of last year, they put out "Sho'Hard", a collection of ten tunes (two covers - "I Got Mine" and "Rocket Reducer #62" from the Small Faces and MC5 respectively) which were well-produced, astonishingly-played and the only songs I listened to every day last summer. Every song is amazing, primarily because with four years between albums, there is an ample opportunity to work filler out of your system. Highlights include "Another Bad Day", "Get Another Life", and "Dreams Die Hard" which address the difficulties of maintaining the hobby of being in a rock 'n' roll band as you grow older but not more successful. The vocals are gutsy but more practiced than on the EP and the playing is sometimes amazing. This record is a must.

So, anyway, this girl had her hand on my thigh and her ex-boyfriend, my best-friend, was sitting on the other side of me, and the band was playing a Mofos song and I was in a pickle, so what did I do? I listened to the band. Nothing else really mattered.