“Can’t Hardly Wait” is The Replacement‘s third single from their first album without lead guitarist Bob Stinson, Pleased to Meet Me. The song sees the band adopting slightly different roles, with lead singer Paul Westberger playing bass and bassist Tommy Stinson playing guitar, joined by the legendary Alex Chilton also on guitar.
Fellow Minneapolis natives Pert Near Sandstone are a bluegrass band that have been putting out albums for 20 years. They’ve done covers throughout their career and an early tape features many covers of contemporary and older bands and artists. Their latest cover tackles “Can’t Hardly Wait.”
As they’re a bluegrass band, the opening guitar riff is played on banjo and mandolin. The horns come in at the very beginning, unlike in the original, where we have to wait for them. The pace is a little faster than the original, as befits a bluegrass cover. And as you would expect from a bluegrass group, the group takes turns soloing on mandolin, banjo and fiddle. After another verse, the band vamps and there are extended horn solos to flesh out the performance. When they do end the song, it’s just the horns again as the rest of the band drops out.
It’s an energetic and fun version of the song, featuring tons of instrumental dexterity that you normally don’t associate with covers of a band known for their legendary sloppiness.
